John James Leach

In memoriam

949 GUNNER J. J. LEACH N. Z. ARTILLERY 24TH APRIL 1942 AGE 22

Killed while a Prisoner of War Aged 22 years New Zealand Artillery 5 Field Regt. Service Number - NZ 949 Next of Kin - Mrs. M. Leach, Pitcairn Cottage,Markinch, Fifeshire, Scotland (wife) ------------------------- Title: Appendix VII: Escapes Author: M. B. McGlynn In: Crete Publication details: Historical Publications Branch, 1953, Wellington Part of: The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945 Page 515 Salonika prison closed down and the few prisoners left were locked in cattle trucks for the trip to Germany. The sergeant-major was there—he traveled in the carriage with the Germans—and he suggested that those who wanted to escape should travel in the second truck. ‘Late that night we were sawing away when the train suddenly stopped and guards ran up to us and shone torches on the hole. They battened up the hole and took our saw but we still had a file. Once everything appeared settled, we filed the wire off the window. Johnny Leach [Gunner J. J. Leach, 4 Fd Regt] was second through the window. I was about to follow when the train slowed down and, after a few minutes, stopped. The guards came down the left side, spotted Johnny, and started running. Johnny ran around the back of the truck to the other side up past where we were. Then the guards on the right side saw him; Johnny turned again to run and they shot him in the back. He lay outside our window and we heard him say that they had got him in the back and then had put the boot in. He lived five minutes. They took us out of our truck and put us in the other. Blunden received the MM for his escape and Leach, who was killed on 24 Apr 1942, was awarded posthumous mention in dispatches.

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