Drapeaux canadien, français et anglais flottant autour d'une stèle commémorative, plage et falaises en arrière-plan

Operation Jubilee

Canadian sacrifice

The Dieppe Raid

In August 1942, Dieppe and its neighboring coastal towns were the scene of one of the most tragic episodes of the^2nd World War. Little remembered in history books, Operation Jubilee forever linked Dieppe residents to their Canadian brothers.

Une passante regarde la stèle en pierre grise, mer et galets en arrière-plan

A military fiasco

On the night of August 19, 1942, 6,000 soldiers, including 5,000 Canadians and 1,000 British (including 50 American rangers and 15 Free French commandos) on 150 ships set sail for Dieppe. Their mission? Destroy the coastal defenses and some strategic infrastructures. The plan? Attack at night.

But the element of surprise was lost when one of the groups came up against a small German convoy coming down from the North Sea. The assault was delayed and it was at dawn that the troops landed on a 20 km front consisting of 5 beaches: Berneval, Puys, Dieppe, Pourville and Varengeville.

Heavy losses

The German soldiers are ready and strategically perched on the cliffs to defend their positions. What follows is an extremely violent and chaotic episode. The Germans launched non-stop salvos of fire, supported by bombardments from their air force. The Allies were caught in a veritable vice. The Churchill tanks provided for the operation were of little help to the Allied soldiers: most of them got bogged down. They got no further than the beach.

The Allies fought bravely, but were forced to surrender a few hours later. Only a few survivors made it back to the UK, while 2,000 Allied soldiers were taken prisoner. 1200 men lost their lives. 46 civilians also perished in the attack.

Une dame âgée lit le texte d'une stèle en marbre noir, mer et galets en arrière-plan

Promise kept

On September¹, Canadian soldiers swore they would return to liberate Dieppe, to the cheers of the Dieppe population. It was the 2nd Canadian Division, who had suffered so much on that August morning in 1942, who had the honour of entering the town first, symbolically taking their revenge.

Several decades later, in 2001, the small Italian-style theater that witnessed the fighting and in which Canadian soldiers had taken refuge, became a place of remembrance of the raid.

Façade jaune du Mémorial du 19 août 1942, situé dans l'ancien théâtre à l'italenne, château en arrière-plan

VisitThe August 19, 1942 Memorial

Run by a team of volunteers, with the support of the town council, this site has a real aura about it, and is a must-see for anyone interested in remembrance tourism in Dieppe.

From the film showing the operation and eyewitness accounts, to the moving “Faces of Memory”, portraits of veterans adorning the old stage, and the “Wall of the Missing” listing the names of the 1,197 victims, you won’t come away from this memorial unscathed.

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A duty to remember

The Vertus cemetery was created by the Germans because the Allies were forced to leave the bodies of fallen soldiers on the beaches. The headstones are positioned back-to-back, in double rows, in the German style. This is the only Allied cemetery to feature this particular feature.

Today, the Vertus cemetery is maintained by the Commonwealth. Every year, during the Raid commemorations, Dieppe and neighboring towns remember and honor these men who fell for their freedom.