Dieppe

Today was a chance to hop a train for the hour's journey out to the port of Dieppe. This small city is a huge commercial port and a smaller fishing and pleasure boat port but is most famous for the raid of August 1942 and the great sacrifices by many but mainly Canadians. This also was as close as we could get to a 70th anniversary as the city was liberated, again by the Canadians, 70 years ago this week. Maple leaf flags abound throughout the old town and while the community is setting up to host an international kite festival this weekend, there were still plenty signs of the anniversary. Built into the side of the cliffs on the west side of town is a Canadian monument which interestingly enough started before the war as a way to honor the many explorers who headed to Quebec from Dieppe. The names, the sacrifices of some missionaries are still commemorated on a stone in the center of the park but it is the two dates on the bottom that are the reasons all the flags and poppy wreaths are there. 8-19-42 and 9-1-44 commemorate the great sacrifice of those loyal to the flower Maple Leaf flags which adorn the park.

A walk to the Castle lead to a realization that most of the town shuts down at noon for two hours but that was an excuse to purchase baguettes avec jamb on et fomage and a chocolate Madeline and head for the beach. The beach at Dieppe is made up of billions so small rocks, most about the size of your thumb. It is called a shingle beach, deposited by a freak tide. The rocks are impossible to walk in with bare feet but they retain heat and make a nice picnic place on an overcast day. Given that the day was full of WWII activities, I found it rather appropriate that the coke can purchased had the French word frère on it: brothers.

After lunch, there was a walk past the Oscar Wilde hangout - now a big tourist food place and it was time for the Dieppe war museum, a converted theater housing a 40 minute video that you watch on a screen behind which are photos of the Dieppe veterans taken at the 65th. There are lots of uniforms and miniatures but it is the soldiers voices you here telling of the battle. Operation Jubilee was the first attempt to open a front in Northern Europe. A force made up of roughly 5000 Canadians and Brits with 50 US Rangers and a half dozen Belgian soldiers thrown in assaulted the beach in what was designed to be a raid. 2000 Canadians were taken prisoner, roughly 800 were killed. The Allies learned from Dieppe, a lot so much so that it is said that every lost soldier "saved" 10 of his colleagues on D Day with the knowledge of tactics that changed between the two assaults.
Three US Rangers were among those lost but the stories of the veterans that resonated most were the doctor who sent his colleagues to collect notes and papers from the wounded soldiers before the Germans could get to them. Lying in the hospital grounds, doctors and priests filled their pockets with notes, personal and military that they were able to get to the Red Cross later in the year. Also a nun saved a soldier who was wounded, he never saw here but heard her voice and recognized it when he returned for an anniversary. The two of them tell the story and I don't think there was a dry eye left in the building. Photos of them adorn the wall of the museum.

A very emotional place.

Finally, there was a peek into the main church - which lighted the mood considerably as it was filled with kites for the upcoming festival.