Description
Object description
British gunner served with 45th Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 29th British Infantry Bde in Korea, 11/1950-1/1951; prisoner of war in Camp 5, Pyoktong and Bean Camp, Suan, North Korea, 1951-1953
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Liversedge, GB, 1920-1938: family; employment; reasons for joining Territorial Army, 1938. Recollections of operations with 45th Field Regt, Royal Artillery, 29th British Infantry Bde in Korea, 11/1950-1/1951: reaction to recall from British Army reserve, 8/1950 and role in unit; flight from GB to Japan, 10/1950; bartering with American troops; work of advance party; initial impressions of South Korea; contrast between American and British Army discipline; opinion of use of napalm.
REEL 2 Continues: American troops' abandonment of supplies on retreat; change of role to tank wirelessman, 25/12/1950; inadequacy of clothing for winter; mistreatment of civilians; character of American retreat, late 1950. Recollections of capture by Chinese and trek into North Korea, 1/1951-3/1951: circumstances of capture, 1/1951; initial treatment by Chinese.
REEL 3 Continues: effect of Chinese Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG 15 aircraft on American heavy daylight bombing; British prisoner of war support for potential American use of atomic bomb on China; Chinese precautions against air attacks; nature of main supply route; treatment of stragglers and Korean civilian starvation. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in North Korea, 1951-1953: arrival in Camp 5, Pyoktong; incident of Chinese officer kicking American prisoner of war; nature of stay in Bean Camp on journey north; camp diet; fraternisation with Turkish prisoners of war; conditions in camp; question of fastidiousness with food; opinion of qualities of Chinese People's Volunteer Army infantrymen; complaints by Turkish against Americans prisoners of war.
REEL 4 Continues: contrast in different nationalities' attitudes under captivity; Chinese political indoctrination and prisoners of war response; literature available; reception of Alan Winnington; Arnall's own political views; opinion of Marine Andrew Condron; cases of homosexuality; Turkish prisoners of war and use of marijuana; other left-wing visitors; question of germ warfare issue; question of causes of Korean War; contrast between American black and white prisoners of war; attitudes to coping with camp life.
REEL 5 Continues: question of working as prisoner of war; opinion of prisoner of war work of Marine Andrew Condron.
