Introduction: In the midst of some of the darkest days of the Second World War, a spark of hope had been lit within the remaining members of the Allied forces. Since the fall of France in the summer of 1940, Britain remained alone in her fight against the Axis menace, with only the members of her Commonwealth supporting her cause. Yet, while most pragmatists would expect her to have quickly fallen to Nazi Germany like the rest of Europe, nations from across the world, such as Canada, Australia, South Africa, and others, refused to let the remaining torch of freedom in Europe die out. The Battles of Britain, and the Atlantic respectively, had proven how resolute the Empire would be in Britain’s defence, but also how incapable their limited …show more content…
Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbour, Britain now had two major powers supporting her war effort. Yet, even with two of the world’s strongest armies on their side, the war was still not going particularly well. The Germans were deep within Soviet territory and Stalin was putting tremendous pressure on the Western Allies to open up a second front to help the Red Army by forcing Germany to relocate many of their troops. This diplomatic pressure had resulted in the Allies’ plan to launch an assault on German territory, but the feasibility of their plan needed to be tested before any major operation could take place. As a result, the now infamous Dieppe Raid took place and was consequently a catastrophic failure. Due to the adoption of poor tactics, the lack of any heavy bombardment prior to the assault, and poor quality of weapons the Canadian soldiers had access to, the raid was doomed from the start. Yet, even considering the tremendous casualties that the Canadians and the British suffered, many still consider the raid integral to the future successes of the Allies in both the Operation Torch and Operation Overlord campaigns, as the costly lessons learned helped prevent any future