Nighttime Ambush

Heroes Remember

Nighttime Ambush

Transcript

There was a static line, 38th parallel and most everything was done on patrols. That was the main thing. Fighting patrols and listening patrols and all that sort of thing. The different things that I can relate, I remember we were on 355 and we were right out on the pint platoon. By this time we had a company and I was with “D” Company. I doubt if we had any more than a platoon and a half left in the whole company because there was, we couldn’t move, where we were, we couldn’t move around in the daytime at all because the enemy was on a higher hill, 227 and they were looking right down on us. So we only got one hot meal, that was at night time and... But I remember this night. I think it was Charlie Company. Abel or Charlie I’m not sure, had a what they call a fighting, a company fighting patrol which was a much larger one and they were going out and Beta Company had what they called a listening patrol. There was seven men and one corporal. He was a lance jack, lance corporal, were out lying on the side of a hill and when the company patrol, the North Koreans were waiting for them. They apparently somehow or other they had a big patrol out too. All heck broke loose. Or all hell, I should say, broke loose and then of course everything started coming in from the North Koreans. Boy I’m telling you, it was a hell of a feeling. You’re sitting there and not much you can do. And anyway, after it was all over they knew about the patrol that was down at the bottom and they hadn’t heard from them. So I was one of the guys who went out with so many guys, another fella had so many. Cause at that time I was what they called platoon signaller. I looked after the radio and the telephones for the officer and the sergeant in our headquarters like. So anyway, we went out. We found one fella and his name was Charlie Power, he was from Nova Scotia. I don’t know where he is today. He was up in the mine field and we started talking to him, “Take your time, come down, take your time.” He got down without setting off anything. But he got shrapnel in the nose, like you know it was in there. So the guys went in with him. And then I remember we found another guy, he was my buddy, there was a guy that was wounded on that patrol, Mike Murphy, he was from Belle Island also. He was wounded again. He was on that patrol. And then we went down, we got the other two guys, they were all, the other two were wounded and there was four dead. And the corporal, Barney Rice was his name, he was the patrol leader. You often heard of dead weight. Barney Rice was only, he was only a small fellow, he wasn’t big, I tell you it took three of us to be able to lift him up, put him on the stretcher to get him back in. When you go into war, you know you’re going to see fellas wounded, killed and you don’t know, you know, what they’re gonna be able to look like you know. So you have to take it all in stride, you feel hurt. Everybody does when he sees a buddy killed or a buddy wounded. You feel hurt and sometimes you think when I come back I think it myself today. How lucky I was, you know compared to some of the other fellas.

Description

Mr. Rees talks about a nighttime ambush and its deadly results.

Charlie Rees

Charles Rees was born in Lance Cove, Newfoundland on July 14, 1930. He first experienced the consequences of war at the age of 12, when he and the rest of his community were involved in rescuing the crew from two ships torpedoed nearby. While working in Toronto, Mr. Rees made the decision to enlist for service in the Korean War. He was sent overseas with the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, where he served a one year tour of duty on the 38th Parallel. When he returned to Canada, he trained as a paratrooper. After leaving the service, he was a pressman in the printing trade. Mr. Rees joined both the Atlantic and Canadian Korean Veterans Associations.

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