Description
Object description
British officer served with 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, 29th British Infantry Bde in Korea, 11/1950-4/1951; served as staff officer with 1st Commonwealth Div in Korea, 1951-1952
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of operations as officer with 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars 29th British Infantry Bde in Korea, 11/1950-4/1951: news of mobilisation at Tidworth Camp in GB; call-up of reservists; opinion of equipment taken and Centurion and Cromwell tanks; troop's attitude towards going to Korea including those of reservists; degree of knowledge of Korean war; briefing on terrain; initial impressions; attitude towards serving with United Nations forces; behaviour of United States Army personnel; arrival in Pusan, 11/1950; advance and retreat, 12/1950; destruction of 'Cooperforce', 12/1950-1/1951; sight of refugees south of Seoul; contrast in American and British attitudes towards need to withdraw; rations, clothing, frostbite; view of refugees south of Seoul; arrival at British Embassy, Seoul.
REEL 2 Continues: conditions for British troops; billeting in tents; moving tanks on terrain; problems reaching Pusan to conduct unit audit. Recollections of operations commanding C Sqdn, 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, 29th British Infantry Bde Battle of River Imjin in Korea, 22/4/1951-25/4/1951: suspecting presence of Chinese forces; Chinese attack on British positions; Captain Antony Farrar Hockley's request for tank support for 1st Bn Gloucestershire Regt; failure to predict Chinese attack; close approach of Chinese patrol to tank laager; method of withdrawal; opinion of Chinese forces.
REEL 3 Continues: fate of 1st Bn Northumberland Fusiliers during retreat, 25/4/1951; Chinese infantry assault on tanks; sustaining head wound to mortar fire; reaching safety; story of losing glass eye; sustaining head wound; return to unit. Recollections of period as divisional intellegence officer with 1st Commonwealth Div in Korea, 1951-1952: interrogation of prisoners; other sources of intelligence; reaction to brutality amongst Koreans; opinion of Chinese and North Koreans.
REEL 4 Continues: comparison of American and British forces including training, equipment and supply systems; opinion of Turkish troops; Chinese use of sticky bombs; use of air power; effects on morale of seeing British air forces, visiting Royal Navy ships.