Following the 80th anniversary of Operation Jubilee, Alex Bowers shares how the occasion was marked in honour of the Canadian servicemen who sacrificed their lives during the ill-fated Dieppe Raid
Eighty years after one of the darkest moments in Canadian military history, commemorations have marked the anniversary of the Dieppe Raid, otherwise known as Operation Jubilee.
Early on August 19, 1942, a 6,000-plus strong Allied force – 4,963 of whom were Canadian – assaulted the German-occupied and fortified French coastal town. Landing on Dieppe’s beaches, a fierce German defence, among other challenges and blunders, caused more than 3,000 casualties in less than ten hours of fighting, rendering the raid a catastrophic debacle.
In recognition of their extraordinary sacrifice, tributes have been paid on both sides of the Atlantic, including a postcard initiative by the Juno Beach Centre, a Canadian museum and cultural centre located in Normandy. Known as ‘He Lived Where You Live’, the project saw 400 postcards dispatched across Canada to the former addresses of servicemen who died during the fighting in Operation Jubilee.
