Private Michael P. Coyle - POW 1942-1945

Private Michael P. Coyle was taken as a prisoner of war (POW) on the beaches of Dieppe on 19 August 1942. He and nearly 1900 of the 4000 Canadians at Dieppe were transported to German prisoner of war camps. Six hundred of them were injured at the time they were captured. In his memoir, Coyle stated that the pile of discarded helmets left on the beach after they were captured haunted him.

Coyle’s first night in German captivity was spent in an abandoned cheese factory trying to figure out which of his friends survived. The next day, he was transferred to a camp near Verneuil, France, before being transported by train to Stalag VIII B in Poland. Once he arrived, he was taught how to navigate the large camp by the Allied prisoners already there. In October 1942, he was moved into a separate compound with other veterans of Dieppe. He and other Canadian POWs had their hands bound by handcuffs for most of each day and their access to parcels from the Red Cross restricted. This was retaliation for supposed offences against German prisoners of war being held by the Allies as written in a captured Operation Order from a Canadian senior officer at Dieppe. Coyle described this treatment as a “bitter pill to swallow” after having already been defeated at Dieppe. He and the other Canadians lived this way for three months, though it was strictly against the Geneva Convention regulating treatment of prisoners of war.

To make life bearable, the Canadian POWs created a trade network with other contingents in the camp, namely the British, to receive better food and other comforts. In this market, stockpiled cigarettes were the hottest commodity to be traded. These came in handy when one of the delicacies served to prisoners included a ladle full of pickled herring guts, tails, and eyes. It was only during Christmas that they received their full Red Cross parcels to supplement their diets, though those were willingly shared.

The shortages of both food and heating fuel for their huts meant that escape was a palatable alternative to staying in the camps. Coyle reasoned that a working party was his best chance at escaping, as they were more loosely guarded. An Escape Committee already existed within Stalag VIII B, and Coyle consulted it many times as he attempted to join a work party. They advised him on how to escape safely before he signed up for timber cutting duty. It was in this work party that he became associated with two men from the Essex Scottish who were eventually convicted of committing treason: Private George Hale and Private Edwin “Ted” Martin. Coyle injured his foot while working and was sent to a hospital in Kattowitz for treatment, where he was treated well.

He returned from the hospital in April 1943, and from then he finetuned his plan to escape. During his absence, the German guards fortified the brick walls of their bunkhouse through which a Canadian prisoner had previously tried to escape. Coyle chiseled away at the cement between the bricks, compromising a section of wall. He and other men made pairs of fake boots to replace the old, but good ones when the guards came to inspect their lodgings. When some the guards were on leave on 16 May 1943, the men bent the bars in a barrack window so that a man may squeeze through. The men who did not escape held a jamboree to make noise while the others slid through the window. He and his companions ran along the side of the road, using the stars as a navigational tool. They travelled through the woods for a few days, being harbored by Polish families when they could. While staying in a Polish safehouse, he was encouraged to join the Partisans, Polish enemies of the German State who opposed Nazi control. Partisans, or members of the Polish Underground, could be executed immediately if found out by the Germans. Coyle assumed a pseudonym and joined other Partisans as they travelled from town to town seeking safety. As Partisans, Coyle and his companions engaged in violent skirmishes with the Germans for several months.

Coyle left the Partisans in November 1943 and continued travelling with hopes of reaching Switzerland. After Christmas in 1943, he headed to a village in Upper Silesia. In January 1944, an escort arrived to take him to another village thirty kilometres away. He was taken to the train station, where he was confronted by armed Gestapo agents. He had been betrayed by one of the men with whom he had travelled. He was arrested and taken to a Gestapo jail in Oppeln. He was believed to be a Polish citizen pretending to be Canadian and placed in a cell with five British soldiers. He told them to relay a message to Canadian authorities or the Red Cross that he was being held in prison, which they agreed to do. Once in his own cell, he tossed a bar of soap inscribed with his name, prisoner number, and regiment out the window for the British soldiers to find. He was interrogated by the Regional Bureau Chief, Irwin Mueller, for ten days. On the last day of interrogations, he was allowed to write home.

By July 1944, Coyle’s physical and mental health had declined. In November, he was taken to the main prison camp in Lamsdorf. As he went for delousing and a shower, the attendant, a man from Coyle’s hometown of Amherstburg, Ontario, called for him to be taken to the hospital. He was six-foot-two and 110 pounds at the time. The Gestapo visited the hospital with the intent of having Coyle court-martialled, but they were unsuccessful. When the camp was being in danger of being overrun by the Russian army in March 1945, Coyle’s poor physical health made him eligible for repatriation to Canada in a prisoner exchange. He was taken outside the main prison camp for several weeks, where he remained until that camp was freed on 29 April 1945. Coyle returned to England on 9 May 1945. He was sent home on the ship, Louis Pasteur and reached Halifax on 12 July 1945.

Story by Nicole Pillon, Canada Summer Jobs 2022 participant
    with The Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment Association   

Sources

• In Pursuit of Destiny by Private Michael Coyle, his personal memoir donated to the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment Association in 1995
• Duty Nobly Done: The Official History of the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment by Sandy Antal and Kevin R. Shackleton, 2006: Chapter 13