Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery
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The Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery is a cemetery in France containing Canadian and British soldiers who were killed during the Dieppe Raid in 1942.
944 members of the Allied Armed Forces are interred at Dieppe, of which 707 are Canadian. Other dead from the raid are buried in Rouen, where the Germans took captured raiders, some of whom died of their wounds, or at the Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey, where wounded were taken by the Allies. Also in the cemetery are the remains of one woman, Mary Janet Climpson, a British Salvation Army Officer who had been killed in 1940.
The cemetery is unique in that it was created by the occupying Germans, as the Allied raid was a disaster and many dead were forced to be left behind in enemy territory. The headstones have been placed back to back in long double rows, typical of German burials but unlike any other Commonwealth war cemetery. When Dieppe was retaken in 1944, the Allies elected to not disturb the graves, so this unusual arrangement still stands. Today, the cemetery is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
[edit] Location
The Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery is located approximately five kilometres south of Dieppe, in the town of Hautôt-sur-Mer. If traveling, do not miss this moving cemetery. It is not easy to locate. The graves lie in a field with little surrounding them. The cemetery is well maintained, but more visitors are needed to pay tribute to these valiant men the woman who is buried there. There is a book in which visitors can sign their name and leave a comment.
