NEWS RELEASE
ORILLIA HISTORY COMMITTEE
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Recently Jayne Poolton-Turvey, the Community Services Coordinator for the Orillia Public Library, was the guest speaker via Zoom at the October edition of the Orillia Museum of Art and History (OMAH) History Speaker Series. She presented her talk The Dieppe Raid: 80 Years of Tragedy and Tribulation.
The Dieppe Raid took place on Aug. 19, 1942. While that raid took place 80 years ago, the story continued as the lives of the families of hundreds of Canadian soldiers were forever changed. The Raid, also known as Operation Jubilee, has been called Canada’s darkest day of the Second World War. The casualty numbers were staggering with 907 killed and 1,946 taken prisoner. But what about the families of both the survivors and those lost?
Ms. Poolton-Turvey, author and project manager of Dieppe Blue Beach: Every Man Remembered, presented to the engaged audience the journey she and her father, Jack A. Poolton, who was taken as prisoner of war in the Dieppe Raid, took to share the truth of what happened that dreadful day. After his death, Jayne started researching and gathering the biographies of the loved ones who were left behind and those who survived.
She has travelled with other “Dieppe Kids” to the beach in France and walked the footsteps of their fathers along the beach and travelled along the route of the eventual Death March that took place near the end of the war. Ms. Poolton-Turvey recalled the beach that is covered in layers of loose rock, had a feeling of sadness and fury but also overwhelming pride. The odds were stacked again the Canadian soldiers – they didn’t stand a chance. But they did their duty to the end.
Jack A. Poolton was one of the soldiers of the Royal Regiment of Canada D Company 21st Platoon who was taken as a Prisoner-of-War (POW) by the Germans in the Dieppe Raid. He spent nearly three years in Stalag VIIIB in Germany, 410 days with his wrists in chains.
During the time he co-wrote the book with his daughter he would share heartfelt memories with her “We were sacrificed on that beach … it was a blow to the Canadian military.” Before heading out to launch Operation Jubilee, the men were told to write letters of goodbye to their families and loved ones.
Jayne shared numerous photographs and maps with the audience to explain the Dieppe Raid landing attempt and provide a sense of what these brave men faced. Her father’s D Company landed in the second wave, along with C Company, following the first wave by A&B company on the far-left flank known as the Blue Beach. Their goal was to destroy key positions, but they never got up off the beach. The British 3rd Commandos’ landing craft had been intercepted by a German convoy and the Royal Regiment was twenty-five minutes late to the landing. There was a continuous stream of German gunfire onto the landing craft as the Canadians landed.
Once the smoke had cleared the soldiers were aghast at the carnage they saw before them, with hundreds of bodies and severely injured men of the 2nd Division lying on the beach. The Germans were well established in bunkers and pillboxes built into the towering cliffs along the beach.
The Canadians had no protection and the Germans were well-prepared for an attack with a sophisticated bunker system built since Germany occupied France earlier in the war. The rocks on the beach were like quicksand and the soldiers could not get their footing as they tried to advance. When the rocks were hit by German gunfire, the rock became chipped and multiplying with shrapnel-like results. After three times of Germans demanding they lay down their arms, the Canadians finally surrendered. Within few hours the fighting had ended.
Of the 554 Canadians who landed on Blue Beach, 229 were killed, died as POWs, or died after repatriation. Jack Poolton was one of the 264 Royals who became prisoners-of-war. The POWs were allowed to go to the beach once the fighting had ended with stretchers to move the wounded, with a German officer following to kill the most severely wounded with a shot in the head.
There was no way for a soldier to prepare for becoming a POW and the humiliation associated with it. The first night they stayed in an unfinished clock factory. Many of them, including Jack, hadn’t had a drink of water since they left England. They were put in cattle cars, crowded in standing room only conditions with 50 men per car. They were given some bread to eat and a bucket as a latrine not knowing the journey was to last five days. By the time they arrived in Germany many of the wounded had severe infections.
In Stalag VIIIB, the huts in the Canadian compound were numbered 18 to 22. There was very little food or water, infestation was prevalent, and the POWs were subject to forced labour and severe punishment. The Canadian POWs existed for nearly three years in these conditions. There were propaganda photos taken of the POWs cleaned up and looking presentable, but those photos were taken prior to Red Cross visits and were very misleading. The Dieppe POWs were in fact bound, first with ropes and then later in shackles, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. This was an act of retaliation as the Germans believed the British ordered that German POWs hands be tied.
Then from Jan. 22, 1945 to April 12, 1945, as the Allies advanced near the end of the war, the Germans took the POWs on a “death march” lasting 1,500 kms. The POWs dealt with snow and freezing cold temperatures. Some of them died while others dealt with severe frost bite. Jack Poolton recalled, “It was hard to pick out the dead from the living. I didn’t look back as we left Stalag.” There were dozens of death march routes across Germany. Jayne’s father’s route was 1500 km and liberated by the US 9th Army. Those survivors who came back home to Canada were broken men for they had felt they were sacrificed.
Why did the Dieppe raid fail? There was poor reconnaissance by the British and the use of obsolete aerial photos of the landing site, that the German’s Atlantic Wall that had been built early in the war was penetrable. The Royal Regiment landed on Blue Beach late due to the run in with the German convoy.
The community of post-war Dieppe kids dealt with the aftermath of their fathers returning home after dealing with the debauched landing and then being POWs for three years. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) impacted these families. Many of these men suffered in silence but their families dealt with the resulting alcoholism and anger issues that in some cases resulted in abuse. Eighty per cent of the POWs died in their 40s and 50s for various reasons. The government shut off the pay of those of soldiers killed in action or POWs, until it was determined what had happened to them, impacting their widows and families. Some POWs came home to find their children had been sent to Children’s Aid Society. Dieppe resulted in intergenerational trauma, with POW’s children and grandchildren impacted.
Ms. Poolton-Turvey learned much during the process that took over five years to co-author a book with her father called Destined to Survive. In addition to hearing about the Dieppe story firsthand, in 2015 she also launched her non-profit research organization called Dieppe Blue Beach: Every Man Remembered, that will honour every soldier from The Royal Regiment of Canada who landed at Dieppe on Aug. 19, 1942. The end goal of the project is to create a memorial book. For the past seven years she has been doing research on the men that were lost, locating photos and biographies for each of the 554 soldiers in her father’s regiment (Toronto’s Royal Regiment of Canada) who participated in the Dieppe Raid.
As Remembrance Day approaches, this was a very timely presentation. The OMAH History Committee thanks Jayne for her commitment and advocacy of those brave Canadians who landed on Dieppe Beach 80 years ago.
Lest We Forget.
If you are interested to learn more you can check the Dieppe Blue Beach website.
Ms. Poolton-Turvey’s presentation is available on the OMAH YouTube channel. Click on the link if you missed the talk.
The book she co-authored with her father Dieppe Blue Beach: Every Man Remembered, is available at the OMAH On-Line Shop. Click here to purchase the book.
Next up!
OMAH Announces the 2022 Carmichael Art History Lecture Fundraiser – Nov. 16, 2022 at 7 p.m. via Zoom.
The OMAH History Committee is excited to announce award-winning author Douglas Hunter as our speaker for the annual Carmichael Art History fundraiser. Hunter’s new book, Jackson’s Wars: The Birth of the Group of Seven and the Great War is the subject of his presentation.
Hunter will give a captivating account of the many wars Group of Seven member A.Y. Jackson fought on and off the battlefields of Europe, with critics, collectors, public galleries and fellow artists, as he became one of the best-known Canadian artists of the 20th century.
It is an honour for OMAH to have Douglas Hunter, a multi-nominated and award-winning author, who holds a PhD in History from York University as our speaker.
Those who register for the talk are eligible to win Hunter’s book, generously donated by the OMAH History Committee.
On-line access is $10 per person, payable through the registration link or by credit card over the phone (705-326-2159) or by cash, debit or credit in person at OMAH from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. You will be sent a link to the presentation.
Funds raised from this event will be used towards the purchase of much-needed equipment and supplies for the Dorothy Macdonald Creative Studio. Items needed to be replaced include: easels, paintbrushes, paints and art tables. OMAH is grateful for your support.
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