Captain “Bill” Scott at the Dieppe Raid
Overhead view of the beach and promenade at Dieppe, as well as the Casino which was heavily contested.
In the late 1930s Captain W (Bill) .H Scott, worked for the Chrystler Motor Company of Canada in Windsor, Ontario. He was an avid athlete and hockey player. In 1939 Scott enlisted with the Essex Scottish Regiment (ESR) and began training for an officer position. On 27 December 1940, he and five other officers arrived in England and joined the ESR’s 1st Battalion. Scott joined the 1st Battalion as a Second Lieutenant and would eventually rise to the rank of Captain in spring 1942.
In the early morning of 19 August 1942 Scott and his company landed on the beaches of Dieppe. Communication was impossible under the heavy German artillery bombardment and relentless machine gun fire. Scott’s company quickly lost cohesion and struggled to maintain contact with each other as they fought their way to the seawall. By 7:00 a.m. Scott had arrived at the seawall with elements from several companies and platoons. By then it was obvious that the attack had completely stalled; crossing the promenade into Dieppe was a death sentence. With what remained of his company pinned down at the seawall and out of contact, Scott gathered a party of five infantrymen. Scott and his party began to creep along the seawall, looking for a route into the city. As Scott describes, it was “no pleasant task, but better than sitting and being pounded.” After traveling “about 500 yards” the party encountered a road into town protected by the harbor wall.
This road leads all the way to the main harbor at the back of the town. However, the harbor wall only provided cover for a fraction of this distance. Scott and his team slowly followed this road until the wall could afford them no more protection. The team made a “short dash” to the first corner of the road, where they were immediately spotted by a German machine gun post and fired upon. The team scrambled into a nearby shop window for cover; nobody was hurt. The team had made it past the promenade and were hiding in the first row of buildings overlooking the beachfront. Suddenly, Scott heard a truck slowly approaching down the road. As it drove past their position the team could glimpse its cargo, a squad of German infantry. In unison and without orders Scott and his entire team opened fire on the truck killing all but one of the Germans inside. During this brief, but violent encounter, Scott and his men fired all their ammunition. The team attempted to retreat to the seawall, but their escape was blocked by the destroyed truck. Scott and his party waited in the shop front for the rest of the battle. Trapped and out of ammunition the men had no choice but to wait to be captured.
Captain Scott spent the remainder of the war as a POW at the Oflag VII B prison camp. He was involved in several unsuccessful escape attempts. During one of these attempts, Scott helped dig a 113-foot tunnel out of the camp. Escape through this tunnel was attempted by several Canadians prisoners, each was recaptured.
For his leadership at Dieppe Scott was awarded the Croix de Guerre (Cross of War) with silver star by the French government. Additionally, he was Mentioned in Dispatches for his actions at Dieppe.
Story by Calvin Barrett, Canada Summer Jobs 2022 participant
with The Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment Association
Sources:
- Duty Nobly Done, The History of The Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment by Sandy Antal and Kevin R. Shackleton, 2006 – Chapter 11
- Detour: The story of Oflag IV C by Lieut. J.E.R. Wood, 1946
- Globe & Mail, May 27, 1946