by Charlie Tatham Tom Bibby won the Military Medal at Dieppe, August 19, 1942. That fall he spoke to Woodstock Collegiate Institute high school assembly, Ontario. Murray Slater went in to Dieppe with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, Royal Canadian Infantry Corps and later on to Italy with the Irish Regiment where he was killed in action near Ortona. Ed Bennett was with the Calgary Tanks. He was wounded and captured at Dieppe. Bennett was later on a prisoner exchange. Al Kirby, Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, helped take a landing craft load of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada to Dieppe.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower made the comment that the Dieppe Raid did not promise any easy conquest of the Normandy beaches.
Author Anthony Cave Brown wrote: “The disaster of Dieppe proved that there was no short cut to victory.”
It was a drawn out operation. Ross Munro tells us in Gauntlet to Overlord: The story of the Canadian Army, “July 2 We board ships. July 3 It looks as if H Hour will be 4:15 am tomorrow. July 4 Another 24-hour postponement. July 5 The weather is still not good. The sea makes it tough for the small boats to hit the beaches. There is too much wind for the paratroopers to land to attack the coast batteries on our flanks. July 6 A fourth postponement. July 7 The news comes at 10:30 am the operation has been cancelled.”
Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery was absolutely delighted by the cancellation and he recommended that the assault be off for all time.
The British Chiefs of Staff approved July 22. This time, Montgomery was not involved.
On August 19, when the Second Division did go to Dieppe and Ross Munro got his story after all, it was the story of the bloodiest nine hours in Canadian military history, a battle whose purpose and worth are still questioned.
Was, in fact, failure necessary?
General Henry D.G. Crerar had no doubt. Years later he said “If Dieppe had been a success, the Allied invasion would have been launched far too soon with inadequate preparation and I think that it would have been a disaster. Dieppe saved us from that.”
Of the 4,963 Canadians who went in, 3,367 (68 per cent) were killed, wounded or captured.
Freedom is not free, we pay for it. Remember our comrades.
Charlie Tatham retired to Powell River in 1997 after 72 years in Southwestern Ontario. He is the former mayor of Woodstock, Ontario.
