82 anniversary of Dieppe
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.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
|