Village of Dead Koreans
Heroes Remember
Village of Dead Koreans
Transcript
They’re talking about the truce and we started to dig in good
bunkers get wood, what wood we could and settle down more
or less and just send out patrols. I ‘d gone on a few patrols
with my half track. Cause we’d be in a position where there’s
be a big valley so the enemy’s on the other side of the valley.
And this one time I went out it brings bad memories.
I had gone out. I had one man on the 50 one man on the 30.
Interviewer: Caliber? Machine guns?
Yes. We went out and there was a small village it was sort of a
semi-circle. I noticed, figured I'd go check that out you know.
Felt pretty safe with armour plating and 2 machine gunners.
So I drove into the center of the village. Nobody there,
of course didn’t expect them, not the uh, not civilians anyway.
And it just seemed very strange to me. Straw all through the
center. I drove in and I just felt something’s wrong. I stopped
and I got out. The 2 guys on the machine guns of course they’re
they’re watching. You don’t know who’s going to pop out anywhere.
I kicked the straw aside. I didn’t like what I’d seen at all.
Bones. I never reported it or said nothing. I just got in the
vehicle and said “We’re getting out of here” and I backed out.
I followed the tracks that I went in. To me it looked like the
villagers been wiped out.Slaughtered. I just felt so...
I put the straw back over them. All I could see, the one I kicked
off of there, just see is bones, the spine and it wasn’t animal
neither. The whole area covered that way. This is the first time
I’ve mentioned it to anybody. I didn’t even report it. I don’t
I don’t know I just froze up something like that. Knowing that I
had gone over those bodies too eh. I just, we went back,
no sightings whatsoever. I don’t know I think uh I don’t know
if it was the same position or another one I took a mortar crew
out and we had to go out and test the enemy. See what their
strength is cause, again, we’re in a valley eh. Some of those
valleys were pretty wide and it was best to send out a half track
instead of infantry walking out. They had along way to go. We
could drive out. We were pretty well covered by our own troops
cause we were high in the hills. We went out. We’d figure we were
in a half decent area, so south of the border. Let’s lace those
hills. 50 caliber, 30 caliber, they go a long distance too.
Oh, we stirred up a hornets nest alright. And see this was the
idea. Get them worked up and try to find out their strength on
the other side of the valley. I know, we had lots of incoming
mail coming in. Time to get out of there and I move quite fast.
We strapped everything on and I know I took off and the half
tracks are, they’re heavy vehicles. I forget how many tons they
weigh loaded. I’m talking say maybe 30 tons, heavy plate and
those roads are no springs in them to speak of and I’m belting it
out of there because we’d brought them out alright. Pretty soon
I notice this fire coming out from under the hood. I guess the
oil splashing and all that on top of there, the engine caught
fire. Well, there was a little creek just off the road and I told
the crew I’m going into it, try and get this fire out. It worked.
Off the side I go there. I go down through it. I got enough
water on top of it. It killed the fire, but it didn’t kill the
engine. We got back to our own lines and being the driver,
I’m responsible for the equipment on there. The base plate was
strapped on the back. I was too anxious. I didn’t check the
tightening on it which normally a driver is suppose to do.
Even here you’re responsible when you’re driving a truck eh.
The base plate was missing. I was in hot water. Here we had a
mortar without a base plate. “Take the jeep and go and find it.”
Oh boy. “Sir, get out there and get that base plate.
You’re responsible, you find it.” Out I went. I got to a little
knoll where I figured they couldn’t see me. I sat there. I wasn’t
going out there. I returned back, “Sorry Sir, I couldn’t find it
anywhere.” I wasn’t going all the way back out where we were,
where all the rough roads were. Charlie was out there probably
there waiting for us to come back. So I took some bad talk more
or less. Got hell for it, which I deserved of course, but they
had another base plate brought in. Points like that it’s comical.
Those parts I like. It makes me grin and laugh at different times
and tell stories like that. Cause, you get your good and the bad.
Interviewer: This type of patrolling did it continue for the
balance of your time in Korea?
Oh we still, no we were still advancing off and on. The idea
in Korea was the high hills. You gotta take the high point.
You got the high point you control the whole area. So it was
either the Chinese will try and take it, we gotta move back.
If we take it, they gotta move back. With the truce talks going
on, the allies were positioning themselves, trying to straighten
the line out more or less and take all the high points. That way
we control everything and see what’s going on down there.
Interviewer: A tour of duty in Korea was how long?
Well I was on Special Forces so that’s 18 months, 6 months
training and a year over in Korea. You’re in Korea and after
getting there in December, so I shared 2 winters more or less.
(inaudible) It was pretty rough in those hills.
It’s damn cold and then you have your monsoons in the spring
and you get washed off those mountains. I think it was on that
spring there we were moving forward and the... we were
down in the river bed. Tanks were down there and all and the
rains hit. The tanks were damn near under. We had to hit
dry ground. There was one, there was a trailer with a big radio
set in it. The rains come so fast over the hills, that river bed
filled up just like that. Man, off he goes. He’s in the trailer
with the radio set. It’s floating away. A bunch scurrying to grab
it and get a rope on him or something and get him back into
shore. Because who knows where the hell he’s going to end up.
But all the word came out - keep your ammo dry. Well, everybody
did anyway. We figured they’re all the Chinese, we’re in this
position and they’re in the same way. They’re going to keep their
ammo dry too. So nobody’s going to attack then and we’re not
going to attack them either way because the monsoons were bad
and those rains they’d fill up real bad. All that mountain
country. Those rains really came.
Interviewer: While the peace talks were going on,
there were still offensive operations?
Oh yes. Not as much. I remember once there, I’d gone out patrol
with, I don’t remember who they were. I’d volunteer to go with
this patrol and being a driver eh I’m suppose to stay with my
vehicle, but it was static positions there. I wanted to get out.
So we went out. I don’t know what company I went with out
and pretty soon there, way down in the valley, you could see the
enemy. They had a patrol out too and I guess the officer down in
there had got on the radio eh and got to our officer in charge
and wanted to know if they should have a little peace talk.
“We got a table here. Do you got any whiskey? We’ll drink over
some whiskey and make our own peace talks.” Things like that
were comical. We never made contact with them. We knew they
knew. Talks were going on so there was no clash there and no
whiskey drinking. It was comical. Just happens off and on.
Description
Mr. Chrysler tells of coming across the bones of a village of dead Koreans. The village appeared to have been wiped out by the North Korean and Chinese military. He also relates several other experiences that were, at times, humorous and, at other times, frightening.
William Chrysler
William Chrysler was born on May 4, 1930 in Hamilton, Ontario. He vividly remembers the news reports of the events of the Second World War. As a teenager, he enlisted in the Canadian Militia with the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. At the age of 20 years, he enlisted in the Canadian Army and was with the first group of volunteers sent to Korea in 1950.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 09:29
- Person Interviewed:
- William Chrysler
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Korean War
- Branch:
- Army
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