Hill 355

Heroes Remember

Hill 355

Transcript

Interviewer: You mentioned before, the children in the different villages and what were your memories. But what are also your memories of the various battles, do you have other memories that maybe some of them might not be as good of memories? Yeah, I think it was October 1951 when Canada, Canadian Army was bombarded by the opposition and the military bombarded the Canadian troops to a degree where we had to retaliate and I remember being called to the back to my gun which we had at that time were 105 howitzers. And we began to fire, counterfire onto the enemy, and the situation was on what they called Hill 355. And over there, because the Koreans had Korean names for the hills and when the Americans came they used numbers for the hills and the number came from the elevation of the height of that hill. So 355 was a hill that was 355 metres high and that was the location where the Canadian troops were and had to hold that position when the north Koreans began to bombard that. They really shelled it for a long, long time and we sent the troops in the next morning and we counter attacked at that time. And we held that position. So, what happened after that was when, when we used to meet up with the infantry boys and go back on leave or something like that, you know, they would really, really accept us as real brothers because you know they often told us that ‘If it weren't for the artillery, we wouldn't be here today. Thank you!'. And they would give that kind of messages to us that made us feel very proud.

Description

Mr. Knockwood recalls one particular battle he was involved in on Hill 355 in October 1951.

Noel Knockwood

Mr. Knockwood was born in the Indian Brook First Nations in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, July 17, 1932. He received his early education at the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School. He joined the Canadian Army in 1951 and at the suggestion of his older brother, a Second World War Veteran, signed up for the artillery. He spent six years in the service serving in Canada, the United States, Japan and Korea. He received his basic training in Shilo, Manitoba. During this training he received courses on atomic, biological and chemical warfare. He was just 18 years old when he went overseas to fight in Korea and was there for 413 days. After returning from Korea, Mr. Knockwood taught small arms artillery and became a drill Sergeant. After leaving the military, Mr. Knockwood furthered his education graduating with a major in Sociology from St. Mary’s University. He went on to teach at Dalhousie University and St. Mary’s University and was a guest lecturer at several other universities in the Maritimes. He received the National Aboriginal Achievement Reward for Heritage and Spirituality in 2002. At the time of this interview Mr. Knockwood was the Sergeant at Arms for the province of Nova Scotia.

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