Canada in World War II - Part 4: Fighting on Land and Initial Failures

Canadians soldiers en route to Hong Kong. To avoid
conscription, the Canadian military accepted dogs into
their forces, but were considered lesser soldiers and
were not issued uniforms.

In a sense, the war started in 1937 with the invasion of China by Japan. In the wake of Japanese imperialism and a desire to control Asia, China took the brunt of things early on, their citizenry soon subject to brutal annihilation and torture, including the experimentation on civilians and other such horrors. (If you're interested, go check out the blogs I did on Nanking which detail the atrocities in a neat little summary.) The Western world had a stake in this due to the British ownership of Hong Kong, which was dangerously close to the invading and encroaching Japanese. (If you want to know more about the British ownership of Hong Kong, check out my other blog series on the Opium Crisis. This is so cool. Everything's coming full circle.) With the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, the fight for Hong Kong followed shortly after on the 18th. This was the first real test of Canadian ground forces in the second war.

With a prevailing sense that the Japanese were small, weak fighters, the Western world took them a little lightly. Not nearly prepared enough, the imperial defenses of Hong Kong, many Canadians and Indians included, were quickly overrun - largely due to an incompetent British general who, in spite of countless mistakes, blamed the soldiers for the loss. (Really, the British are taking the "snobby jerk" stereotype and thrusting it to the forefront throughout this war.)

Those that were taken prisoner fared about as poorly as anyone could in the Second World War; the men were tortured and beaten or outright murdered. Any women that were found were almost assuredly raped. While the popular theme of the war in the years to come focusses predominantly on Nazi atrocities, Japanese prison camps were far worse and far more deadly. They would be withheld medical equipment; food was composed of grass, rice, weeds and fish heads; malnutrition and disease was not the exception but the norm. This soldier's account gives a chilling description, but one that describes it far better than I could:
"The Japanese who bayoneted those helpless people in their beds just did it. They showed no emotion afterwards... the slaughter had been done so efficiently that it was impossible to believe that one human being could do such savage things to another human being... ears were cut off, tongues cut out and eyes gouged from their sockets hanging on their cheeks."

I know the writing is small, but blue = bad. It goes to show just how
dire the situation was. Thank goodness it isn't life Wolfenstein
where Hitler was actually a super-powered robot version of himself.
Then they'd be in real trouble.

It's funny thinking back to my school days that we focussed predominantly on the Canadian internment of Japanese-Canadian citizens - a dark time, of course - but neglected to mention the abuse of our soldiers overseas.

This would be the last major foray on land for quite some time. The next would go far worse.

By April of 1942, the Germans had the mainland. It's one of those things that when you go online and find maps that show the territory changes over the years of the war, you see just how close the Nazis were to really taking over everything. The British were near capitulation, the French were defeated, the empires of western Europe were collapsing, and the Americans would have been unwilling to attack if the rest had given in. Everyone - allied and enemy - knew that an attack on the mainland was going to buy ground only with blood, and the way they decided to try to breach this was by taking small potshots at the enemy to weaken them before a full invasion. It also served the purpose of pacifying Stalin, who under increasing pressure was beginning to grow weary of a Western front that was (and never was) anywhere near the bloodbath that was his border. So to test out the new plan, they sent in the Canadians. This ill-conceived, deadly plan would be put in the bad side of the Canadian history books. It was the battle for Dieppe.

Dieppe was a French coastal vacation spot that was to be the assault point for 5.6 thousand troops. Canadians would be taking the lead on this with a support force of 250 British marines that had a plan for a covert code stealing mission intending to disrupt u-boats. Designed to be a lightning fast but brief assault, more of a smash-and-grab than an all-out-battle. Well, "designed" is generous. What would happen was a string of poor decision making, that, as always, leaves the poor soldiers to take the heat of the mistakes.

First, the general. Second cousin to the future queen, he was of royal blood and therefore given a position he didn't necessarily earn - which will show in the time to come. With the first plan for the invasion disrupted due to inclement weather, he decided he would attack the same place thinking the enemy wouldn't anticipate a commander continuing an assault that's already been foreseen. Surprise was gone. It's a bit like playing paper-rock-scissors and going paper twice in a row... except here instead of just two other options you have countless others and you're dealing with the lives of thousands of men, so... slightly off.

Second, the air commander didn't want to risk sending bombers into a place that was likely highly defended. Unfortunately, as they found out, it was highly defended but not by anti-aircraft guns. Of course, sending land forces into a place that's highly defended also seems like a risky move too, but... I digress.

Three German soldiers inspect a Canadian Churchill tank. The fourth man,
on the right, wasn't cool enough to be invited. Not being part of the "it"
crowd weighed heavily on the morale of the troops.

Third, the navy refused to commit as well. Not wanting to spread the navy too thin, they held back their forces and let the chips fall where they may for the unfortunate soldiers that would be strolling into a sniper-nest and machine-gun laden hellscape without proper air or sea support.

Lastly, the plan was to battle through, do a ton of damage, and promptly retreat. Now, if there's one lesson I've learned about medieval that seems to apply across the board from Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcasts, it's armies only get destroyed in battle every so often. The real damage is done in retreat, where the defenders or the attackers are routed and the counterattack is the most devastating. The problem with this hasty retreat is no one really considered how it would be done. You can have a fighting retreat, but you're backed against the ocean. Coordinating ships to come in and pick you up at the right time is one thing, but loading the men onto them and somehow avoiding the counter-attacking nazis is yet another.

So in spite of all this they went ahead. Meant to be a three-pronged assault, some attacking Puys to the north, another attacking Pourville to the south, and the remainder going headfirst into Dieppe through the centre. The men attacking Puys found themselves spotted ages before the landing, and the landing was no better. Finding only a 200 meter beach which, naturally, the machine guns were firmly planted towards, many were killed before they even left the landing craft. One such private was shot through the eye, dragged himself to safety, was then shot in the leg, and while bandaging his face was shot in the head. He blacked out, but survived.

Pourville, meanwhile, was taken relatively well. After a few hours of pushing forward, they retreated - but found that they had nowhere to retreat to as I mentioned earlier. The nazis still held cliff sides and the close-quarters nature of the fighting meant they couldn't safely get back on their ships. They left an exceptionally brave and self-sacrificing 250 to defend the 600 or so that managed to retreat to the ships.

The main assault did not fare near as well. Mines in the water destroyed many landing ships as they

Canadian wounded, a incapacitated tank, and the wreckage
of a landing craft. Dieppe in a nutshell. I'll admit it was
more enjoyable to read the World War I Canadian history
stuff where it was mostly page after page of us winning.

came in along with a withering assault of mortar fire. Tanks arrived fifteen minutes later than intended, and while many were shot down before they made it to land 27 still arrived. Unfortunately, Mountbatten had neglected to discuss with the British about the beach itself - which many of them would have visited as it was a popular tourist destination for them - and they discovered that chert, the rock on the beach, was far too high. Chert destroyed somewhere between six and nine of the tracks of the tanks, rendering them useless. Due to the mistiming of the landing, the rest couldn't get over the concrete barriers as the Canadian engineers didn't have a chance to destroy them as they were mostly killed in the landing itself. It was a nightmarish debacle, and one that would serve not as an example of how to have an effective speed-attack on land, but a terrible showing of how desperate a situation can be when proper planning is brushed aside.

4963 embarked, but only 2211 returned. It was the single most costly day in World War II for Canada. Mountbatten, the buffoonish general, was promoted to supreme allied commander in Southeast Asia, a comfortable position for someone of Royal Blood.

Ugh.