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The Dieppe Raid: The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition
The Dieppe Raid The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition Author:Robin Neillands The Dieppe Raid is one of World War II's most controversial episodes. In 1942, a full two years before D-Day, thousands of men, mostly Canadian troops eager for their first taste of battle, were sent across the Channel in a raid of the French port town of Dieppe. — Air supremacy was not secured; the topography --- a town hemmed in by tall cli... more »ffs and reached by steep beaches --- meant any invasions was improbable difficult. The result was carnage: the beaches were turned into killing grounds even as the men came ashore, and whole battalions were cut to pieces.
But why was the Raid ever launched? What was its strategic objective? Afterwards no one appeared to have a clear answer, and neither did it appear that anyone could be held clearly accountable, but posterity has been hard on individuals like Mountbatten, who were instrumental in its planning and the decision to go. Was the whole thing, as has been darkly alleged, expected and even intended to fail, a cynical conspiracy to prove to the Americans, at the expense of so many Canadian lives, the impracticability of staging the Normandy landing for another two years.« less