Day 9 - Dieppe: Full Pictures

Day 9 - Sept 4, 2017:  Dieppe

Dieppe
We boarded the ferry at Newhaven and took it to Dieppe - the same path that the boys took on that fateful morning of 19 August 1942. On that day 6100 infantry, airmen and sailors from 10 different countries set out in Operation Jubilee - only 2200 returned. 5000 of those involved were Canadians from the 2nd Division and the Calgary Tanks. The German's had suspected an impending attack and once alerted they were able to deploy very quickly and effectively. Those that made it to the beaches were stalled by barbed wire, tank obstacles, but moreover the rocky beach. The men and the tanks could not get any traction. The German soldiers, situated on the high ground and in buildings on the beach, had a clear view of the advancing Canadians and were able to mow them down with relative ease. The Operation became a debacle and our men were slaughtered on the beach.



Of the 5000 Canadians involved, 2200 became causalities - 907 were killed, the rest wounded or taken prisoner spending the next three years in Lamsdorf Stalag VIII in Poland
We went to the very beach where the events unfolded. As the waves rolled out you could hear the rocks rolling with the water polishing themselves On one another to a smooth roundness. It was eerie and extremely powerful. Bill and I had difficulty climbing up the rocky beach and we didn't have sixty pounds of equipment, mass chaos and panic, our fellow soldiers lying dead or wounded around us, bullets ripping by us, ...any of that.




Dieppe War Cemetery
The Dieppe War Cemetery is very moving. All these men laid to rest with the day 19 August 1944 engraved on the headstone. 



One grave marker had the names of two young brothers from the Royal Regiment of Canada on it. I can't imagine the grief that their parents went through. aside from what the men experienced you can read the pain and sorrow that comes with the deaths just as you can with all the headstones.



Comments

  1. M Battocletti6 September 2017 at 19:35

    The emptiness they must have felt would have been devastating.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown7 September 2017 at 14:20

      I can't even imagine. The only solace they could find perhaps is knowing the two brothers were buried together,,,

      Delete

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