Tuesday, August 19, 2025

83rd anniversary of the Dieppe raid

Brigadier General Denis Whittaker, Dieppe,Tragedy to Triumph, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Press, 1992

  On Aug 19 1942, an Allied amphibious force conducted the first large scale raid on Europe landing at Dieppe. It was a disaster, It seemed as if the Germans knew they were coming, The Luftwaffe was ready and as the landing craft hit the beach, the defending guns were intact. The Allied tanks got stuck on the beach- actually small stones, despite the chespaling mentioned above

 The force barely got past the sea wall and inside of 10 hours, of the 6000 men who landed,  3600 had been killed, wounded or captured. Most of the force was Canadian, the 5000-strong force suffered a 68% casualty rate.

  The whole disastrous experience was justified as a learning experience and on D-Day these lessons contributed to the success of the invasion. 




 



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Canada sacrifices its children for a good cause. Amen