Waves of men were wiped out on narrow beaches when the defences had not been destroyed. Tanks floundered on pebble beaches, with no clear plan what to do once inland. The Commando side of operations went well, but it was not enough to achieve victory and the loss of more nearly 3, men meant that any lessons learned were paid for by a very high price.
The Canadian tragedy at Dieppe was one reason why Canadian forces were placed in the vanguard at D-Day, and symbolically Canadian troops finally liberated Dieppe in September The plan relied heavily on the element of surprise. However, this was foiled when the soldiers had been spotted earlier at 3. Despite this, Number 4 Commando managed to storm the Varengeville battery. This was to prove one of the only successful parts of the whole mission.
Lord Lovat and No. At around am the main assault began, with troops attacking the town and port of Dieppe. This was when the main catastrophic events began to unfold. However, they turned up late, leaving the two infantry regiments to attack without any armoured support.
This left them exposed to heavy machine gun fire from emplacements dug into a nearby cliff, which meant they were unable to overcome the seawall and other major obstacles. When the Canadian tanks did arrive, only 29 actually made it to the beach. Furthermore, two of the tanks sunk, leaving only 15 of them to attempt to get across the seawall and on towards the town. Due to many concrete obstacles in the narrow streets in the way, the tanks never made it that far and were forced to return to the beach.
All of the crews that landed were effectively sitting ducks, and were either killed or captured by the enemy. Canadian Major General Roberts was unable to see what was happening on the beach due to the smoke screen that had been set by ships to aid the mission. The August 19th, , raid was to answer all those questions. Dieppe was a seaside resort in Normandy, built along a long cliff that overlooked the Channel. The cliffs are cut by gaps through which the Scie and Arques rivers flow to the sea.
The city boasted a medium-sized harbour that carried a special significance for French Canadians as it was a departure point for ships sailing off to New France. In , the casino on the boardwalk had been partially demolished by the Germans to facilitate the defence of the coast. They had set up two large artillery batteries in Berneval and Varengeville.
The raid was to unfold in two phases rapidly following one another. During the first phase, assault troops were to approach from the flanks and launch a surprise attack at daybreak, the main goal of which being to neutralize the artillery positions at Berneval and Varengeville. Half an hour later a second, frontal assault was to be conducted against Dieppe itself, to capture the harbour and the German landing barges that were moored there. Once other targets further inland had been reached, Allied troops were to withdraw to the beach and board the ships waiting for them.
The operation was only a raid: the attackers were to destroy several German installations and leave immediately. The timing depended strictly on sunrise and troops had to retreat before the high tide. In order to benefit from the surprise element, there would be no air bombings the night before.
Crerar , commander of I Canadian Corps eagerly accepted this opportunity for Canadian soldiers to get some combat experience as they had been stationed in Great Britain for two years without having ever engaged the enemy in a major operation. In Canada, public opinion was starting to question this inactivity: the time was ripe and Canadians soldiers were roaring to go and make a name for themselves like their predecessors of WWI did.
Major-General J. Roberts , commander of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, was at the helm of the land forces. But neither Roberts, nor McNaughton, nor Crerar took any part in the overall planning of the operation, codenamed Jubilee , having assisted only with details.
On August 19th, , the ground forces that were taking part in the raid included 4, men and officers from the 2nd Canadian Division, 1, British commandos, 50 US rangers and 15 Frenchmen. A fleet of ships and landing barges, including 6 destroyers, brought them near the seashore.
Although some questioned the very concept of a full frontal assault on a fortified position, the British and Canadian strategists were in agreement with the military doctrines that prevailed at the time and success was likely. Canadian Army units in the Dieppe raid. Part of the assault fleet gathered for Operation Jubilee. The raid was off to a great start on the west flank: No 4 British Commando landed in Varengeville. Climbing up the steep slope, it attacked and neutralized its target, a battery of six cm guns.
The commando then withdrew at as planned. At the same time, a little further left, the South Saskatchewan Regiment was headed towards Pourville, some four kilometres west of Dieppe.
The LCA reached the pebble beach at , almost on time. The surprise was real and the soldiers managed to leave the landing crafts before the enemy could fire. Unfortunately the landing crafts had somewhat drifted and most soldiers of the battalion found themselves west of the Scie River rather than east of it.
Because of that apparently minor mistake, the regiment, whose objective was the hills east of the village, had to enter Pourville to cross the river on the only bridge. Before the Canadians had a chance to reach that bridge, the Germans were in position, blocking their progression with a wall of machine-gun and antitank artillery fire. Dead and wounded soldiers piled up on the bridge. The South Saskatchewans and the Cameron Highlanders of Canada, who joined them soon, were unable to reach their target.
Landing crafts of the assault troops taking part in Operation Jubilee, Dieppe, August 19th, On the left, a smoke screen produced to conceal them from enemy fire.
Close by, other troops from the Cameron, under Major A. Law, moved inland towards Petit Abbeville. Cut off from their battalion, they were forced to retreat and be evacuated. Merritt was awarded the Victoria Cross. The situation on the left flank proved to be a disaster even before the first landing.
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