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Over 80 years have passed since Ely native Victor Turula was killed in action, in France, during World War II.
Extended family members of Turula are honoring his memory this week, just in time for Memorial Day, by placing a memorial stone in the Ely Cemetery in Turula’s honor.
The stone is being placed in the Turula family plot and memorializes the U.S. Army Staff Sergeant, who passed away on August 8, 1944, from wounds sustained several days earlier.
Turula is buried in a US Military cemetery in France.
Turula was the son of John and Maria Turula, immigrants from Finland in the late 1800s.
Killed at age 32, Turula had no children and the memorial being placed in Ely is being done by members of his extended family, who asked not to be identified.
A local news report in 1944 had this information about Turula’s death: “Two local servicemen have met death in action in France, according to word received from the War Department.
They are: Cpl. Mathias F. Kovach, 34, who was killed August 12, and Staff Sgt. Victor Turula, 32, who died in France August 8, as the result of wounds sustained six days previously.
Sergeant Turula was a member of an armored division engineering battalion. He was sent to England last September and landed in France shortly after D-Day. He was in the thick of the fighting until wounded.
He is the son of John Turula. His wife, Helen, resides in Duluth. Three brothers are in the service, Cpl Leonard with the Army Signal Corps in China, Tech Sgt. Harry with the Marine Corps on the Marshall Islands, and Dan, specialist athletics second class, an instructor at Ottowana, Iowa.
There are five sisters, Alma of Ely, Jenny of Rochester, Mrs. Lester Nisonger of Corpus Christi, Texas, Mrs. Matt Matta of Duluth, and Mrs. Dan Michel of Cleveland, Ohio.”
From the April 26, 1945 Duluth Herald came the following article: “Mrs. Helen Turula, 618 West Sixth Street, yesterday was presented with the Silver Star medal awarded posthumously to her husband, Staff Sergeant Victor Turula, for gallantry in action before he was killed last August in France. The presentation was made by Lt. James Welch of the war department personnel center, Fort Snelling, in the David Wisted American Legion post clubrooms.
“On August 8, 1944,” the citation read, “Sergeant Turula was instrumental in organizing the offensive force from engineer tank and infantry platoons after they had evacuated their vehicles because of severe enemy shelling and small arms fire. He also had assisted a first aid man on numerous occasions under heavy shell fire, during which time he was severely wounded.
“Sergeant Turula was serving with the armored engineers.”
