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The Dieppe Raid

~~$29.95~~ $26.95

The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition
By Robin Neillands
Published in 2005 by Aurum, UK
HARDCOVER, 292 Pages
Size - 24.5cm * 17cm

The Dieppe Raid is one of World War II's most controversial episodes. In 1942, a full two years before D-Day, thousands of men, mostly Canadian troops eager for their first taste of battle, were sent across the Channel in a raid on the French port town of Dieppe. Air supremacy was not secured; the topography- a town hemmed in bytall cliffs and reached by steep beaches - meant any invasion was improbably difficult. The result was carnage: the beaches were turned into killing grounds even as the men came ashore, and whole battalions were cut to pieces.

But why was the Raid ever mounted? What was its strategic objective? Afterwards noone appeared to have a clear answer, and neither did it appear that anyone could be held clearly accountable, but posterity has been hard on individuals like Mountbatten, who were instrumental in its planning and the decision to go. Was the whole thing, as has been darkly alleged, expected and even intended to fail, a cynical conspiracyto prove to the Americans, at the expense of so many Canadian lives, the impracticability of staging the Normandy landings for another two years?

In previous works like The Bomber War Robin Neillands has built a considerable reputation for going behind the time-honoured myths of military history to discover what really happened. In this new book he has traced numerous surviving veterans of the Raid, in the UK and Canada, to tell the harrowing story of what actual Iy took place, hour by hour, as disaster unfolded. He has also exhaustively explored all the archival evidence to establish as far as possible the papertrail of command, of who knew- or should have known-what was happening, and whether the whole debacle could have been prevented. The result is the definitive account of one of the Allies' darkest hours.

Robin Neillands is the author of several acclaimed books on World War 2 and military history, including The Bomber War, The Conquest of the Reich, The Desert Rats (also published by Aurum), Eighth Army, The Old Contemptibles and The Battle of Normandy l944. He lectures on military history worldwide, and is a member of the British Commission for Military History. He lives in Wiltshire.

Illustrated with 16 pages of B&W photos and 5 maps