Interview with Brian Hipperson

British NCO served with 1st Bn Middlesex Regt (Duke of Cambridge's Own), Hong Kong Garrison in Hong Kong, 9/1951-1/1952; private served with 1st Bn Royal Norfolk Regt, 29th British Infantry Bde, 1st Commonwealth Div in South Korea, 3/1952-5/1952

REEL 1 Background in Norwich, GB, 1931-1951: family and social circumstances; education; German Air Force attacks; use of Anderson Shelter; presence of military personnel under training, air activity, stealing from ammunition dumps; food and clothing rationing; following progress of war; VE and VJ Day celebrations, 1945; training and work as apprentice plumber, 1945-1950. Recollections of enlistment and training with East Anglian Bde at Blenheim Camp, Bury St Edmunds, GB, 3/1951-4/1951: background to call-up for National Service, 3/1951; question of status as trained plumber and how that could be used with Royal Engineers; reception and warning of eligibility for service in Korean War; reaction to military discipline; hair cut; kitting out; hutted accommodation; morning routine; rations; pay and question of signing on as regular. REEL 2 Continues: preparation of kit for inspections; drill; physical training; question of home sickness; weapons training, including rifle, Bren Gun, Sten Gun, bayonet, hand grenade, Ordnance SBML 2 Inch Mortar; and Projector Infantry, Anti-Tank; relations with fellow recruits, instructors and officers; passing out parade and leave. Recollections of continuation training with East Anglian Bde, Roman Way Camp, Colchester Garrison, GB, 4/1951-6/1951: nature of training; erecting tent camp for reservists; presence of 1st Bn Scots Guards; visits to Colchester and Bury St Edmunds. REEL 3 Continues: change in training system. Aspects of period with East Anglian Bde at Bury St Edmunds, GB, 6/1951-7/1951: completion of continuation training; embarkation leave; issue of jungle kit. Aspects of voyage with draft aboard HMT Devonshire from GB to Hong Kong, 8/1951-9/1951: messdecks; hammocks; seasickness; sleeping on deck; inspections at boat drill positions and illustration of superior living conditions for officers; recreational activities; visits ashore on route. Recollections of period as private and NCO with C Coy, 1st Bn Middlesex Regt (Duke of Cambridge's Own), Hong Kong Garrison at Fanling, New Territories, Hong Kong, 9/1951-1/1952: hutted accommodation; nature of training; assault pioneer course on Kowloon Peninsula, including use of explosives, laying minefields, mine detection and clearance, water supply, road building and practical demolition exercises; posting to Assault Pioneer Platoon, Support Coy; building observation posts; promotion to lance corporal; opinion of Private Robert Guess. REEL 4 Continues: Christmas celebrations, 25/12/1951; question of posting to South Korea; voyage from Hong Kong to Kure, Japan, 1/1952. Aspects of training at Haramura Battle School in Japan, 1/1952-3/1952: cold conditions; firing anti-tank rocket launchers; route march back to Kure; medical; story of exercise illustrating eccentric character of officer; realism of training; tactical training; story of subsequent meeting with eccentric officer; issue of winter uniform. Recollections of operations as private with Assault Pioneer Platoon, Support Coy, 1st Bn Royal Norfolk Regt, 29th British Infantry Bde, 1st Commonwealth Div in South Korea, 3/1952-5/1952: voyage from Japan to Pusan, 3/1952; rest periods in reserve, 3/1952-4/1952: reversion from lance corporal to private; opinion of Lieutenant John Wormald and Sergeant H Bell. REEL 5 Continues: relations with fellow troops; dugouts and heating arrangements; cold conditions; building officers' mess; football competition; anti-infiltration patrols; terrain; practicing boat crossings of River Imjin and accident from use of explosives; problems with old minefields; erecting barbed wire defences; initial defensive positions on knoll forward of Hill 355, 4/1952; Chinese People's Volunteer Army artillery fire; night listening posts duty in No Man's Land including problems with corpses, personal morale, sighting Chinese People's Volunteer Army patrols and question of opening fire; sentry duties; dugouts; stand to; rations and use of American K-rations. REEL 6 Continues: story of administrative failure to register life membership of Royal Norfolk Regiment Association taken out on joining unit; Chinese People's Volunteer Army artillery fire; personal morale and case of wounded soldier; improvements to trenches and barbed wire; weapon maintenance; sleeping arrangements; latrines; mobile bath; smell of corpses; minefield in No Man's Land; question of rat and lice problems; opinion of officers and NCOs; story of coming under shellfire on return from bath; move to new positions on Hill 355; nature of reconnaissance patrol activity; nature of defensive positions and fire plans. REEL 7 Continues: Account of being wounded during patrol into No Man's Land towards Hill 277, 29/5/1952: briefing and plans; weapons carried; uniform; blackening face; presence of press photographer; advance in single file into valley; establishment of 1st and 2nd bases; impressions of Lieutenant Anthony Towell; advance up Hill 227 and role as last man; question of Chinese People's Volunteer Army advanced positions on forward slope of Hill 227; night conditions; question of advancing too far; fanning out into line; moving forward to speak to Lieutenant John Wormald; exchange of fire with Chinese People's Volunteer Army troops in trenches around their positions; wireless message for support artillery fire; sight of Lieutenant John Wormald being wounded; receiving leg and eye wounds while attempting to assist wounded Lance Corporal Robert Guess; assisting wounded Privates John Wells and John Byfield to withdraw down hill; failure to locate 2nd base and return to front line; initial medical treatment. Recollections of medical evacuation in stages from South Korea to Japan, 5/1952-6/1952: period in United States Army field hospital. REEL 8 Continues: operation on leg wounds; state of right eye; removal to British run hospital in Seoul, 6/1952; continued eye problems; flight to Kure, Japan; hospitalisation in British Commonwealth General Hospital, Kure, Japan, 6/1952; operation to remove shrapnel from eye; practical jokes; continued eye problems; reaction to prospect of further active service; period in rest camp at Miyajima Island. Aspects of return from Japan to GB, 6/1952-8/1952: story of meeting Private John Byfield and Company Sergeant-Major Stanley Wilson; prospect of losing vision in right eye; review of breaks in journey to allow remedial treatment to patients. Aspects of period of hospitalisation at Aldershot Garrison, GB, 8/1952-10/1952: eye problems; leave; prior recollection of letter and parcel contact with GB whilst serving in South Korea. REEL 9 Continues: eye operation to remove shrapnel from eye and loss of vision in eye; discharge from hospital excused of all duties. Aspects of period as private at Royal Norfolk Regimental Depot, Britannia Barracks, Norwich, GB, 10/1952-11/1952: interview with Major Holden and question of enlisting as regular weapons instructor; story of warrant officer offering extra leave in return for bribe; circumstances of posting. Aspects of period as private with Royal Norfolk Regiment at Cavalry Barracks, Hounslow, GB, 11/1952-3/1953: reception; duties in officers' mess; assisting illiterate soldiers; story of meeting father of Lieutenant John Wormald and question of his son's conduct during patrol, 29/5/1952; contacts with father of Lance Corporal Robert Guess and question of his broadcast on Peking Radio, 25/1/1953; demobilisation, 3/1953; story of officer attempting to mobilise troops to assist during sea floods, 3/1953; effects of smog in London; presence of Women's Royal Army Corps personnel. Post-service life and employment: background to return to work as plumber. REEL 10 Continues: initial problems on return to work; career as plumber; disability pension, effects of loss of vision in right eye and failure of cataract operation; effects of war service and acclimatisation to civilian lifestyle; story of meeting Lance Corporal Robert Guess on his release from captivity in North Korea, 1953; background to status in Army Emergency Reserve and annual camps; question of refusal to join Royal Norfolk Regiment Association; membership of British Korean Veterans Association.