Australian flag: Sergeant R S Turner, 6 Division Supply Column, Australian Army Service Corps Accession Number: RELAWM24598

Description

Small red polished cotton Australian ensign with separately applied white cotton stars and an appliqued printed cotton Union Jack in the upper left canton. There is a fine mercerised cotton cord threaded through the hoist. The bottom edge of the flag is stamped in black ink with Greek writing which translates 'Iannoa - red flag'.

Contextual Description

NX3048 Sergeant Richard Sydney 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. This small flag was made for Sergeant Turner while he was in Greece.