Military Model Scene

Title: The Dieppe Raid
Author: John Grehan & Alexander Nicoll
Publisher: Frontline Books
ISBN: 978-1-39906-720-1

A recent addition to the series of Images of War books, the story of the Dieppe Raid of 1942, this one from Frontline Books, an imprint of Pen & Sword. A soft-cover book of 194-pages, and another with a greater proportion of text to tell the story than most in this series, alongside the usual collection of archive pictures.
The story in this case is spread across 12 chapters. It explains how the allies were under pressure to open a new front in NW Europe, to relieve some of the pressure on the Soviets. The first plan, for Operation Rutter, which was cancelled, and what became Operation Jubilee. Despite a reasonable start, things started to go wrong when one of the groups of ships heading for the French coast ran into a German coastal convoy in the dark, and flares etc put the coastal defences on alert. The result of this had a serious affect on the Commando group due to land on the yellow beaches, to the east of Dieppe itself. The one successful element of the attack took place on the two Orange beaches to the west of Dieppe. Led by Lord Lovat, who was of course to achieve more fame for his role in the D-Day landings and his support for the glider which had landed at Pegasus Bridge. At Dieppe his group not only landed and succeeded in their mission, they mostly were able to withdraw as planned when they finished. Each set of beaches are tackled separately, so in addition to Yellow and Orange, there were Blue, Green, Red and White beaches as well. As well as these, the main tank assault and the aerial battle that supported the whole operation are also covered, along with the withdrawal and the aftermath. Some of the photos are well known, especially the Churchill tanks abandoned on the beaches, there are many others, and all have some detailed captions in addition to the supporting text.
Operation Jubilee and the attack on Dieppe was a costly failure, and the largely Canadian force suffered over 50% casualties. While there were some minor successes within the overall scheme, it was a costly failure. This is by no means the only book on Dieppe, but I found it a a very good one, both the text that details the operation but a really good collection of archive images covering Operation Jubilee as well. Good value for money I think for what you get.
Thanks to Frontline Books/Pen & Sword for the review copy.

Robin