Hamilton Spectator – Initial Headline Day after the raid.
Today marks the 63rd Anniversary of the Dieppe Raid.
The Dieppe Raid is a major event in Canadian History and Hamilton’s history.
To learn more about the Dieppe Raid, go to Wikipedia’s Article on it.
By the Numbers
At Dieppe, from a force of fewer than 5000 men engaged for only nine hours, the Canadian Army lost more prisoners than in the whole eleven months of the later campaign in North-West Europe, or the twenty months during which Canadians fought in Italy. Sadder still was the loss in killed; the total of fatal casualties was 56 officers and 851 other ranks. Canadian casualties of all categories aggregated 3369.
6,108 men who took part in the raid (from the Land Forces)
4,963 were Canadians
1,075 were British Commandoes (52 fatalities)
50 American Rangers (3 fatalities)
not included above:
Royal Navy – 75 killed, 269 missing or prisoners
RAF – 62 fatalities
907 Canadians lost their lives that day
197 of them were from the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry
1,946 were taken prisoner
2,460 were wounded
Some great resource sites on the Dieppe Raid:
The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry : http://www.rhli.ca/dieppe/
BBC : http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/19/newsid_3560000/3560309.stm
Juno Beach Centre : http://www.junobeach.org/e/2/can-eve-mob-die-e.htm
Canadian War Museum : Newspapers on Dieppe Raid: http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/newspapers/operations/dieppe_e.html
I have add the pleasure of meeting many Dieppe veterans and I say to them again: “Thank You!”