The Dieppe Raid on August 19, 1942 lasted only nine hours but cost nearly 1000 lives. The beach below was where the raid was centred. The shoreline was a shingle beach (stony) that it made it very difficult for the tanks to get traction. In any event the beach was an impossible place to penetrate under the whithering fire of the German guns, some of which were located on the cliff from which this photograph was taken.