To mark the Dieppe Raid’s 80th anniversary, the Juno Beach Centre Association (JBCA) has mailed 400 postcards to addresses across the country where soldiers who participated in the Canadian Army’s first major combat against Nazi Germany once lived.
More than 800 Canadians died as a result of the Dieppe Raid, also known as Operation Jubilee, which took place on Aug. 19, 1942, at a German-occupied port in northern France.
“When a tragedy is so large, it can be hard to remember that each of these soldiers of Dieppe had unique personalities, occupations, hobbies and families,” reads the JBCA website for the campaign, billed as “He Lived Where You Lived.”
Last year, the non-profit charitable organization based in Burlington, Ont., began researching the soldiers who died at Dieppe plus their home addresses, about half of which exist today. This July, each of these addresses was mailed a unique postcard sharing the name and story of the soldier who lived there at the time of their enlistment.
To view each postcard’s destination on an interactive map, visit bit.ly/3KNeEXB.