摘要：On 19 August 1942, the Allies launched an amphibious assault against the French port of Dieppe. Lord Louis Mountbatten and Combined Operations Headquarters conceived it as a test of the techniques and equipment that would be used when the Allied forces liberated Europe, a "reconnaissance in force." The raid was also one of a series of increasingly ambitious raids against German occupied Europe, all of which had been designed to demonstrate the Allied commitment to liberating Europe, and pave the way for the much-anticipated "Second Front." 6100 all ranks sailed from five ports along Britain's south coast: 4963 were Canadian, 1075 were British, and the rest American and French. They were transported and supported by a naval flotilla of 237 ships, mainly landing craft of various sorts, and none larger than the 1000 ton "Hunt" class destroyers. The attack was a disaster. By the end of the day the 2ndCanadian Division had suffered 3367 casualties, including almost 2000 taken prisoner. The Royal Air Force had fought its biggest single day's battle of the Second World War. The Royal Navy had 550 casualties, lost 33 landing craft and one destroyer. Some contemporaries characterized it as criminal, but the majority of the Allied senior military command viewed, or came to view it, as a necessary wake- up call regarding the difficulties of executing an amphibious operation against a well-defended coast. Many subsequent studies have reiterated that interpretation, although they make no attempt to provide evidence linking the two landings. Will Fowler's book, subtitled Rehearsal for D-Day, falls into that historiographical tradition; the Normandy landings are barely mentioned and indeed, the focus is on only one of the commando units involved at Dieppe. In that sense the author's approach is unremarkable, and the title somewhat misleading. What is unique is the wayhe focuses on, and explains, the one success of that day in August: Operation "Cauldron," the assault by No. 4 Commando against the "Hess" battery on the far western flank of the main landings at Dieppe
