Dieppe Anniversary

On this day in 1942, the allies returned to the continent. It was a bloody shambles, from start to finish. The (mostly) Canadian troops were landed, in daylight, on a heavily fortified shore with minimal sea bombardment (to avoid alienating the local French population). Of every ten Canadians who landed on the "beach" at Dieppe, only three came back to England. The rest were killed or captured by the Germans.

It is possible to see positive results from the attack only by taking the very long view: D-Day was far less bloody because of the lessons learned in Operation Jubilee, but that was small consolation to the men who had to go and pay the price for those expensive lessons. There were two Victoria Crosses awarded to Canadians (Lt. Col. C. Merritt, C.O., South Saskatchewan Regiment and Capt. John Foote, Chaplain, RHLI) and another to Capt. Pat Porteous of the Royal Artillery, on detachment to 4 Royal Marine Commando. Porteous is one of my family names, although I'm not aware of a direct relationship to the Captain.