This fourth and final newspaper article covering the war bond speeches given by John Leon Turner in 1944–45 is the most detailed.
This talk was to the Rotary Club of Montreal—Westward.
To read the other articles, see “John Leon Turner, Royal Canadian Air Force” and “John Leon Turner with the Partisans.”
“If Freedom Dies…” Rotary Hears Adventures
Among Italian Partisans
Pilot Officer John L. Turner Tells Prisoner-of-War Story
“I have a tangle of memories from overseas and a tangle of ideas born from them, feel more or less helpless at expressing them and wish,” declared Pilot Officer John L. Turner, ex-prisoner of war in Italy, simply, “I had something prepared in front of me.”
Taking the place of as guest speaker in lieu of Nursing Sister Gabriel Cote at short notice, as she was suddenly recalled to duty, the modest flier opened his address at the Westward Rotary quietly and without bombast, warmed up to his subject and held the attention of all riveted to a breathless recital that had as its climax a gripping human interest story on “If Freedom Dies!”
When people learn he has been a prisoner of war, asserted the speaker, he is swamped with questions, and, for that reason, would give his impressions. On a flight to India after operations over Germany the plane was forced down and he came a captive in Italy in February, 1942. For a month, he revealed, he, with the others, was treated well while being solidly interrogated for information. Given the best, they were listening to the theme, “for you the war is over,” and the captors painted pictures of rest, ease, and luxury of P.O.W. Camps.
Disillusionment came swiftly when eventually they were entrained on a cattle car, which he was sure had square wheels, for a journey of two days and a night. Reaching the Camp in a downpour of rain they found it an enclosure with 15 ft. walls topped by barbed wire and broken glass, inside the compound were dingy white huts, a sea of mud and tired P.O.W.’s wading ankle deep.
A small loaf of dried bread was all they were given for a meal, and later a pint of thick soup of macaroni, boiled in cabbage water and some ersatz coffee.
Pilot Officer Turner declared he lost 50 lbs. in 4 months, coming down from 180 to 130 lbs., while a 200 lb. prisoner in the same period weighed less than he did, and 5 died of malnutrition, a pretty word for starvation, in that time. There were no such things as Red Cross parcels then, the captives had no energy to walk, they gazed over the walls at distant green hills that looked frightfully free, then back at the mud, dirty white huts and wondered—how long? All suffered from insomnia, day and night were the same, such were prison camps without the Red Cross aid, no recreation, no health to enjoy it, had it been afforded, and nothing left but to think.
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Camp 59 Survivors 