I have heard some things about an attack that happened before D-Day, involving canadian and british troops. I know it eventually failed, and that is about it? I seem to remember that there were something like 6,000 soldiers involved? Dunno. Anybody Know anything?
Fruitbat

I heard of operation ANVIL before but it appears that was canceled? have to read this:

http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/7-4/7-4_5.HTM

maybe that is what you are thinking??

I believe you are referring to the landing at Dieppe. The operation was named "Jubilee".

http://www.rpi.edu/~fiscap/history_files/dieppe.htm

british or canadian ( cant remember ) troops landed at dieppe in france

ownage followed as they were cut to ribbons

sort of like omaha with less people and more hurt

I do not know much about it except it was not an invasion as such, it was another one of our famous Commando raids (don't know what the objective was).
Any way the defences were stronger then planned, and the new Churchill tanks got stuck on the beach and were sitting ducks for the Germans. The British and Canadian Royal Marine Commando's were pinned on the beach and slaughtered. R.I.P Lads.

Thanks for the info people. I just remember watching a programme about it, and I think that it was te landing at Dieppe. Cheers again,
Fruitbat

With the landing on Dieppe by Canadiens they learned how to organize the next landings...

Guess who drove the american d-day landing craft? U.S. Coast Guard!

quote:

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Originally posted by HailWillE:
Guess who drove the american d-day landing craft? U.S. Coast Guard!

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The Royal Navy also drove alot of the US Landing craft.

Both of you are correct. The Landing craft pilots depeneded on what troop ship the soldiers came off of. Some were US liberty ships, some larger landing craft, some were french/british vessels, that determined what type of LC and who piloted it

Birtish and Canadian commandos and about 15 memebers of the U.S. 1st ranger bn. were involved at Dieppe.

Dieppe was a failure and a success. It was done to show the otehr allies we were fighting on and doing something, it taught us the elsson never to land at a large port, they have to be captured from the land, it also caused a diversion for commandos to raid a nearby radar site and retrieve components to help us assess the german radar capabilities.

The loss of life was heavy, but it was never intended as a real invasion, it was always just an attempt to learn about the unknown

Thanks for all the info people. You've been a real help. Cheers again,
Fruitbat

K... Being a Canadian, and a student that loves his history (especially ww2) I'll fill you in.

1942, an assault on the beaches of Dieppe is launched. There are 3 reasons why. 1) A lot of Canadian and other non-British troops had been sitting inside Britain for about 3 years with no action, British Command figured they'd put them to use. 2) Allied commanders wanted to discover the feasibility of a landing on the French coast. 3)The British and the Americans wanted to send a message to their Soviet allies that they would try to relieve pressure on them by opening a western front.

Reasons why it failed:
1) Communications failure with British officers, giving incorrect orders as well as giving the wrong landing zone.

2) Virtually every tank that landed was not designed for beach warfare, and became mired. This made them ripe targets.

3) German troops were aware of the attack prior due to a spotting by a german ship, hence all artillery pieces in the area were already armed and ready waiting to open up.

4) (prolly the biggest) Troops recieved no prior training to the assault, and had no idea what to expect. Those who weren't killed were captured. out of about 6,100 men to go, about 500 made it out alive, uncaptured.

And there you go. #3 i'm pretty sure, though thats going from my memory, didn't check that one up.

*EDIT* I almost forgot... As far as I know, and what I've been taught for 3 years, it was by no means a "Commando" landing, was just infantry. There may have been Commando's present, but it was nothing special. Also, as far as I know, not one American soldier stepped onto the Beaches of Dieppe, the invasion force consisted of Canadian, Polish, Czech, French, and (Few) British troops.

I checked my info .....there wasnt 15 rangers, there was more - 40 according to Rangers in WW2" by Robert W. Black. all are from teh 1st Ranger BN as that was the only ranger bn at that time....

with Number 3 Commando (British)
from F Co
Cpt. R Murray
Sgt E Thompson
Sgt T Sorby
Pfc S Bush
Pfc P Preston
Pvt D Earnwood

from C Co
2nd Lt C Shunstrom
Sgt J Knapp
Sgt D Sellers
T/5 J Smith
Pfc J Edwards
Pfc D Johnson
Pfc C Grant

from A Co
1st Lt L Dirks
Sgt H Adams
Sgt M Heacock
T/5 J Phillips
Pfc H Hedenstad
Pfc J Mosely
Pfc E Moger WIA

from E Co
S Sgt L Kness
Sgt T Butts
Pfc C Beitel
Ofc C Reilly
Pfc O Sweazey
Pfc C Coy

from D Co
Sgt Kavanaugh
Sgt G Mercuriali
T/5 M Kerecman
T/5 W Brinkley
Pfc W Girdley
Pvt J Nixon

from B Co
2d Lt E Loustalot KIA
S Sgt M Bertholf
Sgt A Jacobson POW
Pfc W Bresnahan POW
Pfc W Lienhas
Pfc D Hayes
Pfc E Furru WIA/POW

With Number 4 Commando (British)
from Hq C
Ssgt K Stempson
Sgt A Szima

from C Co
Cpl W Brandy

from D Co 1st rangers
Cpl F Koons

Rangers with Canadian units -
from E Co
1st Lt R Flanagan with South Saskatchewan Regiment

from C Co
2d Lt J Randall with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry KIA

from A Co
Sgt L Church with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders WIA and died in 1950 from complications from the wound in the head

from D CO
Sgt K Kenyon with the Royal Regiment of Canada
WIA

from Hq Co
Sgt M Swank with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders WIA

from E Co
T/4 H Henry with the Essex Scottish Regiment WIA and died in England

Cpl F Koons is credited as the first US soldier to kill a German in the war...

That is pretty much all the info that Black's book has as I scan it right now...

They were spotted in advance of the landing - they were spotted by a convoy of German E-boats escorting a tanker....

K, thx for confirming that. And wow, didn't realize any Rangers were present.

Form what I read in Black's book, I dont think any of the rangers were actually in the US uniform....

he specifically mentioned that one of the rangers - I think it was Szima, decided that if he might die, he wanted to die in his 'american uniform with his american stripes'

If anyone is interested, there is a really good book out called 'beyond valor' by Patrick O'donnel that is a great read for info on rangers, airborne, and the 1st specila service force (a joint US/Candian unit) - not just historic info, but it is mostly in the words of the vets themselves.....

Yeah, I never even knew about that Joint Ops between Can and US during ww2 till my friend told me about it.. turned out they never failed a mission and according to the Germans, they thought they were a bunch of friggin psychos . But one thing I've always liked from the history books, is something i read about a German General captured by us canucks, who said something (not exactly) like this: "We can handle the Tommies or the Yanks, but you Canucks are crazy. You charge us like no tomorrow and throw everything you can at us..."

We Canadians, for whatever reason, don't blow our own horns as much as we probably should.

Things like pushing the furthest inland of any allied army on D-Day. (And being criticized for stopping for the past 60 years.) Fact is, we had to stop because we risked encirclement and that didn't get the Germans anywhere at Stalingrad...)

Here's some factoids for the historically curious out there:

Canadian troops in England were, at one point after Dunkirk, the only up-to-strength; fully equipped troops capable of defending England against German invasion. (And just before Dunkirk, we sent over some troops to France who were just in time to get booted off the continent at Dunkirk.)

They were going stir-crazy from what amounted by the time Dieppe was launched.
They also had one hell of a big chip on their shoulder: Canadian troops had distinguished themselves in the First World War.
We invented the Trench Raid, perfected techniques for counter-battery artillery fire using sound ranging. We'd taken the hinge-pin fortress of Vimy Ridge, considered impregnable and which cost the British and French literally hundreds of thousands of casualties in failed attempts.

Those Second World War troops were from Regiments with proud First World War traditions, and they had some very big shoes to fill. And their own battle honours to add to them to prove they were every bit as good.

Dieppe itself was a raid-in-force by several regiments of the Royal Canadian Army, both infantry and armor.

The operation was conceived by a Brit: Lord Louis Mountbatten. It was initially cancelled, the troops dispersed, then somebody somewhere changed their mind and it was re-mounted.

It was a token attempt to placate the Russians.
It was a test of amphibious assault techniques and technologies. And the list goes on...

There's been all sorts of reasons given for it being launched, and why it ultimately failed.

Suffice it to say, the Canadians wanted in on the action. And we learned at very great cost to be careful what we wished for.

A side mission tacked onto the Dieppe raid was a top secret mission to land a radar expert to capture German radar technology from a site close to Dieppe. There's a good book called 'Green Beach' that tells the story.

There were plenty of raids along the French coast, namely the St. Nazaire raid.

Dieppe was pretty much supposed to be a skirmish. It was to test the German defenses and establish a beachhead long enough to safely pull out. As said, Canadian and British forces were cut to ribbons. The armor support was nailed by artillery on the coastline, and only a couple pieces got ashore before they were taken out.

The Germans documented the battle rather well.