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Wet Conditions

Heroes Remember

Wet Conditions

Transcript
We had a little stove set up from ammunition boxes, they were steel boxes that the ammunition come in. We had the mechanics make a little gas stove out of them. Maybe I shouldn’t be saying this, but then you had the pipe running into there and we had the gas fires there to keep the command post warm because your fingers had to be, you know, cool to work in the command post and on the artillery board and that. And it was damp and cool, I mean at night but we really didn’t have winter clothes there either see we just had our ordinary battle, but it wasn’t that cold that long. But you know some nights, you know, it was probably maybe a month or so it would be cool but in the summertime there when you’d hit those monsoon rains, you really used to get the wet then. Pretty muddy, the trucks and guns we used to pull them out of position there, they just bogged down, aw jeez, I tell yah. I got hit one day, I went out to fix one of our lines to the OP observation broke down when it was along this road and this other guy and myself went out at night kind of dark from the command post and then you generally meet the guy coming in from the OP and see if we could meet in the middle and find out where this line is broken, a telephone line down. Were walking along there and I told the guy, “Where the heck are we?” I said, “I can’t even see the line”, I had it in my hand. Walking along the road and we’re in the water up our knees. I said “Where the heck’s the road?” he said, “You’re on it.” That was a monsoon rain storm there, used to water like that on the road, you know, if there’s got a dip in the road, oh jeez. But the mud oh it was just muck.
Description

Mr. Taylor describes weather conditions in Korea, in particular the impact of mud resulting from the monsoon rains.

Edward P. Taylor

Edward P. Taylor, the twelfth of fifteen children, was born in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario on September 9, 1923. His father managed a paper mill and was therefore unable to enlist. However Edward, very aware of the situation in Europe, enlisted in the Army in Toronto at age nineteen, two years after being rejected by the Navy because of his age. Mr. Taylor served as radio operator with the Royal 22nd Regiment in Italy and he later redeployed to Northern Europe, where he spent time with the Army of Occupation. He served as a radio operator once more during the Korean War. Choosing to remain in the armed forces, Mr. Taylor also completed two tours of duty with NATO in Germany.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
1:47
Person Interviewed:
Edward P. Taylor
War, Conflict or Mission:
Korean War
Location/Theatre:
Korea
Battle/Campaign:
Korea
Branch:
Army
Units/Ship:
Royal Canadian Artillery
Occupation:
Signaller

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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