From the Imjin to the Hook: A National Service Gunner in the Korean War by James Jacobs

Author:James Jacobs [Jacobs, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Contemporary Warfare, Korean War, Campaigns & Battles, Biographies & Memoirs
Amazon: B00LOUSYVM
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Published: 2014-07-10T08:00:00+00:00

Following Operation Commando, 170 Battery had just one month to serve in Korea before we sailed for Hong Kong. I eagerly awaited details of where the battery would be stationed in the colony, as one or two lads who had been posted to Korea from there reckoned we were likely to find ourselves in tented accommodation close to the border with China. That sounded fine, as long as the Chinese there were friendly. I still had seven months of my National Service to complete. What I had seen of Hong Kong on the voyage from Southampton had looked good to me.

Operationally, the month was spent in improving defences for the relieving battery. Occasionally, A and C troops moved forward to engage HF targets from positions that collected a considerable amount of incoming shelling. On another occasion in B Troop, we moved forward to cover a patrol that was going into action close to Kowang-ni. As the track between B Troop position and that to which we moved was under constant observation by the Chinese, we moved before first light and returned after a successful day in close support of the patrol after last light, thus avoiding any direct enemy reaction. During one of those days in the forward position a trial was made with an experimental type of smoke round called BEDS (Base Ejection Discarding Sabot), which had a longer range than WP, almost that of HE. The trial with BEDS proved to be quite effective, but I don’t recall seeing further supplies of them brought up to the gun positions. Not long to go now … like everyone, I was counting the days, although I did not make a calendar to mark them off as some of the lads had.

While we started to prepare for the move to Hong Kong, still located in the stony stream bed, I was filling sandbags one day to strengthen our defences against escalating Chinese firepower. Scraping away some shale I suddenly realized I could see a standard issue US Army belt buckle. Removing more shale to the left and right, I saw a shirt and trousers, indicating I had found the remains of an American soldier who had been killed very recently and, unusually for the Chinese, buried under a light covering of stony soil. He was about my age, no more. I fetched one of our officers, who contacted the Graves Registration Commission people, and they came and removed his remains in an attempt to identify him. I guessed that a family in the United States who may have already been notified that a son or brother was missing in action would now be informed that he would not be coming home.

Within days of the successful completion of Operation Commando, when it was considered safe for a small group of journalists to be brought up to B Troop position, a reporter from a long since defunct London newspaper was given a free hand to talk to us. Approaching Dennis Bedwell from Leicestershire, the reporter enquired how many rounds he had fired during Operation Commando.

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