Chris Wattie
National Post
Tuesday, August 20, 2002
DIEPPE, France - Douglas "Duke" Warren was flying his Spitfire high above the shores off Dieppe when Canadian troops began pouring ashore for the disastrous 1942 raid on the Channel port and even from a thousand feet up he could tell his compatriots were in trouble.
But Wing Commander Warren, then a 20-year-old fighter pilot, had his hands full with the developing battle in the skies over Dieppe, which became the largest single day of dogfighting in the war. More than 1,000 British, Canadian and German planes were locked in combat in the crowded airspace over the town, an aspect of the Dieppe raid that is often overlooked in histories of the battle.
"You could see the guns firing all along the beach and the smoke rising," he said yesterday, during a break in the ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the raid. "And all the fighting seemed to be along the beach. We'd been told they were going right through the town ... and it was clear they weren't getting into the town even, let alone through it."
But the growing air battle meant that he could do little to help the Canadians pinned down on the beach below.
"We were all confined in a pretty small piece of airspace," said Wing Cmdr. Warren. "It was a hectic time: planes everywhere ... you'd have to look out of the corner of both eyes at the same time."
Captain Ben Bond, an air force historian, says the air battle over Dieppe is often overshadowed by the landings, but they were in some ways more important than the disaster that overcame the soldiers on the ground.
"The air combat involved more aircraft than were in the Battle of Britain," he said. "The whole idea of the air aspect to the operation was to lure the Luftwaffe into a once-and-for-all battle of attrition: to wear them down by shooting down more of their fighters and bombers."
The German air force rose to the bait, Capt. Bond said, eventually sending up more than 300 fighters and bombers. They were outnumbered by the Allied squadrons, but still managed to shoot down 106 RAF and RCAF aircraft to 48 German losses.
"But the battle cost them 15% of their fighter force and more than 30% of their bombers," he said. "So the Allies achieved their goal."
Wing Cmdr. Warren, who ended the war with 3 1/2 kills to his credit, helped shoot down at least one Luftwaffe bomber in his three sorties over Dieppe that day and later won the Distinguished Flying Cross. "It was for working in the trenches: nothing special," he said with a shrug.
In fact, his section of Spitfires shot down a German bomber over Dieppe that day. "It was a Dornier 217: I remember watching the crew bail out."
But he acknowledged the fight in the air was ferocious: "The German fighters launched a pretty heavy assault and they had some bombers up, too."
Wing Cmdr. Warren, who retired from the air force in 1973 and now lives in Comox, B.C., was almost shot down himself by a German fighter. "I saw the flashes [of machine-gun tracer bullets] zipping past, but I made my break [turn] and pulled hard," he said. "I was watching him all the way, firing at me, so I was pretty confident he wouldn't get me.
"I got bounced several times by German fighters, but nothing I would call a close call," he added, although he admitted with a grin: "I was 20 years old, so that might've had something to do with it"
One of Wing Cmdr. Warren's wingmen was his twin brother Bruce -- also nicknamed Duke as a joke by the other pilots in the squadron. "We were always keeping an eye out for each other ... so I knew I was well covered."
© Copyright 2002 National Post