Operation Jubilee - 71st anniversary

I was just reading about this operation the other day. Aside from No.4 Commando, none of the raiding forces mission objectives were met. The Canadian units involved were either decimated or annihilated, and only a fraction of them were able to extract back to England. I would definitely lean towards fiasco in the mission's outcome. But it did provide a wealth of lessons learned (especially what not to do) for the Normandy invasion two years later.

Last year a new a theory was revealed after 15 years of research, proposing that the raid was a backdrop to a covert mission to steal naval documents and an enigma machine.  The researcher had no proof that the whole  raid was built around this, but it has been accepted that this was one of the objectives.  For veterans, news of this has taken out some harshness of the bitter feelings, but is still considered a failure.  As it was, Ian Fleming's commandos did not find what they were looking for.

regards,

Jack

That does not sound quite plausible. 1) British Intelligence obtained their first Enigma machine shortly before the outbreak of war in 1939, yes they may have wanted the "latest model", but on a large scale raid of that sort it does not bode well for capturing one intact 2) What sort of Naval Documents would be obtained at Dieppe? it was not a major base/HQ as say Brest, Lorient, St Nazaire, etc. 3) why a divisional size raid, when objectives of that sort could be more likely obtained in a middle of the night raid from the sky or sea, a la Bruneval or St Nazaire?

since when is a division 6000 men? if the machine was taken at dieppe during the fighting, the germans afterwards would believe it was destroyed in the fighting & not change the codes as they would if taken in a commando raid. the germans did not know we had captured 2 or more machines at sea so they did not change their naval codes which they would have if they knew we had them.

When you take away artillery and non combat arms supporting elements, the infantry compliment of many divisions is around 6000 men. The tooth to tail ratio. The 82nd and 101st, both dropped in around 6000 men into Normandy for the initial D-Day assault overnight.

For such a sensitive item as an Enigma machine, if it was unaccounted for after a land battle, and there was no destroyed remains of the machine where it had been, it would be foolish of the Germans not to presume that it had been captured. It's not like at sea, where the machines went down with the sunken U-Boat. Only thru great risk and fortune were those Enigmas captured.

The name of the researcher is David O’Keefe, and when he confronted British Naval authorities with his evidence, they acknowledged that he had discovered the truth.  

Though not a major port, there was a naval HQ based at Dieppe, specifically at Hotel Moderne.  There was also an important radar installation located in this area.  Intelligence was certain that trawlers based at the harbour were also being used as spy ships.  The special commando unit was instructed to search both the hotel and specific boats in harbour.

Of course, if the enigma machine was to be found (the 4-rotor type), gleefully running off with it tucked under your arm and thinking the Germans would be none the wiser - I'm sure allied intelligence was aware of this and had no intention of removing it.

Again, the only thing that hasn't been proven is this 'spy mission'  was the major driving force behind the Dieppe raid.

regards,

Jack

Piggybacking an Enigma intel mission on to a large raid makes sense. But that being the driving force behind a large scale raid does not make as much sense. A smal force can be inserted covertly and extracted with a much greater chance of success, (demonstrated by British Commandos on numerous occasions) as opposed to the "thundering herd" approach of this raid. In any case, it was a gallant, if doomed mission. And the lessons learned in blood there did pay huge dividends two years later.