Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery

Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery
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Country:	France
Location:	Hautôt-sur-Mer
Coordinates:	49°53′45″N 1°4′4″E / 49.89583, 1.06778
Type:	Public
Owned by:	Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Website:	Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery

The Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery is a cemetery in France containing Canadian and British soldiers who were killed during the Dieppe Raid in 1942. The Cemetery is located in Hautôt-sur-Mer in the Seine-Maritime department, near Dieppe in upper Normandy.^[1]

History

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 not to disturb the graves, so this unusual arrangement still stands. Today, the cemetery is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Location

The Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery is located approximately five kilometres south of Dieppe, in the town of Hautôt-sur-Mer. It can be reached by following the N27 (Avenue Des Canadiens) south from Dieppe to the second roundabout where a green Commonwealth War Graves Commission sign points down the Chemin Des Canadiens. The cemetery is about 500 metres down this road on the left hand side.