All About Me

After request from a lot of my friends and family, I have decided to write this short transcript. To explain what it was like for a young man of 18 years to be called up, to do national service, basic training and then to sent overseas to fight in a war zone were potentially one could have been wounded, taken as a prisoner of war or possibly killed in action by the Chinese and North Korean armies. 

The vast majority of young recruits newly drafted to the war zone greatly underestimated just how determined the communist’s forces were and by how much they vastly out numbered the UN forces. When the communist’s forces came at you they were in there thousands, we fought them from trenches dug out at the top of hills similar to those used during the First World War. Some of the most notable battles that took place were the battle of Imjin River, Inchon valley and the Hook. Many more battles occurred and great numbers of soldiers on both sides taken prisoner wounded or lost their lives but it made men out of boys.

Let me now tell you about some of my experiences about the days spent in the front line. Firstly, all of our food had to be carried on there backs up the hills to us by our allies the South Korean porters. We escorted them as they carried all the food ammunition and other supplies. Each man received just one box of K–rations per day and each box contained three main meals which came in tins i.e. hamburgers, ham and beans. You also received in the box cigs, jam and toilet paper. Now one funny thing was that if you did not have a tin opener then you struggled to eat most soldiers carried the tin opener around their neck or on a cord. Your Food cooked on a small tin that had cotton wool and paraffin in it you just lit it with a match and warmed up your food but in some circumstances it was prudent not to eat your food and one had to eat it cold.  Through the day whilst on duty in the trenches you had to dig a deep hole at the back of the hill for a toilet, in the open air the toilet was made up of a peace of wood resting on two blocks over a hole which had to be filled in when it was full. You would then dig a bigger hole for your rubbish but when that one was overflowing you would just throw some petrol over it and set it alight. When it came to washing and you wanted a shower there was no running water so the lads would get together and make a shower using some hosepipe, very primitive but it worked although the water was very cold so one tended not to stay in long.

Now to move forwards with my story, every day and night the guards who served on a 2hrs on 4hrs off basis were put on duty unless you were going out on night patrol. Most of our time during the day consumed with keeping your weapons and ammunition clean and dry along with yourself. The majority of days were boring and the weather did not tend to help it was extremely cold in the winter and not all that much better in the summer. You had to sleep in your clothing and just take your boots off for about one hour a day to avoid getting frostbite. When the weather turned bad, it could quite often be weeks before we got any winter clothing and god it was cold. I once had to stand guard for several weeks in my old greatcoat until the winter clothing arrived, this lifted all of our sprits as we each received a new parka coat, string vests and jumpers it felt good to be warm again. You always slept with your rifle by your side whilst in the bunker just in case of a surprise attack by the communist armies. The construction of the bunker was just a hole or trench at the back of the hill with sandbags for a roof and if it rained, it not only wet you but your bedding also. I lost my bedding in the first week in Korea no great loss though as you were incredibly lucky if you managed to get a full nights sleep. To the front of the hill was a crawl trench, which linked up to all the other manned trenches that had mostly had two men every ten to fifteen yards. This allowed you to observe if the enemy was coming, we had to stand on guard in the evenings for about one hour and then you stood down, but the guards had to remain there on duty until the watch relieved them. My posting was on a forward position, which is a small hill about two-three miles in front of the main hill we were put there to give the warning if the enemy came. on one such evening whilst stood to we were ordered to stay there till a patrol which was on its way out had returned, after about an hour we heard it go past our hill and a little time later we began to hear explosions from were the patrol had gone. An officer informed us that the patrol had walked into a minefield and there were a number of casualties and that a rescue team was on its way, he asked if some one from our hill could meet them at the bottom. My commanding officer ordered to go down and meet the rescue team, this I did and I led them to where the patrol was heading for. we found the patrol very soon as we could  hear them, most were badly wounded in there legs and feet as far as I could tell they had only got 4 stretchers but there was at least 5 seriously wounded men.  They put four of the most badly hurt men on to the stretchers and started to move out. I placed my rifle on a stretcher that was passing and picked up the last wounded man in a fireman’s lift and started to the camp. When I looked up again the stretcher party had left me behind, there was just me the wounded soldier and a Sgt the soldier was heavy so I put him down a few times until I got my breath back. When I put him down, he said one word to me it was a funny word for a soldier to say but only I could ear him. I kept putting a piece of rag that I had into the paddy fields water and bathed his brow. again he said that word to me, I thought the Sgt would help me but not till we got back to the  main hill did he take the lad off me and told me to get back to the foreword position. on my way back I remembered that I had left my rifle on the stretcher so when I got back to my hill the officer told me that I could get court marshalled if I had lost my weapon so the next morning I had to go back up to the main hill to retrieve my rifle. Some one told me that my rifle was in a bunker that the commanding officers dog slept in; when I got it back, I found it covered in dog sh-t so it took me all day to clean. I was pig sick when our time on the forward position was over we got back to the main hill and I was informed that the Sgt who did not help me to carry the soldier back had been mentioned in dispatches and credited for carrying the soldier back. He told me after receiving his honour that he was a regular soldier and I was only national service he said that he was sorry for taking all the credit but it would help his career in the army and that I would be going home and demobbed. When I returned home the only thing that bothered me was that I never did get to know the soldiers name or if he had recovered. but I am the only one that as that word and I  will remember it till the day I die if that lad could get in touch with me I would love to meet up with him I could tell him what he said to me

This is 

Terence B Brierley  

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