Dieppe

We had a wonderful weekend in Dieppe. Picking up the car on the outskirts of town worked great. Navigation was a breeze thanks to Mr. Garmin and his wonderful GPS contraption. By the way, if anyone is traveling to Europe and plans to drive, you're welcome to borrow our GPS. I was a little concerned about the traffic circles or roundabouts at first, but not only am I a pro now, but I'm also a huge fan of them. If you think that every traffic circle would normally be a stop sign or traffic light, where you're sitting still wasting gas and time, traffic circles make much more sense.

Saturday morning we toured the town and specifically the sights relating to the raid by Canadian soldiers on August 19, 1942. Right across from the hotel was the Square du Canada war memorial.

The Dieppe raid was conducted by 6000 troops who were mostly Canadians from the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. The main goal was to take the town temporarily in order to prove that it could be done and to gather intelligence. It was never the intention of the Allies to hold Dieppe. The raid was not a success. Of the 6000 men, almost 60% were killed, wounded or captured. When you see the beach heads, you can understand why it wasn't a success.

Later one of the British Commanders, Admiral Mountbatten, said that the lessons learned at Dieppe were put to good use on D-Day, claiming "I have no doubt that the Battle of Normandy was won on the beaches of Dieppe." I don't know if he truly believed that or if he was simply justifying what happened in Dieppe.

There are 707 Canadians buried in the Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery. This cemetery is unique from other Commonwealth war cemeteries. It was actually created by the Germans after the raid and was set up in the fashion of German war cemeteries. The headstones are placed back to back in rows. After the war, the headstones were replaced but they did not want to disturb the bodies. It was a sobering experience, to say the least, but I think it's an experience all Canadians should have.

Later in the day, we drove up the coast to Boulogne sur Mer. It made Lori feel right at home because the fog was as thick as pea soup. It was a very lovely town but I don't have any pictures because they would have been completely white. We had a late lunch and then headed back to Dieppe.

The next day we headed in the opposite direction along the coast and visited the Juno Beach Centre in Courseulles sur Mer. It opened in 2003 and not only commemorates the Canadian contribution to the D-Day landings, but the entire war as well.

It's a great centre with lots of interactive displays. It seemed to be geared towards teaching children and young Canadians about what happened here on June 6, 1944, which I think is great. We need to keep those memories alive.

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