The suicide raid : the Canadians at Dieppe, August 19th, 1942

In the early morning of Wednesday, August 19th, 1942, a 200 vessel convoy containing 5,000 Canadian troops approached the French port of Dieppe. In the next few hours the Canadian force would be destroyed. The bodies of more than 900 Canadian men would be scattered along the water front and their vessels and equipment left burning and smouldering on the blood-stained beaches. The Dieppe Raid is one of the most bitter and controversial episodes in Canadian history. That it is Canadas worst military disaster is beyond doubt. But what makes the sacrifice more painful is the lingering question - was it worth it? Were the «lessons» learned from the failure of the Dieppe Raid critical to the Allied victories later in the war or were the important «lessons» strictly a cover-up by the Generals of a poorly planned and poorly executed operation?