Personal information

Henry John Turner survived the sinking of Valera and spent several days drifting on a raft together with four others. He was rescued by a US Coast Guard vessel and taken to Panama where he spent a month in recovery at Margarita Hospital. The memories of Peter Every, who was with him on the raft, can be found in an article here.

After the war, Henry became the master of the tankers Ambrosio and Inverrosa of the Lago Shipping Company and then worked as a tug captain in San Nicolas harbor. He retired from Lago in 1965 and died in 1979. Many years later, his son John S. Turner, Capt. USNR (Ret.), managed to locate Peter Petersen, a former crew member of U-518 who had been aboard the U-boat during the attack on Valera. Amazingly, Peter and his wife Irma live only about a 2-hour drive from his home in Ohio. They agreed to meet each other and John spent about three hours discussing and recording his life experiences.

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