Second Hand John Turner, CGM

The RNR roll of honours and awards lists John Turner as born in 1890 and serving in the RNR in the Yarmouth District. Page 337 of the RNR medal roll confirms his entitlement to the 1914-15 Star, War Medal and Victory Medal.

His RNR service record shows that Turner was born in Martham, Norfolk, on 8 November 1890. John Turner was the son of a farm labourer, James, and his wife Sarah Ann Elizabeth (née Gallant). His father was born in Upton, Norfolk, and his mother in the Rollesby Workhouse, near Martham. The family lived at Rectory Cottage, Martham, near Great Yarmouth. Martham was an agricultural and fishing community. The 1911 census shows John, aged 21, as a farm labourer. By this time his older brother Frederick was a fisherman, as was Frederick Jones, who with his wife shared Rectory Cottage with the Turner family.

John Turner enlisted in the RNR in Yarmouth on 24 February 1915. The Trawler Section of the RNR was introduced in 1910 and recruited from the fishing community. Crews wore RNR uniforms. Skippers wore RNR warrant officer's uniform. Second hands wore RNR over T with a crown above. He served aboard the Hired Net Drifter Triumph, HND Susanna and HND Admirable at Milford Haven before leaving for Otranto — probably in early September 1915 — as a Deck Hand on the HND Serene.

The crew of a drifter consisted of about twelve or thirteen men: one warrant officer (a Skipper RNR), six seamen (one Second Hand, four Deck Hands and a Deck Boy), three Telegraphists, two Enginemen and one Trimmer. Once in the Adriatic, Turner joined HND Garrigill, which had a larger crew than most because it carried Wireless Telegraphy equipment and a 6-pounder gun. This transfer may have happened when he was promoted to Second Hand.

Sir Archibald Hurd's 1924 History of the Great War: The Merchant Navy Volume 2 describes how the fleet of RNR drifters arrived in the Adriatic in 1915.

Attention must now be turned to the Adriatic, where the trend of events had also made enormous demands on the craft of the Auxiliary Patrol. Three days after Italy's intervention in the war, Rear-Admiral Thursby had reached Taranto with a division of battleships. From the very first it was realised that it was absolutely necessary that the Austrian and German submarines based on Pola and Cattaro should, as far as possible, be thwarted. The Otranto Straits had to be denied to them. The intention was to station in these straits as many fishing-craft as could be provided, equipped with nets, just as in the Dover Straits, and supported by destroyers based on Brindisi and Valona, the operations being covered by aircraft. — Sir Archibald Hurd, History of the Great War

At the end of August it was decided to send out drifters from England to the Adriatic. The necessity arose at an inopportune moment, for, owing to the great outburst of submarine activity during this month off the south western approaches to the English Channel, more rather than fewer Auxiliary Patrol vessels were needed in home waters. However, drifter fishing was about to come to an end, and the opportunity was seized to take up some more of these craft. The result was that sixty drifters were got ready for the Adriatic, Commander O. Hatcher, R.N., being appointed to command them. On the last day of August the first batch left Falmouth for the Adriatic, via Gibraltar, and by September 10th the whole of the sixty had arrived at Gibraltar. By the end of the month the last of the flotillas had reached Taranto, and by September 25th the first two divisions had been dispatched to lay their nets across the Otranto Straits.

It was on October 12th that the first dramatic incident occurred to these craft. The line of drifters with their nets were laid across the Straits within but fifty miles of the enemy's base at Cattaro. At 8 o'clock that morning the drifter Restore was separated about three miles from the other drifters. She had for armament only a few rifles, and therefore was no match for the modern submarine with her gun or even guns. With the odds heavily against the little fishing-craft, an enemy U-boat, about four miles away, began to shell the Restore with two guns. The drifter was, of course, quite unable to maintain any engagement, so she blew her whistle, sent up rockets, and steamed towards Saseno Island to the north-eastward. Unfortunately one shell passed through the Restore, exploding in the engine-room, and disabled her. The drifter's crew had no alternative but to get into their boat, after which the U-boat, from about two miles, closed to twenty yards and again shelled the ship, sinking her within three minutes. Having attacked three other drifters, the U-boat steamed northward towards Cattaro.

This experience was not without its sequel, for by November 13th all the Adriatic drifters had been armed. Admiral Thursby had sent a request to the Admiralty for more of these drifters. From Poole and Milford, where they had been serving, additional craft accordingly steamed to Falmouth, and a few days before Christmas thirty had reached Brindisi to supplement the work of the original sixty vessels.

But in the meantime events of the first importance had been taking place ashore, no less than afloat. On the last day of November (1915) the Serbian army began its pathetic retreat through Albania towards the sea, and thenceforward the British drifters in the Adriatic had an exceptionally strenuous and hazardous time until the end of February. Vessels of the Auxiliary Patrol were indispensable at this most critical period in the fortunes of the Serbians. To these drifters fell the duty of assisting in the evacuation of the Serbian army and thousands of refugees; they were present at the landing of Italian troops at Valona; and they were at hand at all times to succour disabled ships.

Thus on December 4th, 1915, the Italian transport Re Umberto, while carrying troops to Valona, struck a mine off Cape Linguetta. In the vicinity were the drifters Evening Star and Lottie Leask, which proceeded alongside the sinking steamship. They threw all available ropes to her decks, and over five hundred soldiers were thus enabled to swarm on to the decks of the two drifters before the transport sank. Just in time to avoid disaster, the drifters succeeded in chopping away the ropes as the transport disappeared. In this way many lives were saved. "The fact that any were saved," wrote Admiral Thursby, "is due solely to the courage and gallantry displayed by the skippers and crews of these drifters." On the same day the Italian destroyer Intrepido was mined at the entrance to Valona, but the drifter Manzanita was close by, and her commanding officer, Lieutenant H. C. C. Fry, R.N.R., placed her alongside the destroyer, notwithstanding the risk of mines, and took off both officers and men.

These small craft were always more or less directly exposed to attack by the enemy. For instance, on December 18th the drifter Lottie Leask, when twenty miles west-north-west of Saseno Island, was shelled by two submarines. The drifter was able to fire five rounds, but, after being hit as many times, began to sink and had to be promptly abandoned. After rowing about for all one night in their small boat, the crew landed on a sandy beach and stayed that night at a shepherd's hut; they then wandered farther on till they came to a monastery; thence, after passing through swamps in the darkness, on December 22nd they fell in with some Italian soldiers, who gave them biscuits and enabled them to reach an Italian camp. Thence they marched with a hundred Serbians to Valona, and eventually got afloat again.

The value of the drifters in defending the Adriatic was proving inestimable, and by the beginning of January 1916 another fifty had to come out from England. Mines for their nets were also beginning to arrive, so that if an enemy submarine should foul their nets it was hoped that the U-boat would be destroyed.

Thus the dual work of these little ships went on. To them fell the lot of saving life and destroying submarines. On January 8th, 1916, the Italian transport Città di Palermo, carrying, among others, 150 British troops, struck a mine about ten miles from Brindisi. Notwithstanding the obvious risk, twenty-one drifters which happened to be in the vicinity at once steamed into the danger zone to her assistance and were able to pick up about a hundred survivors. While so doing, two of the drifters, the Freuchny and Morning Star, themselves ran on to mines and blew up, but the rest of the flotilla, undaunted by these disasters, continued their search for survivors.

On July 9th, at four in the morning, a group of five drifters, based on Brindisi, were attacked by an Austrian cruiser, with the result that the two drifters Astrum Spei and Clavis were lost. After this incident it became necessary to shift the drifter line farther south down the Straits, thus making it less easy for the raiders to interfere with them with little risk to themselves.

About 6.30 a.m. on July 30th, U44 got foul of the nets of the Quarry Knowe, which signalled the Garrigill. The latter dropped depth charges, and eventually the nets, which had evidently enveloped the submarine, went to the bottom. The career of this vessel was ended. About a month later the enemy retaliated by sending three aeroplanes over the drifter line and sank the Rosies with the second bomb. During the autumn the drifter base was transferred from Brindisi to Taranto, as these craft were operating now farther to the southward across the Otranto Straits.

By 1917, Turner had been promoted to Second Hand. Volume 3 of Hurd's history takes up the story of the drifters in the Straits of Otranto.

In the Otranto Straits the Auxiliary Patrol was still hard at work in its endeavour to deny the passage to German and Austrian submarines making their way to and from Cattaro. In the first week of February 1917, eight steel drifters reached the Adriatic from England. The worm was eating into the wooden drifters in those waters, and some vessels had become seriously unseaworthy for that reason. The situation in this area may be briefly summed up. There existed fourteen divisions, of about seven drifters each, and a line was formed across the Otranto Straits daily from three in the afternoon until daylight. Every day at daylight one division left the line for Taranto, and one left Taranto at 3 p.m. on the same duty.

From the beginning of April, the Otranto drifters, instead of netting the straits on a fixed line, began to operate in a given belt stretching from the Italian coast to Fano Island. In this belt the drifters worked in such a manner that the enemy could never be sure exactly where the lines of nets were. M.L.s were allowed to remain at sea by night, painted with white diagonal stripes to prevent their being taken for submarines, and they patrolled about five miles south of the drifter line thereby, as it was hoped, causing the homecoming submarines to dive into the nets.

On May 15th the Austrians made a cruiser raid on the drifter line. At 3 a.m. (Central European time), an hour before daylight, two four-funnelled Austrian cruisers suddenly crossed the drifter line from north to south. Seven divisions, each consisting of seven drifters, lay, with nets out, across the southern end of the Straits offering an easy target for attack. Having surveyed the trend and extent of the line the cruisers began their operations about 4 a.m. One attacked from the western end of the line, a second from the eastern end, and it is believed that a third attacked at the centre of the line. There was no occasion for haste and the cruisers stopped their engines to fire, even taking prisoners at the eastern end from the drifters. About 4.45 a.m. the raiders ceased firing and returned to Cattaro.

In a contest between small drifters, each with one tiny gun, and fast cruisers, armed with much superior batteries, the odds were of course ludicrously unequal. That did not deter the British fishermen from fighting. Several of the drifters, in the most gallant manner, engaged the big cruisers, and what is more, obtained some hits. In spite of this gallantry, no fewer than fourteen drifters were sunk and the losses of personnel were heavy, eight officers being taken prisoners to Austria.

In the 1918 book, Daring Deeds of Merchant Seamen in the Great War, Harold F B Wheeler described the action at Otranto.

The Davids of the Patrol, together with some thirty consorts, had the temerity to fight three Austrian light cruisers and their attendant destroyers. Each was armed with a single gun of small calibre, and carried a crew of ten. The men must have had extraordinary faith in their weapon. It was about as useful for the purpose as a pea-shooter would be for dispatching elephants. — Harold F B Wheeler, Daring Deeds of Merchant Seamen in the Great War

One of the captains gave the men of the drifters an opportunity to take to the boats before he opened fire. He adopted no cold-blooded submarine tactics. First of all he signalled by flag and syren that the crews were to abandon their vessels. As there were no signs that his order was being carried out, he approached to within 100 yards of the Gowan Lea and repeated his instructions by megaphone. Skipper Joseph Watt neither intended to stop nor clear out, though he must have appreciated the sportsmanlike behaviour of his enemy. Watt addressed his reply to his own crew. Surrender? He would burst first! He bade his men 'fight to a finish', slipped his nets, rang down to the engine-room for full speed ahead, and called for three cheers.

The crew shouted as though the reputation of the British Navy depended on their response, manned their solitary gun, and opened fire. These were supremely brave things to do. The crew of the Gowan Lea shot with excellent precision too, keeping hard at it until a shell from the enemy put their puny weapon out of action. The blowing-up of a box of ammunition did not tend to ease matters. The explosion badly wounded Deckhand F. H. Lamb, but failed seriously to impair his usefulness. Though still subjected to a heavy fire, he went on helping to repair the damage to the gun. Lamb's pluck and coolness earned for him the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.

Skipper Dennis John Nichols, though wounded in three places, remained steering his vessel in the wheel-house, and when Lieutenant G. R. Barling was killed, took command of the late officer's division. Despite his hurts Nichols launched a boat, from which he managed to plug the holes made in the side of the drifter during the action. They were only rough-and-ready repairs, carried out in the minimum of time and without technical finish, but they held until the Floandi reached port. He had saved his ship.

Skipper William Bruce and his men of the Quarry Knowe remained at their posts until the vessel blew up. Skipper Robert Stephen, of the Tails, stuck to her while she was sinking under him, as did the crews of the Girl Rose and the Selby. Finding that one of their number was missing, the men of the Tails returned through heavy fire to search for him. Skipper William Farquhar, together with his company, remained on the Admirable until there was precious little of her to remain on. The boiler had blown up, and the wheel-house was smashed. After they had taken to the boat, A. Gordon, the second hand, went back. It is believed that his intention was to fight the gun. Before he could reach it he was killed.

Skipper Robert Cowe kept the Coral Haven heading for the enemy and his gun firing until the ship was a raging furnace and beyond control. The first Victoria Cross ever awarded to the master of a drifter was bestowed on Joseph Watt; the other skippers mentioned each received the Distinguished Service Cross. Never were there more worthy recipients.

Second Hand Joseph Hendry, of the Serene, refused to abandon his ship. The others left her and were captured. When she sank under him, he managed to keep his head above water, and was eventually rescued. Today he wears the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal. Engineman Walter Watt was taken prisoner with the remainder of the crew of his drifter. While being conducted to one of the cruisers he jumped overboard. He was recaptured, but eluded the vigilance of the guard when alongside the man-of-war. Once again Watt plunged into the sea. This time he escaped. Result — C.G.M.

Throughout the fight it was evident that the Austrian gunners were resolutely determined to prevent appeals for help from being sent. Their first attentions were directed against the drifters fitted with the necessary apparatus, one in each division. Operators Wadsworth and Yarwood, of the Capella and Garrigill respectively, remained on duty throughout the action, while the Marconi man of the tough little Floandi unfortunately paid for his devotion with his life.

This log was found in this condition in the wireless operating cabin of H.M. drifter Floandi, after an attack on the drifter line by three Austrian cruisers in the Adriatic on May 15, 1917. The wireless operator, Douglas Morris Harris, A.B., R.N.V.R., continued to send and receive messages although the drifter was being riddled by shells until he was killed by a piece of shrapnel whilst writing in the log. The piece of shell perforated the log, and the line made by his pencil when he was hit and collapsed can be seen on the page upon which he was writing. The operator was found dead in his chair lying over the log. — Rear-Admiral commanding British Naval forces in the Adriatic

Without the slightest concern for the shells that were passing between the mast and the funnel, Second Hand John Turner clambered aloft to strike the topmast so that the aerials should not be destroyed. For displaying such great coolness under fire Turner was awarded the C.G.M.

When the cruisers attacked, Garrigill (equipped with Wireless/Telegraphy and armed with a 6-pounder gun in the bow) was in C Division. In The Battle of the Otranto Straits Paul G Halpern describes what happened. C Division also reported being under fire from two cruisers, obviously the Helgoland and Saida. Linienschiffskapitän Purschka, commanding the Saida, had the least distance to steam after the cruisers separated and apparently was the first of the cruiser commanders to spot the drifters, detecting several at 0345. In order to avoid premature disclosure, the Saida stopped engines and remained motionless for about half an hour before Purschka commenced his attack at 0420. The first drifter taken under fire was quickly set ablaze although her crew fired back bravely with their small gun before being compelled to abandon ship.

The drifter Garrigill of C Division, armed with a 6-pounder, was especially cited in reports of the action for being one of the first attacked and immediately returning enemy fire with all members of the crew behaving "in a highly creditable manner".

After the raid, the surviving drifters were ordered to assemble at Fano Island. Here they were re-organised and given orders for patrol. Fourteen drifters had been sunk, three seriously damaged and one less severely damaged. Seventy-two men were taken prisoner. Only about nine were killed.

The London Gazette of 28 August 1917 lists 51 awards for the Straits of Otranto action. Skipper Watt of one of the drifters received the VC, three senior RN officers received a CMG and two DSOs, one Bar to the DSC was awarded and five DSCs (each to skippers of drifters), five CGMs and seventeen DSMs were awarded (mainly to crewmen of the drifters who refused to surrender) and nineteen officers and men were mentioned in Despatches. The mentions included another five drifter skippers and five posthumous awards.

One Victoria Cross, one C.M.G., two D.S.O.s, five D.S.C.s, one bar to the D.S.C., five C.G.M.s, seventeen D.S.M.s, and one bar to the D.S.M., were awarded in connexion with the Otranto action; thirty-one officers and men were mentioned in dispatches. Such recognition is not lightly won.

Turner was one of 236 men ever to win the naval CGM. 108 awards were made in the 1914-18 War, 16 of them to seamen of the Royal Naval Reserve. Five of those were won by RNR members of the drifter crews in this single action.

The London Gazette of 28 August 1917 includes the citation for John Turner's CGM:

2nd Hnd. John Turner, R.N.R., O.N. 5098 DA. He displayed great coolness whilst under fire. Seeing that the enemy were endeavouring to destroy the W/T apparatus, Turner went aloft to strike the topmast, quite regardless of the fact that shells were passing between the mast and funnel. — London Gazette, 28 August 1917

On 10 May 1921 the London Gazette announced the award of prize money to Garrigill's crew as a result of their sinking U44. Turner's service records show two payments of prize money — £20 in 1920 and £30 in 1922.

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Sailors Killed in the Otranto Action on 15 May 1917

Vessel	Name	Rank	Service No.
Admirable, hired net drifter, sunk
	GORDON, Adam	2nd Hand, RNR	DA 3945
Floandi, hired net drifter, damaged
	BALL, William J	Deck Hand, RNR	DA 7520
	BARLING, George F	Ty/Lieutenant, RNVR
	BOULTON, James	Deck Hand, RNR	DA 15230
	FOWLER, William H	Engineman, RNR	ES 2439
	HARRIS, Douglas M	Able Seaman, RNVR	Bristol Z 9359
	MURPHY, William J	Deck Hand, RNR	DA 5523
Quarry Knowe, hired net drifter, sunk
	BRUCE, Peter	Engineman, RNR	ES 2923
	SMITH, William	Engineman, RNR	ES 3461, DOW
Taits, hired net drifter, sunk
	CRAIG, George	Trimmer, RNR	TS 3018
	THOMSON, Adam	Deck Hand, RNR	DA 6897
Transit, hired net drifter, sunk
	COWIE, John	Deck Hand, RNR	DA 6102
	ROSS, George	Ty/Skipper, RNR

The Otranto Barrage was heavily strengthened in early 1918, and the drifters remained in the Adriatic until the end of the war. John Turner, however, returned to Britain in early 1918, serving on HM Trawler Halcyon II and at Milford Haven and Grimsby and on the Clyde until early 1919. Demobilised at Milford Haven on 5 March 1919, he was formally discharged from the RNR on 18 August 1920.

After the war John Turner worked variously as a fisherman, boatbuilder and marshman. Married to Susanna King, he had four children. Latterly he lived at Stone Cottages, Cess, Martham, and died, aged 74, in Northgate Hospital, Great Yarmouth, on 14 June 1965. Administration of his estate, which totalled £611, was granted to his son, Archer Turner, an agricultural worker.

News of the drifters' gallant battle spread throughout the Empire. In Australia, the Victoria State newspaper The Bendigonian reported on 4 October 1917:

HEROES OF THE BATTLE IN THE ADRIATIC. NO SURRENDER! The full story of the fight between the British drifters in the Adriatic and three Austrian cruisers is one of the greatest of the war. The fishermen who manned the drifters showed heroism that has never been excelled. — The Bendigonian, 4 October 1917

It may have been the W/T equipment aboard Garrigill that attracted the cruiser's attention. The wireless operator of the Floandi (Douglas Morris Harris) continued to send and receive messages, although the drifter was being riddled by shells, until he was killed by a piece of shrapnel while writing in the log. The piece of shell perforated the log, and the line made by his pencil when he was hit and collapsed can be seen on the page upon which he was writing. The operator was found dead in his chair lying over the log.

The crews of the Garrigill, Bon Espoir, Christmas Daisy, and British Crown refused to leave their vessels, even when outranged and under broadside fire from the enemy, and brought them through the action. The enemy displayed particular anxiety to destroy the wireless telegraphy drifter in each group, and the behaviour of the wireless operators of Capella (W. Wadsworth) and Garrigill (James Yarwood) in remaining at their posts throughout the action is thus rendered the more conspicuous.

Second Hand John Turner's climb up the mast, through shellfire, to save the wireless aerials — an act that won him the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal — stands as a testament to the extraordinary bravery of the fishing men who became the unsung guardians of the Otranto Straits. These wooden drifters, manned by fishermen in naval reserve uniform, maintained a barrier that was at least tiresome, often dangerous, and at times fatal, to the enemy's under-water craft. Exposed to attack from cruisers, aeroplanes, and submarines, and with the lightest of weapons with which to reply, these fishermen and junior officers of the Royal Naval Reserve deserved well of the Allies.