Northern Ireland Belfast (4)

>> I think it was either [INAUDIBLE] and we stayed and ate there. Now when we stopped, during the summer months, these people [INAUDIBLE] and the ground [INAUDIBLE] stacked up during the summer to dry, and then at the end of the summer, they bring it in and stack up, say, the houses. Now these would be cottages [INAUDIBLE] and they stack them up. That's the fuel for the whole winter. Now having said that, the same applies in Korea. You know about the [INAUDIBLE]. You know the [INAUDIBLE]? >> No. >> [INAUDIBLE] famous thing in Korea, two hands to make a forklift, and the person has a stick with a hook, and when he goes out, he pats it on the ground, and he puts a hook on it and sits there, and he goes around, and gets all sort of stuff, jungle grass or twigs. Anyway, at the end of the day, a pail of stuff, and he'd go back to his cottage, and he'd put all that stuff beside the house. Now that was the winter fuel. Now cooking, they just have the one room, and at the back, they have a kitchen, as you would call it. Now the kitchen comprised of a roof and two sides. The rest was open. Now let's just say the house was [INAUDIBLE]. They have their cooking utensils, like two or three pots, and that was permanent there. That's where they cooked. Now all that stuff is there for the fuel to light the fire and do their cooking. Now I observed this before, seeing what they did, and luckily I had matches, and I got some of the fuel and put it on and lit the fire, and what happened was, the Koreans were very well advanced on the floor heating. Well, as soon as we lit that fire, all the heat went underneath, as well as cooking. It went underneath and heated the floor. Now the floor was big clay again and big clay I say. Holes were there for heat for ages afterwards, and what happened was, the smoke that went out through the back of the chimney, whatever it was, and inside about 1/2 an hour, and it was freezing while were in there, 1/2 an hour. We'd take our jackets off [INAUDIBLE]. It was so primitive but so very good, and that just shows you the ingenuity of the Korean peasants. I'll never forget it. You have your cup, which was aluminium, and you also had what they call a Tommy cooker. A Tommy cooker came in a wee square box of cardboard, and we took this wee metal thing. We [INAUDIBLE] could put either your mess tin ... I don't know whether you know what a mess tin. It's what you cook in, individual cooking. There's two parts, and you do your cooking and that sort of thing on the wee stand with something like if you remember fire lighters to light a fire. Well we had wee small tablets, and they didn't create any flame [INAUDIBLE] just a like a glow, and you cooked your food in that, and that's how you have on the field. Everything was there for you. The Americans' rations was far superior to ours, oh, yeah. >> How about the cold? Do you remember the cold? >> Oh, yes, very much so, yeah, mm-hmm, yeah. Not only that, when we went out there, we just had ... It's hard to explain, so you'll need to see pictures. We just had what they call a [INAUDIBLE] a tunic and trousers [INAUDIBLE] sort of thing, and the Americans and all these other things and Canadians, they had their combat suits and their liners inside, if you remember liners. You could zip them out in the summertime and put them back in in the winter. We didn't have that. All we had were ... You'll see a picture of a red coat. We called it a red coat, like a topcoat and your battle dress, and that's all you had, and whenever we got wet, that was just too bad. [INAUDIBLE] in good weather but nothing in the winter. We were ill-equipped, and not only that, but we only had weapons. [INAUDIBLE] was our main weapon, a very good weapon, automatic fire, and then we had a rifle, .303 Lee–Enfield, a very famous weapon, but it was one action. You have quick-fire. You had to keep loading and unloading every time, and you had a magazine of failed rounds on the rifle. No, no, I never had any Korean food. >> Oh, even now? >> Oh, I have tried it on the way out to Korea [INAUDIBLE]. I thought it was [INAUDIBLE] asked me, "Well, do you want English or Korean?" So I tried Korean, but it was a bit too complicated. It's too much little tubes of different things to add, but I got through it. Having said that [INAUDIBLE] on the last day of our last visit in May there, I forget the name of the [INAUDIBLE]. As I recall, it was a woman, and she had a seven course meal for us on the [INAUDIBLE] before departure and through seven courses, and you would hardly see what was on the plate, and it was very good. It was different what I got on the aircraft. >> Korean food at the time, but did you try Korean liquor at the time? >> No, the only thing we got was two battles a day of Asahi, Japanese beer. >> Oh. >> But having said that [INAUDIBLE] as it seems a terrible ship. You had a hole in the wall, just like the hole, square hole, a square in the wall, and you were issued out two bottles of Asahi beer. That's what we got. >> Oh, I would have never guessed that. So no soju, huh, no Korean alcohol? >> No, no, it was all Asahi beer. >> Oh, okay. Do you think you'll see a unified Korea in your lifetime? >> It's hard to see. I would like to see it. I would definitely like to see it because it's a [INAUDIBLE] having the knowledge of what has went on there, the starvation. Even the soldiers not being able to get [INAUDIBLE] and the feeling of the children and all those big pompous parades with their machinery and rockets and what have you. It's a terrible site. >> Well, I'm hoping for peace not only on the Korean peninsula but in all of Ireland as well. >> Uh-huh, thank you very much. Ten o'clock, 22 hundred hours, and what happened was, as we were going out [INAUDIBLE] and we're going across, and I remember going up this hill here, and I went in the dark and the windscreen I could see ... Sorry. It was heavy gunfire, consolidated gunfire, and you see the tracer bullets on the reflection of my windscreen, and I said to the guy who was with me, "This is good." [INAUDIBLE] our tanks, centurion tanks, and I said to the guy with me, "This is good. They're giving us covering fire to get out." What happened was, I found out later that the medical officer and his driver [INAUDIBLE] was quite some distance behind me. Apparently the Chinese had did a horseshoe movement. Instead of coming across, they came that way, a horseshoe movement, and closed it, and the people behind me, that was them trapped and taken prisoner of war. I'll never forget that. I'm surprised you don't know about the [INAUDIBLE] is famous.