Description
Object description
British NCO served with 1st Bn Gloucestershire Regt, 29th British Infantry Bde in North and South Korea, 11/1950-4/1951; prisoner of war in Camp 1, Choksong, North Korea, 5/1951-8/1953
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Bristol, GB, 1931-1949: family; education; employment; recreational activities. Aspects of enlistment and training with Gloucestershire Regiment at Bulford Camp, GB, 9/1949-10/1949: attitude towards National Service; selection process; reception on arrival at camp; first day of training; attitude of NCOs; problems climbing rope; question of treatment of recruits; recruit who committed suicide; question of nature of bullying; facilities in Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI); pay and barrack room damages; passing out parade. Aspects of period as private and NCO with 1st Bn Gloucestershire Regt at Colchester Garrison, GB, 1949-1950: waiting for return of battalion from Jamaica at Colchester Garrison, 12/1949; allocation to Anti-Tank Platoon in Support Coy.
REEL 2 Continues: question of height and promotion to lance corporal; training on 17 Pounder Anti-Tank Gun, including live firing; degree of awareness of situation in Korea; reaction to posting of unit to South Korea; relations between regulars and National Service conscripts. Recollections of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Gloucestershire Regt, 29th British Infantry Bde in South and North Korea, 11/1950-4/1951: voyage aboard HMT Empire Windrush from GB to Pusan, South Korea, 10/1950-11/1950, including route march at Suez, Egypt and continuation training; arrival at Pusan, South Korea, 11/1950; terrain; participation in first fighting patrol; taking up positions near River Yalu, North Korea; reasons for not firing on tanks; attacks on Hill 327; opinion of working under American command.
REEL 3 Continues: nature of American rations; opinion of United States Army troops; United States Army personnel impressions of Oxford Carrier; trading with American service personnel; clothing worn; contact with home; leave in Japan; driving duties; driving Oxford carriers; memories of Lieutenant Barker; contact with Korean civilians; use of makeshift cookers; capture of Chinese People's Volunteer Army prisoners of war; impressions of Chinese and Koreans; start of Battle of River Imjin, 22/4/1951; Chinese People's Volunteer Army frontal attacks; reaction to orders to fix bayonets; firing of high explosive artillery shells at massed Chinese People's Volunteer Army attacks; disabling anti-tank gun and Oxford Carrier; joining up with patrol led by Captain Anthony Farrar-Hockley.
REEL 4 Continues: capture by Chinese People's Volunteer Army and initial treatment; sight of Chinese People's Volunteer Army dead. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Camp 1, Choksong, North Korea, 5/1951-8/1953: treatment by captors; march to prisoner of war camp; character of first rations received in camp; death of prisoners of war on march; state of prisoner of war health; removal of officers and sergeants from main body of prisoners of war; burial of dead; wood collection; nature of rations; nature of Chinese captors' indoctrination sessions; lack of contact with civilians; organisation of camp activities; question of homosexuality in camp; sight of Captain Anthony Farrar-Hockley during escape attempt; question of escape from camp; psychological state in camp; sharing chicken and introduction of bread.
REEL 5 Continues: effects of talking about food; tooth extractions and circumcisions; effects of malnutrition on night vision of inmates; tobacco rations; cleaning pigs for eating; change in relations with Chinese captors; opinion of Chinese theatrical production; activities in camp; hearing of peace negotiations; attitude towards Chinese; receiving a Mentioned in Despatches; attitude to peace negotiations; method of transporting inmates to holding camp; crossing into South Korea; treatment on arrival in South Korea; arrival in Freedom Village; treatment in Freedom Village; reaction to release from captivity; meeting up with comrades.
REEL 6 Continues: opinion of Lieutenant-Colonel James Carne; duration of stay in Freedom Village; flight from South Korea to Japan; hospitalisation for ear infection; return to GB and reunion with family; problems of adjusting to civilian life; marriage and family life; lessons learnt from military service in Korean War; question of treatment of Korean War veterans.
