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Cover Image: Dieppe 1942

Dieppe 1942

Pub Date:

Review by

PETER C, Reviewer

A well researched and fascinating book. To be honest, even though I am a military historian, I had very little prior knowledge of this disastrous event, The author was able to give a very detailed and exciting account of the action from both the Allied and German perspectives.

The events that took place were extremely badly planned by the British and Canadian High Command. The senior officers somehow escaped official retribution. The vignettes of the actions of the individual servicemen on the ground were extremely graphic and shocking. There were many acts of extraordinary bravery, as well as understandably, apparent cowardice. The author captures these individual stories very well, bringing the reader onto the front line of the action.

The author succinctly captures one of the only redeeming feature of the raid, the aspect of lessons learned for the Normandy invasion in July 1944. It is impossible to calculate the many thousands of lives that were saved in Normandy by more detailed planning, better equipment, specialist training, overwhelming resources and the use of heavy naval guns.

Ronald Atkin, also highlights the incredible compassion shown by the German troops in attending to the horrific injuries suffered by the Allies.

Without a doubt this is one of the best military history books I have read recently. In my opinion, the author ranks with Antony Beevor.
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