Operation “Jubilee”, better known as the ‘Dieppe Raid’, August 19, 1942: 79 years ago today.
The first troops landed at 0450hrs and by 1240hrs the guns fell silent. It was a disaster for the Allied soldiers: of the 6,000 men (5,000 Canadians, 1000 British, and 50 US Army Rangers) who took part in the landings, only around 1250 returned to England. The Royal Navy lost about 550 men and the RAF 67 pilots and 120 aircraft. In return, the latter claimed 91 kills and 44 probable, but German records show only 48 Luftwaffe aircraft lost to enemy action plus 24 others damaged. German losses amounted to around 600 men.
Despite being known as the Dieppe Raid, the landings took place not only in Dieppe but also at Puys, Pourville, Berneval, and Vasterival. Near Vasterival, 4. Commando managed to score the only success of the day: the destruction of the Hess Battery and its six 150 mm guns.
In the raid's aftermath, its supporters said that the sacrifice in human lives was not in vain and that the raid allowed for valuable lessons to be drawn and later used in the planning of D-Day, thus contributing to final victory. Its detractors called it murder and accused Churchill of willingly sacrificing Canadian lives just to show Stalin that the opening of a second front in the west was, at the time, impossible. Like all disasters, it is, at present, still a source of heated debate.
In this photo three bloodied and exhausted Canadian soldiers are escorted from the beach by German soldiers. Given the dark triangle on the upper arm of the man in the foreground, for the time being, I believe they were from the South Saskatchewan Regiment, 6th Brigade, which, together with the Cameron Highlanders of Canada, landed at Green Beach, in front of the small hamlet of Pourville. The German soldiers are most probably from the 1st Battalion, 571st Infantry Regiment.
