Posters Artwork Documents

Fourth Mission of the Day

gsellars

In "Fourth Mission Of The Day" by Gil Cohen, Canadian pilolt Blakeslee is depicted leaving his Spitfire after completing his 4th sortie on this long and harrowing day which saw approximately 5,000 Canadians, 1,000 British commandos and 50 American Army Rangers "test" German defenses by landing on the beaches of Dieppe. August 19th 1942, "Operation Jubilee" is now considered to have been one of the greatest air battles of the Second World War. Unlike D-Day, at Dieppe the Germans came out in force and the Allies had their single worst day of losses with 119 planes failing to return. The Luftwaffe, now with the "home-court"advantage, fared better with only 46 planes lost. Blakeslee was one of the fortunate ones, not only did he survive but he managed to destroy a Do217, probably destroy a FW190 and damage two other FW190s.