Military History of Canada During World War II - Dieppe

Dieppe

The Dieppe Raid (Operation Jubilee) of August 19, 1942, landed nearly 5,000 soldiers of the inexperienced Second Canadian Division and 1,000 British commandos on the coast of occupied France, in the only major combined forces assault on France prior to the Normandy invasion of June 1944. While a large number of aircraft flew in support, naval gunfire was deliberately limited to avoid damage to the town and civilian casualties. As a result the Canadian forces assaulted a heavily defended coast line with no supportive bombardment.

While Dieppe did provide valuable information on the absolute necessity of close communications in combined operations, of nearly 6,000 troops landed over a thousand were killed and another 2,340 were captured. Two Canadians were recognized with the Victoria Cross for actions at Dieppe; Lieutenant Colonel "Cec" Merritt of the South Saskatchewan Regiment and Honorary Captain John Foote of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. The value of the Dieppe Raid is a matter of some controversy; some historians feel that it was largely because of Dieppe that the Allies decided not to attempt an assault on a seaport in their first invasion of occupied western Europe, others would point to the large number of amphibious operations before and after Dieppe as evidence that nothing new was learned there.

There was significant intelligence regarding the spy war and the enigma in Dieppe in the German Field HQ. However the top secret mission was a failure like the whole raid. The buck stops at the top and the incompitence of British command (Lord Louie Mt. Batton) is the blame for the terrible casualties cause by this doomed raid. British authour Ian Flemming (of the James Bond series) was part of the planning regarding the spy mission however none of the objectives were met.