There is a documentary about the truth around the battle in Dieppe WW2 coming to the History channel.
I can't provide a link yet.. but heres one for Dieppe-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieppe_Raid

It seems the battle of Dieppe wasn't a failure, but rather a huge success and the German enigma machine was involved. I think in my area it airs around Aug 27, 28. Watch for it!

Ill watch it but numbers lie much. The 2 major objectives as far as I am aware was to do a test run of an amphibious assault and the big one: Lure the Luftwaffe out into a major open battle to fatally cripple it...On the 2nd objective it was a disaster. The Fw-190 shocked the Brits, roundly outperforming the Spitfire's and the Typhoon had a very bad start (several lost their tails diving escaping from attacking RCAF Spitfires). As far as the 1st objective, it indeed was a success...the Allies (us) learned we were no where near ready to carry out a major amphibious assault. Pretty much every reason the Normandy landings were successful came from a reason why the Dieppe landing was a disaster.

Steve M wrote on Aug 12^th, 2012 at 1:56pm:


If it has to do with the U-boats, Im not so sure the tremendous losses suffered were worth it. Escorts of convoys were becoming increasingly more numerous and more powerful throughout the war. The real clincher in the war for the Atlantic was the tightening of 'the gap' in the middle via use of "very long range" anti-submarine aircraft like the modified B-24s. Point is, it is arguable. So to me, I would still call it a failure albeit one that taught important lessons that would lead to several far more successful landings.

wahubna wrote on Aug 12^th, 2012 at 2:54pm:


If you hadn't noticed the Second "Happy Time" as the Germans called it was in full swing in August '42.

The Allies didn't manage to blunt the U-Boat threat till mid '43 at the earliest.

Flying Trucker wrote on Aug 13^th, 2012 at 8:55am:

When it first entered service the Typhoon was sometimes mistaken for the Fw 190 by Allied fighter pilots. This led to identification stripes being painted on the wings.

The only reference I can find to Typhoons losing their tails at Dieppe was while attacking Fw 190s. http://spitfirespares.co.uk/reference13.%20html.html

The Dieppe operations in August 1942 was the first official combat use of the RAF Typhoon, they bounced a formation of FW 190s south of Le Treport, diving out of the sun and damaging three of the German fighters, but two of the Typhoons did not pull out of their dive owing to structural failures in their tail assemblies.

PS. I just found this: The wing took part in Operation Jubilee, the Dieppe landings of 19 August 1942, flying three sweeps on the fringe of the main action. No.266 was the only squadron in the wing to achieve any successes on the day, claiming one Do.217 destroyed and one probably. At this stage in its career the Typhoon was plagued by identification problems, and the pilot who scored the victory, Plt Lt Dawson, was killed when his aircraft was shot down by a Spitfire on the way back to England. In the aftermath of this incident the Typhoons were given yellow wing bands. Late in 1942 these were replaced by a white nose and black under-wing stripes, then finally by black and white under-wing stripes, which were used across 1943.

andy190 wrote on Aug 13^th, 2012 at 1:33am:


Actually, for one I DID notice and the 'blunting' started to occur in November '42, not mid '43. My point was that the presence of capable ASW aircraft with increasingly effective convoy escort ships and sub-hunting corvettes, the U-boat went from "a predatory wolf to a hunted dog" in the words of  Chris Bishop from his book 'The Encyclopedia of 20th Century Air Warfare' (which I cannot stop re reading  ). I should point out that the British war industry still out produced the German throughout the war. Even through the Battle of Britain and all the convoy raids. But that has more to do with the notorious British resolve than materials. Hats off to the Brits!

The other major result of the Dieppe landings was to temporarily appease Stalin as he became increasingly louder about wanting the Western allies to open a 'second front'...ironically, he kept up that yelling after all the Med & Africa landings! Even after Normandy Stalin belly ached about wanting a second front open....never mind by that point HIS troops were in former German territory...

RAFSB wrote on Aug 16^th, 2012 at 6:38pm:



I had the date wrong in my original post. If you would like to watch it I think it's this weekend. If any of you see the show it would be nice to hear your comments. I'm stuck working all weekend and not sure I'll catch the first showing. Thanks for the input my Cambridge comrad!

If it's on the history channel it's been rewritten - poorly.

Wikipedia

Quote:

What a joke.