 The story of a raid that should never have happened. On August 19, 1942 over 6,000 men embarked on a raid against the German occupied French town of Dieppe. 5,000 of these men were Canadians, the rest were British commandos and few dozen American Rangers. The raid ended in disaster, few units actually reached their objectives while the main force was stuck on the beach. Tanks were unable to cross the beach, but the crews continued to fight until the very end, being taken prisoner or killed in battle. Of the 4,963 Canadians who took part in the raid, only 2,210 returned to Britain. On June 6, 1944 the lessons gained from the failure of Dieppe were used to great effect, casualties were lower than expected and a beach-head was secured.