82 anniversary of Dieppe

[CaptainCrunch]

One of the biggest disasters in Canada's Military History.


In a plan to boost moral, and test the viability of a sea born invasion to sieze towns and search for intelligence was a dismal failure. This was a British plan to show Stalin that the Allies were willing to open up a Western Front, and also to boost the morale of all allied morale. Canadians paid in blood.



6000 infantry men waded ashore backed by a regiment of tanks, with the RAF flying cover.



The German Luftwaffe in combination with ground fire shot down 106 planes. They also took out 33 Landing Craft and a Destroyer.



The Calgary Regiment of Tanks was stopped cold, not by enemy fire, but by the pebbly beach which the Tanks couldn't navigate.



Out of the 6800 men that landed on the beach, 3600 were killed, wounded or taken prisoner, Canada supplied 5000 of those men and suffered a 68% casualty rate.



While the positive of the assault was that the Allies learned what not to do in terms of a coastal invasion, the price was extremely high.

[MoneyGuy]

We’ve visited several WWII sites but missed that one. It’s iconic.

[Whynotnow]

Visited it just after going to Juno. Looking down from the cliffs at dieppe and seeing what they were contending with vs Juno was just sad. I know lots say it was a necessary lesson, to me in hindisght just seemed like a waste of life, but what isn’t in war I guess,
.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Whynotnow

Visited it just after going to Juno. Looking down from the cliffs at dieppe and seeing what they were contending with vs Juno was just sad. I know lots say it was a necessary lesson, to me in hindisght just seemed like a waste of life, but what isn’t in war I guess,
.

It wasn't a necessary lesson. They could have practices this without just throwing men into a meat grinder. Not knowing that your tanks couldn't traverse a pebbly beach didn't need to be tested under fire.


This was a desperate throw of the dice to placate Stalin.

[bigtmac19]

Important day in my family history for sure. The Essex Scottish Regiment landed at Red Beach, my Dad among them. He was captured that day and spent the rest of the war as a POW, or as he liked to say "as a guest of the Germans". He suffered life long consequences of his experiences in that camp. They were often starving, he said the only thing that saved them were the Red Cross packages. His camp was in Poland.

I've been to Dieppe twice, brought his grandsons. It's an emotional place. His Regiment usually sends a group of soldiers there every year and every year at 5:00 am they are down on the beach, having a shot of whiskey and making a toast to the boys!

[indes]

I visited the Dieppe memorial when I was 14, even though I didn't fully understand the gravity of it all, I still remember feeling it. Very awe inspiring.

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by bigtmac19

Important day in my family history for sure. The Essex Scottish Regiment landed at Red Beach, my Dad among them. He was captured that day and spent the rest of the war as a POW, or as he liked to say "as a guest of the Germans". He suffered life long consequences of his experiences in that camp. They were often starving, he said the only thing that saved them were the Red Cross packages. His camp was in Poland.

I've been to Dieppe twice, brought his grandsons. It's an emotional place. His Regiment usually sends a group of soldiers there every year and every year at 5:00 am they are down on the beach, having a shot of whiskey and making a toast to the boys!

My grandfather was a medic that was part of the second landing wave and was also captured, he said all he had time to do was hit the sand and the bullets whizzing overhead were so thick that anyone who even peaked over the sand was blown away. Similar stories that Red Cross packages were the only thing that kept them alive -- all the Nazis gave them was bread and water and the bread was so hard there were guys walking on top of the loads before the trucks delivered it.

Pretty amazing story, he passed when I was only around 10 years old so I didn't really appreciate or understand the full gravity of his story and sacrifice. Will always stick with me. I'd love to visit there someday (as would my mom, his daughter).

[Finger Cookin]

It's hard to make out the original post, I think it needs more whitespace. Maybe 4 or 5 more lines between sentences.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

My grandfather was a medic that was part of the second landing wave and was also captured, he said all he had time to do was hit the sand and the bullets whizzing overhead were so thick that anyone who even peaked over the sand was blown away. Similar stories that Red Cross packages were the only thing that kept them alive -- all the Nazis gave them was bread and water and the bread was so hard there were guys walking on top of the loads before the trucks delivered it.

Pretty amazing story, he passed when I was only around 10 years old so I didn't really appreciate or understand the full gravity of his story and sacrifice. Will always stick with me. I'd love to visit there someday (as would my mom, his daughter).

Respect to your Grandfather from another medic.

[karl262]

For anyone interested in this, I'd recommend the book "One Day in August" by David O'Keefe. He proposes through recently declassified archival research that the goal was to capture the upgraded enigma machine and code books, then to cover their tracks, detonate a torpedo storage facility. This would have basically destroyed the city, but such was the desperation to stem the scourge uboats were inflicting on allied shipping.

It was known ahead of the raid that not all tanks would make it off the beach due to the terrain, but many did and were roaming the streets.

My great uncle was part of the raid and was captured.

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