Chinese Forces Invade The South

Heroes Remember

Chinese Forces Invade The South

Transcript

Well, we were doing very well and all of a sudden, like they said fifty divisions had crossed the border and it was more probably terrifying to the army because we were at sea and we didn't get in that close proximity, but the, the Chinese advanced down through the, towards Inchon again, and, or, yeah Inchon, and the, they came down through a valley and the Yanks bugged out and there was a regiment called the Gloucesters, who fought the rear-guard action for all the way down that, that valley ‘til they got to Chinnampo. Now we were right in the harbour, we went in, it was so close in Chinnampo that we went, three of us went right into the harbour and they were using even close-range weapons to shell the beach. And then we were in there and they have the tides over there are like the Bay of Fundy, they drop 50 feet in five hours, and we got in there and we got a big buoy wire around our screw. So we were sort of stuck there, and they got some, a diver off one of the ships, he went down with a plastic explosive and blew the, the cable off and we pulled out. But the Yanks were burning everything on the beach, like, we had about twenty winter jackets on the ship for the people in exposed positions and the Yanks burned thousands of them, of wool lined jackets. Burned them on the beach. We had, there was junk after junk coming past, loaded with food. We had a storage chief named George van Haff, who got a mention in dispatches for that trip, and they, he, he would call these junks alongside and we would go through them and see if there was anything we could use, like, guys were getting cases of, of oxo cubes, you know, it's nice when you're sitting at night to mix up oxo cube, you know. And we didn't get any of the jackets though. Interviewer: The Americans were burning this to deny it to the enemy because they were in full retreat. Oh yeah, they were long, they were gone. Interviewer: So, the three Canadian destroyers were actually in that close in the harbour and you were offering close support? Yep, right, right in the harbour.

Description

Chinese forces, moving in through North Korea, invaded South Korea shortly after HMCS Sioux returned from the repair of their vessel in Japan.

William White

Mr. White was born Feb. 12, 1930. His father, a coal miner by profession, fought in both the First and the Second World Wars. The family moved to Nanaimo when Mr. White was about 1 year old. From a very young age Mr. White had wanted to join the Navy. He realized that dream when he enlisted on March 1, 1948. He set sail from the West Coast on the HMCS Sioux for Korea, in June of 1950. On the way to Korea they stopped in Hawaii to receive some anti-submarine training. Bt he says they never really received much training until they came under American control in Korea.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 02:44
Person Interviewed:: William White
War, Conflict or Mission:: Korean War
Location/Theatre:: Korea
Battle/Campaign:: Korea
Branch:: Navy
Units/Ship:: HMCS Sioux
Occupation:: Storekeeper

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Chinese Forces Invade The South

Heroes Remember