“Disasters bring us face to face with the limits of our abilities to offer explanations.”
– BRIAN LORING VILLA, UNAUTHORIZED ACTION: MOUNTBATTEN AND THE DIEPPE RAID
The Juno Beach Centre (JBC) in Normandy, France, is pleased to announce a new temporary exhibition produced in partnership with the War Heritage Institute (WHI) in Brussels, Belgium.
FROM DIEPPE TO JUNO: The 80th ANNIVERSARY OF THE DIEPPE RAID OPENS MARCH 12, 2022 AT THE JUNO BEACH CENTRE
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The failure of the Dieppe Raid is much more than a tragedy played out over a few short hours. The assault is a focal point to explore military strategy, emotional trauma and healing.
Over the past eight decades, historians have documented, analyzed and debated the events of the Dieppe Raid. From Dieppe to Juno: The 80th Anniversary of the Dieppe Raid will not attempt to present a definitive narrative about what took place. Instead, it will offer numerous perspectives that reflect the converging elements of the assault.
When history and memory are inextricably linked and debates go unresolved, museums act as spaces where visitors can reflect and explore a diversity of voices and perspectives.
From Dieppe to Juno will bring together unique “voices of Dieppe” that allow visitors to explore the raid’s nuance and complexity. These voices span generations and are represented by soldiers, civilians, mothers, wives, military leaders, and historians.
Eighty years later, as the Dieppe Raid fades from living memory, active remembrance has become more important than ever. With the diversity of voices represented in From Dieppe to Juno, the Juno Beach Centre hopes to inspire a new generation to remember Dieppe differently.
Before remembering, we must first understand.
ABOUT THE DIEPPE RAID
At dawn on August 19, 1942, Canadian and British troops began landing on beaches at and near the French port town of Dieppe. Their mission was to capture the town, destroy the local port facilities and return to England with secret documents that could give the Allies an advantage in the covert war.
But the raid would not unfold as planned. Operation Jubilee became a bloodbath rather than the much hoped-for exercise in bravery, temerity, and daring. The raiders had to retreat, even if it meant leaving wounded men in the waves to drown. Of 4,963 Canadians, only 2,210 returned to Great Britain, including 614 wounded. In fewer than ten hours of fighting, 807 Canadians lay dead. One hundred more would succumb to their wounds back in Great Britain or die in captivity. Some 1,946 Canadians became prisoners of war.
The gap between the plan and what happened on the beaches of Dieppe is immense. Two-thirds of the Canadians who embarked became casualties and hardly any of the raid’s objectives were completed. The results of the raid were immediately translated into propaganda both by the Nazis and Allies for the remainder of the Second World War. Eighty years later, the Dieppe Raid remains shrouded in controversy, mystery, and tragedy.
WHY NOW?
To this day, Dieppe remains one of the most identifiable events in Canadian Second World War history – much like the First World War battles of the Somme for Britain, Verdun for France, and Gallipoli for Australia and New Zealand.
In fact, for many decades Dieppe occupied a greater place in the collective memory of Canadians than the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944. It was not until recent years that the events at Juno Beach have caught up with Dieppe in Canadian memory.
Although Canadians were at the forefront of the ill-fated raid, Dieppe and its legacy had a profound impact on France and the United Kingdom. The consequences of the raid were deeply felt in the days after August 19, 1942. These feelings lasted among Canadian, French and British families who lived through these tragic events and the decades that followed.
EXPLAINING A FAILURE AMONGST MEMORIES OF VICTORY
The Dieppe Raid is caught between the twists and turns of political and military considerations, tactical and strategic issues, tensions between history and collective memory. The exhibition at the Juno Beach Centre – a place emblematic of the Allied victory two years after the bitter failure of 1942 – challenges itself to explore why a few hours of fighting in 1942 still arouses so much interest, indignation and fascination.
Far from being an exhibition which authoritatively “settles” the Dieppe controversy once and for all, From Dieppe to Juno gives visitors the opportunity to reflect on the facts for themselves. The breadth of content will deliberately give rise to potential oppositions and contradictions. The perspectives of other involved nations, including voices of civilians, will add dimension to the exhibition’s plurality of voices.
The Dieppe Raid is a moving and tragic subject. The visitor will experience these strong emotions while travelling through the exhibition as it oscillates between strategic, tactical and technical content and fluid, intimate human stories.
ABOUT THE WAR HERITAGE INSTITUTE
The War Heritage Institute (WHI) is the Belgian scientific federal institution tasked with the preservation and public accessibility of military heritage. As such the WHI manages and conserves a number of important historical military collections from the Middle Ages to the Cold War. These collections are presented to the public in the six WHI sites: the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History in Jubilee Park in Brussels, the National Memorial of Fort Breendonk, Bastogne Barracks, the Trench of Death in Dixmude, the Kemmelberg command bunker and Gunfire in Brasschaat. www.warheritage.be.
PHOTOS FROM DIEPPE
