Kenneth James William Turner – Légion d’Honneur

7^th Tank Regiment

Légion d’Honneur

Ken Turner didn’t need reminding of the Second World War – the Normandy veteran had a piece of shrapnel which was lodged in his neck for more than 60 years that he proudly displayed in his living room.

The metallic nut was among the pieces from the radio operator’s own blown-up American built Stuart Mk3 tank which struck him following a Nazi bombing raid in northern France.

He survived the blast and all shrapnel, except the nut was removed from his body. Army doctors deemed it too close to an artery to remove.  At the turn of the century a consultant agreed he could remove it.

“I thought ‘what do I do with it now?’,” the 94-year-old said at the time, “And the only good idea seemed to be to get it placed in a display box which I could have in my living room.

“It is a reminder of the war and two men in my tank team who did not survive that blast.” He said.

Ken Turner who was chair of Bristol Normandy Veterans – volunteered to join the Young Soldiers Battalion of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps in 1941 to escape an unhappy upbringing at the age of 16, passing himself off as an 18-year-old.

In 1944, on June 18, 12 days after D-Day, Ken Turner arrived in Normandy with the 7th Royal Tank Regiment – to carry out daring reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines.

Using the high-speed Stuart Mk3 tank, he and his two-man team would go on night patrols into enemy-held villages and towns to gather information, sometimes capturing unaware German infantry. But sadly the missions for Ken Turner, a lance corporal in the regiment, came to an end, his luck was only going to last so long. And on July 17, less than a month after arriving in Normandy, his war in France was to come to an end.

On the night of July 17th he and his crew took a rest, he and his team drove the tank next to a battery of cannons and got out for a wash. A German bomber disguised as an Allied plane with landing lights targeted the cannons and got a direct hit on Ken Turner’s tank, blasting it to pieces. One of his crew died instantly, another died later from his wounds.

Ken Turner said later,  “The bomb blew my tank to smithereens – my two crew members were killed; how the hell I escaped with only injuries I will never know”.