World War II: Dieppe Raid Fails!

August 19, 1942 - Allied efforts to raid Dieppe, France (right) fail completely. The brainchild of the British Chief of Combined Operations, Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Dieppe Raid was intended to seize the French port for a short period to capture prisoners and assess how the Germans would respond to an Allied landing. Operating outside of the normal command structure, Mountbatten moved forward with the raid and centered the landing force on the 2nd Canadian Division. The plan called for commandos to land east and west of Dieppe to neutralize German artillery positions while other infantry landed closer to the city. Once these flank attacks had taken the Germans by surprise, the main assault would be launched against the city's beach. Commencing on the night of August 18/19, 1943, the raid got off to a poor start when landing craft carrying the eastern commando force encountered a German convoy. Scattered after a brief fight, only a few of the commandos made it ashore. To the west, a No. 4 Commando, led by Lord Lovat, landed and quickly achieved its goals - the only group to do so during the raid. Shortly thereafter, Canadian troops landed at Pourville and were able to move inland before being stopped. The other flank attack, at Puys, proved a disaster when Canadian and Scottish troops were decimated on the landing beach. Thirty minutes later, the main assault landed at Dieppe. Coming ashore, Allied troops encountered intense German fire and were quickly pinned down. While a few were able to make it off the beach, they were quickly contained. By 10:50 AM, the order was given to withdraw from the beaches. This proved difficult due to German fire and less than half of the landing force was successfully evacuated.

Photograph Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada / C-014160