Operation Jubilee objectives

At the time of the Yalta conference, in 1941, the Allied leaders agreed overall on the need for opening a second front in Western Europe to win the war. England appears as the ideal springboard from which the Allies will be able to start the invasion.
Conscious of the probability of a landing in the West of Europe, the Germans decide, in order to focus as much as possible against the Soviet Union troops, to protect the Western maritime frontage by a series of fixed fortifications, whose duty is to stop any amphibious attack: it is the birth of the Atlantic Wall.

Very quickly, the Allies develop a military operation which mainly aims at testing the German defenses which face England. Thus, 5000 Canadians, 1100 Britons, 56 Americans and 15 French (Free France) are trained during the summer 1942.

This operation, of relatively low scale, must however bring very important information to the Allied forces in preparation of a greatter importance landing in the months which follow, always North-West of Europe, the Overlord Operation.

Strategy

The objective of the allied troops is simple: they must land at dawn, destroy important artillery positions, destroy a radar and an aerodrome. Once these actions are carried out, the landed troops, reinforced by various units of infantry, would then be re-embarked by the Allied Navy with possible German prisoners.

On August 18, 1942 in evening, nearly 250 British war ships move towards the coasts of the North of France, in direction of Dieppe. The air support is ensured by the presence of 58 escadrilles which protect the convoy.

On the beach of Dieppe, the wrecks of the ships and tanks shows the ferocity of the fights.

Five landing sectors distributed on 17 kilometers were indicated, all located near town of Dieppe.

In the West, the N°4 Commando must attack in the surroundings of Vesterival and Varengeville-sur-Mer where are installed important German artillery positions which have to be destroy. Few kilometers in the West of Dieppe, South Saskatchewan Regiment and Cameron Highlanders of Canada must capture Pourville then to progress in direction of the aerodrome.

Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, Essex Scottish, the Mount-Royal Fusiliers, the Royal Marine and the 14th cavalry regiment of the Canadian army (28 Churchill tanks) attack Dieppe. They land on the beaches sectors called “White” in the West and “Red” in the East. On their left side, the Royal Regiment of Canada lands on the “Blue” sector and must progress in direction of Arques-la-Bataille.

Then, more in the East, the British soldiers belonging to the N°3 Commando land opposite the localities of Berneval-le-Grand and Petit-Berneval, where are also installed important German artillery positions.

Events

At five o'clock in the morning, the allied troops land on the beaches of the Pas-de-Calais and are stopped by heavy and fatal shootings. The German soldiers, belonging to the 302 infantry division, benefit from their ideal positions for defense: indeed, the German positions are located at the top of high cliffs and the rollers which strew the beach slow down the progression of the infantry and the tanks.

For the British commandos N°3 and N°4, which attack on the Western and Eastern invasion sectors. The German artillery batteries are destroyed in majority: the commandos reach the top of cliffs and achieve their objectives as far as possible.

On the beach of Dieppe, the victims and the tanks are taken in photograph by the Nazi propaganda.

But opposite to Dieppe, the situation of the landing troops is definitely more worrying: in spite of some Canadian soldiers reaching the city, the majority of the troops do not manage to cross the beach obstacles: the Allies, suffering from high losses and a lack of communication between the various engaged companies, decide to stop the operation and to re-embark all the valid units immediately, while the tanks - those which were not destroyed yet - are abandoned. It is 9:30 a.m.

The Jubilee Operation is finished, the losses are catastrophic for the Allies, but now the Atlantic Wall is tested.

Assessment

From a human point of view, the Jubilee Operation is a true catastrophe. 4397 allied soldiers are missing, captured, wounded or killed on the 6086 engaged.
The Canadians suffered the most from this attack: 907 of them were killed.

The Allies quickly draw up many reports which make it possible to understand why the operation failed. The clearest observations follows: no air support, a preliminary bombardment would certainly have handicapped in a considerable way the German troops while the armoured support was ineffective.

Body and wrecks on the beach of Dieppe after the operation Jubilee.

The Jubilee Operation brings many important information to the allied leaders who have tested the reactivity of the German forces behind the Atlantic Wall. These data will be very useful for the soldiers within the framework of the preparation of the Overlord Operation. But at which price?

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