Interview with Henry Cochrane

British NCO served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 8th Infantry Bde in Palestine and Egypt, 1947-1949; served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 27th Infantry Bde in Hong Kong, 7/1949-8/1950; served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 27th Commonwealth Infantry Bde in North and South Korea, 8/1950-4/1951

REEL 1 Background in Cambuslang, GB, 1928-1939: family; education; employment. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Cambuslang, GB, 1939-1945: experience of German Air Force bombing campaign; forms of air raid shelters used; memories of night Rudolf Hess landed in Scotland, 10/5/1941; effect of wartime propaganda; public morale; queues; question of why he was not evacuated from Cambuslang; victory celebrations, 1945. Aspects of enlistment and training as private and NCO with Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) in GB, 1946: enlistment, 3/1946; basic training at Inverness, 1946; period as NCO instructor and difficult recruits he had to handle; journey from GB to Palestine via Egypt, 1947. REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of period as NCO with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 8th Infantry Bde in Palestine and Egypt, 1947-1948: security precautions; guard duty, Lydda Airfield; lack of sense of danger and attitude towards operations; attitude to service in Palestine; stripping bare of Lydda Airfield by Arabs during last days of British Mandate, 5/1948; move to Egypt, 5/1948. Aspects of period as NCO with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 27th Infantry Bde in Hong Kong, 7/1949-8/1950: posting during crisis with People's Republic of China, 1949; camps in New Territories; border patrols; nature of soldiering in Hong Kong; instruction received from American Korean War veterans, 8/1950; voyage aboard HMS Ceylon from Hong Kong to Pusan, South Korea. REEL 3 Continues: Recollections of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 27th Commonwealth Infantry Bde in North and South Korea, 8/1950-4/1951: reception at Pusan, South Korea; journey to front line in American transport; conditions in front line on River Naktong, South Korea; story of obtaining clothes from United States Army and how adjutant Captain Slim made him give them back; use of pontoon bridge to cross River Naktong, South Korea; disintegration of North Korean opposition, 9/1950; relations with United States Army troops on motorised advance north; lack of experience of fighting on River Naktong, South Korea, 9/1950; danger to battalion officers wearing balmorals; role as mobile force controller; incident of defying Captain Colin Mitchell who wanted bridge full of refugees mortared; memories of Major David Wilson at Pakchong, North Korea. REEL 4 Continues: thwarting of North Korean People's Army attack with help of 3rd Bn Royal Australian Regt troops at Pakchong, North Korea; how North Korean People's Army troops mistook British Army troops for Soviet Army troops in Sariwon, North Korea, 10/1950; effect of American bombardments on Korean towns; initial frostbite casualties on approach to River Yalu, North Korea; loss of Universal Carriers to cold weather; reaction to order to withdraw south; escape of battalion from encirclement by Chinese People's Volunteer Army; retreat to Taegu, South Korea before advance resumed to Kaesong, North Korea; arrival of British military supplies, 1951; contrast between American and British rations; cooking rations; luck to draw leave slip for Japan; shooting competition with United States Army soldier. REEL 5 Continues: contact with newly arrived 29th British Infantry Bde; leave in Japan; story of how he handled embittered comrade; leaving South Korea on USS Montrose and farewells played from HMS Belfast, 4/1951; attitude to having served in Korean War.