In 1942, it looked as if the Germans were just too powerful for the Allies to stop. The Germans managed to go deep into Russia and cause destruction while the British had been forced back into Egypt, and in Western Europe the Allied forces faced the Germans across the English Channel. The Allies needed to begin a battle that would conquer the Germans, so that the Allies would be feared. They decided to start a raid, to be more specific, The Raid on Dieppe. The raid would also provide an opportunity to test new techniques and equipment.

The attack upon Dieppe took place on August 19, 1942. The total troops involved were 6,100 and remarkably nearly 5,000 of the troops were Canadians. I was among one of those Canadians, my name is Robert Stevenson. This was without a doubt one of the toughest battles Canadians had to face during World War II, it was gruesome and horrifying and I am finally ready to tell my story of The Raid on Dieppe. The Raid called for attacks at 5 main points on a front. Four simultaneous flank attacks were to go in just before dawn, followed half an hour later by the main attack on the town of Dieppe itself. I was on the force for the frontal attack on Dieppe at Pourville to the west, but not Puys to the east.

The east sector, which was Puys, was won by the Germans who just whipped the troops out with their convoys. The beach there was extremely narrow and was surrounded by cliffs where German soldiers were strategically placed. The Canadians success in that sector depended on surprise and darkness, neither of which worked in their favor. Unfortunately the naval landing was delayed, and as the Canadian troops made it to shore the Germans soldiers exploded with violent machine-gun fire which left 200 killed and 20 died later of their wounds. The rest of the Canadians were taken prisoner. The failure for Canadians to arrive on time is what led the Germans to taking over the east sector.

Now it was down to the west sector, which I was luckily assigned to, because if I had been in the east sector at this time, I would have been dead. In the west section at Pourville, we were fortunate, the South Saskatchewan Regiment and Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada surrounded the beaches to join and protect us Canadian troops. Things suddenly looked to be shifting in our favor. But then, approaching the beach, we saw the enemy and they were able to bring fierce fire upon the beach from sniper positions to Pourville and they were just too strong and used their weaponry to an advantage and killed hundreds of men. I was lucky enough to survive and didn’t suffer the same fate as half of our Canadian troops.

Of the 4,963 Canadians who risked their lives on the raid only 2,210 returned to England, and many of these were wounded. I was one of the 2,210 men who returned, I did suffer from minor shell shock, but I am just happy to be alive and know that I fought through Dieppe, and even though us Canadians were not successful, the Germans were now aware of what capabilities that lied in the Allies hands, and they needed to watch out, because we would come at them stronger than ever on our next attacks.