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Patrick Bishop Operation Jubiliee: Dieppe 1942: The Folly and the Sacrifice (Signal / McClelland & Stewart) 40 illustrations, 6 maps, notes 386 pages, hardcover
journalist with a strong interest in military history; he was with the Queen’s forces in the Falkland Islands and has written a y this coming August, 80 years will B have gone by since the raid on Dieppe, book (along with several on the RAF) on and Canadians will still be arguing about it. 3 Para’s early battles in Afghanistan. His It remains a matter of contention in latest is titled Operation Jubilee: Dieppe some of the regiments that were there, 1942: The Folly and the Sacrifice. especially The Royal Regiment of Canada, still based at Fort York Armoury. There Most of the dead, wounded remain people with strong views about and captured were Canadian the raid, sometimes because of the uncle they never knew or the brother who never came back. The fires of contention have never gone The sacrifice at Dieppe was immense out, and another log has just been tossed and unequivocal. All the involved units into the flames. It’s from a British author, took heavy casualties, the Royals most of Patrick Bishop, who has long been a all: 556 of them were aimed at a narrow
journalist with a strong interest in military history; he was with the Queen’s forces in the Falkland Islands and has written a y this coming August, 80 years will B have gone by since the raid on Dieppe, book (along with several on the RAF) on and Canadians will still be arguing about it. 3 Para’s early battles in Afghanistan. His It remains a matter of contention in latest is titled Operation Jubilee: Dieppe some of the regiments that were there, 1942: The Folly and the Sacrifice. especially The Royal Regiment of Canada, still based at Fort York Armoury. There Most of the dead, wounded remain people with strong views about and captured were Canadian the raid, sometimes because of the uncle they never knew or the brother who never came back. The fires of contention have never gone The sacrifice at Dieppe was immense out, and another log has just been tossed and unequivocal. All the involved units into the flames. It’s from a British author, took heavy casualties, the Royals most of Patrick Bishop, who has long been a all: 556 of them were aimed at a narrow
beach just east of the town and 464 were killed or captured. Overall, of 6,050 men sent ashore, 3,623 became casualties. Most of the dead, wounded and captured were Canadian. There isn’t much to show on the credit side of the ledger. Lord Louis Mountbatten and Winston Churchill both claimed there were valuable lessons learned from the disaster, but 60% casualties in one day is a very expensive way to learn. The debate ever after has been on many levels: whether there were indeed lessons that were learned; and that the planning was shoddy, and so any lessons learned were that much more expensive; and that the raid was ill-conceived, unnecessary landing craft. It is mid-afternoon and they’ve in this watercolour titled “Mopping up of the Propaganda Company photographer. Little
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The Fife and Drum 13
and unlikely to succeed, especially since it had already been cancelled once. Canadian nationalism, often fueled by drinks in the Legion, has held that Canadians were deliberately sacrificed. Patrick Bishop’s log on this fire is incendiary. He has gone through the primary source material, particularly the surviving planning files and operational logs. The book is well buttressed with detailed new maps and 40 well chosen photographs (and although the index is excellent, there’s no bibliography, only notes). Countering his arguments is not an exercise for the faint-hearted. However… Debates over beers about Op Jubilee frequently come down to a dislike of Earl Mountbatten (then the Chief of Combined Operations) and Bernard Montgomery, who was involved in the Some preparation for Dieppe but was already off to the Eighth Army when the raid finally happened. Bishop levels his aim at both in his introduction – especially Mountbatten – and firmly establishes his own view. Mountbatten is charismatic, popular, and totally in over his head so far as combined operations go. Fair enough: it’s good to know what an author has decided. But there’s some context missing from Bishop’s book. While a private or a second lieutenant can be adequately trained in months, training competent staff officers takes much longer, and training skilled generals takes even longer. Personally, this reviewer takes a dim view of any judgement of generals that comes without any clear indication of having read Norman Dixon’s classic 1975 book On the Psychology of Military Incompetence. Moreover, combined-arms raiding and amphibious landings on defended beaches were new undertakings in 1942. The manuals were still being written. In the First World War, competent planning took a long time to be achieved. The Canadian Corps successes at Vimy, Hill 70 and Passchendaele were a result of meticulous staff work – led and encouraged by Julian Byng and then Arthur Currie. The success of Amiens in 1918 saw Allied staff planning (after four years of fighting) achieve an incredible standard of efficiency.
Generally, that level of planning wasn’t of Norway, and the landings at Narvik achieved at Dieppe – but it was later. cost the Kriegsmarine 10 of its destroyers. Dieppe’s small-stone beach presented The town of Narvik itself was almost unappreciated complications. From completely undefended. November 1942 onwards, reconnaissance The US Marines who landed on by swimmers became a part of every Allied Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942, came landing. The obstacles to getting off the ashore to almost no opposition and there beach at Dieppe were less imposing were no towns – fortified or otherwise in 1944, at Normandy, when bunker- – to capture. More than a year later at buster munitions, flamethrowers and the Tarawa, where the Japanese did fight on training to use them were so much more the beaches, success was narrowly achieved common – and not just in the hands of for very heavy casualties. a few Commandos. Specialized armour The Allied landings in North Africa in was also invaluable on the British and November 1942 were against the dispirited Canadian beaches. Vichy French, yet the attempt to seize To his credit, Mountbatten the harbour of Oran by a direct assault had helped plan the Lofoten Islands raids failed badly: 199 of the 405 American in December 1941 and March 1942, the soldiers were killed, and all the rest were Bruneval Raid in February 1942, and the wounded or captured, while the two Royal Navy vessels in the assault were of the myths of Dieppe are destroyed. This was the first time after Dieppe that Allied planners had easily dispensed by Bishop attempted to directly assault an intact port, and it was the last time this was tried during the Second World War. Saint-Nazaire Raid of late March 1942 The North Koreans attempted to seize – where 63% of 612 raiders were killed, Pusan in the opening moves of the Korean wounded or captured in return for the War in 1950 and lost their entire force. destruction of the crucial Normandie dry Another factor to remember is the air dock. Each was risky and could have easily battle that raged over Dieppe during the turned into a debacle. Dieppe did. raid. The FW-190s of the Luftwaffe Some of the myths of Dieppe are easily carried the day, scoring something like 100 dispensed by Bishop. The idea that the kills of Allied aircraft versus 48 Luftwaffe British were eager to use a Canadian losses. It is worth noting that no Allied division on a risky large raid goes square invasion (except in the toe of Italy in against the accounts of lobbying by Harry September 1943) occurred after Dieppe Crerar of Mountbatten and company for without securing air superiority, if not active employment for his Canadian troops. total dominance ahead of time. And the idea that Churchill wanted a blood Bishop’s book on Dieppe is a well sacrifice to show Stalin that his ‘Second researched, well written and detailed Front Now’ arguments were premature is account of the raid. A skilled writer and also discarded, and quite effectively. experienced journalist, he is a master The theory that the Dieppe Raid was of his craft. However, he has not been a ploy to get a German Enigma machine a staff officer and is not partial toward is also dismissed by Bishop – it would that breed. Operation Jubilee is well worth have been a nice prize, but the Germans reading while memories of the Dieppe would have certainly noticed if the raid Raid remain alive. had resulted in one set missing (and there were simpler schemes for a “pinch” that John Thompson served in the Canadian Army didn’t involve 6,000 troops and 250 vessels). during the most peaceful period in memory Speed and surprise are the keys to and only got shot after he returned to civilian making combined-arms and amphibious landings work. The Germans failed life. He has researched and written widely on utterly and at great cost in their April defence and security issues as well as military 1940 attempt to seize Oslo in the invasion history.
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