On August 19th, 1942, Canadian troops, along with groups of British, free-French and American soldiers, attacked the heavily fortified German-held seaport of Dieppe, located on French soil. The infamous Dieppe Raid was one of the most devastating battles in World War II for the Canadian armed forces. It was truly a devastating moment in Canadian military history, resulting in over 3000 Canadian soldiers killed in action, wounded or captured. Dieppe undoubtedly was a defining moment in Canadian history affecting the following battles as it demonstrated Canada's devotion to war shown in the troops used and helping out its allies, it unfortunately ending into one of the biggest mission failures in Canadian history. Raid of Dieppe portrays its significant effect in battles such as in the execution of D-Day, which would have resulted in a much different ending to World War II.
Dieppe affected future battles in many ways. The raid on Dieppe showed how important it was to destroy enemy defenses with air bombings prior to the attack, along with improvement of military tactics and equipment from traditional war trends. Dieppe resulted in important lessons, assisting in the Canadian development of new military tactics "Dieppe taught us that if we wanted to land in France, we had to have mass bombing attacks." (Newman 233). Dieppe Raid proved that aerial bombings were key to supporting the troops during the attack and that these bombings were more important than the minor surprise gained by ground forces. For example, in the Dieppe Raid the troops suffered greatly from the gun batteries and mortars which were supposed to be taken out by aerial bombings. By not using them beforehand, more men were killed by machine-gun fire and struck by mortar shells.(Juno Beach Centre). However Canada was able to learn from the previous mistakes and used aerial bombing on crucial raids like D-Day and resulted in successful future outcomes.
