Windsorites paused Saturday to mark the anniversary of one of the deadliest raids of the Second World War.
The Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment held its annual memorial service at Dieppe Gardens downtown to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the Dieppe Raid.
The raid, known by the code name Operation Jubilee, took place on August 19, 1942, at Dieppe, in the north of France. Just over 6,000 soldiers, most of them Canadian, were put ashore by a naval force operating with the protection of the Royal Air Force. The men tried in vain to capture the Dieppe port for the Allies, as they soon became buried under a German attack.
After a ten-hour siege, 3,623 of the soldiers were dead, wounded, or captured.
The Allies learned from the mistakes made at Dieppe, as less than two years later, the successful D-Day operation marked the start of Western Europe being liberated from German tyranny.
The ceremony began at 1 p.m. Saturday with an opening prayer and remarks by various dignitaries. A moment of silence was followed by a piper's lament and the laying of a wreath at the monument.
According to the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment, it sent 521 soldiers and 32 officers, landing on the eastern section of the main attack on the Red beach. Of the 2,200 Canadians who were able to return to England following the raid, only 49 soldiers and two officers from the Regiment were among them.
-with files from Adelle Loiselle
