Dieppe?

I really havn't studied this battle much. But all i know is that a relatively small force of canadien troops landed at Dieppe, France and was big enough for the germans to want to repel them completly and were to small to hold a beachhead or gain ground.
I saw a movie on it and the whole thing seemed rather dumb.
Was it to appease Stalin? What was it for?
For all of Churchill's worryings over an invasion...it surprises me that something like this even took place...made no sense?

 

Dieppe = Useless wasre of Canadian troops by apathetic/incompent British commanders.

(the canadians suffered over 75% casualties for nothing)

 

Agreed. Reminiscent of Gallipoli.

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"They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet or fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason."

 

but does anybody know the reasons why Dieppe occured?...they HAD to have a reason?!...at least i hope they did!

 

Dieppe was an Allied attempt at seeing what an invasion was like. It was basically just a trial by error and a learning tool in the event the allies did a larger scale invasion i.e. D-Day, June 6th 1944.

IT was mainly a Canadian operation but did enclude some US Rangers including W.O. Darby, soon to be CO of Darby's Rangers. There were also a few British troops, French, and I think Polish troops involved.

I do not remember if the raid was to involve doing much more than that. I think they also used it for an intelligence type of mission. Someone let me know if I am wrong please.

 

Unfortunately for the Canadians, everything I have read points to that same fact, they were used to probe the coastal defenses to see how the Germans would react. Dieppe may be seen as an Allied setback but in reality it lead to the successful planning and implementation of Overlord. My dos centavos worth.

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"They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet or fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason."

 

So basiclly dieppe was a trial version of D-day. DAMN what a waste! There HAD to be some sort of main military objective other than just seeing what kind of force an invasion would get etc.? Like the units involved must have had objectives of some sort?

 

Thats correct, a trial D-Day invasion, shameful waste of good Canadian soldiers.

 

As far as I can remember, I think their main mission was the "testing" and maybe intelligence. I will try to read up on it when I finish moving.

 

wow how demoralizing if they knew all they were, after all there training, were guinnie pigs.

 

I agree, it was a shameful waste of some fine soldiers. The only good to come out of it was what the Allies did learn so they could emply it later--still though, a shamful waste.

 

Wasn't the Dieppe operation also an attempt to sieze components of the German coastal air defence radar statione nearby?
I may be confusing this with some other, smaller scale commando operation...

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Novus Ordo Seclorum

 

Come to think of it, I think you are correct. Im not up-to-date on the Dieppe landings since I specialize in the Eastern Front.

 

Well, Otto old boy, that's your British Empire for you...
There was an old American TV or film series called "Victory At Sea", in which Britain in 1940 was portrayed as "...The last bastion of freedom in Europe, satnding alone against the nazi tyranny..."
Now I realise this was a very propoganda- laden program, but I had to snicker at the thought of this world-spanning empire which had subjugated millions of people in its own history portrayed as a "bastion of freedom".
Also a nation which basically press-ganged its colonial troops into the fight against Germany...
Granted, it was a battle which needed winning, but the semantics of the thing always gave me pause...

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Novus Ordo Seclorum

 

Kind of like how the US press-gangs foreign children into textile factories all over the 3rd worl to make $$$$? Unfortunately, war calls for extreme measures, peactime abuse is bullshit!

 

A big shame on the Brits for wasting Canadians,Australians, New Zealanders, Indians (Ghurkas) South Africans-etc etc. I have always been ticked off about the raid too. I think the Brit govt should apoligise for what happened. Too bad the force was'nt like the 1st Special Services Brigade, made up of Canadians and Americans which did succeed in their mission.

 

Does anyone know how many were killed or taken prisoner? What did they really manage to accomplish by this raid/invasion?

 

Don't know about the Killed/captured count, but I believe they DID manage to get the Freya or Wurtzburg radar equipment they were attempting to swipe...
The worst of it is, I don't know whether or not the whole thing was to find out what length of "window" anti-radar chaff to use or to find out if the German radar was better than the British, which it apparently wasn't....

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Novus Ordo Seclorum

 

glad to know that they werent completly wasted for nothing. Still though, was it worth it?