Reproduced, with kind permission, from the personal accounts of George Painter, Royal Signals att 8th Hussars.
Part Five. Life on the 38th Parallel and the return to the UK.
All this is from my personal memory but at this stage a line was established close to the 38th Parallel the dividing border between North and South Korea.
I arrived back at RHQ in January 1951, after the Happy Valley action. The photo is of the Regimental Command vehicle in which I spent many a freezing night along with the 8H wireless operator, me on the link to Brigade and the other chap on the regimental link up! Headphones on all the time, can’t move around! Sometimes a duty Officer present but not always. Keeping warm was a massive distraction from our duties!
I remember one particular night taking my boots off, wrapping my feet in a blanket and stuffing them in a biscuit tin! We also had a little primer stove that we continuously filled with fuel to keep it going, however not very successful ! Remember, RSM Lecke coming in early one morning, god bless him,and arranging some hot food for us, well as hot as it could be as it got cold within minutes!
Moving on to April now and I am sent off on my travels again! Although I had been with 8H since I joined them in Leicester I am now called back to the Royal Signal Squadron at 29th Brigade Headquarters, officially now I am now on their strength as with all of the Signal Troop with 8H. I think they liked to exercise their right in having control over us! So again I was packed into and taken to Brigade HQ. Just after one day I was packed off again, oh yes! And do you know where? You’ve got it! an echelon of the 1st Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment!
Apparently there was a lone Royal Signals operator trying to maintain a 24 hour wireless watch by himself! We all have to sleep sometime even when there is a war going on! Quite where we were I don’t know but close by I think there was a small stream running in to the Imjin river!
The echelon was a small group of about 30 men and some transport. Quite what our purpose was I don’t know,some sort of back up I suppose. I was not there long enough to find out I suppose! Our radio was situated in a small 15 cwt. wireless truck, not a lot of activity so I settled in quite nicely!
After the chaotic withdrawal from Pyongyang and North Korea and the tragic Happy Valley action this was indeed my most relaxed period that I had spent in the country! I was enjoying it! There was a great atmosphere and a friendly bunch of blokes.
As I said there were several vehicles in the group and we were situated around a building close to the main supply route. It was said that the building was the base of South Korean agents who crossed into enemy territory to gain intelligence , quit how true this was I don’t know!
Anyway I was quite happy with my current job, my place of operation was, of course, in the 15 cwt truck where I and my fellow operator slept in relay. It was in cramped conditions but better than most that spent their time under the stars and vehicles.
A Company Sergeant Major was in charge of the echelon and he used to spend a lot of time sitting in the back of our truck ,he sort of used it as his mess! Anything going on he would say,not a lot, one of us would say. It was quiet, we had somehow acquired a case of cans of Milwaukee Ale, once again I don’t know how but we certainly enjoyed it with the C.S.M supping up a few of our cans, we had made a friend, he was not going to bother us!
Well I suppose I had only been there three days so when not doing my stint on the radio I would wonder around the position having a chat here and there, a very relaxed and informal atmosphere amongst all ranks, almost like being on vacation. It was on such a day that I was on my saunters that orders came through to evacuate the site! It would seem that the Chinese Army had launched a massive offensive and had crossed the Imjin river in great numbers with the main Gloucester battalion cut off! As we were also in danger of being surrounded we had to get out fast!
Nevertheless we did not hang about, I was never sure of the date as one day was more or less the same as the other, Saturdays and Sundays did not count anymore.
We were packed up and obviously heading in a southerly direction down the track apparently to an assembly area where the whole of 29th Brigade were withdrawing to, I was in the back of the wireless truck with headphones on trying to make contact, the other operator in with the driver. We sped along at a hairy rate not sparing the bumps and ruts on the abrasive track, but I was not about to complain, the seriousness of our situation had now set in,as I say you never know what is happening until it happens!
I don’t know how far we had travelled but I guess we had put a considerable distance between us and the advancing enemy with ‘C’ Squadron of 8th Hussars and others fighting a rearguard action preventing the total encirclement of the 29th Brigade.
We eventually arrived at the assembly point, it was like a land based Dunkirk. It would seem that we were late arrivals as most of the other units had arrived including detachments from 8th Hussars. No sooner had I opened the rear door of the wireless truck than a group of my closest comrades from 8H approached, they looked wide eyed at me, I wondered why, I was surprised! They knew I had been sent to the Gloucester’s and knew that the battalion had been surrounded and were in a serious position.
They knew what had happened more than we did! Hearing that a detachment from the Gloucester’s had turned up they came to see if I was amongst them! It was only later that I appreciated their concerns, that is what you call comradeship. I was humbled that they were thinking of my well being! I was immediately transferred back to 8th Hussars and resumed my normal duties of operating the rear link communications to Brigade.
I was to remain in Korea for another long seven months before returning to the U.K. After three weeks leave I was posted with the regiment to Germany. It was on a Saturday night out to the nearby RAF Astra cinema that an old newsreel was shown obviously a year or more old.
It showed the survivors of the Gloucester’s , mostly from the echelon that I had served with, lined up in front of the very Company Sergeant Major who had been sipping our Milwaukee Ale.It would seem that the group that I had served with for a few days were the main survivors with the majority of the regiment having been K.I.A or taken prisoner. I often wonder if I was counted in those numbers!
I felt very humble and exceptionally fortunate to be sitting in that cinema, it was only then I realised that I was one of the handful of Gloucester’s personnel that escaped the complete encirclement! At the time I had no idea what a close call it had been! Anyway I enjoyed the Doris Day film!
Related topics
- A short history of The 8th Hussars
- Korea 1950-51
- Article: Part One – Joining the 8th Hussars at Leicester.
- Article: Part Two – The trip on H.M.T.S. Empire Fowey to Korea.
- Article: Part Three – The week long tank train trip to Pyongyang.
- Article: Part Four – The Withdrawal from North Korea.
- Article: Part Five – Life on the 38th Parallel and the return to the UK.
- Article: The Korean War: Slaughter at Happy Valley.
