Dieppe

This WWII historical memoir chronicles the Canadian-led raid on a Nazi-occupied port in Northern France, as well as capture and escape from POW camps.

 


Gripping in its intensity and detail, John Mellor's account of the doomed raid on Dieppe, France, in 1942 combines authoritative research with his own firsthand experience. Examining the debate surrounding this tactical failure, Mellor also puts the reader in the landing craft and on the beaches with individual Canadian soldiers.


 

Dieppe recounts the terrible deaths of 807 Canadians and the damage to 1,946 survivors whose subsequent march to German prisoner-of-war camps is nearly as tragic as the raid itself. Mellor writes candidly about the survival tactics, the successful tunnel escapes, and the heroism of nearly three years in appalling captivity, including the desperate "death marches" the prisoners endured.