Dieppe is considered one of the worst disasters in Canadian military history; this sea of abandoned helmets attests as to why
GETTY
Captain Pat Porteous was 24 years old and, like nearly all of his fellow commandos, had yet to see action with his elite unit. For 18 months they had done nothing but train; now, finally, they were about to be blooded.
On 18 August 1942, they travelled from their base in Weymouth to a transit camp in Southampton. Later that evening, the 252 soldiers of No 4 Commando filed onto a converted Belgian ferry called the Prins Albert, departing amid a flotilla of troopships, destroyers and minesweepers.