The invasion of the French port of Dieppe was codenamed Operation Jubilee. Primarily a Canadian/British operation the idea behind the operation was to probe the German defenses on the continent and perhaps sow fear with the German high command that a real invasion would be forthcoming. Although considering the state of the Allies in 1942 it is very difficult to understand why the Germans would have truly considered this a real possibility.

The target was the beach front of Dieppe, a beach approximately 1500 meters long. Five thousand Canadian troops would carry the brunt of the recon-in-force, while supported by British commandos and about fifty American Rangers. Naval and air support would be surprisingly heavy.

The beach was divided into nine sectors, color coded Yellow, Blue, Red, White, Green, and Orange. Commandos were sent to take Yellow and Orange, while Canadian and British regulars took the rest. The invasion was launched at 3:30 in the morning and immediately problems began. The landing craft were ordered to follow specific warships and in many cases they followed the incorrect ship, leading to many delays as the force was reorganized properly.

During the channel crossing one group, the landing craft carrying the Number 3 Commando group, stumbled into a flotilla of German armed trawlers. A sea battle ensued, and while the landing craft were
able to proceed onwards (thanks in part to the fact these were armed trawlers and not serious warships) all the racket alerted the coastal defenses. What was supposed to be a surprise invasion was now not.
The landings which took place turned the beach into a carnage zone. In one instance only sixty men from a force of five hundred and forty three survived the landing. Naval support was ineffective even though there were hundreds of ships supporting the invasion. The Germans were able to muster up enough large caliber artillery that the coastal defenses actually outgunned the naval support! All the armor the British brought with them, twenty-eight tanks, were destroyed.

The battle above Dieppe has been considered the largest air battle of the Second World War, but at the end of the day there was little to show for it. Ground support was impossible due to heavy smoke over the beach. The RAF had also hoped to destroy a great many of the Luftwaffe aircraft, but of the 2617 sorties flown by the RAF a total of about one hundred and seventy Luftwaffe planes were downed. This compared to the loss of one hundred and six RAF aircraft. The highlight of the air effort was the fact that no German aircraft sank any ships that day.

By nine in the morning the order came to withdraw. The recon-in-force only lasted a few hours and ended up costing the attacking Allied forces nearly seventy-five percent of their forces. It would be two years later that the real invasion of France would occur. Ultimately nothing was gained from the invasion, and it was truly one of the greatest wastes of the war.