Royal Canadian Legion branch marks Dieppe Raid anniversary with ceremony, new artwork

It's time to remember why Dieppe Gardens has its name.

Monday marks the 82nd anniversary of Operation Jubilee, better known as the Dieppe Raid — the bloodiest day for Canadian soldiers in the entirety of the Second World War.

Along with Monday's annual ceremony at the Dieppe memorial on Windsor's riverfront, Royal Canadian Legion Branch 594 has commissioned a mural-style artwork that pays tribute to the day when Allied Forces attempted an assault on the German-occupied port of Dieppe in Northern France.

The new piece was installed over the entrance to a room at the legion hall that is named for Dieppe.

"I would like to think that not many would not know (about Dieppe)," said Morris Brause, a retired lieutenant-colonel of the Canadian Forces and current president of Branch 594. "I think that there's fairly good knowledge in our community."

"You can't just reflect on victory. You have to reflect on what happened, and what didn't go well," Brause explained.

A march on the riverfront and a gathering at the Red Beach Memorial is scheduled for 12:30 Monday, to be followed by an unveiling event at the legion hall at 5030 Howard Ave.

Nicole Hutchinson, who has also done mural-style art for the Canadian Aviation Museum, was responsible for the new Dieppe artwork.

She selected real photos of the lead-up, the battle, and the aftermath, then digitally reproduced them in a large collage.

"I wanted to have a balance of land, air, and sea," Hutchinson said.

Among the images chosen were wounded men being carried on stretchers, and the sinking of an Allied warship.

"No war comes without fatality," Hutchinson said. "I wanted the viewer to say, 'Tell me more.'"

The artwork at the legion hall is accompanied by photos of local veterans and historical information about the involvement of the Essex Kent Scottish Regiment in Operation Jubilee.

Widely considered a tragic failure for Allied forces, the Dieppe Raid resulted in the deaths of 907 Canadian soldiers — the most Canadians killed in a single day during the Second World War.

There were British and American casualties as well, but Canadians made up the bulk of the landing force of more than 6,000 infantry.

It's been estimated that over 2,400 Canadian soldiers were wounded and over 1,900 were captured.

Soldiers of the Essex Scottish Regiment were among those who fell. Records show 553 serving members of the regiment participated in Operation Jubilee. 121 were killed in the raid, 27 were injured, and 354 were taken prisoner. Only 51 returned from the mission unscathed.

Multiple reasons have been cited for why the operation met disaster, including poor timing, lack of adequate support, the overwhelming firepower of the Germans, and the defensible geography of the port.

The Dieppe Raid pre-dated D-Day — the successful Allied invasion of Normandy — by almost two years.

Brause said that while Operation Jubilee was an "ugly, unmitigated disaster," it had impacts that proved important to the overall Allied effort: Painful lessons were learned about German defences, the blood cost to Canada and the United Kingdom encouraged Russia to keep fighting on the eastern front, and an attempt was made to capture an enigma machine — used to encode German military communications — during the raid.

Hutchinson said she believes that as the events of the Second World War grow more distant in history, artwork becomes increasingly more important to maintain awareness in coming generations.

"We can't just rely on our history books," Hutchinson said. "It's our own storytelling that keeps (the memory) alive."

Asked why it's necessary to remember Dieppe, Hutchinson replied: "Sacrifice. As the story goes, we aren't here without sacrifice."

"The mission wasn't successful, but there were people who believed, and fought for it."