In the early morning of August 19, 1942, 6,000 soldiers, including around 5,000 Canadians, landed on the beaches of Dieppe, Normandy. They took part in Operation Jubilee, the first major operation entrusted to Canadian soldiers during World War II. However, this ended in bitter failure and numerous human losses. To this day, the motives for this failed attack have not been clearly clarified…

The operation, which was particularly aimed at destroying Nazi weapons and obtaining information about the enemy’s defenses, was in serious jeopardy from the start. The surprise effect of the attack was destroyed around 4 a.m. after Allied boats encountered a German convoy in the waters of the English Channel. The Nazi troops are alerted and eagerly await the Allied soldiers.

After just nine hours of fighting, the toll for the Canadians was overwhelming: 907 soldiers were killed, nearly 2,000 were captured and several hundred were wounded. The Dieppe Raid was a massacre and, as historian Béatrice Richard, who has written a book on the subject, points out, remains “a painful symbol in Canadian collective memory.”

For many French Canadians at the time, most of whom were opposed to participating in this global conflict, the Canadians sent to Dieppe served as cannon fodder for the British Empire. What exactly is it and what explains the extent of this bitter failure?

A poorly prepared attack

According to the official version, supported by some historians but refuted by others, Operation Jubilee was necessary and provided valuable lessons to the Allies. It would have shown, particularly for the subsequent landings, the importance of supporting the infantry with artillery and sustained bombardment from naval and air forces, which was missing at Dieppe. This version makes it possible to justify the sacrifices of soldiers killed in battle.

However, without diminishing the courage of the soldiers, several experts agree that the raid on Dieppe planned by the British General Staff under the direction of Lord Mountbatten was poorly prepared and that the significant risks of the operation were known. Even if the element of surprise had worked, there is no indication that the British Jubilee plan would have been successful. Why did you trigger the operation?

Prisoners are escorted through the streets of Dieppe under the eyes of the Germans. In total, almost 2,000 Canadian soldiers were taken prisoner.

Photo provided by Library and Archives Canada

Military or political motives?

A recent hypothesis put forward by historian David O’Keefe suggests that the raid was the subject of a secret British mission to steal encryption data from the Germans, but that mission would have failed.

However, there were other reasons for the raid that may help explain its failure. Let us not forget that war is above all a political matter to which soldiers are dutifully subject. However, Winston Churchill was under considerable pressure from Stalin to open a second front against the Wehrmacht in order to give the Soviet ally’s troops a breathing space. Since the summer of 1941, soldiers of the USSR faced the German army on the Eastern Front. Operation “Jubiläum” therefore made it possible to direct the attention of Hitler’s troops westwards and towards the army. Soviet, to breathe a little.

Canadian soldiers, who until then had taken little part in this conflict, were assigned to carry out their war effort in Dieppe… with the unfortunate result we know of.