August 19th, 1942, a date not too many Canadians remember. But on this date in history the Canadian military lost in a mere nine hours, over nine hundred soldiers killed, a total of 3,367 casualties and 1,946 prisoners of war. The place - a small town on the north coast of France called Dieppe. How: they died trying to complete a one or two day raid on a Nazi occupied town on the French coast. Who: 1,000* British soldiers and airmen, 5,000* Canadian Soldiers and Airmen, and 50* American Rangers.
The Canadians had been just languishing around England for the past three years, training and resting and waiting to go to war, when the Allied high command had an idea. They thought it would be a good idea to make a raid on occupied France to help divert attention from the eastern front by making a feint at the western front with a small mobile force aimed at the town of Dieppe on the northern coast of France. The attack was also meant to give the planners of the D-Day invasion, invaluable information about how to go about and amphibious assault on a defended coastline. The attack was supposed to be at dawn one day in July, 1942, but due to harsh weather the plan was scrapped and most elements sent of to do other duties. The plan was later resurrected but without the parachute drop and heavy bombardment and artillery support.
The attack while it might of been admirable in it's intention, was ill planned and vulnerable from it's inception. It was meant to start at high tide just before dawn with total surprise. But as they neared the coast a German convoy spotted them and opened fire at them. The resultant noise and tracer fire alerted the shore batteries and when the ramps of the first ships to deploy the men opened on the beach - all hell broke loose. Things got no better after that. The tanks they brought with them became stuck on the loose shale beach and made perfect target practice for the German gunners. The cliffs along both sides of the beach made for near perfect conditions for defending a beach against a seaward assault. And the defenders of the town gave no ground. One small group of Canadians made it into the town itself but were soon defeated and captured or killed. After about three hours of extremely heavy fire and casualties the order was given to retreat. The return to the ships was as deadly as the trip to the shore and hundreds more were wounded or killed.
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