Tragedy at Dieppe

Operation Jubilee, August 19, 1942

By: Mark Zuehlke

Narrated by: John Wray

With its trademark "you are there" style, Mark Zuehlke's 10th Canadian Battle Series volume tells the story of the 1942 Dieppe raid. Nicknamed "The Poor Man's Monte Carlo", Dieppe had no strategic importance, but with the Soviet Union thrown on the ropes by German invasion and America having just entered the war, Britain was under intense pressure to launch a major cross-Channel attack against France.

Since 1939, Canadian troops had massed in Britain and trained for the inevitable day of the mass invasion of Europe that would finally occur in 1944. But the Canadian public and many politicians were impatient to see Canadian soldiers fight sooner.The first major rehearsal proved such a shambles the raid was pushed back to the end of July only to be cancelled by poor weather. Later, in a decision still shrouded in controversy, the operation was reborn. Dieppe however did not go smoothly. Drawing on rare archival documents and personal interviews, Mark Zuehlke examines how the raid came to be and why it went so tragically wrong. Ultimately, Tragedy at Dieppe honors the bravery and sacrifice of those who fought and died that fateful day on the beaches of Dieppe.

©2012 Mark Zuehlke (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

good story, slightly spoiled by mispronunciations

This is a very good review of an important Canadian event. it covers the raid and what led up to the disaster.

The narrator reads well and clearly but has no idea of the correct Canadian terms. Canadian officers are left-tenants not loo-tenants. It is zed not zee and proper pronunciation of French is essential.

However, overall, this is well written and well read.

When To Throw The Book At Someone

(This review was originally entitled "The Tragedy Of Poor Narration")

It continues to be baffling to me how these audiobook publishers select their narrators. Most books about World War II attract the finest of narrators; except when they don't.

If this were not the only audiobook about Dieppe available anywhere, I most certainly would have sent it back upon the strengths of the narrator's pronunciations of French place names. Truly, I believe any high school senior's best efforts to pronounce French words after the typical two years of indifferent French classes would have been far, far superior to this narrator's.

It took almost half the book to understand what he was trying to say when I heard "Arcla BAH tie" . . . after a few goes I began to think that this might refer to "Arc-la-battaille," but I still can't be sure.

Still, *any* words that are not demonstrably English are a struggle for this narrator. "Ad hoc" becomes "Odd hock." "Quay" becomes . . . (I kid you not) "Kway." "Gunwales," which is usually pronounced "Gunnels" to anyone remotely familiar with ANY nautical terminology, as I would expect a narrator of a book about a cross-Channel invasion to be, becomes in this narrator's efforts as "Gun whales." (I *kid**you**not*.) You could NOT make this stuff up.

As the book continues, the narrator continues to massacre EVERY foreign or remotely foreign words—his pronunciations of German names is an exercise in teeth clenching anger for this listener, but again, I'd have torn up this audiobook and burned it ten pages in (oh, sorry, yes, you can't tear up an audiobook) if this had not been the ONLY audiobook I could find on the Dieppe invasion (it can't, by any stretch, be called a "raid.")

But time and again, the question keeps haunting me: Do the producers of these audiobooks about World War II, which, after all, involved MANY individuals of foreign extraction fighting in places with many, many foreign names using many, many methods of locomotion unfamiliar to the casual listener—do they even give a **CURSORY** examination of the potential narrator's abilities to pronounce a) French words b) German words c) nautical words d) suspicious English words, like "Ad hoc" . . . ?

If they had, they would have thrown the book at this guy long before I ever did.

So much I didn't know...

I've been a war history need for decades, however I never really gave Dieppe much attention. As a Canadian I feel I did them a disservice by not learning and reading of it sooner.. I don't know why I didn't delve intonation before, but I am glad to have found this book.

So much information, very well laid out timelines from different perspectives. Just a great work.

great

great to see such a good reminder of the struggle the Canadian army faced. lest we forget