pre Dieppe info

[Norm Cromie (RIP)]

To Mark Tonner....
Mark, It never ceases to amaze me the wealth of WW2 military information that you have. Ill bet you could even tell me what occured before the big bang. I am sure you could dig up information somewhere on that. But, back to a serious question...... I have been searching for many many years for information on a unit that I served with prior to Dieppe. It was formed by a composition of individuals from each of the units of the first CDN Division. We were packed off to Seaford where we did river crossings, cliff scaling and some advanced demolishion. I believe this unit was designated to take out some type of towers on the cliffs east of Dieppe. If my memory is right our CO was a Major from the 48th called Armstrong. A week before the Dieppe raid we were disbanded and sent back to our units. I later learned that Corps command decided they only wanted to commit the second division on this raid. We were being trained by I believe the Fourth commando regiment, which as you know was part of Lord Lovetts command. Surely there is someone out there that can give me some detailed information on this operation.

[Mark W. Tonner]

Originally posted by Norm Cromie
To Mark Tonner....
Mark, It never ceases to amaze me the wealth of WW2 military information that you have. Ill bet you could even tell me what occured before the big bang. I am sure you could dig up information somewhere on that. But, back to a serious question...... I have been searching for many many years for information on a unit that I served with prior to Dieppe. It was formed by a composition of individuals from each of the units of the first CDN Division. We were packed off to Seaford where we did river crossings, cliff scaling and some advanced demolishion. I believe this unit was designated to take out some type of towers on the cliffs east of Dieppe. If my memory is right our CO was a Major from the 48th called Armstrong. A week before the Dieppe raid we were disbanded and sent back to our units. I later learned that Corps command decided they only wanted to commit the second division on this raid. We were being trained by I believe the Fourth commando regiment, which as you know was part of Lord Lovetts command. Surely there is someone out there that can give me some detailed information on this operation.

Hi Norm;

If I'm not mistaken, we discussed this before on the forum, and I remember something about a Major from the Royal Regiment of Canada. I'll kick start my memory and see what I find.

Cheers

P.S. You wrote: "Mark, It never ceases to amaze me the wealth of WW2 military information that you have" - Norm, I have to remember all this so I can MA , who needs a lot of

[Mark W. Tonner]

Hi Norm;

Our pervious discussion, from July 2004, on operations prior to Dieppe, is located here. I'll take a look and see what else I can dig up.

Cheers

Originally posted by Mark W. Tonner
Hi Norm;
P.S. You wrote: "Mark, It never ceases to amaze me the wealth of WW2 military information that you have" - Norm, I have to remember all this so I can MA , who needs a lot of teach teach teach etc etc etc

Stop your complaining, when others aren't asking you questions then you need SOMEONE to ... THAT is my purpose and gift to you ... someone who makes you a fulltime :teacher: for without me you're but a part-timer Old-timer-fart- ... face it Mark-O ... you NEED the wee bittie Miss Ma

Hi Norm, J S P "Daddy" Armstrong was OC Headquarters Coy. A very striking figure his son Joe is supposed to be writing a bio of his father. Joe told us a story of his father when he was a young chap. I'm sure you will remember that "Daddy" was quite tall and when he was a young fellow he used to slouch so his father strapped a 2 x 4 to to his back to make him stand up straight. He left the 1st Bn after the "Foray to France".
The Provincial Premure of the day negotiated with the Army to have him released and he became Ontario's representative in the UK.