UK London (12)

>> [INAUDIBLE]. >> Because it didn't go like that. It wasn't on the spring. Each time, we had to wrap it round and ... >> And because it was crystallized, you had to break it up. >> Yeah, trying to start it, but now you've got more springs, haven't you? >> Oh, yeah. >> This time you had to keep wrapping it around, pull it, pull it again. >> Until ... >> Oh, and it wouldn't start, and I could hear the guns firing, and I thought ... and I could hear the radio going because we had batteries, and I couldn't answer it .. >> Because you're trying to answer back. >> But I can't right now. There's no power. >> So you had to keep doing ... >> No power, and you couldn't have the generator inside to keep warm because the fumes would kill you, wouldn't they, of the generator? >> Yeah. >> So you have to have the generator outside, and, oh, my fingers were cold, and it was so cold, and it wouldn't start. I thought, "Oh, I'm in such serious trouble here. I'm in serious trouble." Vroom. All of a sudden, it was all [INAUDIBLE]. >> And then ... >> Then it went. Oh, and I got in the air. Hello, whatever it was, Newcastle One. Hey, you read me? Over. Read you fives and clear, duh, duh, duh. It was fine. But if you look, that was the night of the Battle of the Hook. Think it was October, was it, '53? You got it there? >> No, I'm recording you. >> Oh. And it was Battle of the Hook. If you put it on there, Battle of the Hook, you'll see it. >> Yeah, yeah, I will. >> And that was ... And the journey started. But I remember the night was so crystal ... You know when you get that clear air and all those millions and millions of stars because it was so clear, the air, and I could hear all the mortar bombs landing on the Hook and things like that, and I didn't realize what a pounding they was getting, and that was it. If you look it up on there, Battle of the Hook ... >> We will. >> Oh, by the way, since you were in the National Service, you did get paid, right? >> Oh, yeah. When I first went there, I got a pound a week. >> Oh. >> One pounds, but the average wage was about ... >> Relevant to the day, I suppose. >> The average wage was about 3 pounds. >> Oh. >> And I got paid a pound. Then it went up to 2 pounds, I think. By the time I come out of the army, I was what they called a five-star soldier. >> Oh. >> Five stars. I didn't have to pass any exams, and I was getting 3 pounds, 10 shillings, and for fighting in Korea, I got 82 pounds bounty, 82 pounds bounty, which was ... In '53, it was a lot of money. >> What is that now? >> What? >> What is ... >> Eighty-two pounds bounty in ... The average wage was, say, four quid. >> Yeah. >> So it was what? >> So the average ... >> Four into 80 would be 20 times, wouldn't it? So 20 times ... Say the average range is 300 now. Twenty times 300 would be 6,000 pounds. No, it wasn't 6,000 pounds. It would be worth, I don't know, couple of thousand quid now. >> Yeah, today. >> It was called a bounty. I didn't get it until I went home. >> So it's 1,000 times what ... >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> It's 1,000 times better than ... >> For, yeah, bounty. It was bounty, yeah. >> So you were adding 1 pound ... >> But remember, I never spent any money for a year. >> Yeah, because you would have nowhere to spend it. >> It's like being in that field. You can have 10 million pounds, but you can't buy anything if there's nothing to buy, can you? >> No, so you saved it. >> I got free cigarettes, and I didn't smoke. >> So you saved ... >> You got free cigarettes, 15 cigarettes a week in tins, and then you got a menu called C-rations. [INAUDIBLE] C-rations, you got bone chicken ... >> Yeah. >> ... toilet paper, matches, four cigarettes. >> What did you do with the cigarettes you were given? You were giving them away? >> He traded. He bartered. >> You bartered? >> No, we played cards with it. >> Oh, were betting. >> I'll raise you 1,000 cigarettes. >> Oh. >> But also we had a Korean guy with us when we were down, and he would do our washing, and you'd give him ... >> Some cigarettes for the washing. >> You would give him 300 cigarettes, and he would go to Seoul and sell the cigarettes. He would sell the cigarettes. >> It was bartering for service. >> Yeah, yeah. He was ... And he would smash it against the rocks, get the stuff clean, but of course, that was back down the line. When you was in the line, you'd get ... >> Take it ... >> So ... But I didn't think it ... Looking back now, I go ... I didn't view it as being bad. >> It wasn't. >> I didn't view it ... I viewed it ... That was ... Like Bill said today, I viewed it ... >> Mm-hmm. As part of ... >> That's how it was. >> That was how it was. We ... That was it. I didn't view it, "Oh, look at what they're doing to me," because everyone else ... >> Yeah, everyone else was doing it. >> Everyone else was doing it. >> Yeah. >> And it was lots of fun there as well. We'd ... >> You're in it together, so there's no one ... >> I remember this American. We were swapping, and a STEN gun, British STEN gun, which was terrible, and it cost the equivalent of $1 maybe, and so I fired his carbine, and he fired it. He went, "Man, that's the sweetest dollar's worth I've ever seen." So we swapped guns. I took his carbine, and he had my STEN gun. Carbine was much better. >> Yeah. >> And so I didn't view it as, "Oh, terrible." It wasn't terrible ... >> It wasn't at the time. >> ... because it's .... >> Relevant. >> It was relevant at the time. We all ... We laughed. You joked, and you made jokes, and you read books and read, read an awful lot. >> And it was an adventure. >> Yeah, right, and I said ... We had a radio, of course. We had the radio up. We could tune into the radio, and we used to tune into the radio when it was the March of Dimes. Give a dime today for a Korean orphanage. >> What was your favorite song again? >> Oh, there's lots of [INAUDIBLE]. >> Really? Really there was ... >> Favorite songs at the time? >> ... March of Dimes for Korean orphans, really? >> Yeah. They said, "This is the March of Dimes. Give a dime today for a Korean orphanage." They're the March of Dimes, so you know it's ... >> In the British radio stations? >> No, we picked up the American radio because I was on the radio. >> The American. >> We never had a British radio station. Only the Americans had their own radio station. This is ... Songs was ... [Lyrics] Way back home, we lie. We used to laugh at the Americans being all sentimental. We weren't, but they was ... It was like going camping with them maybe for a year. Imagine going camping with that [INAUDIBLE]. >> Shooting down. >> Yeah, no. Imagine going camping for a year and ... >> Yeah, an expedition, sort of adventure. >> Yeah, but trouble is sometimes you run out of food because no food was coming up. >> So you had to ration. >> You had food, and you had these C-rations most of the time, which is a pack like that like you could buy at the supermarket, bit of chicken or meat wrapped in almost ... It was toilet paper, cigarettes, matches, maybe a piece of cake or something like that. My mom sent me a parcel, a big parcel at Christmas. On Christmas '52, we had the highest ranking general in [INAUDIBLE] come and see us because we was the most forward of the British soldiers in Korea, and he come up to see us, and he come up to see us, and I had this big parcel. So I go, "Cup of tea, sir?" "Yes, I'll join you lads," and his gloves were rolled back, and he had this camel-hair overcoat on. His hat, boots, brown boots glistening. He really looked smart, he did, and, "How are you finding it, lads? Getting tougher?" "All right, sir." "Well, chin up." >> What did you guys think of MacArthur? >> He was gone by the time, I think, I got there, wasn't he, MacArthur? Was he? >> He was fight ... >> He might have just been there. I think ... MacArthur, General MacArthur? >> Mm-hm. >> No, when I got there, he was general ... >> Eisenhower? >> No, no, no, no, general ... No, the general took over from him. There was another general. I have to think about that because MacArthur wanted to drop the atom bomb, didn't he? >> Mm-hm. >> And they took him away. Then they took him. There was another general. I forget his ... There was a man they called Iron Guts somebody. >> That was his nickname, Iron Guts? >> Yeah, another general, Iron Guts someone. I'm trying to think who the other American general was. I forget. There was another general, American who took over. >> Nevertheless, what did you think of MacArthur? >> I didn't give it a thought, quite honestly, although you've got to remember, he pulled a master stroke, didn't he, the Inchon landings. He pulled a master stroke. Here is Korea, and we were down here, and there was the Chinese. What he did, he landed all the troops there In Inchon and cut Korea in half so they was all trapped. >> Oh, yeah. >> It was a master stroke really. He really landed, and it had a 15-foot tide. This place called Inchon had a 15-foot tide, so they had to time it ... >> Perfectly. >> And that was British marines in there at the time, but it was tragic. When they got there, they took it without almost a shot being fired, but nevertheless, [INAUDIBLE] landed so much, and they just cut it in half. So it was a master stroke. What was it, 1951, was it? Late '51, I think it was. >> '50. >> General, general, but there was ... As I'm talking, I'm remembering things that I ... >> September. >> September of 1950, was it? >> Mm-hm. >> I wasn't there then. >> You were '53, weren't you? >> No, I went there '52 because MacArthur sat ... because he really did that to Truman, didn't he? Truman had to go and see him rather than him go and see Truman, and he fired him, but he got a hero's welcome, didn't he? Ticker tape in New York, and do you know he had not been back to America for something like 30 years? >> Mm-hmm. >> He had not lived in America for 30-odd years. He had been in ... And you know that photograph of him walking up the beach? I've read the story. He walked up the beach. There's a famous picture of him with a cob pipe in his mouth walking up the beach. When he left Manila, he said, "I shall return," okay? And they had a picture of him walking up the beach, but that was a mistake. The boat wouldn't land, so he had to get in the water, and he cursed and shouted, and the guy took a photograph. Of course, he ... And it's really ... He cursed and shouted. He had to walk up the sea, but of course it became a famous photograph like he's walking up the beach, isn't it? >> Like a holiday brochure. >> Well, yeah, like he's returning, walking up the beach all ... And yet he was actually fuming. He was actually fuming, but then it took ... But he hadn't been back to America for 30 years, MacArthur when the Japanese took Manila and all that, and he sailed southeast. He never went back to America so ... He was going to run for President, wasn't he? He thought he was going to be President, MacArthur. >> When he went back? >> The reason they sacked him, he wanted to drop the atom bomb on North Korea. Had he done so, it would've been ... >> Catastrophic. >> Would've been catastrophic. Russia would've done it, but it was ... So as you talk, you remember things, don't you? >> Mm-hm. You have to all write it down and finish your essay. I'm urging him to finish his essay. >> I've got another piece I want to fit in. >> [INAUDIBLE] bar cream. >> Let's get this week over, and I think I'll cut everything else out and just do ... >> The key to it is to ... >> ... the story of my life. >> ... write it down when you remember it, right? >> Yeah. >> Well, sometimes when I'm writing, it comes. >> That's true, too. >> Going back. >> The story ...