Operation Jubilee Dieppe, 1942: The Folly and the Sacrifice

A GRIPPING TALE OF HEROIC FAILURE DURING THE DIEPPE RAID OF 1942

On the moonless night of 18 August 1942 a flotilla pushes out into the flat water of the Channel. They are to seize the German-held port of Dieppe and hold it for at least twenty-four hours, showing the Soviets the Allies were serious about a second front and to get experience ahead of a full-scale invasion.

But confidence turned to carnage with nearly two thirds of the attackers dead, wounded or captured. Operation Jubilee - the Royal Air Force's biggest battle since 1940 - has drama from start to finish, human folly and tragedy in spades and a fast, tight narrative with heroes at every level. The raid was both a disaster and a milestone in the narrative of the war - it had powerful lessons and far-reaching consequences that paved the way to D-Day.

Using first-hand testimony and recently declassified source material from archives across several countries, bestselling author Patrick Bishop's account of this gallant endeavour reveals the big picture and unearths telling details, establishing definitively Operation Jubilee's place in history.

'A deeply humane, lucidly written and powerful tribute to some of the unsung heroes of the Second World War' Sunday Times on Bomber Boys

'This is the best kind of military history - the kind in which the author never loses sight of the impact of war on its victims, German as well as British, and those who were left behind... It reminds the rest of us what their war was all about' Evening Standard on Bomber Boys