Field compass Mk 9 Prismatic : Sergeant R S Turner Accession Number: RELAWM24521

Description

Brass bodied compass painted overall gloss black with small areas of paint worn off from use, and exposing the brass. The body consists of the main lower part containing the graduated compass disc. This disc has two sets of graduations, an inner ring in 5 degree increments, with every 20 degrees marked in numerals, while the outer ring is marked in 2 degree increments, with every 20 degrees marked with numerals etched in reverse. The central part of the disc is black, while the outer part is polished metal, and contains the two graduated rings. A brass knob is located in the centre of the disc, with an arrow painted onto the surface from the centre to the outer edge of the black part of the disc at the 0 degree point. The arrow appears to have been luminous paint which has now lost its luminosity. The cover glass has a rectangle painted onto it in similar luminous paint, at a point in alignment with the viewing aperture in the lid of the compass. The lid is hinged on one side, with an aiming post attached to the opposite side. It has a glass window with a single line sighting reticle. A flip-up sight is attached to the lower body opposite to the hinge point for the lid. This sight has a small peep type aperture and a vertical slot to allow accurate alignment with the sighting reticle in the lid. The exterior of the main body is brass and has two graduations in degrees etched into it. A small knurled knob located at the 290 degree point locks the glass top of the main body from rotating. The base of the compass is marked MK IX, over the serial number, over J W HANDLEY MELBOURNE, over AUSTRALIA, over 1940.

Contextual Description

This compass was carried by NX3048 Sergeant Richard Sydney Turner. Turner was born in Sydney in 1916. He enlisted on 28 October 1939 and served with 6 Division Supply Column, Australian Army Service Corps. After service in Africa he was captured by the Germans near Megara during the Greek campaign in June 1941, but escaped from the train taking him to Germany. He was initially sheltered by the Greeks but this became too dangerous when Italian troops offered large rewards for the capture of Allied soldiers and threatened to shoot anyone harbouring them. Turner and a companion hid in the mountains south of Thessaly during the winter of 1941-1942. Weak from malnutrition and malaria he was considering of giving himself up when he met Ioannis Kallinikos from the village of Livanatas, who sheltered him for the next year and a half. Turner joined the Greek resistance in the summer of 1943 and led a band of fifty Greek andartes. He later joined the British Military Mission in Greece (Force 133), which operated behind German lines. He was awarded the Military Medal for his endurance and service in Greece. Turner was killed by Greek communist insurgents, during the civil war which broke out in Greece following the withdrawal of the Axis forces, on 17 December 1944 while in a truck on his way to Athens airport to be repatriated to Australia.