It’s been 77 years since Operation Jubilee, Canada’s first engagement in the European theatre of the Second World War. What was meant to be a simple operation quickly became a tragedy, as more than 900 Canadian soldiers lost their lives in what’s become known as the Dieppe Raid.

While we commemorate the Dieppe Raid every year on Aug. 19, the contributions of soldiers from northeastern Ontario are often overlooked.

Historian Dieter Buse of Laurentian University specializes in military history. His book, Untold: Northeastern Ontario’s Military Past, Volume II, World War II to Peacekeeping, co-written by Graeme Mount, will be released in October. It follows a previous volume which documents northeastern Ontario’s military history from 1662 to the Second World War.

Buse says that enlistment rates were just as high in northeastern Ontario as anywhere else in Canada during the Second World War. By mid-1991, 1,500 men, the equivalent of two battalions, were recruited from the region for the war effort.

“Our region tends to be overlooked because they’re put with units that are identified with other places,” says Buse.

In their research, Buse and Mount found soldiers from northeastern Ontario in two of the units that participated in the Dieppe Raid. Twenty-percent of the men with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, which landed on Red Beach, were from the northeast region. There were also soldiers from Mattawa, Timmins and Cobalt in the Royal Regiment of Canada, which landed on Blue Beach.

Because these units are associated with Toronto and Hamilton, the number of soldiers from northeastern Ontario in them isn’t often acknowledged.

Of the 4,963 Canadians who took part in the Dieppe Raid, 916 were killed.

Buse says 20 soldiers from northeastern Ontario were killed during the Dieppe Raid. At least 20 more were captured, wounded or went missing. “That’s an incomplete listing, we know. But it shows you that our region tends to be overlooked.

Despite the grim outcome, Canadians kept enlisting, including more men from northeastern Ontario. When Dieppe was liberated in 1944, some soldiers from northeastern Ontario were there to see it.

“I don’t think (the Dieppe Raid) affected the morale,” says Buse. “I think it made it (them) more determined to recruit and fight this to the end.”

sud.editorial@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @Mia_RJensen