19 August 1942
EASTERN FRONT: The German 6.Armee was ordered to attack Stalingrad by General von Paulus. His 6.Armee began to take the city itself, although von Paulus had still not been joined by Hoth's 4.Panzerarmee. Major Hans-Joachim Ritter's I./KG 51 moved from Kertsch to Tazinskaja.
NORTH AFRICA: Obfw. Erwin Sawallisch of II./JG 27 was killed in a flying accident. He had 33 victories.
Between 4 and 19 August, all that 6./JG 27 had managed to bring down was a pair of Kittyhawks and 5./JG 27's only claim during the same period was the Bombay carrying Lt. Gen. Gott on 7 August. But 4./JG 27 - or to be more precise, just one schwarm of the Staffel - submitted claims during that time for no fewer than 59 Allied fighters destroyed. This huge discrepancy in numbers, and the lack of any witnesses other than the schwarm members themselves, gave rise to grave suspicions. But rathet than take the matter to higher authority, and possibly throw doubt and disrepute on the whole Gruppe, it was decided simply to break up the offending schwarm. It should be noted that a full 2 months were to pass before the erstwhile Schwarmfurhrer claimed his next victory and that one of his NCo pilots disappeared over the Med on 19 August for "reasons unknown" (some suggested he chose deliberately to dive into the sea rather than face accusations of making false claims and possible court-martial). The other 2 members however, went on to attain legitimate and respectable scores.
UNITED KINGDOM: F/O Bryan, flying Whirlwind P7046 and Sgt. Roberts in Whirlwind P7121 of RAF No. 137 Sqdn, were scrambled from Matlaske at 10.10 hours an directed towards a 'bandit'. While flying at an altitude of 4,000 ft off Happisburgh, they sighted a Do 217 about 1,000 feet below them. they dived on the Dornier together and opened fire. the German gunners returned fire. Bryan opened fire with a 3 sec burst and saw pieces flying off the Do 217. He then used up his remaining ammunition in 2 short bursts. Roberts moved in closer astern of the Dornier and fired 3 bursts. the 4 man crew of the Do 217E-4, belonging to 5./KG 40 were seen to bail out. The aircraft, by this time on fire, pulled up sharply before stalling and crashing into the sea.
WESTERN FRONT: THE DIEPPE RAID - The Dieppe Raid or Operation JUBILEE was an Allied attack on the German occupied port of Dieppe, Seine-Maritime on the northern coast of France. Over 6,000 infrantrymen, predominately Canadian were supported by large British naval and air contingents. Intended to seize and hold a major port for a short period, both to prove it was possible and to gather intelligence from prisoners and captured materials while assessing the German responses, the raid was also intended to use air power to draw the Luftwaffe into a large planned encounter. Operation JUBILEE relied on the 2nd Canadian Infrantry Division under major General J.H. Roberts to attack Dieppe, Puys and Pourville, while the paratroop assaulted the flank gun batteries by an amphibious assault by Commandos. The massive Allied air support amounted to about 70 squadrons, with the overwhelming majority coming from RAF Fighter Command including 48 squadrons of Spitfires including all 3 famed Eagle squadrons, 4 squadrons of recon Mustangs and 7 squadrons of Blenheim and Boston light bombers, The opposing Luftwaffe forces were JG 2 and JG 26 comprised of about 200 fighters, mostly the new Fw 190, and about 100 bombers from II./KG 40 with Do 217E-2s, KG 2 with Do 217E-4s and 1(F)./123 with a variety of single and twin-engined recon types (including a single Fw 190A-3). On paper, at least, the Allies had a manifold numerical advantage. The flanking assaults failed for the most part. The ships carrying No. 3 Commando, approaching from the east and due to the ad hoc nature of the operation, not warned of its known schedule, ran into a Germany convoy. German S-Boats torpedoed some of the LCTs, coastal defenses were alerted and 80% of the attacking force was destroyed. Only a handful of the scattered Allied craft landed and from these only 18 Commandos reached and engaged their targets. Unable to destroy any of the guns, they were able to snipe on gun crews and prevent them from firing on the main assault. No. 4 Commandos landed in force and destroyed their targets, providing the only success of the operation. Most of No. 4 safely returned to England. This portion of the raid was considered a model for future commando raids. The Canadians in the center suffered greatly, at least in part due to the inexperience of Roberts, who unwisely committed the reserve force to the main beaches. The landing at Puys by the Royal Regiment of Canada was delayed and the potential advantages of surprise and darkness were lost. The well-placed German forces held the Canadians that did not land on the beach with little difficulty. 225 men were killed, 264 murdered and 33 made it back to England. The beach was defended by just 60 Germans, who at no time felt the need to reinforce their position. The main attack was at 3 points: The 14th Canadian Army Tank Regiment (Calgary Tanks) in the middle with the Essex Scottish to the east and the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry to the west. Attacking 30 minutes after the flanking assaults and onto a steep pebble beach, all the groups were met with intense fire. The eastern assault was held at the beach. The western assault gained a hold in a shorefront casino but few soldiers made it across the road and they were soon stopped. The tanks arrived a little late, only to discover their landing point was difficult. 29 tanks disembarked but only 15 managed to climb the beach and cross the sea-wall onto the esplanade under unrelenting fire. However they were completely stopped by anti-tank blocks, were immobilized or returned to the beach. The engineers whose job it was to clear such obstacles were unable to do so because of heavy fire which the tanks could not suppress. Back on the beach, the tanks provided fire support as best they could and covered the retreat. The supporting naval bombardment was supplied by destroyers, which did not have sufficent weight of broadside or range to destroy the German strongpoints without themselves coming under heavy fire. They were not able to communicate directly with those on the beach to make their bombardment effective. At 10.50 hours, a general order to retreat was issued. In the air over the landings, the RAF, USAAF and RCAF tried their best to support the operation. Air lossses consisted of 64 Spitfires (including 6 USAAF aircraft), 20 Hurricane fighter-bombers, 6 Boston bombers and 10 US P-51 Mk I 'Mustang' rmy cooperation aircraft - for 62 killed, 30 wounded and 17 POW. The P-51 'Mustang' made its combat debut over the skies of Dieppe. One of the Mustang-flying RAF pilots was credited with a German fighter kill. Luftwaffe losses were 23 Fw 190 fighters - 16 from JG 2 and 7 from JG 26 - and 25 Dornier Do 217s, mostly from KG 2. 14 pilots were killed - 8 from JG 2 and 6 from JG 26. The raid was generally considered to be an unmitigated tactical disaster, with no major objectives accomplished. 4,384 of 6,086 men who made it ashore were either killed, wounded or catured. The RAF and RCAF failed to lure the Luftwaffe into open battle and lost 119 planes, whilst the Royal Navy suffered 555 casualties. The very inexperienced American pilots had performed reasonably well but they were clearly outclassed by the JG 2 and JG 26 Focke-Wulfs. Despite the inevitable overclaiming, this was clearly a victory for the Germans. The catastrophe at Dieppe later influenced Allied preparation for Operation TORCH and Operation OVERLORD.