The Bloody Battle: Canadians at Dieppe
The Battle of Dieppe was a dark day for the Canadians who ran onto the northern shores of France, filled with determination and pride for their country. Operation Jubilee involved 5,000 Canadian soldiers along with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and other Allies as well. The Canadians were organized to be at the forefront of the battle and it was quite difficult for the Canadian personnel who had never seen combat ever since they joined the war. Young Canadians had been viciously training for a year, unfortunately for many of the soldiers, it would be their first and last battle. The Allies wanted to test the German forces after the Nazis continuously saw success in France. The Allied forces believed that they would have an element of surprise that unfateful day, but the Nazis were more than ready for the Canadians troops to step onto shore.
The Germans were prepared like a pack of panthers, they waited for three days and the Nazis were ready to defend the land they stood on. In the short time of nine hours, 907 Canadian soldiers were killed, 2,460 were wounded, and 1,946 Canadians were taken prisoner by the Germans. The main reason that the Canadians faced so many losses was because they lost the element of surprise which would have guaranteed their success.
The most tragic amount of losses took place on land: Canadian soldiers were gunned down until they were slain to the ground. The Royal Navy were only able to rescue a few hundred wounded soldiers but were forced to leave behind 2000 despairing Canadian soldiers who would be taken as Germany's prisoners of war. The water was colored red with the blood of the fallen, and the haunting tide crept closer to the men on the beach. Bodies were scattered over the shore and many survivors failed in their attempts to escape with the Germans on their backs. In the sky above them, the Royal Canadian Air Force lost 13 planes and 10 pilots out of 81 Allied airmen lost overall. But it is believed that in the harsh circumstances that the Canadians fought in, even experienced fighters would have been beaten.
Back home, the newspapers relished in the so-called "Success at Dieppe”, but when the causality results arrived, they realized that they lost more than just a few men on that beach. But, they decided not to report the accurate number of losses in the British newspapers.
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The soldiers who were taken prisoners from the Germans faced a new set of difficulties, most of them were put into shackles for 400 days or until the end of the war.
The reason they were chained was because the British shackled the German prisoners, so the Germans did the same to the Canadian prisoners. The Nazis took the Canadian prisoners to a war camp in Southern Poland where the defeated soldiers were moved into huts, surviving off of Canadian Red Cross parcels. |
"What a mixture of feeling went through my body surveyed the shambles throughout the harbor.
So relieved to be home. So happy to be in one piece. So ashamed to have come home alone. “
- A Canadian Soldier who survived in the Battle of Dieppe
A few years later in 1945, many of the Canadian prisoners were usually left unguarded so they traveled west to meet up with the Allies. The aftermath of the Dieppe Raid was evidence that the Allied Forces were not ready to go to battle on German occupied land. Operation Jubilee may have been considered a military failure, but it was also taken in as a lesson, a sign to improve, and not underestimate the enemy. The lessons learned from this devastating massacre were applied to future fights and contributed to the success of D-Day.
Sergeant Maurice Ypres “Junior” Snook
In 1937, Sergeant Maurice Snook joined the Essex Scottish Regiment at the young age of 17. A few years later, he was sent to train for Dieppe on sandy hills but was surprised when the actual beaches were made of rocks and cliffs.
Snook and his men bravely traveled towards the hills in midst of the harsh circumstances. Eight of Snook's men died as soon as they reached the Germans- who were loaded with machine guns. Snook managed to survive in hiding, but was later discovered and taken as a Prisoner of War.
“...they were killed there, right there [on the hills]. I lay for nine hours behind a wall and then we got captured at 1:50 in the afternoon, the Germans got us, took all our weapons away from us and marched us into town.”
Snook and his men bravely traveled towards the hills in midst of the harsh circumstances. Eight of Snook's men died as soon as they reached the Germans- who were loaded with machine guns. Snook managed to survive in hiding, but was later discovered and taken as a Prisoner of War.
“...they were killed there, right there [on the hills]. I lay for nine hours behind a wall and then we got captured at 1:50 in the afternoon, the Germans got us, took all our weapons away from us and marched us into town.”
Maurice was taken to Lamsdorf (a war camp in Germany) where he was assigned to a prisoner hut. Snook would only receive a bite of bread and turnip soup. Maurice was among the prisoners who were chained and he remained in shackles for 11 months.
Even during his capture, Snook’s personality was playfully humorous and he loved annoying the Germans. He found a way to unlock his chains with a nail and wear his coat as he pleased. This made the Germans extremly confused because they never figured out how he did it!
“Actually, what we tried to do is to keep the Germans on their toes. We always found something to do that would get them mad at us.”
Even through many trials and tribulations, “Junior” let laughter be his remedy to the unfortunate events taking place around him. All the Canadian Prisoners of War, including Snooks, were eventually realeased out of the harsh camps when the war had ended.
“We [were] treated very badly at the time but we had a lot of fun.”
Even during his capture, Snook’s personality was playfully humorous and he loved annoying the Germans. He found a way to unlock his chains with a nail and wear his coat as he pleased. This made the Germans extremly confused because they never figured out how he did it!
“Actually, what we tried to do is to keep the Germans on their toes. We always found something to do that would get them mad at us.”
Even through many trials and tribulations, “Junior” let laughter be his remedy to the unfortunate events taking place around him. All the Canadian Prisoners of War, including Snooks, were eventually realeased out of the harsh camps when the war had ended.
“We [were] treated very badly at the time but we had a lot of fun.”
WORKS CITED
Erik Hillis. "WWII: The Dieppe Raid - Canada at War." Canada at War RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2016. http://www.canadaatwar.ca/content-53/world-war-ii/the-dieppe-raid/
Herd, Alex. "Dieppe Raid."’Tragedy on the Beaches’ The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p Web. 04 Dec. 2016. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dieppe-raid/
"Maurice Ypres Junior Snook - Veteran Stories - The Memory Project. Home - The Memory Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
http://www.thememoryproject.com/stories/828:maurice-ypres-junior-snook/
"The Dieppe Raid." Juno Beach Centre. N.p., 09 Apr. 2014. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.
https://www.junobeach.org/canada-in-wwii/articles/the-dieppe-raid/
Various pictures have been respectively taken from Google Images