19 August 1942

The Dieppe Raid

Since December 1939, when the Canadian Army first landed in Britain, Canadian ground and air forces steadily built up in the country. By the summer of 1942, the Canadian forces in Britain numbered more than 250,000, but they had still seen no major action. Following the Germans’ defeat of France and their conquest of western Europe in the spring of 1940, the Canadians prepared to help repel a German invasion that never came. They trained continuously and took part in large-scale military exercises. Three years following the outbreak of war, Canadian troops were itching for action and the Canadian public, too, wondered when the army would engage the enemy.

Planning for the Dieppe Raid began in the spring of 1942. This attack intended to destabilize German occupation forces, inflict casualties, destroy harbour installations and other infrastructure, draw the German air force into combat, gain intelligence about German technology, raise Allied morale, test new equipment and tactics, and hopefully oblige the Germans to reinforce their coastal defences at the expense of their forces on the eastern front where Soviet Union forces were fully engaged. The Canadians eagerly agreed to the British request that they participate in the raid and they soon undertook special training for this complex amphibious operation.

Black and white photograph. A large group of soldiers in battle dress walk onto a rocky beach from landing craft ramps. Navy personnel await the landing of a 2nd craft. — Rehearsing for Dieppe

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Black and white photograph. On a rocky beach, men in battle dress stand with their backs to the camera looking at the two small boats on the shoreline. Some hold stretchers with men on them. They wait to board the stretchers on the boats. — Rehearsing for Dieppe - Casualties

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Black and white photograph. Men in battle dress and carrying equipment (such as stretchers) walk towards the camera up the ramp of a landing craft. Behind them, more men in uniform watch as the stand around. A military truck is visible. — Rehearsing for Dieppe - Embarking

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Black and white photograph. Three men face away from the camera, one in helmet, one in navy cap, one with no headwear. They look out over the ocean - many boats carrying men and equipment to the Dieppe Raid can be seen. — En Route to Dieppe

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Initially known as Operation RUTTER, the raid was scheduled for July 1942 but cancelled due to poor weather. The raid was revived the next month as Operation JUBILEE. Nearly 5,000 Canadian troops participated, drawn primarily from the 2nd Division’s 4th and 6th Brigades as well as the 14th Canadian Army Tank Regiment (the Calgary Regiment) operating the new Churchill tanks. These men were to land at three locations: the main site at Dieppe itself (White Beach and Red Beach), on the eastern flank at the tiny seaside village of Puys (Blue Beach), and on the western flank at Pourville (Green Beach). The tanks would land at Dieppe. Further along the coast a total of about 1,000 British Commandos would attack at Varengeville to the west and Berneval to the east to destroy coastal artillery emplacements. Success of the hastily prepared raid mainly depended on catching the Germans off-guard. The pre-dawn landings at all five locations needed to be perfectly timed and co-ordinated to achieve surprise and prevent alerting the enemy.

Unfortunately, this did not happen and the landings at Dieppe and Puys were disasters, with troops unable to get off the pebbly beaches due to German artillery, mortar, machine-gun, and rifle fire emanating from the dominating heights on either side of the landing areas and from fortified buildings beyond the seawall. Without Allied use of heavy bombers or the availability of heavy-calibre naval artillery, German defences were largely undamaged. The beaches became death-traps and within hours hundreds of Canadians had been killed or wounded for no gain. Despite great heroism on the part of many men, few Canadians managed to penetrate into the town of Dieppe itself and, once there, could do very little. Limited success at Pourville was marred by the arrival of German reinforcements who inflicted heavy losses on the Canadians when the time came for them to re-embark. The agony continued until about 2 pm when the last landing craft returned to the ships offshore with the survivors of the carnage. The Canadians suffered more than 60 percent casualties, including 907 killed or died of wounds and 1,946 taken prisoner, many of whom were wounded.

Operation JUBILEE was a failure. The raid’s merits have been debated over the years, but most scholarship on the matter agrees that, at basis, the raid was poorly conceived. Whatever the case, the massive losses incurred at Dieppe shocked the nation and bereaved Canadian households throughout the land.