19 August in military history: the Dieppe Raid, 1942

19 August 1942 · 84 years ago

A raid instead of a second front

In 1942 the Soviet Union, fighting the German invasion, pressed its allies to open a second front in western Europe. Britain could not yet invade, and its Combined Operations Headquarters planned large raids instead. The raid on Dieppe, on 19 August 1942, was to test whether a defended port could be seized from the sea, and to gain experience and try out the equipment that a full-scale invasion would need. Canadian generals wanted battle experience for troops who had spent years training in Britain. The operation's code name was Jubilee.¹

Stacey, the Canadian Army's official historian, counts about 6,100 soldiers embarked: 4,963 Canadians, about 1,075 British, some 50 United States Rangers and 15 Frenchmen. The Juno Beach Centre gives the same Canadian, American and French figures but 1,005 British commandos, and Veterans Affairs Canada also gives 4,963 Canadians. Major General J. H. Roberts of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division commanded the troops from the destroyer HMS Calpe, alongside the naval force commander, Captain John Hughes-Hallett.²

Batteries and the beach at Puys

The flanks were to be attacked at dawn and the town from the front half an hour later. About an hour before the first landings, the craft carrying No. 3 Commando to the battery at Berneval ran into a small German convoy and were scattered, and only seven of the 23 reached the shore. One boatload of three officers and 17 men landed unseen, climbed a gully and sniped at the battery for about an hour and a half, keeping it from firing on the ships. On the western flank No. 4 Commando destroyed the six 15-centimeter guns of the battery near Varengeville and withdrew. There Captain Patrick Porteous, wounded, took over a troop that had lost its officers and led it in the final charge. His Victoria Cross citation records: "Though shot through the thigh he continued to the final objective where he eventually collapsed from loss of blood after the last of the guns had been destroyed".³

At Puys, east of Dieppe, the Royal Regiment of Canada landed late, after the darkness and the smoke screen that were to cover it had gone. The men were pinned against a sea wall under fire from the cliffs, and the survivors surrendered a few hours later. Stacey counts 227 fatal casualties among the 554 men of the regiment who embarked, and only two officers and 65 men back in England. The Juno Beach Centre gives 556 who sailed, more than 200 killed and 264 captured. Veterans Affairs Canada calls the losses at Puys the heaviest toll suffered by a Canadian battalion in a single day of the war.⁴

Pourville and the main beaches

At Pourville, west of Dieppe, the South Saskatchewan Regiment landed almost on time and took the Germans by surprise, but most of it came ashore west of the River Scie and had to cross the only bridge to reach its objectives on the heights. Lieutenant Colonel Cecil Merritt led party after party across the bridge under fire. His Victoria Cross citation says that, "waving his helmet, Lieutenant-Colonel Merritt rushed forward shouting 'Come on over! There's nothing to worry about here'". In Stacey's account the call ends "there's nothing to it". The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada, landing behind them, pushed inland toward Petit Appeville before they too had to fall back. Twice wounded, Merritt organized the rearguard that covered the withdrawal from the beach. Veterans Affairs Canada records that he and his men became prisoners.⁵

In front of the town the Essex Scottish and the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry landed just after a cannon attack by Hurricane fighters, but the first tanks of the Calgary Regiment came in late. Meanwhile the defenders recovered and pinned the infantry down before it could get through the wire and over the sea wall. Of the 29 tanks that left their landing craft, two drowned and 15 crossed the sea wall, but concrete roadblocks kept every one of them out of the town. Stuck on the shingle or disabled, they kept firing in support of the infantry. Misled by a garbled message that the Essex Scottish had got into the town, Roberts sent in his reserve, Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal, at 7 a.m. in 26 landing craft; they were hit before they touched down and then pinned on the beach.⁶

Withdrawal under fire

By 9 a.m. it was clear that the Germans still held both headlands, and the withdrawal was set for 11. At about 12:20 the beaches in front of the town could no longer be reached. At 12:48 Calpe ran in close to the shore in a last attempt. Stacey quotes a signal received soon after one o'clock from Brigadier Southam's headquarters on the beach: "Our people here have surrendered". By early afternoon the operation was over.⁷

Honorary Captain John Weir Foote, chaplain of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, had spent the day carrying wounded men to the aid post under fire. His Victoria Cross citation, published in 1946, says: "He refused a final opportunity to leave the shore, choosing to suffer the fate of the men he had ministered to for over three years". Stacey and Veterans Affairs Canada note that he was the first Canadian chaplain to receive the Victoria Cross.⁸

The cost

Stacey and Veterans Affairs Canada both put Canadian casualties at 3,367, a figure that counts the killed, the wounded and the prisoners together. Both count 1,946 prisoners of war; Stacey adds that at least 568 of them were wounded. Stacey gives the Canadian fatal casualties as 56 officers and 851 other ranks, including 7 officers and 65 men who died in captivity, and his table lists 47 officers and 760 other ranks killed in action. Veterans Affairs Canada gives 916 Canadian dead. Of the 4,963 Canadians who embarked, Veterans Affairs Canada counts 2,210 who returned to England; Stacey's text gives 2,211 and adds that nearly 1,000 of them had probably never landed.⁹

According to Stacey, the German 302nd Infantry Division reported 5 officers and 116 other ranks killed. Stacey puts the loss of the Allied squadrons at 106 aircraft, the Royal Air Force's heaviest loss in the air in a single day of the whole war; Veterans Affairs Canada gives the same 106 as Royal Air Force losses, the highest single-day total of the war.¹⁰

What Dieppe taught

On 8 September Churchill told the House of Commons that the military credit "for this most gallant affair goes to the Canadian troops, who formed five-sixths of the assaulting force", and that "The raid must be considered as a reconnaissance in force". The Juno Beach Centre calls the raid a pathetic failure, but one that gave the Allies knowledge they lacked.¹¹

The lessons drawn afterward included the need for heavy fire support from ships, aircraft and craft close inshore during the first stages of a landing, and for far better communications. After Dieppe the idea of opening an invasion by capturing a defended port was dropped. Stacey writes that British planners were forced to look more closely at supplying a great invasion over open beaches, and that one answer was the prefabricated "Mulberry" harbor. How the landings went in 1944 is told in our article on the Battle of Normandy.¹²