Patrols and No Man's Land

Transcript

Anchor: In order to hold the line of the 38^th Parallel, it is important to be aware of the enemy's every move. In an effort to achieve that goal, our men scour the area between the lines known as 'No Man's Land', hoping to avoid surprise attacks.

When the infantrymen are not digging, they are patrolling.

Charlie Rees: We were in a static warfare. Where it was a static line, 38^th Parallel.
(Soldiers on tank patrol)

Paul-Émile Pomerleau: That was No Man's Land. We could go there. The Chinese and the North Koreans could go there too.
(Soldier on Patrol)

Charlie Rees: And most everything was done on patrols.

Henry Schreyer: You always had patrols every night.
(Night time in Korea)

Raymond Tremblay: "Where are they? Where could they be?" We were like cats and dogs, y'know. We watched one another.
(Patrolling at night time)

Charles Trudeau: You had a route mapped out because in positions, in No Man's Land, there were minefields and all sorts of stuff.
(Soldiers discussing their route)

Arthur Lortie: Patrolling is always dangerous. There are different kinds of patrols.

Paul-Émile Pomerleau: There were fighting patrols, where you made contact and all hell broke loose.
(Flashes of fire during night patrol)

Charles Trudeau: The goal was to make contact with the enemy . . . Bug him, y'know.

Henry Schreyer: We put shoe polish on our face and hands, and we discarded our wristwatches, if you had any wristwatches we discard that.
(Soldier putting shoe polish on his face)

Charles Trudeau: You couldn't be seen because if you got caught, you took the beating.

Kenneth Albert Himes: There's also a patrol we called a snatch patrol and that's to try and grab a prisoner.

Joseph Niles: There is reconnaissance patrols. That means you just go out and you look and you don't do nothing.
(Soldiers on reconnaissance patrol)

Ray Nickerson: So you know where they were or what was going on and that.

Claude Petit: Listening patrol was... you'd go in front of your positions, usually three guys.

Charles Trudeau: You're in a hole and you wait for the enemy, who would try to pass by next to you… without being seen.

Claude Petit: We were using phones, field phones and we'd have to the carry the wire.
(Soldiers carrying communication wire)

Luther Ferguson: It went from a telephone in here, down the hill to three or four hundred yards into the valley, and this was your communication link.
(The hills and valleys of Korea)

Charles Trudeau: I'd tell my commander that at such a place there was this. Elsewhere there was that.

Paul-Émile Pomerleau: In a patrol, there are two scouts who go ahead. When they give the signal to advance, you advance. When you get to them, they move ahead a bit again, and so it goes.
(Soldiers in discussion while on patrol)

Raymond Tremblay: It's less dangerous to be a scout than being with the group, because if they attack, they attack the group in the back. Only problem is, if there were land mines, the scouts were the ones to hit them.
(Caring for the wounded soldier)

Kenneth Garbutt: Most of the casualties occurred, up until and including the cease-fire, were from patrols.