Disasterous Dieppe Raid 70 years ago example of Canadian courage under fire

There seem to be two narrative threads running through the history of Canadians at war.

One involves Canadian soldiers taking on seemingly insurmountable challenges and triumphing, such as the victory at Vimy Ridge in 1917, seen as a defining moment in the creation of Canada's identity.

The other involves under-appreciated Canadians being used as cannon fodder by their British superiors, as in any number of First World War campaigns, the brave but futile Battle of Hong Kong in 1941 and, of course, Dieppe.

These threads often intertwine, such as at Hong Kong, where units of under-trained Canadians held out for days against an onslaught of seasoned Japanese soldiers before being overwhelmed.

[ Related: Commemorative services mark 70th anniversary of Dieppe raid ]

The common denominator is courage, whether in victory or defeat, and it's no better exemplified than in the Dieppe Raid, which took place 70 years ago Sunday.

More than 6,000 soldiers, 5,000 of them Canadian, landed on Dieppe's stony beaches. There's debate over whether the Germans knew they were coming but, regardless, the invaders walked into a firestorm.

By the time the raiding force withdrew, more than 900 Canadians had been killed and almost 2,000 captured, to spend the next three years in German prisoner-of-war camps. Only 2,200 made it safely back to England.

Two Canadians, Captain John Weir Foote and Lt.-Col. Cec Merritt, were awarded the Victoria Cross for their actions that day.

Only seven surviving veterans of the Aug. 19, 1942 attack, all in their 90s, were able to attend emotional commemorative ceremonies in the French coastal resort.

Dieppe residents, whose town was also liberated from Nazi occupation by Canadians in 1944, waved Maple Leaf flags and applauded as they greeted the old soldiers, The Canadian Press reported.

Fighter pilot Roman Wozniak, who provided air cover in his Spitfire that day, said the battle was largely forgotten after the war.

"It was a disaster," he said. "It was sort of swept under the rug and very little was said about it."

Dieppe was indeed a disaster, but also an example of how Canadian soldiers could perform even when the odds were stacked against them.

The objective of the raid, dubbed Operation Jubilee, was to seize a small port on the French coast as a way of testing German defences, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia.

A new documentary using recently declassified material suggests the raid was also meant to cover a British attempt to snatch an updated version of the Germans' Enigma code machine and code books from a naval headquarters in the town.

[ Related: History Television doc sheds new light on Dieppe 70 years after invasion ]

Historian David O'Keefe, who spent 15 years researching the raid, suggested the intelligence-gathering aspect was "the locomotive driving this thing," according to Postmedia News.

The operation, which O'Keefe says was planned by none other than James Bond creator Ian Fleming, failed like the rest of the raid's objectives.

Whatever the reason or combination of reasons for the raid, its spectacular failure left lingering bitterness among Canadians who felt lives were sacrificed on the alter of shoddy British planning.

Attempts to spin the raid's failure began almost immediately. Dieppe provided valuable lessons on how to assault the heavily-defended coast that would save thousands of lives in the D-Day invasion of Normandy two years later, it's been argued. Historians are still debating that.

But Howard Large, taken prisoner after being wounded by a sniper, has a different judgment about the raid's planners and commanders.

"They were nuts," he told Postmedia News.