That is what Barrie’s Jayne Poolton-Turvey is hoping to make sure happens with the project “Dieppe—Blue Beach—Every Man Remembered”.
On August 12, this custom tour as part of “The Battlefield Tours”, leaves from Toronto arriving on Blue Beach a few days later –arriving by ferry at the same time of day as their ancestors made the same trip 75 years earlier.
In the pre-dawn hours of August 19, 1942, 564 men from The Royal Regiment stormed the beach in France in what is now known as the Dieppe Raid.
For Poolton-Turvey, this is a passion project. Her father Jack Poolton, was taken prisoner of war that day and remained captive for three years in Germany. She says it is more of a pilgrimage than a trip for all involved. She’ll be joined by seven others from Simcoe County with ties to the Dieppe Raid and hundreds of others from across Canada and the US.
Five soldiers from Barrie, Stroud and Orillia were among those killed at Dieppe. There were also six men from the region who were taken as POW’s, according to Poolton-Turvey’s research. All were members of the Royal Regiment which was based in Toronto but considered a Central Ontario regiment. As Poolton-Turvey points out all got their training at Base Borden in Angus.
For the first time ever, Poolon-Turvey says every single name will be read aloud on Blue Beach. As well, she has found pictures of 189 soldiers and those pictures will be put on sticks with Canadian flags and placed on their graves by the delegation. A booklet with biographies has also been designed for those on the trip.
Poolton-Turvey says these heroes never got the recognition they deserved mainly because “it was a failed mission."
"They were basically sacrificed - arriving on the beach in the daylight - with the enemy waiting," she explained.
"My father often said 'No one gave two hoots in hell about these boys and what happened,'" she added.
It is Jayne Poolton-Turvey’s mission to make sure people know now and remember.
For more information on this project go to www.dieppebluebeach.ca
