In the event, the German defences were stronger than expected. The beach was chert which included larger stones than the anticipated shingle: according to history professor Hugh Henry, the German defenders had previously considered it impassable to tanks. Only the 30 Churchills in the first two waves of 10 LCTs were landed on the beach under heavy fire: the latter two waves were turned away. One Churchill was trapped in its LCT by shellfire. Of the 29 remaining (eight Mark I/IIs, three Oke flamethrower tanks, and 18 Mark IIIs), two sank en route to shore, and 11 were immobilized on the beach due to a combination of the chert shingle and indirect fire. Only 15 would get off the beach and over the sea wall onto the Dieppe promenade. Although these tanks were effective in engaging the defenders in the town's buildings, their further progress was blocked by concrete defences; the engineer demolition teams – killed or pinned on the beach – had not been able to accompany the tanks. Ten of these Churchills were able to return to the beach once the withdrawal had been signalled but they could not be evacuated. According to Henry, no Churchills were penetrated by German anti-tank fire while still manned.Henry p. 70 These surviving tank crews fought to cover the withdrawal of the infantry from the beach, and almost all were captured with their vehicles, having exhausted their main gun ammunition. The tank regiment's commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Johnny Andrews, was among those killed in action. Nearly 70% of the Canadians were killed, injured or captured and none of the raid's objectives were met other than the secret raid on the radar station on a headland.Perrett pp. 15–16
