Dieppe August 1942 cont.3

Evaluation and Controversy
Operation Jubilee ended with a dramatic result: the allies counted 1.380 dead (913 Canadians), 1.600 wounded and over 2.000 made prisoner.
The air battle was just as disastrous.
The Royal Air Force lost 107 aircraft; the Germans about 40. In the area of Dieppe, among the civilians, the count was 48 dead and 100 wounded. The Germans had 345 dead or missing and 268 wounded. Thus, in less than ten hours' battle, almost 1.800 people lost their lives, which shows clearly the murderous intensity of the Battle of Dieppe.
The result and ensuing debates could not live down the sacrifice of those who fought and the enemy was the first to admit that the disaster was not of their doing; « the huge number of prisoners may seem to question the value of the Canadian and British units involved in the raid. Far from it. The enemy soldiers, mostly Canadian, proved their skill and courage everywhere it was possible to fight? It was not their lack of courage, but the fact that we concentrated our defensive artillery fire and our heavy infantry weapons so much that stopped the enemy gaining ground? » (extracts of reports written by the majors of the 81st Corps and the 302nd German Division).
The sea-battle off Berneval breaking the surprise effect of the raid could not in itself explain the failure of Operation Jubilee. In fact, the reasons for this failure lie mainly in the underestimation of the enemy forces, the lack of effective air and sea support before landing, the use of inadequate equipment and the lack of information being other aggravating factors.
Military defeats are always controversial subjects, especially when loss of human life is involved. Operation Jubilee did not escape this rule and although the lessons learnt brought valuable indications for the preparation of Operation Overlord, the South Normandy landing on 6th June 1944, many wondered at the relevancy and usefulness of Operation Jubilee as far as future operations were concerned.
Two years after the raid on Dieppe, the Canadians landed in Juno, at dawn on 6th June 1944, participated in the Battle of Normandy and on 1st September 1944, the 2nd Canadian Division liberated Dieppe.
Today the beach area of this small town has many monuments to that day in 1942.