 Johnston, along with thousands of other Canadians captured at Dieppe, was transferred to Stalag II-D Prisoner-of-war camp located near Stargard in then Germany (now Poland).On November 5, 1944, Johnston was caught attempting to escape and was shot dead by guards after following their command to raise his hands.In January 1945, the Sunday Pictorial, published out of London, reported that Johnston's death occurred during a mass escape of 1,500 Canadian P.O.W's.