British Soldiers of the Korean War

In Their Own Words

Stephen F Kelly

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780752494029
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

More than 100, 000 British troops fought in Korea between 1950 and 1953, of which just over 1, 000 died, with a further 1000 being captured and held in atrocious conditions by the Chinese or Koreans. At least half of those captured died in prison camps. More than 70 per cent of those who fought were teenagers doing national service. They were poorly trained and ill-equipped. This book tells the story of these men in their own words. Most of the veterans are now in their eighties and there is a pressing need for them to tell their tale. So soon after the Second World War, this was a war Britain did not need but she remained steadfast by the side of the Americans, fighting more than 6, 000 miles away in a country nobody could point to on a map. Yet while we remember those conflicts in the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan, the Korean War remains largely forgotten.

1. CALL-UP

‘I hadn’t heard of Korea but I thought it would be an adventure.’

INTRODUCTION

PERHAPS THE MOST astonishing fact about the Korean War is that the vast majority of soldiers who fought there were conscripts. As many as 70 per cent of those arriving in Korea during the three years of the war were national servicemen, and mostly under the age of 20. They were young lads straight off the streets of the big cities, towns and rural villages of the nation. Some came straight from school, others were in menial jobs.

When national service was introduced in January 1949, it was initially for just eighteen months, but with war looming in Korea it was suddenly increased to two years. National service was obligatory for all young men over the age of 18. The only exemption, and then it was only a temporary exemption, was for those at university or in an apprenticeship. As soon as they had completed their apprenticeship or education, they were called up. In theory no man under the age of 19 was supposed to serve in battle, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that there were many, as the evidence in this book shows, who fought on the front line when they were underage.

So, shortly after your eighteenth birthday (in one case actually on the day!) a brown envelope would drop behind the door informing you of your ‘call-up’, and telling you when and where to report. Steve Hale remembers the stunned silence when his uncle’s call-up papers arrived, and the tears when the moment came for him to actually leave home. Within days you would be off, taking a train or bus to one of the call-up depots. From there you would be dispatched to a training camp for a period of intensive training. Everyone knew it was going to happen and dreaded the inevitable letter arriving, but there was nothing you could do about it. It was simply a matter of accepting your fate and, as one interviewee says, getting on with it and getting it over and done with as soon as you could so that you could get back to normal life.

But there were some who saw it as a temporary escape from the drudgery of life or poorly paid, tedious work. For them it was an adventure. And for most the prospect of going abroad seems to have been exciting, going to places they had only read of in books. You have to remember that barely any of these young men would have travelled beyond their hometown let alone abroad in the early 1950s. And certainly none would ever have travelled to the Far East.

But whilst most of the conscripts accepted their fate with some trepidation, there were those who dreaded it. Rather than wait for the letter to arrive, thousands mysteriously disappeared when it came to their call-up. Others, having had a taste of square bashing and the brutal sergeant major went AWOL and were officially listed as deserters. Emanuel Shinwell, the Labour Government’s Minister of Defence, announced in the House of Commons in 1950 that there were almost 20,000 absentees; a staggering number, although some of these may have been listed for a number of years. There were also suicides, although the statistics were heavily camouflaged to also include accidents and so forth so that the true numbers of suicides were known to only a few. After all they didn’t want to demoralise the conscripts any further.

Almost all those interviewed for this book testify that when they were called up they had little or no inkling that they would be sent to Korea. There was some talk of Malaysia as a possible venue, where a conflict had recently erupted, but most assumed they would not be sent to any front line. After all they were really just amateurs, off the streets and with only a basic training. As far as they were concerned they imagined they would remain at a training camp in the UK, or perhaps be posted to Germany or Austria which appear to have been popular destinations with the average soldier. None of them knew where Korea was and would never have been able to point to it on a map. Even fewer had any idea of the conflict or the reasons that lay behind it.

Although more newspapers may have been read in 1950 than today, news from Korea was sporadic. There was virtually no television; only the occasional newsreel at the cinema and that always tended to be upbeat rather than having anything to do with war. Once into the war there was little reporting. Conditions were difficult, and getting the news from Korea back home was complicated and expensive. And anyhow people in Britain didn’t really want to know. After six years of world war everyone simply wanted to forget about conflict and get on with making the peace and returning to normality.

Mostly the conscripts were assigned to the army while some, though not many, joined the RAF or navy. Training was not fun. It was square bashing, cleaning and taking orders from brutal sergeant majors who seemed to delight in making life as hard as possible for the young men, most of whom came from ordinary working-class backgrounds. It was while they were on training that the order came to go to Korea. There followed a short period of embarkation leave before making for either Southampton or Liverpool and a troopship bound for Hong Kong. But of course there were already those who were serving in the armed forces who were ordered to travel to Korea. George Stirland, for example, had been in the Royal Navy for a few years when he found himself sent east. And Eric Peters had been serving with the army in India and on the Khyber Pass before going to Korea.

The British army was already well positioned in various parts of the world, supposedly keeping the peace. The vast majority of its soldiers were stationed in Germany and Austria, maintaining a watchful eye after the war; others were in Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong which would soon become the staging post for the battle in Korea.

The journey to Hong Kong was always by ship, usually a designated troopship, but at times a requisitioned German liner. Conditions varied: some were dilapidated relics from the Second World War full of cockroaches and long overdue the scrapyard, others were more up to date and luxurious. On the troopships especially, beds were few and far between, with most soldiers sleeping in hammocks slung from the underside of the deck or in bunks crammed into small cabins, often with six or eight occupants. And once they were into hotter territory many of the soldiers dispensed of the hammocks and crammed conditions in favour of sleeping on deck. Toilet facilities were nearly always appalling. They were simply inadequate for the numbers. There were no en suite facilities, with the result that everyone had to use the small number of communal toilets and bathroom, with long queues in the morning to shave and wash. And as Geoff Holland remembers, when you did get to the sink it was often full of sick and the toilets were even worse.

The ships sailed mainly from Southampton or Liverpool and made their way via Port Said, Aden, Singapore and Colombo on a four or five-week voyage that would take them to Hong Kong. There were stopover points en route as troops were allowed some shore leave but few disembarked at Aden – the stench seems to have put them off. Singapore and Colombo, however, were a different matter, and after a couple of weeks on board, putting your feet on solid earth, even if it was for just a few hours, was more than welcome. Of course there were jobs to be done whilst on the ship, although with hundreds of servicemen the work could be spread thinly. It was hardly arduous. Eventually, after four weeks or so, they arrived in Hong Kong and were usually sent promptly to a further training post, often up in the New Territories.

Hong Kong was popular. The weather was good and dress was informal, just shorts and shirts throughout the warm summer. Plus there was plenty of entertainment and sport. It was also cheap with decent food, beer and, of course, girls. Nevertheless, for many, the news that they were about to be sent to Korea came as a shock. But most seemed to have accepted their fate stoically, perhaps not fully understanding what might await them. Maybe because war had been just a few years gone and all their families would have fought, they imagined it was simply their turn. Whatever the reason, they got on with it and boarded yet another ship, in many instances an American ship, and made the short journey from Hong Kong to war in Korea. Little did they know what they were about to encounter.

Bill Fox

I was born in Collyhurst in Manchester on the 17 January 1928, so I am now 85. I volunteered to join the army but they took me on as a national serviceman. When the Korean War started they asked for volunteers who had just come out of the army. They wanted them because they were already trained and fit. Anyhow, I volunteered for eighteen months. Now for me going to a place I’d never heard of before seemed marvellous. It was on the other side of the world and to fight under the uncrowned King of the Pacific, General MacArthur,1 was a big adventure. He was the big hero of the war but we all believed that the British army was the best in the world and we could do no wrong. I’d seen all these American films fighting the Japs and Germans and I wanted to be a part of it. I was too late for the Second World War, but when the chance came for me to go somewhere to fight for just eighteen months I was really keen. Remember, this was before the Chinese had come into it so it was just a civil war between the North Koreans and the South. What a marvellous experience I thought, what a marvellous chance. I thought, great. I had gone into the army in 1945 and had been demobbed in 1948, so I had missed all the action. After I had been demobbed I had gone back to my old job, working in a timber firm, as a driver’s mate going all over the country. I enjoyed that but to get the chance to go abroad was exciting and romantic, a great adventure. So, I went down and volunteered as a reservist. They gave me a choice of one of three infantry regiments. I was undecided but picked the Glosters. They consisted of roughly a thousand men; of those only a third were from the original Glosters. The others were volunteers and reservists called up from the Second World War. The reservists thought it would all be over in next to no time, by the time they got there, but had they realised the Chinese were going to get involved, they wouldn’t have gone.

Before we left for Korea I was based in Colchester and met someone called Derek Ball who became a great friend. He had a real country yokel accent and I used to take the mickey out of him and he’d take the mickey out of me calling me Frank Randle.2 We left Southampton in early September 1950 on the Windrush,3 a German ship confiscated by the British at the end of the war. It was a lovely trip, seeing places I’d never been; it was marvellous to go all round the world. We saw Gibraltar, we bypassed Malta and saw all the British naval ships signalling to us through the night, saying good luck. Then it was on to Suez and we saw all the British soldiers on the banks of the canal, all waving to us. It was like Britain was everywhere. Then we went to the Red Sea; I’d heard so much about that and how romantic it was. There were the deserts and mountains and then we stopped at Aden, and then to the Indian Ocean, stopping at Colombo where everyone was so nice and friendly. Then we stopped at Singapore; that was great. We had shore leave and we couldn’t get ashore quickly enough to see all the sights. We went to the dancehalls and they were a bit different to Manchester. Back in Manchester you had to ask the girls very carefully and politely if they would dance with you, but here they all wanted to dance with you. They gave you tickets as well. If the girl danced with you, then you had to give the ticket to the girl and she would get paid commission. From Singapore we sailed straight to Korea, we didn’t go to Hong Kong, as they did later, I think they wanted to get us there as fast as possible.

Jim Lucock

I was born in Liverpool, in the Dingle, on the 21 May 1932. I left school in 1946 at the age of 14 and became an apprentice plumber. But because I was an apprentice my national service was deferred until 21. However, I also played football and was in two cup finals and because of that I was not going to night school. A man from the deferment board came to see me and told me that I had to go to night school otherwise my deferment would be cancelled. Anyway, a few weeks later he returned and said, ‘You still haven’t been going to night school, so your deferment in cancelled.’ Ten days later I got a letter telling me to go down town and have a medical and ten days after that I was in the army. I was 20 at the time. I had broken the deferment agreement so they put me in the army straightaway. This was June 1952.

I wanted to go in the Parachute Regiment but you needed to sign on as a regular for that and I said I wasn’t going to sign on until I had found what it was like, so I was put into the Lancashire Fusiliers and sent to the Wellington barracks in Bury. I was only there an hour and I was told I was going to the King’s Own Regiment in Lancaster, so they took us down and put us – there must have been about forty of us – on a train to Bowerham barracks. When we got there, the next morning, they said, ‘You’re not staying in the King’s Own Royal Regiment, you’re going to the King’s Regiment in Liverpool and you’re going to Korea.’ We all looked at each other and said, ‘Korea?’ And they said, ‘Yes, you’re going to Korea.’ That didn’t bother me because my father and grandfather and cousins and uncles had all been in the King’s Regiment in Liverpool going back to the First World War. I knew about the war in Korea because I had seen it on the news at the cinema, so I knew what it was about basically but I had no idea what the conditions were like. We did our six weeks basic training. It was a good camp, no bullying, lots of shouting of course, but the NCOs were good.

After that I went down to Aldershot to do a para course but going up on a catwalk I slipped and did my knee in. I went to see the MO and they examined it and said this is going to take a while to heal up so we’re going to return you to your unit, so I went back to Bowerham barracks and they said all your crowd have gone to Formby, so I ended up going down to Harington barracks in Formby on my own. Of course the lads were all a month in front of me by then so they put me with an entirely different set of fellas. So we did our basic training there and our continuation training and then they decided to give us some embarkation leave and we were on our way down to Southampton. The battalion had already gone to Korea.

Roy Cox

I joined the army in 1948 when I was 17 and three-quarters. I was living in Oxford at the time. What happened was that my sister gave me a book called Wing Dagger and it was about the SAS and I read it and, of course, fancied the idea of dropping behind lines. So I went to the recruiting office and said I want to join the SAS and they said, ‘No you can’t, not straight away, they come from other regiments.’ So I said, ‘OK which regiments?’ and they said, ‘Well a lot of them come from the Parachute Regiment.’ So I said,‘OK, I’ll join the Parachute Regiment.’

‘Oh no you can’t do that,’ they said, ‘to get in the Parachute Regiment you have to join the infantry first.’ So I said, ‘OK, I’ll sign on for the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.’ So I signed on for them and I was sent for basic training. There were only two of us who were regulars and under 18. Now if you were under 18 you had to go and get half a pint of milk every day to drink from the canteen. All the blokes used to take the mickey, babies having their milk, cissies. We used to skip it a lot.

Anyway, when we’d finished all our training, which was basic weaponry stuff, they said the national servicemen are going in the ox and buks which is in Germany at the moment cos they were only doing eighteen months at the time, and the regulars, they said, were going to Malaya and you will be drafted into the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. So we had a week’s leave and the two of us said, ‘Goodbye Mum we’re not coming back for three years.’ We got a fortnight’s embarkation leave but a week after we were brought back and they said, ‘You’re actually joining the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry.’ And I said, ‘Where’s that?’ and they said, ‘Buckingham Palace, they’re on guard duty.’ Well that was the last thing I wanted, all that bullshit. Anyhow, we went there, we were at Chelsea barracks, there was all this belt and buckle cleaning and I thought if there was a good way I could get to France I would desert and join the French Foreign Legion but I couldn’t think of a good way. I was a bit mad at that age.

Anyhow, I did my posting there and I did Windsor Castle duty as well. But the sheer bull of everything! Everything had to be so polished. I finished that and went to Borden camp and got ready for going abroad somewhere. They then put us on a train to Liverpool and shipped us out to Hong Kong, as they thought the Chinese nationalists might invade Hong Kong. We were just going to Hong Kong, this was before the Korean War had started and I did eighteen months there. We were given jungle training as they thought we might then go on to Malaya. Then suddenly we heard about the Middlesex going to Korea because there was a war starting there. We were all asking where’s Korea? We had never heard of it. We were told it was somewhere up near China. After the Middlesex had done twelve months in Korea we went in 1951.

So we got on an American attack transport ship, it had a fairly flat bottom so it could get on the beaches. But it was bad for seasickness and god did I get seasick. The toilets on the ship had no doors on them so you had to sit there with everyone walking past.

Eric Peters

I left school when I was 14 and became a coal porter – not as in the man who made the music! No, I used to carry the coal for a coalman. I’ve still got the letter off the coalman, dated September 1944, when the army asked him about my character. In fact I’ve still got all my army records. I worked on the coal wagons for £1.50 a week. My mate’s brother was in the Loyal Regiment. He had escaped from the Japanese and then later been killed, so we all decided to join up. We didn’t all get in but I was old enough and got in, signing up for seven and five, that’s seven years in the colours and five in reserves. I signed up on the 1 January 1945, at 17 and a half years of age. That was the minimum age but I didn’t have a proper regiment at first. Instead I was sent for training with the 27th Infantry Training Regiment at Derbyshire for three months and it was only after that that I ended up joining the Black Watch. I teamed up with a lad from Wigan and he was joining the Black Watch and he persuaded me to go with him. I had no Scottish relations and knew nothing about the Black Watch. I didn’t have to lie about being Scottish, it was about 60/40 English to Scots, that many Englishmen – cockneys, lads from Birmingham, all over.

I went to Germany on the 6 January 1946, the war was over by then but there was still so much devastation. I was in Düsseldorf, Osnabruck, then back down to Belgium where the lads who were bein...