B&C No 94 JUN 00 YAN MOOSUN - Coping with life
Our regular contributor, Yan Moosun, has again been
pursuing his hobbies: 'sitting, sitting and thinking,
sitting, thinking and drinking or if has been a very hard
day, just sitting and drinking.'
K FORCE
B&C
85 Dec 95 and B&C
93 Dec 99 mentioned the K Force men from Ireland
and raised (razed?) the question about Nulty Murdoch:
'Just who did burn his dugout?'
Yan Moosun now tells the tale of K-Force. What
a cock-up he says. It arrived on disc - good chap!
When the 1st Bn arrived in Korea in 1951 it had added to
its strength approximately 150 men who were classified as
'K Force men'. They had been recruited on a special
contract to serve 18 months in Korea, that, and that only.
The K Force men that joined us to serve the last bit
of their contract, about 6 months for most of them, were,
I believe, transferred from the RUR and perhaps even the
Gloucesters when those regiments left Korea. My opinion of
them was that they were a great bunch of lads,
individualistic, rumbustious, full of character and of
course, in the main Irish. (It could only be the Irish who
would volunteer to serve 18 months in a place like Korea
!!) When they joined us most of them had seen quite a bit
of action in and around the 'big' battles in Korea and
thus they took full advantage of being the 'old hands'
whereas we were the somewhat new 'green boys'. Its has to
be said that there were a few problems when it came to
rebadging them but after that when they were wearing
Britannia in their berets they settled in to various jobs
looking for a quiet life in order to finish off their time
in Korea.
We had at least one other Irishman in the battalion and
the one I am thinking of was the Bn 2IC, Maj Nulty
Murdoch. At Bn HQ we had several K Force men
including a couple employed as cooks and one in the mess
dugout when we were in the Samichon valley.
Nulty’s morning greeting as winter came on was to say:
'I want a little porridge on a hot plate.'
Now why this should cause consternation to the
K Force cook - Irish of course - I cannot imagine but
a sort of running battle/competition developed. Nulty had
his porridge served too runny, too thick, too salty, on an
enamel plate that had been thrust into the flames until it
was red hot, too cold and so on. No problems, it was just
an ongoing battle interesting to us outsiders as to what
was going to be wrong with the porridge on any particular
morning. And so life went on.
There then came the day before the day that most of the
K Force men were due to leave us for Blighty having
completed their 18 months service in Korea. Lt Col John
Orlebar, the Commanding Officer, decreed that in
recognition of their service, all K Force men should
be excused all duties from 1200 hrs the day before
departure from the battalion. He went on to say that he
wanted no trouble or disturbances from them - presumably
he had in mind the close affinity of the Irish with the
hard stuff when they wanted to celebrate - but if there
were problems involving the demon drink then they should
remember that Courts Martials were handing down at that
time 2-year sentences for drink related offences 'whilst
on active service'. At stand-to that evening all was
quiet.
I suppose it was nigh on 2100 hrs when the fire alarm
sounded. The roof of
Nulty`s dugout, constructed using a 3-tonner
tarpaulin, straw and whatever, was well alight by then but
what did concern the onlookers was whether of not Nulty
was in the arms of Morpheus inside. Some brave fellow
ascertained that he was not and another, concealed by the
darkness, but which did not conceal the Belfast accent,
was heard to say: 'I wonder if he will want a little
porridge on a hot plate tomorrow morning?' Silence
descended again.
It was well after 2300 hrs when it came to our attention
that several voices, losing an ill fought battle to
achieve harmony, were telling all and sundry that the
mountains of Mourne swept down to the Yellow sea and that
Paddy somebody-or-other’s goat was causing some concern.
We, who were in the command post, looked at each other and
realised that there was emerging a serious potential
problem.
Lt Col John Orlebar did not see it in the same way.
He told one of the duty signallers to find the CSM and
pass the message from the CO that he wanted them all shut
up NOW. I suppose 10 minutes went by and we had just got
to the interesting part of what this Irish goat was up to
when suddenly there was silence, complete and utter.
A few minutes after that the CSM reported to the CP that
all was well but that there would be one K Force man
on a charge in the morning. 'Camp', (name changed to protect the guilty *),
went on to say that it was only a minor matter but needed
to be dealt with before the K Force men departed at
1100hrs. Orders were to be held at 0800 and the rest of
the night passed off in complete peacefulness.
(* see
Britannia 40 Nov 1952 and B&C
85 Dec 95! Ed.)
The K Force Irishman who had
been put on a charge was marched in, in double time, at
0800 hrs the following morning. The charge was read out
and silence held sway as the Battle Adjutant eyed the
offender up and down: 'What have you to say?'
'Nothing, your worship.'
'Case dismissed. March out Serjeant Major.'
Normally when Company Orders are dismissed all concerned
turn to the right and march off but not this time. For our
Irish K Force man marched straight up to the CSM and
said: 'Serjeant Major, I want to thank you for last night.
It was a grand thing that you did and we all appreciated
it' - or words to that effect - and with that marched away
to continue packing his kit, leave the battalion and
Korea.
What he meant by that remark I have no idea but I was sure
that the huge, beautiful multicoloured but predominantly
black eye that he sported would long be gone before he saw
Paddy McGinty’s goat again.
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