Wounded in the Trench

The night my eardrum went, I was alone in a trench. It happened about one o'clock in the morning and I could see things out there that weren't there. I could hear noises that weren't there. I didn't know what had happened, but it took forever for it to get to be daylight and I couldn't eat any breakfast or lunch. Then the afternoon we were going to move up,we had about five or six miles to go. They said trucks were going to, were supposed to take us but they wouldn't be there for a while, so we're gonna start out. So we walked about three miles and I'd had it. I could hardly go anymore. But the trucks came along just then and took us the rest of the way. We got up on our position and I realized that there was no way I was going to be digging, able to dig any trench. So I just laid down and asked somebody to go get our stretcher bearer. So he came and gave me a shot of morphine. Then I felt so good, I felt guilty about when he took me back to the first aid post. I went by a British ambulance back to an Indian hospital. So many countries had troops and stuff there. Denmark had a hospital ship. India had a field hospital. But in the ambulance going back, the guy on one side of me was dead, the one on the other side was dying, and I was sitting between on a stool. And then, to go back to the Indian hospital and to sleep on a cot for a change, had a pillow. In the Indian hospital they just couldn't do enough for you. They gave me some green tea and it never tasted so good. We never had tea on the front lines. We had instant coffee that was awful, but it was all we had to drink. Well, I was there for two days and then the line was moving up, so they were going to move too. They had to get everybody out of there, discharge the ones that could go, and I was transferred back to an American hospital. I was back in the American hospital for three days and then they let me go. It used to be before that, that if you had a perforated eardrum, you were sent home. But they changed that. So my ear was ringing all the time and it never stopped.

Mr. Thorsen describes the night in the trenches when his ear drum was perforated and the medical treatment he received afterwards.

Carl “Herman” Thorsen

Mr. Thorsen was born in 1926 in a small town northwest of Innisfail, Alberta. He grew up in a family with two brothers and five sisters. His father was a farmer and bricklayer. During the Second World War, Mr. Thorsen was not able to participate in the war effort because he was needed on his family’s large farm. In his early 1950s, while still working on the farm and with a seismic company in Alberta, he felt guilty about not taking part in the Second World War and decided to enlist for the Korean War. He enlisted at Currie Barracks, received training and was shipped overseas. After serving in the Korean War, Mr. Thorsen returned to Alberta and raised a family.

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 2:55
Person Interviewed:: Carl “Herman” Thorsen
War, Conflict or Mission:: Korean War
Location/Theatre:: Korea
Branch:: Army
Rank:: Gunner

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