Dieppe  The objective of the attack was to hold the town long enough to destroy its harbour installations  The raid was a test run for the eventual invasion of Europe, but it was doomed from the start

A series of unfortunate events…  A chance encounter with a German convoy  The noise warned of the pending raid  The encounter set back the timing of the attack  By the time the forces hit the beach they had lost their two main strategic advantages: surprise and darkness

Losses  882 Canadians were killed, 587 were wounded, 1873 were taken prisoner, and only 2210 returned to England

What we learned  The first major battle for Canadians on the Western Front was a disaster  However, they learned some valuable lessons:  Changed their military strategy by launching a massive aerial strike ahead of an invasion  Push back full-scale invasion until 1944, so they they could build up their forces

Battle of Ortona  Battle took place in an ancient town called Ortona, its narrow, twisting streets made it impossible to use tanks  Canadians had to take the town house by house, street by street, using a technique called “mouseholing”

Ortona  Mouseholing - soldier blasted a hole in the outside wall of a house at the end of a street  Then they threw in grenades to clear the room before charging inside and clearing the house  They would then blast a hole in the wall to the adjoining house.

Ortona  2 days after Christmas the Canadians were able to drive the Germans out of Ortona  The techniques the Canadians used at Ortona became the model for urban warfare for the duration of the war  The fighting in Italy continued until 1944, when the Allies finally gained control of Rome

Operation Overlord  In June 1944, the Allies launched their invasion of Europe  Almost 1 million British, Canadian and American troops crossed the English Channel to storm the beaches of France

D-Day  On June 6, 1944 the D- Day invasion began  Americans took Omaha and Utah beaches  British took Gold and Sword beaches  Canadians took Juno beach

Plan of Attack  Paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines to capture and secure roads and bridges  2000 bombers began pounding German defenses in preparation for Allied troops to storm the beaches  Allied troops storm the beaches

The Result  By the end of the first day Canadians had secured Juno Beach – the only Allied force to achieve its goal  By the end of the first week 300,000 Allied soldiers had landed on the beaches  The Germans were forced to retreat. Yet they would continue to put up a fierce resistance for another year