Five Brothers and a War

Dieppe

than 10 hours from the first landings, the last Allied troops had all been either killed, evacuated or left behind to be captured by the Germans. Instead of a demonstration of resolve, the bloody fiasco showed the world that the Allies could not hope to invade France for a long time. The only positive take-away was that some intelligence successes were achieved, including electronic intelligence. A total of 3,367 of the 6,086 men (almost 60%) who made it ashore were either killed, wounded or captured. The Royal Air Force failed to lure the Luftwaffe into open battle, and lost 106 aircraft (at least 32 to flak or accidents), compared to 48 lost by the Luftwaffe . The Royal Navy lost 33 landing craft and one destroyer. The events at Dieppe influenced preparations for the North African (Operation Torch ) and Normandy landings (Operation Overlord ). So the initial Dutch happiness was short-lived when, the next day, the German radio programming was interrupted with the usual fanfare of marching music followed by the announcement that the Allied Force had been totally destroyed. That evening, the contraband radio in the van Pelt household, tuned to Radio Holland from London, reported that a Canadian contingent had landed but was defeated by the Germans. The “high high” had quickly become a “low low”. While it might seem like a long way from Den Haag, the reality is that Dieppe is only 333 kilometers (200 miles) away. The closeness was more than just a physical measure though, the more important facet dealt with the psychological closeness. After all, the English were half the distance to Dieppe away, but they were separated by the North Sea. The idea of having an army on the continent was a huge boost psychologically, and having the raiding force fail so miserably was a huge depressor to the Dutch psyche. Those who gave things a moment’s thought knew that a drubbing as bad as what the Allies experienced in Dieppe meant that the next move onto the Continent would be a long way off, as no one would want a repeat of failure.

the war

Five Brothers and a War

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