Interview with Kenneth Walter Black

British schoolchild in Halifax, GB, 1939-1945; trooper served with 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, 29th British Infantry Bde Group in North and South Korea, 11/1950-12/1951

REEL 1 Recollections of period as schoolchild in Halifax, GB, 1939-1945: family; education; attempts to get extra food supplies; German Air Force bombs in Halifax area; collecting mania amongst schoolboys; bereavements in family; victory celebrations, 1945; newspaper items on army skills. Aspects of enlistment and training with British Army training at Catterick Camp, GB, 1949: reasons for volunteering for British Army, 28/3/1949; nature of basic training; offensive language used by NCOs; purpose of basic training; help given to each other by recruits; trade tests; wireless training in North Yorkshire; army recruits acting as dockers during docks strike, summer 1949 including duties and reception striking dockers gave to troops in Dagenham. Aspects of period as trooper with A Sqdn, 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, Royal Armoured Corps in GB, 1949-1950: posting to unit. REEL 2 Continues: learning to drive tanks at Leicester; use of troops to put out moorland peat fire, near Whitby, 9/1950; breaking into cookhouse to supplement poor diet; demonstration exercises at School of Infantry, Warminster, autumn 1950; conversion to Centurion Tank at Lulworth Cove; preparations for move to South Korea; pre-embarkation drinking session at The Drum Public House in Tidworth. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Empire Fowey from GB to Korea, 1950: encounter with cousin serving with Royal Artillery; seasickness; training aboard; problems ship had negotiating Suez Canal, Egypt. Recollections of period as trooper with 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, 29th British Infantry Bde Group in North and South Korea, 11/1950-12/1951: initial impressions of Pusan, South Korea; move to Jap Camp, Pusan, South Korea; role as recovery man on Churchill Armoured Recovery Vehicle, 11/1950; story of how he fell off train on journey north from Pusan, South Korea. REEL 3 Continues: amusing story of attempts to re-gain train, 11/1950; arrival as stores were being destroyed in Pyongyang, North Korea; clothing needed to cope with winter cold; disadvantages of recovery job including dealing with tank tracks shed in paddy fields and dangers of steel cables snapping; incident of heavy Chinese People's Volunteer Army mortar fire during operation to recover Canadian Army bulldozer; narrow escapes from Chinese People's Volunteer Army patrol and runaway Churchill Armoured Recovery Vehicle; friction with Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers NCO in workshop when Churchill Armoured Recovery Vehicle gearbox being replaced at Taegu, South Korea; raid on Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers cookhouse for eggs at Taegu, South Korea; standard of Untied States Army troops' living conditions; composition of Armoured Recovery Vehicle crew; quick cooking techniques taught him by Eighth Army veteran including use of 'Benghazi' Cooker; contrast between British compo rations and American C Rations; weather conditions; methods of coping with cold. REEL 4 Continues: issue of new winter clothing; use of prisoner of war labour; voyage from South Korea to Kure, Japan to pick up re-conditioned vehicles when Landing Ship Tank (LST) broke down; local leave in Kure, Japan; contrast between seasons in South Korea; importance of recovering expensive armoured vehicles; losses of equipment to Chinese People's Volunteer Army during Battle of River Imjin, South Korea, 4/1951; superiority of Centurion Tank to Sherman Tank; use of Centurion Tank as mobile artillery; recovery methods employed by 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards; celebration with 1st Bn Royal Ulster Rifles, St Patrick's Day, 17/3/1951; story of meeting former schoolfriend in South Korea; variable quality of Republic of Korea (ROK) troops; condition of refugees fleeing south; discovery of massacre of civilians; use of Korean labourers. REEL 5 Continues: living conditions of civilians 1950-1951; sores caused by dust; need to be wary of cesspits; game caught and eaten; fear of snakes; life in underground bunkers; dangers from improvised petrol stores; concert parties he missed and attended; question of bitterness and savagery of Korean War; corpses floating in rivers and wells; complaints of ex-Far Eastern Prisoners Of War about South Korean guards; his method of reprimanding South Korean guard for an act of brutality; Korean orphans and what soldiers did to help them; Korean orphan adopted by unit; organisation of rest and recreational activities in Tokyo, Japan including visit to Ginza Beer Hall; leaving South Korea. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Georgic from South Korea to GB, early 1952 including duties of troops aboard. Aspects of membership of British Korean War Veterans' Associations: recent visits to South Korea and gratitude of Koreans to Korean War veterans, 1980s-1990s. REEL 6 Continues: treatment of British War veterans; his attitude in 1998 to having taken part in Korean War; United Nations' Cemetery in Pusan, South Korea; treatment of Korean War veterans.