Germans on the Beach

Heroes Remember

Germans on the Beach

Transcript

Somebody put up an undershirt, I guess it was an undershirt on a bayonet. And Captain Howser and I, we had moved around, I could show you on there, towards the Dieppe area, away from the main beach area. You see, they landed a whole regiment of men on a piece of area less than the length of a football field. They landed a whole regiment of men. So there was no room to maneuver. You were en masse. You know, Istead of having a few there and a few there and a few somewhere else. Crazy, absolute madness, absolute crazy. So, Captain Howser said cause he knew I was in his company. He said, “I'm not surrendering.” I said, “Neither am I sir.” So we all picked up rifles, there was rifles laying everywhere. And we headed, way around which I could show you on one of those pictures towards Dieppe, hoping that the main beach had been successful, you see. That maybe they'd made inroads and they could come and relieve us or we could get around and find a way through, there was, actually there was no way though. Well when we got so far up towards the jetty, there was three of us; Captain Howser (the company commander), myself, and a third man and they had a bloody machine gun mounted out on a pier. And they opened up on us from out way out on that pier. That's how well prepared they were. They didn't take that gun out there after we landed. They had that gun out there. So we had to go back because we were cut off. And you couldn't, you know, you couldn't, there was no point of firing rifles at him because well it was a good distance away and he was undercover, you know, I mean he was behind a steel plate. And, so we went back. And when we went back the Germans were down on the beach. They'd put a ladder down and there was German soldiers on the beach. And I guess it must have almost made them throw up, when they seen the site. I mean enemy soldiers. I know if it had been Germans, it would have probably made me feel like throwing up. Seeing, you know, them blown to bits even though they were the enemy. And that was the site on the beach.

Description

Not wanting to surrender, Mr. Poolton and company return to the beach where the Germans have taken over.

John (Jack) Poolton

John (Jack) Abernethy Poolton was born in Toronto, Ontario on January 9, 1918. He was one of seven children. His father farmed 100 acres near Kapuskasing, Ontario. Mr. Poolton enlisted in the Royal Regiment of Canada and provides vivid, clear details of the allied landing at Dieppe, France on August 19, 1942.

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