Dieppe Raid, worst lost of Allied Battles?

[ArrowZero]

I want to know if this battle that was a disaster and killed many Canadian, British and some American soldiers, if it was the worst battle that the Allied lost. I heard about it, is it true that the people who organized this Raid already knew about the German defences and they knew that was going to happen, but they wanted to test German Defence? Most of the soldiers send to Dieppe were Canadian...

 

[mosquitoman]

I twas a "reconaissance-in-force" to find out what invading a port would be like.
The biggest lost battle by the Allies IMO would be Crete simply because it would have been ideal as an air base to aid Malta hassling the Mediterranean convoys.

 

[ToughOmbre]

Worst? Hardly.

Singapore, Bataan, Corregidor quickly come to mind.

TO

 

[mosquitoman]

Okay, i got it wrong, worst defeat in the West.

 

[ArrowZero]

I twas a "reconaissance-in-force" to find out what invading a port would be like.
QUOTE]

By "reconaissance-in-force" you mean they send soldiers to be killed just to test the defences for another invading mission

 

[timshatz]

Think Singapore was the worst of the three. Bataan and Corregidor fell after long sieges. Defense of Singapore just fell apart.

 

[pbfoot]

Ithink you should argue the Dieppe raid on this thread
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/polls/greatest-military-blunder-wwii-8012.html

 

[klidedarked]

well, actually i think dieppe raid should be consider as one of the biggest lost battle cause what i have heard, dieppe raid was a huge disaster on the canadian division, well, i think the allies didn´t expected what happened...

 

[ArrowZero]

Well, actually the generals knew about the German defences at the beach, they just want to test it...but with soldiers that lost their lives. It was unfair that they send soldiers, that they didn't knew about the defences,to be killed just to see German defence. This operation was a disaster, not the worst, but it help that later they could be more organized in their invasions.

 

[Medvedya]

It was largely Mountbattens fault - he was the Chief of Combined Operations and although told by Montgomery it was a no go, he ploughed along with it anyway, using his influence with Churchill to make it happen.

So - nobody, and most importantly British intelligence knew it was going to happen until it was too late to stop. The rest, is history.

He was a reckless ass, which would have been fine were it his own head he was putting in harms way but it wasn't - it was nearly 3000 Canucks who paid the price for his folly.

The final insult to this was that when it was over, instead of visiting the pitfully few wounded who made it back he goes instead to meet his pal Noel Coward who was filming 'In Which We Serve' a film loosely based about Mountbatten and the time he lost HMS Kelly at Crete - again through his recklessness.

 

[ArrowZero]

So Montgomery knew it will be a disaster and Mountbattens didn't listen to him? ... He should have been more organized , because there were a lot of German defence there, and not a lot of cover for soldiers. The soldiers were killed almost as soon a they ran on the beach by the Germans machine guns and morters.
This helped for the organization of D-day in 1944?

 

[Concorde247]

Montgomery certainly wasnt perfect either, his ego kept getting in the way, you only have to look at what happened at Arnhem to see that. He chose to ignore the good intel from the dutch resistance of there being two SS panzer divisions stationed at arnhem for some R&R, he sent lightly armed paratroops up against them! what chance did they have? The drop zones were too far away from the bridge for any realistic chance of being held. when some troops did get to the bridge They held out far longer than they had been told that they had to 30 corp couldnt break through to them for fear of losing all their tanks to the anti tank guns!!

Throughout the whole market garden campaign of the bridges to be captured, Arnhem was the main prize which would allow the allies to break through cross the rhine into germany capturing the nazi factories in the Rhur, thus ending the war a lot quicker. It wasnt to be, a lot of good men died needlessly.

The Dieppe raid was a failure, but valuable lessons were learned were put into practice for the D-day landings in 1944

 

[Maharg]

Dieppe was a demonstration to show the yanks that proper preperation and planing was needed before Europe could be freeded from the oppresion they were suffering.
The way I read it, as soon as the US forces arrived in England they wanted to invade the Continent.
No, no, no, said the Poms, we need to prepair more, and the German Army is really good at what they do. For example watch this.....hence Dieppe.

They used up the 'Colonials' in this case the Canadians.

All the best.
Graham.

 

[Negative Creep]

Would Dunkirk count? There is an aura which has grown around the whole event, but at the end of the day, it was still a heavy defeat and resulted in the loss of almost all heavy equipment

 

[CharlesBronson]

A nice History Channel documentry about the attack against Dieppe.

Dangerous.Missions.8of8.Attack.On.Dieppe.avi - Google Video

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

Well, only comfort is that the Canadians didn't have to take Omaha Beach on D-Day.

 

[Freebird]

It was largely Mountbattens fault - he was the Chief of Combined Operations and although told by Montgomery it was a no go, he ploughed along with it anyway, using his influence with Churchill to make it happen.

So - nobody, and most importantly British intelligence knew it was going to happen until it was too late to stop. The rest, is history.

He was a reckless ass, which would have been fine were it his own head he was putting in harms way but it wasn't - it was nearly 3000 Canucks who paid the price for his folly.

The final insult to this was that when it was over, instead of visiting the pitfully few wounded who made it back he goes instead to meet his pal Noel Coward who was filming 'In Which We Serve' a film loosely based about Mountbatten and the time he lost HMS Kelly at Crete - again through his recklessness.

You're right, he was an ass, it was only because he was cousin of the King that he got away with it.

The commander of the air forces (Leigh-Mallory) also comes across very poorly in the whole affair.

Dieppe was a demonstration to show the yanks that proper preperation and planing was needed before Europe could be freeded from the oppresion they were suffering.
The way I read it, as soon as the US forces arrived in England they wanted to invade the Continent.
No, no, no, said the Poms, we need to prepare more, and the German Army is really good at what they do. For example watch this.....hence Dieppe.

They used up the 'Colonials' in this case the Canadians.

All the best.
Graham.

very astute analysis Graham.

 

[drgondog]

From a US perspective, Corregidor then Kasserine Pass are up there. I agree Singapore for Commonwealth.

Close behind (for me) was Operation Market Garden and Anzio and Huertgen Forest for waste/unfulfilled expectations, total waste of manpower and focus. Had any of these succeeded as planned they would be hailed as great victories.

Then there is Bloody Pelalau - why??

No, Dieppe is nowhere on my horizon for 'worst debacle' for Allies and we have not touched Russia or Africa before the tide was turned.

 

[orion549]

Well, only comfort is that the Canadians didn't have to take Omaha Beach on D-Day.

As disrespectful as it might be, I had a good laugh at that one. But yes, it's not the worst of the war, it's just the worst the Canadians were mostly involved in, that's why we hear more about Dieppe up here than we even hear about Juno.

Just like Vimy Ridge wasn't one of the greatest victories of WWI, but that's another battle we hear about a lot about up here. Quite frankly I'm surprised we don't learn more about the battle of Amiens here for it's historical relevance. Although maybe they've changed that, it's been almost 10 years since I've taken a high school Canadian History course. Although they never seem to add things, just take things away.

 

[Freebird]

From a US perspective, Corregidor then Kasserine Pass are up there. I agree Singapore for Commonwealth.

Close behind (for me) was Operation Market Garden and Anzio and Huertgen Forest for waste/unfulfilled expectations, total waste of manpower and focus. Had any of these succeeded as planned they would be hailed as great victories.

Then there is Bloody Pelalau - why??

No, Dieppe is nowhere on my horizon for 'worst debacle' for Allies and we have not touched Russia or Africa before the tide was turned.

Singapore, mainly a lack of preparation, {and the far east was starved for reinforcements in '40 '41}

But as you say Market Garden would have been a great victory if it worked, but what would Dieppe have acomplished if it had succeeded brilliantly? Merely to point out to the Germans the parts of the Atlantic Wall that needed improving.