Interview with Eric Peters

British private served with 2nd Black Watch (Royal Highland Regt), 14th Airlanding Bde in India, 1947; NCO served with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 8th Infantry Bde in Palestine, 1947-1948; 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 Aspects of period as schoolchild in Neston, GB, 1939-1945: presence of decoy airfield in vicinity; lack of German Air Force bombing; reasons for enlistment in Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment), 1/1/1945. Aspects of period as private with 1st Bn Black Watch (Royal Highland Regt) in Germany, 1946-1947: relations with German prisoners of war; state of country. Aspects of period as private with 2nd Bn Black Watch (Royal Highland Regt), 14th Airlanding Bde in India, 1947: joining unit in North West Frontier Province; suffering from heat exhaustion; sight of victims of communal rioting in Sherat bazaar near Peshawar; sight of dead bodies on trains. Recollections of period as private with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 8th Infantry Bde in Palestine, 1947-1948: areas of unit operations, 1947-1948; reprisals against orange groves for Zionist attacks; German settlement outside Sarafand; blowing up of train with Royal Air Force personnel on board; leaving Palestine, 5/1948. Aspects of period with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 27th Infantry Bde in Hong Kong, 1949-1950: posting to Hong Kong, 1949; attitude towards posting; social life. REEL 2 Continues: reaction to outbreak of Korean War, 6/1950; reasons for ending up in custody on board HMS Ceylon, 8/1950. Recollections of operations as private with 1st Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), 27th Commonwealth Infantry Bde in South and North Korea, 1950-1951: reception in Pusan, South Korea, 8/1950; first casualties to C Coy in Naktong Valley, South Korea, 9/1950; story of how he had been transferred from C coy to A Coy due to disagreement with company sergeant-major; United States Air Force mistaken napalm attack on B and C Coys on Hill 285, South Korea, 23/9/1950; United States Air Force accidental strafing of A Coy on Hill 282, South Korea, 23/9/1950; transfer of unit to Kimpo, 10/1950; North Korean People's Army troops' mistaking of battalion for Soviet Army at Sariwon, North Korea, 10/1951; use of American manufactured clothing; effects of cold; retreat southwards, 11/1950; attempt to get warm using tank exhausts. REEL 3 Continues: use of United States Army shower unit; celebration of Thanksgiving Day, 23/11/1950; rest period at Ujongbo, South Korea, 12/1950; generosity of United States Army with rations; casualties during fighting; resumption of advance northwards, 2/1951; Chinese People's Volunteer Army tactics on retreat, 2/1951; relief of unit by 1st Bn King's Own Scottish Borderers, 4/1951; reaction to leaving South Korea, 4/1951; incidents on patrol; contrast between United States Army and British Army methods in attack and defence; opinion of Korean porters; plight of Korean refugees; treatment of unit by crew of USS Montrose on leaving South Korea for Hong Kong, 4/1951; attitude to serving in Korean War.