11 facts about the Dieppe Raid

Saturday 19 August will mark the 75th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid in 1942. Here are 11 facts about the raid:

• Operation Jubilee on 19 August 1942 was an amphibious assault on the German occupied port of Dieppe.

• The Dieppe Raid was the first significant Allied action on the continent since the Dunkirk evacuations in 1940.

• More than 6,000 infantry were landed on the Dieppe beach, along with 50 tanks and special commando units.

• The landings were supported by some 250 Royal Navy vessels and 1,000 Royal Air Force and Canadian Air Force planes.

• The Germans were alerted to the coming attack and the raid was a disaster, with few Allied soldiers ever making it off the beach.

• In about eight hours of fighting some 3,600 of the Allied raiders had been killed, wounded or captured. Naval casualties numbered some 550 and more than 100 aircraft were lost.

• The raid is highly significant for Canadians, with their forces making up the majority of the assault units and the casualties.

• The raid itself was a costly failure. However, the lessons learnt, the improvements in tactics, equipment and intelligence gathering that followed, were vital in ensuring the later success of the D-Day landings.

• The CWGC commemorates the dead in France and the UK.

• More than 730 servicemen who died during the raid are buried in CWGC Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery – the first CWGC cemetery to be built after the Second World War.

• At CWGC Brookwood Military Cemetery, the Commission cares for the graves of more than 40 servicemen who died of wounds following the fighting, and commemorated on the Brookwood 1939-1945 Memorial are almost 200 servicemen who died at Dieppe and have no known grave.

To mark the anniversary, commemorations will also take place at CWGC Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery tomorrow and Sunday.