This Was My Brother at Dieppe

"Don't worry men, it will be a piece of cake!"  Canadian Maj-General "Ham" Roberts, briefing his officers on the night before the Dieppe Raid.

This was my brother
At Dieppe,
Quietly a hero
Who gave his life
Like a gift
Withholding nothing.


His youth...his love...
His enjoyment of being alive...

His future, like a book,
With half the pages still uncut.

This was my brother
At Dieppe,
The one who built me a doll house
When I was seven.
complete to the last small picture frame.
Nothing forgotten.

He was awfully good at fixing things,
And stepping into the breach when he was needed.

And that's what he did at Dieppe;
He was needed.
And even Death must have been a little shamed
At his eagerness.

By Mona Gould
written after her brother's death at Dieppe 1943


Headlines from Toronto Daily Star "Dieppe Raid "Spine Chilling"   "Dieppe Raid "Model of Skill" "Grand show, you Canadians!" "Until more information becomes available, there is every reason to believe this is a noble occasion, a day of high honour"  H Rooney Pelletier CBC Radio London.
Headlines and Quotes from CBC Digital Archives.

After 3 years of waiting and training in Britain, 5,000 Canadian troops joined British troops and were sent to the French Coast at Dieppe, August 19, 1942.  (Operation Jubilee, The First Dieppe Raid) The Germans were ready for them and the attack became a massacre.  3,000 Canadians were killed or taken prisoner and another 907 died later from their wounds.  To this day opinion remains bitterly divided.  Was it an essential "trial run" for D-Day or a shocking waste of life?

Maj-General Roberts became the official scapegoat and never commanded troops in the field again.