Bill Alvey wrote on 2004-01-03 07:40:41.0
Comments: My National Service During The Korean War
There has been a lot in the media recently about North Korea being the Americans next target. I am sure a lot of British Korean War Veterans of the 1950-53 Korean War must be asking, Was what we fought for then all in vain?.
I was working on Silcocks Farm in Halsall near Southport in March 1952, when I was eighteen years old, when my call up papers arrived for me to do National Service. At this time I was earning £5 a week on the farm. My only driving experience at this time was driving tractors.
I had to go to Liverpool and a fortnight later, on 1 April 1952, I was posted to Aldershot to be kitted out. The army assigned me to 78 Coy RASC.
After a week at Aldershot I was then posted to Yeovilton. The first three weeks here was spent doing general army training. This also involved firearms training. During the next two weeks we were put on a driving course using Bedford three-ton lorries. At the end of the two weeks we took a teat, which I passed.
I had now become Driver T/22653299 and then posted to Shornecliffe for six weeks of driving duties. Unlike the regular army this was all the training we had before embarking to Korea.
Late August saw us sailing to Japan on the troopship Estorias. After five weeks at sea we arrived at Kure in Japan. A short ferry trip took us to Pusan in Korea. I was now nineteen years old. This was before the age of relatively inexpensive and fast aeroplane travel. To many of us who served in Korea this was our first time abroad and Korea was an alien and frightening country.
A one-day train ride took us to Seoul where we then travelled to the RASC barracks at Middle School. We then picked up our army vehicles from Inchon. My lorry was a Bedford QL and we travelled in convoy back to Seoul. This was our first experience of driving in a foreign country.
The roads were dirt tracks with no markings or lighting. After this we were on our own transporting ammunition, troops and supplies to 29th Brigade at Gloster valley. The initiation to newcomers to Korea from the servicemen that had been there for some time, was when loading 25lb shells was to drop one. We would drop to the ground covering our heads, as we did not realise that they had not been primed.
The Bedford QL lorries were obviously not modern and fuel fumes would fill the cab, and the positioning of the gear lever was awkward. During the summer months the temperatures were extremely hot and during the winter months they dropped to well below zero.
There were no days off and time spent driving was often more than twelve hours per day. At Christmas we were given one bottle of beer. We ate a lot of dried food such as dried mash potato, dried meat and dried eggs.
When taking supplies to the front line our gunners would let off a barrage of fire from our 25lb guns. We would unload as quickly as possible and leave thinking, If thats what we are firing at them what are they going to fire back at us?. The sheer noise was deafening. I saw many sights of wounded soldiers waiting to be brought back from the front line by medical vehicles.
On one occasion when I was driving back from the front line I had to stop my Bedford QL and clean its plugs. When I started on my way again the area did not look familiar. An American officer flagged me down and me where I was going. I replied that I was returning to Seoul and he said if you carry on in that direction you will end up behind enemy lines. He pointed me in the right direction and I got back safely.
The Korean War ended in 1953. We were then assigned to bringing our prisoners of war back from the 38th Parallel Demarcation Zone. In September 1953 whilst driving out of Gloster Valley I pulled over to let an Australian forces lorry pass. The dirt track was narrow and his lorry crashed into my Bedford QL. My head was thrown back and I hit my neck and shoulder on the Sten Gun rack and I was knocked unconscious.
My lorry had to be towed back and I was given a couple of aspirins for the pain. After this driving became more and more difficult. Driving over ruts caused by tank tracks made me feel dizzy and nauseous. I had searing pains in my neck, left shoulder and left arm. Following this my left arm would go dead when trying to change gear.
I was then taken off driving duties and finished the rest of my tour of duty, doing general army and guard duties. When my National Service time was due to finish I was flown to Kure in Japan where I spent two weeks in the Britcom General Hospital undergoing treatment for my injury.
Following this I boarded the troopship Empire Windrush in March 1954 to sail back to England. The ship developed engine trouble near Singapore some of us disembarked. We then continued our journey back to England on the troopship Empire Orwell. On 28 March 1954 the troopship Empire Windrush, with 1,700 men, women and children on board, caught fire and sank in the Mediterranean. All except four crew members were saved. We arrived back at Southampton in March 1954.
After a week at Bordon I then caught the train back to Southport and I was home at last in April 1954.
During my time serving in Korea I was paid £3 per week plus £1 a month blood money, which was less than the £5 a week I had been earning working on the farm. My final pay on returning to England was £30 in wages and gratuity.
I had to attend hospital in Chester where I was declared medically unfit to carry on in the Territorial Army in Southport. My effective date of discharge as a National Service Soldier was 26 April 1954, after I had spent a further two weeks in hospital in Southport.
At the age of fifty I had to finish work due to Rheumatoid Arthritis of the neck, shoulder and spine. This has been attributed to the injuries I suffered in Korea. In addition to this I also from Emphysema, Kidney Stones, a crumbling hip, dead left arm and heart problems. I have suffered from several minor heart attacks, several mild strokes and I have Angina.
A lot of British Korean War Veterans suffer with or have died from similar complaints. It is widely believed that the Americans took on board some Japanese chemical and biological warfare scientists at the end of the Second World War. Apparently the Japanese were far more advanced than the Americans in these fields, and rather than prosecute the scientists for war crimes, they let them carry on their research in America. They then used various chemical and biological warfare agents on the North Koreans. A lot of these were airborne and affected the allied troops.
I am seventy years old on 5 May 2003 and had to fight hard to get a small army pension, which I have been receiving for just over twelve months, to top up the state pension my wife Kath and I receive.
I received a Letter of Appreciation from Kim Dae-jung the President of the Republic of Korea, dated June 25 2000, which reads as follows:
Dear William Alvey
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, I would like to offer you my deepest gratitude for your noble contribution to the efforts to safeguard the Republic of Korea and uphold liberal democracy around the world. At the same time, I remember with endless respect and affection those who sacrificed their lives for that cause.
We Koreans hold dear in our hearts the conviction, courage and spirit of sacrifice shown to us by such selfless friends as you, who enabled us to remain a free democratic nation.
The ideals of democracy, for which you were willing to sacrifice your all 50 years ago, have become universal values in this new century and millennium.
Half a century after the Korean War, we honor you and reaffirm our friendship, which helped to form the blood alliance between our two countries. And we resolve once again to work with all friendly nations for the good of humankind and peace in the world.
I thank you once again for your noble sacrifice, and pray for your health and happiness.
Sincerely yours,
Kim Dae-jung President of the Republic of Korea
This was very well received considering our own British Government do nothing for the British Korean War Veterans. The Korean War was a bloody conflict in which thousands of allied servicemen lost their lives and many more have died since due to the war.
I personally feel there would be nothing to gain in another war against North Korea. There would only be more suffering and the cost in lives and money would be unacceptable to the British people.
The money spent on the war against Iraq by the British Government would have been better spent on veterans and their families, who are suffering from previous conflicts. The only conflicts in which British armed forces have taken part since the Second World War, which are mentioned are the Falklands War, the Gulf War, Bosnian War and the present war against Iraq.
Many more British Forces personnel were either killed, injured or are still suffering because of the Korean War, than the all of these later conflicts combined. There was certainly no counselling offered after the Korean War, or investigations into any Korean War syndromes caused by chemical, biological or radioactive agents.
Should anyone like to contact me about my experiences during the Korean War my contact details are:
Bill Alvey 40 Upper Aughton Road Birkdale Southport Lancashire PR8 5NH
Telephone: 01704 562341
E-Mail: bill_alvey@hotmail.com
Bill Alvey in Korea with his Bedford QL
Keywords: R.A.S.C., RASC,78 Company, 78 Coy, Driver, Yeovilton, Service Number T/22653299, Seoul, Gloucester Valley, Middle School, 29th Brigade, HMTS Empire Estoria, HMTS Empire Windrush, HMTS Empire Orwell, Bedford QL, Britcom General Hospital, Kure, Japan, Biological Warfare, Chemical Warfare, BCW
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