Operation Jubilee

[davew]

This is the 70th anniversary of the raid on Dieppe.  My dad lost a lot of friends there.
For those with an interest in history read on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieppe_Raid

[billg]

Thanks for posting this, Dave. Let's hope their misfortune did indeed provide lessons learned. thanks for your dad's service.

[davew]

Sorry to mislead you BillG.
My dad and a bunch of friends tried to enlist in 1939, he was not accepted because of a metal plate in his elbow from  a farm accident.
All the friends he went with were killed at Dieppe.
If not for the broken arm I might never have been born to post this.
Sorry for the clumsy choice of words.

[Didiki]

Hey Dave.

What did your Dad think of the Dieppe raid??

From what I've heard from vets and read about, it seems to have been an unmitigated disaster, poorly planned and executed.  Resulting in 60% Canadian casualties either killed, wounded or captured.  That was over 3,000 men sacrificed.

_______
Dick

[davew]

he was disgusted once he found out the truth of the losses and the futility of the raid
the poor planning of Mountbatten was disgraceful
not alot of mourning in our house when the IRA blew him up on his yacht

[billg]

No problem Dave. Was my assumption. But he volunteered. That says a lot to me. He just served in a different manner. 

The mission planning sounded atrocious. I'm sure there was a bit of survivors remorse on his part.

[Maggie]

Thanks for the interesting read, Dave. 

[Didiki]

Posted by: davew
he was disgusted once he found out the truth of the losses and the futility of the raid
the poor planning of Mountbatten was disgraceful
not alot of mourning in our house when the IRA blew him up on his yacht

Exactly what I've heard of and read.
Because Mountbatten was the King's cousin it was all hushed up, and then Churchill sent him as far away as he could to Burma.

My Dad's next door neighbour was a "Chindit" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chindits
a British Commando who used to parachute behind Japanese lines in SE Asia and do all kinds of sabotage and mayhem to the Japanese.  He was a Captain with over 100 jumps and raids.  He had nothing but scorn for Mountbatten, and when they heard that Mountbatten had been posted to Burma they all groaned, and there was even talk of offing ( now called fragging) Mountbatten if he was ever put in as Commander in Chief of the Chindits.  He wasn't.

It finally all comes out in the wash.

_______
Dick

[davew]

there was a show on the History channel about the raid where they dreamed up new ideas about how valuable the information gained was when planning Overlord
I wasn't born then and I could have told them that it is a bad idea to make an armed landing against a fortified port.

[Didiki]

Dave

Is this the History channel show you were talking about?

http://www.history.ca/ontv/titledetails.aspx?titleid=274917

Now they're saying that the Dieppe raid was a diversion so that a group of English commandos could get into Dieppe to steal an ENIGMA machine.  All proposed and executed by Ian Fleming, author of James Bond.

That's pretty hard to digest.  Sacrificing over 3000 men and a huge amount of materiel to pinch (steal) a machine.

A covert small undercover raid, even done with the assistance of the French underground could probably have done a better job.

_______
Dick

[davew]

that's the one
enough to make you puke
don't know if that is nasty enough but the loss of life was atrocious and they got an Enigma from a sub, not sure when
those troops would have been handy for North Africa, Sicily or Italy later on.