History might have been recorded differently if a skirmish between a German flotilla and British commandos hadn’t taken place in the seas off of Dieppe that August night in ’42. . The Germans were on alert, taking away a crucial element of the plan: the element of surprise. The raid across the English Channel, dubbed Operation Jubilee, took place on August 19, 1942. The target was a section of the French coast between Le Havre and Boulogne. The mission was meant to test Hitler’s defences in Europe. Lord Mountbatten’s original plan was to send flanking brigades inland to meet and attack the Nazi forces from behind, but plans were changed to a frontal attack but with little air support. The raids on Dieppe were a combined Canadian-British operation, with Canadian infantry forming the main body of the assault. Simultaneous assaults on Dieppe were to be conducted at three landing spots but through a series of errors and miscalculations this was not to be. In nine horrible hours, of the 5,000 Canadian soldiers involved in the attacks on Dieppe, 907 of our soldiers were killed and 1,300 were taken prisoner.
One of those prisoners, the father of staff member Barb Neibert, was Lt. A.L. Breithaupt who was one of the officers of the Calgary Regiment (14th Canadian Tank Regiment). Landing at was dubbed the Red & White Beach, Brethaupt’s Churchill tank, nicknamed Betty, got as far inland as the esplanade where it became bogged down in a hole. (Twenty-nine Churchill tanks successfully exited the landing craft at the beach with twenty-seven making it ashore. Fifteen managed to climb up and over the seawall on to Dieppe’s promenade but were thwarted further progress by the many road blocks.) Breithaupt was taken prisoner and moved to a camp at Eichstatt, Bavaria where he remained for almost three years.
Much in the fashion of the Great Escape movie during his imprisonment, he and other officers built two tunnels out of the camp to try and escape. About 60 escaped through the first tunnel but were quickly recaptured. When the second tunnel was ready they decided that it as best to have only three or four escape at a time. Two got as far as Switzerland but, not realizing that they had crossed the border, they crossed back into Germany where they were recaptured. During Breithaupt’s imprisonment he learned to knit and to needlepoint…activities to pass the many hours. The Muskoka Lakes Public Library in Port Carling is honoured to have on loan the petit point needlework that Lt. A. L. Breithaupt constructed while he was a POW at Eichstatt. The needlepoint depicts a camp scene of Oflag VII B. The public is invited to come and see the artwork and to chat with Barb about what she was told by her father of his war experiences.
Lt. Breithaupt, who according to his daughter Barb, did not like to talk about his war experiences, did pen a descriptive of the needlepoint outlining how he came to have the supplies to complete the project.
“The basic material was sent out by the Canadian Red Cross via Switzerland, and the Canadian Prisoners of War were given the opportunity of preference of choice of the different articles –not many wanted to do Petit Point.
“The wool and stencilled material was for a Maple Leaf. Lt. James Graham of the British Army, an architect in civilian life, suggested I do a camp scene. He tried to draw it on the fabric but as the material was too coarse for drawing, he made [a] sketch.
“The scene is one corner of the compound showing the barbed wire fence, the electrified trip wire which was about 12’ inform the fence, a sentry box and one of the dwelling huts. The flowers were from seed sent out to P.O.W.’s from Canada.
“The yellows and greens were the maple leaf colours. The dark green was a scarf; the browns were army wool socks, the white cloud was wool unravelled from G.I. underwear, the blue sky was wool unravelled from a hockey sweater and the greys from P.O.W. socks. To get the colours I did not have, I would walk around the compound looking at the men’s socks and offer to trade the owner the pair he had on, which were usually fullof holes, for a pair of clean either mended or new socks. The trade was readily performed.
“It took about five weeks of spare time during 1944, and this is one of the articles I carried when we were forced to march 120 miles in April 1945.”
Lest we forget.
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