Our 5th anniversary and Chris Leworthy’s “Disaster and Bravery at Dieppe”
The British Modern Military History Society based in Woodcote, South Oxfordshire celebrated our 5th Anniversary in May 2024.
A great turn out for the evening which started with the chairman, Andy Cockeram, taking us back over 5 years to the roots of the BMMHS at a bar, and how that first idea grew.
A confident and engaging speaker then outlined the main characters- Mountbatten, Leigh-Mallory and the Canadian John “Ham” Roberts, the series of “raids” that led up to Dieppe and the difficulties that hampered the operation. His passionate delivery as the disaster unfolds – a shingle beach, tank obstacles, troops landed in the wrong place and stuck on the beach – was spellbinding as he came to the heavy price paid for what we undoubtedly lessons learnt ahead of D-Day.
Chris then turned to the stories of bravery in Lord Lovett, the radar expert Jack Nissenthall and VC winners John Weir Foote and Patrick Porteous before closing with his poignant reflections.
A lively Q&A drew out speculation over whether the primary objective has been to snatch Enigma intelligence before Colin delivered an excellent vote of thanks, recommending Patrick Bishop’s Operation Jubilee for follow-up reading before we piled into a glass of bubbly and enough cake to feed all 5000 Canadians!
