Dieppe - 75 years later

[PM2K]

On this day, Aug. 19, 1942, would be the bloodiest single day for Canada’s military in the entire Second World War. Of the almost 5,000 Canadian soldiers who took part in this ill-fated raid on occupied France, more than half became casualties. Sadly, a total of 916 Canadians would lose their lives. Many others would end up prisoners of war.

It was essentially a large scale commando raid on the French coastal port of Dieppe. Operation Jubilee was the first Canadian Army engagement in the European theatre of the war, designed to test the Allies' ability to launch amphibious assaults against Adolf Hitler's "Fortress Europe."

It involved British and American forces as well, but the brunt of the casualties were borne by the Canadian infantry and tanks hung up on the stone beaches. Supposedly, many lessons were learned in the raid, including it isn't a good idea to directly attack a fortified harbor.

More details on the attack can be found here:

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/e ... eppe-raid/

It is also, I believe, the first time the FW-190 was seen in action in the west... and it came as a nasty surprised to the RAF.

[kham]

To this day, there is too much classified bullshit. For one thing, what the hell was the actual objective supposed to be? There was no way in hell we could hold the town for any length of time. Recent years, theories have come up about the whole thing was a diversion for some fucking black-ops SOG plan to steal a radar, or Naval Enigma stuff. If so, it was utterly ill conceived
It also had the RAF and RCAF mounting major operations, including daylight bomber raids in addition to the usual fighter sweeps, but more of them. They got their ass kicked too. In August 1942, even with most of the Luftwaffe in Russia, the guys in France were still the best. JG26, those Yellow-nosed Bastards. We later hung the name Top Guns of the Luftwaffe on them. Galland's Boys.

[PM2K]

I get the impression - and I could be completely wrong on this - that it was in part a Lord Mountbatten vanity project plus something to appease the Russians, who continued to pressure the West for a second front. Mountbatten was involved in planning it...

The Canadians, who had been in England all this time training, wanted to do something to get in the war, and so their lobbying led them to be selected to be the main force.

A lot of the "learned lessons" stuff, or "it was cover for..." etc. etc. sounds a lot like after action spin to try and justify the terrible cost. As I understand it, their objective was to seize the port and town, hold it for a bit, then leave, possibly after sabotaging it. There were side missions to gather intel by Brit commandos, which included a couple of Americans , but that feels more like taking advantage of a bigger operation rather than being the reason behind it.

Still... the Allies did adjust their strategy, such as getting demolitions guys on the beach ahead of landings to clear obstacles, better intel on local beach conditions, etc. The decision to pursue artificial harbors (the Mulberries) is a result of the failure of the Dieppe raid.

[kham]

They are too fucking evasive by half, any time you bring up Mountbatten. That is possible, that WAS the original rumors; its only now as more things get dug up, you see all this stuff that is WTF on a good day. He was no Ike, as far as responsibility goes, that's for sure

[Tim Kelly]

When Churchill heard of the casualty figures, he said, "Pooh! That's nothing! You should see what I managed at Gallipoli!"

[Tim Kelly]

Not to mention Tonypandy, Llanelli, Sidney Street....