A Co-operative Effort

Heroes Remember

A Co-operative Effort

Transcript

The Commonwealth ships were on the west coast of Korea and the United States 7th Fleet were on the east coast, so we worked with British cruisers, Australian destroyers, our own destroyers, two frigates from the Australian Navy and one Dutch ship, and a couple of smaller frigates, and I'm sure that, with the exception of one, one of our ships getting hit, there was excellent patrol. Interviewer: You mentioned one of the ships was hit. Can you tell me about that? Well, they, I can't remember if it was Haida or Huron, but they used to come, ships used to come in, into this bay everyday and bombard it. Like, the tribal classes had eight four-inch guns, so they could put a fair amount of lead ashore, and they, they would come in, like as I said, everyday and, and do bombardments and then go through this bay and then come back out, and they came in one day and the Koreans had three, two or three tanks dug in under the back side of this hill and they came in there and started firing their broad sides and they shot back. They hit b-gun, there was, the gunnery officer was killed. I'm not sure if there was maybe three or four killed. My friend was the captain of the gun. He got a DSM for getting the gun crew back up and they were all dazed and he got them back up and got the gun firing again, but it just hit the gun shield.

Description

Mr. White explains the role and effectiveness of the international navy that was assembled to patrol the waters off South Korea during the years of the war, 1950-53.

William White

Mr. White was born Feb. 12, 1930. His father, a coal miner by profession, fought in both the First and the Second World Wars. The family moved to Nanaimo when Mr. White was about 1 year old. From a very young age Mr. White had wanted to join the Navy. He realized that dream when he enlisted on March 1, 1948. He set sail from the West Coast on the HMCS Sioux for Korea, in June of 1950. On the way to Korea they stopped in Hawaii to receive some anti-submarine training. Bt he says they never really received much training until they came under American control in Korea.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 01:46
Person Interviewed:: William White
War, Conflict or Mission:: Korean War
Location/Theatre:: Waters off South Korea
Battle/Campaign:: Korea
Branch:: Navy
Units/Ship:: HMCS Sioux
Occupation:: Storekeeper

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A Co-operative Effort

Heroes Remember