Dieppe Anniversary
Our Canadian buddy, Aunty Brat, at Assoluta Tranquillita reminds us that today is the 70th Anniversary of the attempted raid at Dieppe, France, mostly conducted by Canadian troops, with a mix of British commandos and American Rangers. The raid began at 5:00 AM and commanders called for a withdrawal at 10:50 on August 19, 1942 in that relatively short time of the 6,086 men who made it ashore, 3,623 were captured, wounded or dead.
The Royal Air Force lost 96 aircraft, the Royal Navy lost a battleship and 33 landing craft.
The sacrifice of the troops at Dieppe taught hard-learned lessons that led to the successful invasion of Hitler’s Fortress Europe at Normandy two years later.
But you should read the rest at Brat’s place.
Category: Historical
Appreciate this post– my affinity for hockey has brought me closer to Canada over my lifetime and Dieppe is a two-edged sword. While many are proud of their sacrifice, there is still lingering bitterness about the loss of so many.
Dieppe has become a footnote, even forgotten chapter of the Second World War, so thanks for taking the time to post.
I hope mine will not be the only comment in response…
Truth be told I know little of the battle but the sacrifices of the Allies in that battle cannot be understated.
Never forget and God speed.
Lesson’s learned and what was to be a night time raid became a total screw up. Alot of high ranking members were removed from their command, others with Royal connections were moved and unfortunatly alot of Soldiers (front Line) paid the price.
I know about Dieppe. When the H2 channel runs documentaries on WWI and WWII, they go into a lot more detail about what happened than any history teacher I ever had. But after a while, everything becomes a footnote in history and the only way to keep events from becoming lost is to bring them up. This kind of research keeps these things from disappearing.