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The Dieppe Raid, officially called “Operation Jubilee“ on August 19th, 1942, was an amphibious landing on the important port city of Dieppe in northern German-occupied France. It was the first time the western Allies attempted a landing in Western Europe during WWII. 10,500 Allied soldiers, the majority of them Canadians from the 2nd Infantry Division and the 14th Canadian Tank Regiment landed at Dieppe. Included in this force were four British commando units and also 50 US Army Rangers which were attached to various British units. Their task was to capture the city and hold it for a short time, testing the German response and destroying important facilites in the harbor and the city. However, the attack failed. German forces, the 302nd Static Division, around 1,500 men with coastal artillery support, were able to defend their landing zones and deny the Allied forces to move further inland. The Allies allocated 50 of their new Churchill tanks to this landing operation, but only 29 tried to eventually land, of these, two drowned and the 27 that made it to the shore were either destroyed or got stuck in the soft ground and were abandoned. The Allied troops landed at around 5:00 am, but began retreating shortly before 10am and completed their withdrawal at 2pm. Allied losses were heavy, 1,182 men were killed and 1,946 captured, 100 planes were shot down and 33 landing crafts and a destroyer were sunk. The Germans only lost 311 men and 48 planes; one submarine chaser was sunk. While the attack itself was largely a failure, and only one commando unit was able to fullfill its target (No.4 destroyed a German battery of six 150mm guns and retreated according to plan at 7:30am), the Allies learned valuable lessons about how to conduct amphibious landing operations, these lessons were important for the landings in Normandy two years later. The failed raid was featured heavily in German propaganda, with Allied losses being exagerated. This is an excerpt of German Newsweek No. 625 from August 1942, showing German footage about the event. - Subtitles made by me.
