Failed landing near Dieppe

In late 1941 – after Japan enters the war on the side of the Axis Powers – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed that victory in Europe shall take precedence over the theatre of war in the Pacific („Germany first“).

© VAC Fortifications at the beach of Dieppe

Under significant pressure by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to finally establish a second front on the European continent, two Canadian brigades attempt a landing near Dieppe on France’s Atlantic coast on 19 August 1942. With heavy casualties, the attempt fails that same day. The allies have to lay to rest their hopes that the „trial run“ could develop into a „large-scale“ invasion. The operation causes Adolf Hitler to give the order for a massive expansion of the „Atlantic Wall“.