[Music] it was called operation jubilee but today it's better known as the disaster at dieppe [Music] britain's raid on the german-held coast of france in the second world war was supposed to test hitler's fortress europe [Music] the goal was a simple one seize a major port gather intelligence destroy critical defenses then get out but none of those objectives was achieved dieppe was meticulously planned but was so flawed that failure was inevitable [Music] on the morning of august 19 1942 more than 200 allied ships and landing craft closed in on the fort city and the beaches east and west of diet the beaches were code-named green red white and blue from the air royal air force fighters strafed german machine gun positions dug into the cliffs over the stony beaches and engaged luftwaffe pilots in dogfights overhead from the english channel british warships bombarded the shore clearing coastal defenses and providing a smoke screen for the attack six thousand troops stormed the beaches more than eighty percent of them were canadian but from the cliff tops the enemy could see the full length of each beach and every soldier and tank crossing it [Music] at blue beach east of diep the royal regiment and the black watch were quickly pinned against a sea wall in a hail of enemy fire mortars and shells dropped all around them on green beach to the west the raiders had to cross a river on a single bridge which the germans defended viciously on red and white beach at df itself many of the canadian tanks stalled in the small round beach stones that jammed in their tracks and so trapped on the beach soldiers were caught in a deadly crossfire from the german machine guns realizing the raid was doomed british commanders ordered the surviving troops to evacuate from the beaches as you can imagine the exit was chaotic dead and wounded were everywhere many more were shot or drowned as they tried to escape to their landing craft waiting offshore now at first newspapers back home in canada reported dieppe as a great victory every objective is achieved on nine hour foray into france proclaimed the toronto daily star but once the names of the dead and wounded became known to the public shock was felt across the entire nation in all canadian casualties totaled 3 36 including 907 dead and 1874 men captured cbc reporter robert bowman who spent eight hours ashore with canadian soldiers on the bloody beaches of dieppe said we have suffered heavy losses and i saw our men die but never have i seen men die more bravely or fight with such great heart as our canadian troops it was the canadian army's costliest day of the war and one that will forever be remembered with infamy and regret [Music] [Music] you