Dieppe Raid Tragedy

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Tragedy of Dieppe August 19, 1942 marks one of the most tragic and hideous battles in history, of the 4963 Canadians who participated in the operation, 913 were killed in action, 100 died of their wounds, 586 wounded, and 1946 were taken prisoner. The brave soldiers’ strong determination unfortunately could not overtake the formidable might of the German army. After the attack, all that remains were the mounds of dead stretched over 15km of French coast from Puys to Pourville, Mortar shells scattered in the sands, broken tanks left on the beaches and dead bodies washed up by the waves, it was a horrifying sight. The Dieppe raid, also known as Operation Jubilee was a pathetic failure; many lives were sacrificed in attempting it with no tangible…show more content…
The Dieppe raid was not a well-planned operation. The genesis in pressure from the Soviet Union requiring help from the allies, United States’ ambition to mount a full-scale-cross-channel invasion of France by the end of the year(1942) , and the restless Canadian army desperate to see action forced the military leader to come up with an idea, and fast, and the idea was Dieppe. Because of these pressures from other countries and the ever-growing German army, this raid was necessary and has to be carried out well before the end of the year. And this haste, however, caused the troops to have less training time, less resources and equipment to be gathered and limited planning for the generals. With not enough time to gather information from the Dieppe port, the British intelligence badly underestimated the German strength and numbers. The Germans were equipped with auto weapons, large and small calibre artillery, anti-aircraft gun, anti-tank guns and mortars; the east and west of the town rise high, dominating cliffs, and beaches are wide and flat, basically offers no covering. The Germans also had strongpoints on the cliffs on either side of the town and large numbers of reserves to hand. Britain highly

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