Green Beach

White Beach

Red Beach

Blue Beach

It had been a massacre that day of August 19, 1942. The Canadians had scrambled from their ungainly landing craft directly into a storm of fire from the German positions dominating the beaches of Dieppe. There had been almost no preliminary naval bombardment to support the attackers nor much preliminary bombing to soften the Dieppe defenses.

The Churchill tanks, struggling ashore with enormous difficulty, had found that their treads could not get purchase on the stony shingle. The 27 tanks that made it out of the water could fire their guns but, unable to move well, they could offer only limited fire support to the infantry.

Dieppe Landings Map

Worse was to come as military commanders, offshore and insulated from the chaos by faulty communications and the heavy smoke of battle, reinforced failure, sending new battalions from the floating reserve to be cut to pieces on the beaches. A disaster to Canadian arms and Allied hopes. The Canadians of the 2nd Division had absorbed 68% casualties in the battle for Dieppe - 3367 out of 4963 officers and men. 907 were killed on the beaches or died in captivity, 586 were wounded, and 1946, including many wounded, were taken prisoner by the victorious Germans.   

The defenses of Fortress Europe had been tested in the largest European landing operation since Britain had been driven from the continent at Dunkirk - and the defenses proved unbreachable. In England, nervous war planners knew that the Allies had suffered a serious beating. Seizing a fortified port, seemingly a requirement for a successful invasion, had become the most difficult of tasks.