Battle of Dieppe

Components of the battle of Dieppe The battle of dieppe was fought on the pebble beach in front of Dieppe. The German troops were sitting in buildings waiting for the Canadian troops to come along the road near the waterfront. There were 2 main flanks, the eastern, and the western flank. On the eastern flank, the assault force quickly had to change strategy when they ran into a German convoy. They lost the element of surprise and the Germans started manning their defences. One small group of men were able to get close enough to suppress the German guns while the Scottish evacuated their ships. On the western flank, their element of surprise worked better, they were able to get onto land successfully, and then move up to the German guns and take them out. They then left the area safely. While the Scottish regiment attacked the eastern side, the Germans were shooting down the beach to keep people from rushing it. Nobody could get over the sea wall, and at that point, if you tried, you would die. A small group of men was able to infiltrate the town, and a message was sent back to headquarters. The problem is, the message led them to believe that they had more people in the town, so to support them, they sent in the reserve batallion. When they got there, they were quickly met with gunfire that pinned them down. On the wester side of the promenade, they were able to clear a very strong, well held building. This allowed them to enter the town from the west. When they entered the town they had to get to cover quickly because there were Germans everywhere in the streets trying to kill them. They tried to get tanks onto the beach, but once they managed to get past the sea wall, there were concrete barriers that blocked the tanks from being able to get onto the street. During all of this, there was an air battle going on between the Germans and the Royal Air Force. The Royal Air Force ended up losing 106 planes while the royal Canadian airforce only lost 13 aircrafts.

  

Causes of the Battle of Dieppe Causes of the battle of Dieppe The 1942 Dieppe Raid, also known as Operation Jubilee, was basically initiated as a "trial and error" sort of battle, mainly to test out new equipment and gain experience and knowledge of Germany's battle tactics so they could have intel for the near future. Because almost all of continental Europe was under Germany's control the Allies were looking for a way to successfully get their forces into the heart of Europe. They planned this raid to test Germany's defences, but also had other objectives including trying to hold the area down although that had not been met.

Consequences of the battle of dieppe Statistically, the battle of Dieppe was a complete failure. The hopes of seizure of the town quickly and with minimal casualties was well planned, but the string of bad luck and difficult to attack German defences proved too much for the allied side. However, it cannot be said that the battle was a complete failure; Two main consequences resulted from this battle, the large amount of Canadian troop losses, and the Allies’ increased knowledge of German defences. First, 119 planes were lost by the RAF and RCAF, which was the largest amount lost in a single day of the war. This was coupled with the fact that almost 2,000 Canadians were taken prisoner of war, with another 916 losing their lives. This catastrophic loss of Canadian troops was a brutal reminder that even the most coordinated attacks can fail. The second major consequence of the Battle of Dieppe would have to be the Allies increased knowledge of Canadian strategies, and German defences. Both German gunners and Canadian soldiers movements were studied, and this knowledge was later used in the D-Day raids. Although the losses that were made during the battle of Dieppe were large, the tactics used later on helped minimize losses overall and saved numerous lives.

Canadas role in the battle of Dieppe Most of the attackers in the raid were Canadians, almost 5000 of the 6100 troops were Canadians, the rest of the troops were about 1000 British and 50 American rangers. Out of the 4963 Canadians who went into battle only 2210 returned to England

Map of the battle of dieppe