Dieppe 19 August 1942

19 August 1942, Nazi Germany stands supreme over all of Europe with the exception of England who remains defiant, but unable to turn the tide yet. In the East Russia is reeling under yet another onslaught of the German army. Panzers roll south and east threatening the Russian oil fields. Japan is pushing out their perimeter and has suffered their first defeat at Midway. Stalin urges the allies to invade, draw German forces west to give his people the time they need to drive the invader from Mother Russia.

Yet the allies do not have a complete understanding of the task of invasion. More must be learned before the relief of Europe may be undertaken. There are many theories of how this is to be done but the allies still believe a port must be taken. To test theories and the enemy defenses the town of Dieppe is chosen for a trial. A complete division will be landed, capture the town and withdraw before overwhelming forces can be brought to bear. An advantage for the RAF who believed they were winning the air war would be efforts by the Luftwaffe to interdict, this would allow the RAF to "Smash them when they responded" a foolish belief much as the Germans themselves had in 1940. The Canadian Government was eager to have Canadians in the news and pressured the British to use one of the Canadian Divisions then in England.

Lord Louis Mountbatten, uncle of Prince Phillip the future husband of our Queen, was selected to head Combined Operations, commando operations to harass the Germans, even though he was honestly unsuitable for the role. Mountbatten determined he would land the 2nd Canadian Division, with some Commandos and Rangers, take the town and after destroying the harbour withdraw. During planning it was decided there would be no heavy air support for fear of killing civilians. Then Naval support of any heavy units was withdrawn for fear of having a capital ship damaged. Next air support was reduced to a very limited operation. The only real fire support the troops received would be 6 destroyers firing their 4-inch guns. The raid was set for late June, and once the ships were loaded the mission was scrubbed. Three weeks later it was resumed, even though there was concern the Germans may have heard of the plan. At 04:50h on the morning of 19 August 1942 the Raid began.

No. 3 Commando was to take the German Battery to the East of Dieppe. On the way they ran into a German Convoy and were mauled by the escort finally 6 Landing craft reached beach 1, they were beaten back and forced to surrender. 18 men made beach 2, and were unable to destroy the battery, but managed to make the gunners nervous enough that no hits were scored by this battery. No. 4 Commando and 50 US Rangers were to land to the west and knock out the battery there. The landing went undetected and they succeeded in neutralizing the 6 six-inch guns there.

On Blue Beach the Royal Regiment of Canada and three platoons of the Black Watch were to land, delayed by 20 minutes the protective smoke screen had dispersed, the Germans had heard the fighting offshore and were alerted and ready.? Machinegun fire raked the beach forcing the attackers to take cover behind the sea wall and pinning them down.? Of the 556 Men landed by the RRC 200 were killed and 264 captured.

On Green Beach the South Saskatchewan Regiment landed 1st Battalion at 04:52h. Undetected they were exultant, until they realised they had been landed in the wrong location, their target was on the opposite side of the river and they would have to cross the bridge before taking out the battery of guns. Now alerted the Germans set up defenses at the Bridge and the Canadians were mowed down in drovers trying to cross.?Reinforced by the Queens Own Cameron highlanders the two regiments Pushed hard but could not reach their objective.?Later in the day the two regiments were ordered to retreat to the landing craft, only 341 men returned.

One extra mission was RAF Sergeant Nissenthall, he was to take the German Radar at Pourville just off Blue Beach, he was given an escort of 11 South Saskatchewan’s, who were ordered to shoot him rather than allow him to be captured.?The allies needed to know more of the capabilities of the German Radar.?Unable to take the station they instead cut the phone lines forcing the Germans to use the radio.?Thus the allies learned much of the capabilities of the radar without actually taking one, of the 12 men only Nissenthall and 1 of his guard made it back.

Red and White Beaches were in Dieppe proper.?There the Canadians would land with tank support in the form of the new Churchill heavy tank.?The Essex Scottish and the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry were to assault the defenses with the support of the tanks of the Calgary Tanks.?The Calgary’s were landed late and the infantry went in without support.?The infantry were in what in essence is a bowl with the Germans holding the rim on three sides in well entrenched machineguns.?The Attack was cut down and easily driven off.?The tanks arrived, but only 29 were landed, of those 2 sank in deep water, 12 suffered track failure on the shingle beach, terrain totally unsuitable for tanks, 15 tanks reached the sea wall and crossed to attack the town, but there they were stopped by anti-tank obstacles. ?Not a single tank managed to return to England, their crews all either killed or captured.

Sitting behind the smokescreen laid by the destroyers the commander of the landings could see nothing.?Major General Roberts ordered the landings to continue and the Fusiliers Mount-Royal and the Royal Marines went in ay 07:00h.?The 26 landing craft of the Fusiliers were met by fierce German fire and only a few managed to reach the beach, the rest being destroyed on the approach. Those who landed joined the other infantry pinned down on the beach.?The Royal Marine landing craft were heavily engaged on their way in with many destroyed or disabled. Those Royal Marines that did reach the shore were either killed or captured. As he became aware of the situation the Royal Marine commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Phillipps, stood upon the stern of his landing craft and signaled for the rest of his men to turn back. He was killed a few moments later.

At 09:40h the operation in a shambles the order to withdraw was given, those who could be withdrawn were brought off by 14:00h.?The Canadians who landed just under 5,000 men, lost 907 killed, 2,460 wounded, and 1,946 captured, the 2nd Division was smashed.?Losses to the 1,500 German defenders was 311 killed, 280 wounded.?The RAF, who welcomed the battle as the chance to destroy the Luftwaffe lost 64 Spitfires, 20 Hurricanes, 10 P-51 Mustangs, and 6 Douglas Bombers compared to the German losses of 23 FW-190 and 25 Dornier Do-217 bombers.

Dieppe was a disaster of the first magnitude for Canada, the only consolation Canada receives from this depressing affair is the lessons learned here made significant improvements to the planning for the eventual D-Day landings.?On 1 September 1944 Dieppe was finally liberated by the 1st Canadian Army, the army paused in the advance and the 2nd Division, now reconstructed and complete entered the town as liberators and held a ceremony remembering those lost 2 years earlier in the raid.