At dawn, on August 19th, 1942, nearly 250 Allied vessels, containing just over 6000 mostly Canadian troops sat in the English Channel. Their goal? Capture Dieppe, a small German occupied resort town in France, hold it for twelve hours and back down with German prisoners and information about their defenses. Little did they know that within twelve hours, over 3600 of them would be killed, captured as prisoners of war, or wounded. That tragic day was one of the Allies’ worst losses in World War II, but many lessons were learned that day that would eventually lead the Allies to victory on the beaches of Normandy in 1945. However, one may wonder, was the reward really worth the cost? First off, why did the Dieppe Raid happen, and was it really
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Many troops got lost or were late, similar to prior rehearsals of Operation Rutter. The first, on June 12th, 1942, ended disastrously with many of the soldiers getting lost, arriving late and even landing on the wrong beaches. The second rehearsal, on June 23rd, fared slightly better, however, some of the troops still arrived late. One might wonder why, after seeing these disasters, Operation Jubilee was allowed to continue.
Lastly, many errors were made during planning, such as making the plans to complex and unadaptable. Accordingly, when some of the troops arrived late, this caused a substantial setback. Another mistake that was made was eliminating heavy advance bombing, as mentioned earlier, which resulted in the defenses remaining strong throughout the battle.
Not everything, however, turned out awfully for the Allies at Dieppe. They learned several lessons that are believed by many to have greatly supported their invasion and victory on D-day. The Allied forces gained crucial information about the German’s defenses, as well as the need for overwhelming fire support at the initial part of the attack. In addition, they refined their amphibious landing techniques, which, they learned, require air
Many troops got lost or were late, similar to prior rehearsals of Operation Rutter. The first, on June 12th, 1942, ended disastrously with many of the soldiers getting lost, arriving late and even landing on the wrong beaches. The second rehearsal, on June 23rd, fared slightly better, however, some of the troops still arrived late. One might wonder why, after seeing these disasters, Operation Jubilee was allowed to continue.
Lastly, many errors were made during planning, such as making the plans to complex and unadaptable. Accordingly, when some of the troops arrived late, this caused a substantial setback. Another mistake that was made was eliminating heavy advance bombing, as mentioned earlier, which resulted in the defenses remaining strong throughout the battle.
Not everything, however, turned out awfully for the Allies at Dieppe. They learned several lessons that are believed by many to have greatly supported their invasion and victory on D-day. The Allied forces gained crucial information about the German’s defenses, as well as the need for overwhelming fire support at the initial part of the attack. In addition, they refined their amphibious landing techniques, which, they learned, require air