Dieppe

Dieppe. World War II. , Canada Goes Into Combat , By 1942, war had been raging for almost three years and Britain was the last Allied hold-out left by Western Europe. The Allied Forces planned to launch a raid to test German coastal defenses for a future assault. The Second Canadian Infantry, who had been training for two years in Britain, were selected for this raid in order to gain combat experience. , Quick “In-and-Out” Raid , The attack on Dieppe (code named 'Operation Jubilee') on August 19th 1942, was supposed to be a quick “in-and-out” raid. Almost 5,000 Canadians, 1,000 British commandos and 50 American Army Rangers would land at five different points along a 16 kilometre-long stretch of heavily defended coastline. But the overly complex plan resulted in insufficient aircraft and artillery support mixed with inexperienced troops. It was a disaster. , Tragic Outcome , The landing parties were met with a hail of German bullets and shellfire. The Allies suffered a record number of 900 Canadian deaths in a single day and the largest group (over 1900) taken prisoner in Canadian war history. It was also the Allies' worst single day losses for aircraft of the entire Second World War, with 119 warplanes shot down. The day ended as one of the worst military operations in Canadian history. , Prisoners of War , In many camps, German forces lived up to Geneva Conventions, allowing Red Cross parcels to come through. But in others, prisoners endured hard labour. Almost three years later, as the end of the war neared, those prisoners endured forced wintertime marches away from the advancing Allied forces who otherwise could have liberated them. Many captive soldiers perished along the way, victims of illness and frostbite. , Hard Lessons , Hard lessons had been learned at Dieppe. It was the first time the Allies had transported and landed tanks by sea, something that was later used extensively on D-Day. There were also improvements in communications, supply lines, intelligence, landing craft, armoured vehicles, and techniques to eliminate anti-tank obstacles.