Book Description

George & Darril Fosty controversial book "Where Brave Men Fall: The Battle of Dieppe and the Espionage War Against Hitler, 1939-1942" points a damning finger at American and British news organizations, including "Time" and "Life" magazines, accusing them of leaking pre-raid information to the Germans resulting in the deaths, woundings, and capture of over 4,300 American, British and Canadian soldiers. "Where Brave Men Fall" explores the controversial 1942 Battle of Dieppe looking at pre-raid advertisements in what the authors claim was part of a complex campaign initiated at the highest levels of American and British political and military circles designed to tip off the Germans prior to the August 1942 raid and thus ensuring the raid's failure. The revelations, stunning in detail and scope, are the latest accusations to surface concerning the battle. A Controversial Battle Becomes Even More Controversial On August 19, 1942, an Allied naval armada of 237 ships arrived off the coast of Dieppe, France carrying ten thousand sailors and soldiers determined to assault Adolf Hitler’s Fortress Europe in what was coined Operation JUBILEE. What these men thought would be a textbook lesson in amphibious warfare turned instead into a slaughter. In only seven hours of battle, the Allies, consisting mostly of Canadian troops, lost more men than the United States during either the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, or the Spanish-American War. Before the day was ended, the Canadians recorded a 68 percent casualty rate. Of the 5,086 Canadians who landed at Dieppe only 1443 returned to England, many of whom were wounded. What was to have been the first Allied attempt to land a large force on the European Continent since Dunkirk instead, turned into a horrendous failure. The Battle of Dieppe was the first serious Allied assault against Hitler’s western European defense system in World War Two. Historically, it is regarded as the preamble to the June 6, 1944, D-Day Landings. Yet, there has never been a detailed and complete examination of the political, military, or strategic reasons behind the raid, the countless security leaks preceding the battle, nor the claims by both German and Allied troops that the Germans had been forewarned. "Where Brave Men Fall" is a riveting journey across the pages of WWII military and political history. Painstakingly researched, the authors tell the story of American and British political, military, media, and espionage intrigues and the events leading up to and culminating in the Battle of Dieppe. Their conclusions are both profound and sobering, revealing how the Dieppe Raid was part of a grand British military deception resulting in the cold-blooded and calculated sacrifice of Canadian troops, in part to prevent Hitler from freeing up his western forces for an anticipated German invasion of Spain. A fact that has never been revealed before in any military history written on the Dieppe Raid. Of the more than five hundred books and studies written on the Dieppe Raid since the end of World War Two, "Where Brave Men Fall" is the first and only book to document German plans for an invasion of Spain and neighboring Portugal as they pertained to the Dieppe Raid. The book also goes into great detail showing the political and military links between the Dieppe Raid, the planning for the Second Front in Europe, and the subsequent Allied Operation Torch landings in North Africa. Twenty-Five Years in the Making At times, "Where Brave Men Fall" appears as two stories in one. In 1986, George and Darril Fosty, two young researchers who were just beginning their careers as historians received an invitation to attend the South Saskatchewan Regiment Reunion in Langley, British Columbia, for the purpose of interviewing veterans of the Dieppe Raid. The invitation had been arranged by their uncle, a Canadian military veteran who had fought alongside these prairie warriors during the Battle of the Scheldt and the 1944 Liberation of Holland. The South Saskatchewan Regiment was one of the greatest military regiments in Canadian military history. There exploits at Dieppe made famous in James Leasor's book, "Green Beach." Recounts George Fosty, "We were just two young kids who wanted to write about Dieppe. Darril was only 17- years of age at the time, and I had just turned 26. Together we drove down from our home in Kamloops to the reunion and were shocked to find that we were the only so-called 'historians' on hand for the event. A reporter from a local newspaper eventually showed up, but she seemed very uninterested in these men and their stories, and she quickly left. At the time, Expo 86 was taking place in Vancouver and it appeared that the last thing the local media wanted to do was to interview a group of old men at some war reunion. Darril and I spent two-days interviewing these veterans and attempting to document their stories. It was our first project together and Darril and I had no idea where it would lead nor how many years we would continue to research this history." Little did the Fosty brothers realize that the 1986 Reunion would mark the beginning of a 25-year journey which would lead from a Canadian Legion Hall in British Columbia to the espionage streets of New York City, the back rooms of American and British politics, and the forgotten battlefields of France. Along the way, the brothers would not only discover new and disturbing truths behind the Dieppe Raid, but would also succeed in recording a rare account of the lives of a group of South Saskatchewan Regiment veterans forever changed by Dieppe. Adds Darril Fosty, " Two-years after the reunion we sent letters to a number of veterans seeking additional information in hopes of confirming some of our research. During the 1990's we continued to research the story on and off, often failing to find the answers we were seeking. By 1996, we were frustrated by our lack of success and we turned our attention to other projects in order to take a break from the project. In 2002, I went over to France and toured the battlefields. I was disturbed by what I found. Walking those beaches, I gained a perspective of Dieppe that I had never had before. I returned home even more determined to see us finish this book and to answer some of the political and military questions that previous historians had failed to resolve." Were 10,000 Allied Troops Betrayed? At the heart of the Fosty brother's latest research and claims are disturbing and detailed evidence documenting the role played by the American and British press in the months preceding the Battle of Dieppe. The authors point to a series of articles, images, and advertisements in both "Life" and "Time" magazines in the months and days prior to the Dieppe Raid which appears to telegraph the upcoming operation. According to George Fosty, "Early in our research, we were told by a number of Dieppe veterans that they believed the Germans had been forewarned. These men recounted specific incidents during the battle and following their capture that could only be explained if one accepted the fact that the Germans had forehand knowledge of the Raid. The dilemma we faced as historians were to either dismiss these accounts outright or to investigate these allegations to their proper end. We chose to accept the accounts of the veterans as fact and then set out to find proof of security leaks and pre-raid breaches to support their claims. It was a process that took us years to complete with more dead-ends than one could imagine. It was not until after we began to research American magazines and newspapers from the 1942 era that we began to see disturbing references and evidence implying a serious security breach. The more we researched New York City-based American magazines and newspapers, the more disturbing these so-called 'coincidences' became. It was these security breaches that led us to examine the espionage operations staged by the U.S., the British, and the Germans in the New York area during World War Two in hopes of determining who was behind these postings. These discoveries were both disturbing and amazing as they validated the accounts of the Dieppe veterans and answered questions that had for too long eluded us." One of the most glaring security breaches discovered by the authors was an August 17, 1942 Honeywell advertisement that appeared in "Life" Magazine. The ad was titled: "194? We'll Be Ready." The authors write: "On August 17, 1942, Life Magazine followed up their earlier Commando 'postings' with a cover magazine photo of a Canadian Guerrilla fighter. The magazine was notable for the unusual advertisement from Brown and Minneapolis-Honeywell that simply stated: "194? We'll Be Ready." This advertisement was unique. When taken in context with the previous Time and Life Magazine postings it implies some code or message was being sent. August 19 - 4 a.m. was the time when the first Allied troops were scheduled to begin landing on the beaches in and around Dieppe. The unusual advertisements appearing in British and American publications along with a series of breaches in security leading up to the operation suggests the Germans were being forewarned of the raid. What also raises serious questions is the fact this Honeywell ad, along with Time Magazine’s Mountbatten of the Commandos - His boys in blackface will see the day of wrath, would appear in Henry Luce owned publications. An early organizer in moving the United States towards direct intervention and conflict, Luce remained the editor-in-chief of all his publications until 1964. He was a man noted and respected for his painstaking attention to detail supervising every aspect of the content for both Time and Life Magazines. Luce’s editorial and advertising offices operated out of Rockefeller Center adjacent to the very men of the intelligence services of which he had worked closely during his time with The Century Group - Office of War Information’s Elmer Davis, American Intelligence’s William Donovan and Allen Dulles along with British Intelligence’s William Stephenson. Coincidence is one thing. However, a series of unusual postings indicate something more sinister. Were the Allies deliberately forewarning the Germans through Luce’s and other publications?" Another example of security and espionage leaks documented by the authors concerns a Sylvan Flakes soap advertisement that appeared in British newspapers less than a week before the battle. They write: "On August 13th a Sylvan Flakes advertisement was run in various London Newspapers subsequently raising eyebrows. The ad titled "BEACH COAT from DIEPPE" showed an image of a woman in a coat pruning a rose bush. It was later claimed by many, including the great English writer George Orwell, as evidence of a tip-off to the raid. Some speculated this ad could be interpreted as BEACH ... Combined Operations ATtack from Dieppe. The date of the planned landing was to be August 19th, six days after the publication of the ad, corresponding with the six buttonholes on the coat. As later reported in newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic in September of 1942, "The spare time Sherlocks figured the shears were a warning to somebody that the British were bringing tanks - to cut through barbed wire on the beach." In an October 4, 1963, article in the Daily Sketch newspaper entitled “Did This Betray 6,000 Men At Dieppe,” writer Louis Kirby asked the obvious question, "How many women had holidayed in Dieppe before the war - and brought back with them a "flippant" beach coat?” By holding the Sylvan ad horizontally, the true nature of the image is revealed. What appears is the aerial layout of the beachfront of Dieppe, including the Casino and the curved beach wall. The beachfront also contains the natural curvature of the mile-long shoreline. The striped pattern on the woman's jacket no longer appears as a simple design but is now clearly the image of the ocean. The four buttons suddenly serve a new purpose as they now reveal the exact landing points for the Royal Marines, Fusiliers-Mont Royal, the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, and the Calgary Tank Regiment. The tree limbs also take on a new meaning when viewed horizontally. Again, the map is of Dieppe, though this time at a higher altitude. Visible is the coastline, the harbor, and the nearby rivers that run to the ocean. Three branches point inland from the ocean. These three limbs are again the exact landing and directional routes for the Royal Marines, the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, and the Calgary Tanks. The limb representing the Calgary Tanks even has a bend at the tip showing the last directional change the tank landing craft were to take moments before they were to reach the shore. After news of the failed Dieppe Raid many came to question whether this ad was intended to tip-off the Germans. The Sylvan ad kicked off such a controversy British government officials were forced to investigate the claims. Sylvan claimed the ad was part of a series of garments with geographical ties like Bali, the Tyrol, and China. In addition, the agency responsible was seemingly above recuse as their "work consists of a series of anti-fifth-column posters for the government." On September 17th, officials concluded, after giving due consideration to all of these interpretations, "they found the ad was just that, without any sinister hidden motive." How military investigators could later dismiss this advertisement and claim the ad was not espionage-related remains one of the great mysteries surrounding the raid." No Strangers To Controversy In 2003, George and Darril Fosty released their first book, "Splendid Is The Sun: The 5,000 Year History of Hockey." The book angered many in Canada for its contention that the roots of hockey dated back to ancient times. A year later, they added more fuel to the fire with the release of "Black Ice: The Lost History Of The Colored Hockey League Of The Maritimes, 1895 to 1925." "Black Ice" would eventually climb to number 71 on the Amazon bestseller's list becoming one of the highest-charting hockey books in history. To this day, both books are considered landmark achievements and are credited with rewriting hockey history and resurrecting the legacy of African-Canadian hockey, a history that had been deliberately removed from the Canadian historic record. About The Book "Where Brave Men Fall" is guaranteed to re-ignite long-simmering controversies and emotions surrounding the Battle of Dieppe, the role of the Canadian Army, and the actions of British and American politicians, the press, and military officials in World War Two. Twenty-five years in the making, the book is a groundbreaking and disturbing history that exposes Allied backroom politics, treason, and wartime espionage while laying bare the story of one of the greatest military disasters and betrayals of World War Two. Adds Darril Fosty, "Dieppe was our first project. Our most difficult project. This has been a long journey with amazing story twists and discoveries." "Where Brave Men Fall" is a must-read guaranteed to leave the reader angry and shaken, forever changing one's perspective of World War Two history.