John Davies
And we also got to go to the cemetery in Busan, the United Nations, to see where were the lads who were still there - lads who were younger than me.
Before I went to Korea, naturally I'd never been further than Rhyl on the Sunday School trip. So it was a big adventure for the lads when we went to do our National Service in the Army. Then we went from this country over to Hong Kong and we did about, nearly eight months training there. Not one of us knew what lay ahead of us, but we very soon found out.
And we went on then from Hong Kong to Busan, landing in Busan in Korea. We moved slowly from the port in Busan on a steam train, the old type, up to the North and that was where the fighting was when we arrived in 1952. Then after having been there for a short time we were getting used to the shells and the noise and everything. We didn't know any better.
But it was awfully cold there. Winter there wasn't like in Wales. It was impossible to open a hole or a foxhole or anything, but we were taking over other people's old shelters and moving from place to place.
And when we were in Korea, naturally, we were going out; 'Harrison fire' they called it, 'suicide squads' the lads called it. We'd go out into 'no man's land' at night, not ever during the day, obviously, or everybody would see us. We would go out to places, fire at a specific place, only for about ten minutes and the flee from there, and in a matter of, what, ten minutes, say, the place was blown to bits. The North Koreans had found out where we were.
Also, I remember going out 'Harrison fire' and, like I said, the place was so cold in winter I remember huddling up next to, I don't know what it was, a rock or something, got a good spot, and I was just dropping off to sleep there and the lads couldn't wake me. Then they were dragging me back and forth, and, to tell you the truth, I very nearly slipped off this mortal coil that night. I nearly froze to death.
And that's how it was in Korea. You didn't know ... you didn't stop in any one place very long just moved around, day and night.
When I was in Korea, I was hopeless at writing and sending letters home to Mam. Korea was so far away in those days and there was no mention of Korea anywhere.
I got the chance to go back to Korea last year to see the old place and there was nothing anywhere there that I could remember from the time I was there. And we also got to go to the cemetery in Busan, the United Nations, to see where were the lads who were still there - lads who were younger than me. I was only nineteen, but there were lads there, eighteen, and lots of them were boxing on the boat going over there and I've been wondering seriously how many of them were in the cemetery in Busan. They're still eighteen and nineteen, aren't they.
