Hello everybody, I am trying to find a prisoner of war named E.Turner who reputedly escaped from Italy into France in 1944. This came up from TNA: Reference: WO 208/3302/249 Description: Driver E E Turner (service number 159089). Service: Army, RASC [Royal Army Service Corps]. Repatriated from France. Possible information on this individual (including appendices) may be present in WO 208/5582-5583. Date: 1940-1945 Held by: The National Archives, Kew It appears he was in France in 1940 as an unpublishable casualty (WO 417/22): What does this mean? I haven't come across it before. It also appears in file WO 417 23. Any help appreciated, Vitellino
He appears in this page of the LG - https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35218/supplement/4048/data.pdf He comes under the heading Detained in France so how does he end up in Italy ?? TD
The E Turner above was wounded on 5th May 1940 and became a prisoner when the Germans occupied the hospital he was in on 17th June 1940. He was transferred to hospital in Epinal on 2nd August and then to the POW camp in the same town on 30 September. He escaped from a working party on 1st January 1941and reached Marseilles on 9th January 1941. From here he was repatriated leaving Gibraltar on 11th March 1941 and arriving at Greenock on 17th March. Unlikely to be the man you’re looking for. John
Are you are that its E Turner. I have found details of a Guardsman H Turner (2658593) who was being hidden by Rosalinta de Mercoli at Orsogna between November 3 and December 15 1943. It would appear that he was captured as he ended the war as a POW
GBM_WO417_023_0222. This document reports that 159089 Dvr. E. E. Turner was previously reported detained in France now not detained. So perhaps he was never a casualty to begin with and therefore was unpublished. He is not recorded as being a P.O.W. or W.I.A.
The man I am looking for was assisted by partisan leader Nicola Grosa in Piedmont in Northern Italy. All I have on him is that he was Erich (note spelling) Turner. The other escaped POWs he was with in this partisan band had left their work camps in northern Italy following the armistice of 8 September 1943. Two of them were Herbert Woods and Norman Evans, of 2 Cameron Higlanders. Unlike them Eric Turner does not appear in WO 392/21 as being held POW in Italy. Post Script: However, on checking WO 392/21 again a few mnutes ago there is an E.Turney who was also in the Cameron Higlanders. I will follow him up. Vitellino
I have the Escape and Evasion report for Evans and Woods but it makes no mention of anybody by the name of Turner or Turney. They crossed on 25th November 1943 in company of Cowles and Manning
That's right, they did. I have the account of the person who accompanied them. He was a former Alpine guide named Giovanni Antonio Peracchione, who says the party left on 24 November. Evans and Woods were both Yorkshiremen and both in the Cameron Highlanders, as was Pte. Eric Turney, 3320279. The 1939 Register gives him as living in Huddersfield. The three were inseparable, so my Italian source tells me. It's a pity there seems to be no E &E report for Turney. It seems that he had already crossed, as he was recorded as no longer being a POW In Italian hands in WO 417/83, dated October 1944. Vitellino
