Murphy, Byron James (Oral history)

British gunner served with 71st (Gloucestershire) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Bty, Home Guard in Bristol, GB, 1944; NCO served with 2nd Bn Dorsetshire Regt, British Indian Div, British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, 1946-1947; served with 1st Bn Gloucestershire Regt, 29th British Infantry Bde in Korea, 11/1950-4/1951; prisoner of war in North Korea, 4/1951-7/1953

REEL 1 Background in Bristol, GB, 1925-1939: family; education; employment. Aspect of period as civilian in Bristol, GB, 1939-1944: narrow escape from bomb in Speedwell area; main areas of German bombing; bomb which fell on air raid shelters at Rolls-Royce Ltd factory, Filton, 25/9/1940; public morale; reluctance of people to use air raid shelters; childrens' attitude to air raids; attitude of civilians towards German Air Force crews. Aspects of period as gunner with 71st (Gloucestershire) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Bty, Home Guard in Bristol, GB, 1944: discovery of armament workers on bonus were not putting grub screws on shells thereby endangering lives; operation of anti-aircraft guns; danger of accidents; expertise in operating guns; intensity of work; problems of getting into British Army because of Reserved Occupation status. Aspects of enlistment and training with British Army in GB, 1945: enlistment, 5/1945; opinion that Prime Minister Churchill should have won General Election, 7/1945. REEL 2 Continues: question of making infantry training too safe; training with live ammunition; emphasis on not wasting public money; question of lack of kit supplied to troops by War Office in Korea, 1950-1953. Aspects of period as NCO with 2nd Bn Dorsetshire Regt, 5th Infantry Bde, British Indian Div, British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, 1946-1947: reasons for initial drafting to India and to battalion; later nickname of British 29th Infantry Bde; move to Japan; opinion of Japan and Japanese civilians; job cleaning swimmming pool using Japanese labour. Aspects of period as private with 2nd Bn Dorsetshire Regt and 1st Bn Royal Welch Fusiliers in Malaya, 1947-1949: reasons for later reclaiming original regiment in 1949; orders to hunt for insurgents who had massacred bus occupants. REEL 3 Continues: period with 1st Bn Royal Welch Fusiliers regimental police at Johore Bahru; opinion of jungle patrols; dependence on information; need for alertness with fauna especially snakes. Recollections of operations as machine gunner with 1st Bn Gloucestershire Regt, 29th British Infantry Bde in Korea, 11/1950-3/1951: opinion of and skill in using Vickers Machine Gun; role mopping up groups of guerrillas; question of accuracy of media reporting; attacks on 'Cheltenham', 'Gloucester' and 'Bristol' Hills; commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel James Calne's idea of taking Vickers Machine Guns up hills with infantry; question of American forces's use of too many troops on their hill; Chinese defensive skills; narrow escape from Chinese troops with grenades; move up to River Han. REEL 4 Continues: Recollections of operations as machine gunner with 1st Bn Gloucestershire Regt, 29th British Infantry Bde during the Battle of the Imjin River, Korea, 4/1951: move to River Imjin; companies he was able to defend with machine gun; degree of danger from incoming fire; destruction of Vickers Machine Gun before abandoning position; not opening fire on Chinese troops carrying stretcher; attempt by US Air Force to guide survivors of battalion through Chinese lines; delays helping wounded comrades; under Chinese machine gun fire; question of Chinese machine gunner wanting them to surrender rather than kill them; capture by Chinese. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in North Korea, 4/1951-7/1953: strange behaviour of Chinese captors; refusal of Chinese to aid their own wounded. REEL 5 Continues: initial treatment as prisoners of war; inevitability of dysentery; Chinese priority for possessions over human life; conditions on march north; refusal of prisoners of war to appear as downcast as Chinese wanted them to; lack of medical attention; problems of lice; prisoner of war who died on march; contrast in attitudes of British and American prisoners of war; attempt of Chinese to break British Army chain of command; move to NCO camp on Yalu River; job as cook and contracting gangrene from knife wound; curing wound with Chinese tar poultice; Chinese propaganda; Chinese puzzlement over British prisoners of war mourning for death of King George VI, 2/1952; resistance to Communist propaganda; Chinese use of mail to extract military information. REEL 6 Continues: orders for prisoners of war to build wall; opinion of Turkish prisoners of war; refusal of British prisoners of war to build wall and his solitary confinement punishment as a result; treatment for answering back ands refusal to sign confession; Chinese claim that he was an Allied 'plant' and threat to shoot him; release from solitary confinement; Chinese sense of superiority; baiting guards; primitive ablution facilities; release procedure; effect of prisoner of war experience on his physical condition; woodcutting work; makeshift weightlifting equipment.