Updated

Monday, August 17 at 3 a.m. ET

By the summer of 1942, Adolf Hitler had most of continental Europe under his iron grip and threatened to annihilate Russia.

With America struggling to fight a two-front war, the beleaguered British were desperate to keep the Soviets from collapse. The answer: An ambitious strike against the Germans in the port town of Dieppe, France.

It went terribly wrong.

In just eight hours on August 19, over 1,000 Allied troops — most of them Canadians — were killed and some 3,000 were missing, wounded or captured. Only a handful made it back to England alive. The waters of the English Channel ran red with Allied blood, the beaches of France turned into killing fields. For America, it kicked off the ground war in Europe and saw the death of the first American G.I. in the fight against Hitler.

In this special episode of “War Stories with Oliver North,” you’ll meet Canadian survivors Harold Scharfe, Jack Kimberly and Frank Volterman. You’ll also hear from Ben Brinkworth, who gave up his American citizenship to fight in the Canadian army.

To this day the raid on Dieppe remains shrouded in controversy: Why was it ever mounted? Who authorized it? Was it a political game -- "a sacrifice mission" -- to appease Josef Stalin?

Tune in this weekend when "War Stories" investigates who's to blame for the disaster at Dieppe.

Staff for this episode:

Executive Producer: Pamela K. Browne

Senior Producer: Martin Hinton

Produced and Written by: Ayse Wieting

Associate Producer: Kelly Guernica

Editor: Kevin Mannino

Designer: Mike Vigilio