German propaganda and the Dieppe raid

Re: Dieppe raid deserves a better commemoration, Aug. 17.

Tyler Dawson is right to remind readers of the heroic sacrifice Canadian soldiers made in the Aug. 19, 1942 raid on Dieppe. As he points out, the immediate reports at the time viewed the disaster as a “victorious raid.”

One interesting propaganda aspect of the whole tragedy has been well-described in the National Film Board documentary “Grierson,” about the life of John Grierson, founder of what became the NFB. As general manager of the Wartime Information Board, he had planned a big celebratory reporting of victory for Canadian troops, and the news media had been informed accordingly.

Then as the raid took place, he listened to a shortwave radio broadcast from the German side. As he listened to what would have had to be Goebbels-inspired propaganda, he came to the conclusion that the German broadcaster was telling the truth, and that the Canadians were experiencing a disaster.

He immediately sent the message to news media to play down the story.

It would be of great interest, to me at least, to find out by what clues Grierson could have been so firmly convinced that the propaganda outlet was being truthful.

My guess is first, that details in the story gave it credibility. Propagandists avoid “facts” that can later be convincingly disproven.

Second, defeats are played down, and I would assume that Grierson judged that so much attention was being given to the story that it had to be a genuine victory for the Germans. Randal Marlin, Ottawa