The Allied wanted to stage a raid on Dieppe in France to prove they could do it to improve morale, gather information and destroy strategic objectives. The raid took place on August 19, 1942 when 5,000 Canadians , 1000 British and 50 US army rangers landed in Dieppe. The Germans had been warned that the British might land in the area.

There were a number of components to the landing, there were landings aimed at capturing coastal batteries one at the Yellow Beach, whose goal was to destroy a coastal battery near Berneval. The attackers distracted the gunners but were forced to withdraw without destroying the guns. There was an attack on Orange Beach were guns near Varengeville were destroyed the one total success of the whole mission. An attack at what was designated Blue Beach was a total failure and of the 556 men 200 were killed and 264 were wounded. The soldiers who landed at Green Beach landed in the wrong place and they were not able to reach their objective and withdrew after losing many men. There was an attack on the Pourville radar station. That attack did not succeed to get into the radar station, but by cutting the telephone lines of the station they forced the operators to communicate by radio, and those communications were intercepted and the British obtain important intelligence.

The main landing took place on the Rea and the White Beaches. The main landing took place at 3:15 am. The landing were met with stone opposition. The initial plans called for the landing of armor with the infantry. The armor was delayed to the infantry had to attack without support. By 9:40 the decision was made to withdraw. By 14:00 withdrawal was complete.

During the landing the British and the Luftwaffe engaged in battles over the area. The British airforce managed to protect the landing ships from German attacks. The Allies lost 106 aircraft compared to 48 lost by Luftwaffe. Of the 5,000 Canadians 3,367 were killed wounded or captured. The British lost 247 men of the 1000 who took part. Of the 50 American Army Rangers six were killed, seven wounded and four captured,