Veterans Interview - Jack Kimberly - 19 August 2003

I was a Private, I was with the Carrier Platoon, I was with Capt Whitaker at the time.

As we get into the landing craft, we were on a ship called the Glengyle, we get in the landing craft, and I don't know how far we were out, as we went in to shore as we came into shore, about 300 yards out we get some heavy machine gun fire hitting the landing craft. We were reasonably safe in there because it was armoured steel, but we knew we'd be hitting the beach shortly and walking right into that gunfire, but just as we landed, just as we were touching down, three Spitfire squadrons came in and they hit right in front of us and they just pulverized that beach. One after the other, the sand was actually dancing in front of us. So we were able to get out of the landing craft and get to the seawall before the Germans recovered from that strafing.

And then all hell broke loose and it was all mortars and machine gun fire and I would say we lost almost half our men almost immediately.

I was a machine gunner, and there was a guy named W.C. Grant was beside me who was handling the ammunition, and I turned to him for more ammunition and he was quite still, and he'd been shot right through the head, there was a little trickle of blood coming down his face.

And then we just inched along the seawall and got into the casino, and when we got in there we found Lt Bell and B Coy had gone through the casino before us and there were dead Germans all over the place, they had done a great job. We went through the casino into a slit trench and from the slit trench to the promenade. We got across the promenade but there was such heavy heavy gunfire, I was hit 3 times with machine gun fire, and we had to retire back into the casino.

From there it was just utter chaos really. When we landed we had a navy radio operator with us, and that time they used a radio a little black box about so square, and we had just set up when he got hit with a shell and he just disappeared. So we lost contact with the navy, and they shelled us for a while. It was just unbelievable.

But as we understand now, the Germans were there three weeks and were expecting us. So they were all set up, they knew where they. actually the beach was set up with stakes with strings running so they could pinpoint their mortar fire.

When we got back through the casino, there was a landing craft below the casino and Whitaker and four or five of our guys were there and so, Denny said Jack, give us covering fire until we get down to the lath and then you come with us. So he yelled at me. one of our guys had come back and he was just berserk, and we had some Germans tied up there, probably 50 or 60 of them on the promenade, not on the promenade but on the rear of the casino facing the ocean, and he began killing them, bayoneting them, he killed three of them before I could stop him, I finally got him stopped and he and I headed for the beach, and by that time Whitaker and that landing craft had gone. And I get down to the beach and there appeared to be a gunboat there and a lot of guys getting on. But for some reason it was stuck on the sand we couldn't get it back in the water, so I decided to swim for it. Of course I kept the gun boat between me and the shore as long as possible, but the water was just - the machine gun fire was all across the water, there was bullets going everywhere. The guy swimming beside me got shot right between the shoulders, he just put his hands up like that and slipped down into the water. And, the first boat I got into was knocked out, I had three boats shot out from under me. By that time there were no boats left, I could see them so far out there was no way to contact them so I decided to swim ashore. I swam ashore, I landed on the east side of Dieppe harbour, and waited there till dark and then I walked up the coat, I think I walked 15 or 20 miles and I was dog tired. And, uh, crawled into a stone hut the French fishermen had built there and just fell asleep. The next thing I could hear voices it seemed like they were far away, and I opened my eyes and I saw the ugliest face I had ever seen in my life. It was a German soldier with a rifle pointed right at me saying come out of there, you know, "Raus, Raus". There was another fellow with me, and Essex Scottish Private, and so they took us up a sort of a gully to the top of a hill, and there was probably 15 or 20 Commandoes dead, they had them piled up like cordwood, you know, they didn't appear to be wounded but their uniforms were wet. So the Colonel of the Regiment that was defending that spot, the German Colonel came over, he spoke English fluently, he saw that I was wounded, he called his medic over and had my wounds patched up and then he put us in a hotel there for the rest of the day and the following day he put us in a truck for Bernoulle to the first prison camp.

But prison wasn't for me, I had four escapes from a prison camp. On the fourth one I was successful and got into Sweden, and then they flew me back to England and from there I went into the Intelligence Corps, I was teaching escape and evasion, so that's how I ended the was. But because of my time in the prison camp I was entitled to leave and so I got leave I think it was in February 45 and I came home.

I got the DCM for my efforts, which was a pleasant thing to have. I've written a book on my experiences, I call it the "Call of Freedom: A Dieppe Soldier's Story", and it goes through the battle and my four escapes and then the final victory, freedom.

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