Description

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

‘Patrick Bishop’s exemplary account of this wartime fiasco is a catalogue of blunders such as even our national leaders of today would find impressive… Bishop tells the sorry story with superb authority and verve’ Max Hastings, Sunday Times

‘Patrick Bishop’s well-researched, crisply written and utterly absorbing account of the Dieppe Raid tells a story of heroism and futility that will live for the reader long afterwards’ Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny
____________

On the warm night of 18 August 1942, a flotilla pushed out into the flat water of the Channel. They were to seize the German-held port of Dieppe, destroy key installations, seize intelligence material and then sail for home.

This was the greatest amphibious operation since Gallipoli, with the biggest accumulation of fighter power ever assembled. But by 9am on the day of attack, one of its architects already feared that the operation would “go down as one of the great failures in history”. Confidence turned to carnage, with nearly two thirds of the attackers dead, wounded or captured. It was claimed afterwards by its key players to be essential to D-Day, with the media telling listeners that it was a success — but the tragedy was all too predictable.

Using first-hand testimony from combatants and civilians, forensic analysis of the roles of Mountbatten and Montgomery, and source material from archives across several countries, bestselling author Patrick Bishop’s gripping account brings Operation Jubilee powerfully and vividly to life, in an epic demonstration of how ambition, folly and courage came together in one of the most tragic episodes of the war.
____________

‘Riveting and powerfully written. Patrick Bishop has turned this tragic cautionary tale into a fascinating, shrewd and timely reflection on leadership in a time of crisis’ Henry Hemming, author of Our Man in New York

Publisher Review

Patrick Bishop's well-researched, crisply written and utterly absorbing account of the Dieppe Raid tells a story of heroism and futility that will live for the reader long afterwards. Operation Jubilee was all the more tragic for having been entirely avoidable, in ways reasons that Bishop sets out powerfully, unflinchingly and unanswerably -- Andrew Roberts, author of 'Churchill: Walking with Destiny' Riveting and powerfully written. Patrick Bishop has turned this tragic cautionary tale into a fascinating, shrewd and timely reflection on leadership in a time of crisis, and what can happen to personal ambition in the fevered atmosphere of war -- Henry Hemming, author of 'Our Man in New York' Operation Jubilee is written with verve and knowledge, and with the author's trademark style of integrating eyewitness accounts with insight into the human condition in battle. It draws upon new evidence and provides a new perspective on the French civilians. Recommended reading -- Tim Cook, author of 'The Fight for History' Patrick Bishop's account of the preparation, the battle itself, and its aftermath is forensic, detailed, yet highly readable and written with his great understanding of war. I would be surprised if this book did not become the authoritative history of the disaster that was the Dieppe raid -- General Sir Mike Jackson