One for the Road

by Will Roberts

  Adam didn’t know how to start and felt extremely awkward. He had tried mentally to plan for this meeting but had not managed to formulate any initial strategy.

  “Does the name Joe Watts mean anything to you?” he blurted out.

  “Joe Watts! Well, well, there’s a name from the past!” she replied. “What’s he to you then?” Jean Hutchins asked.

  “My name is Adam Evans. This is my son, Paul, and my nephew, Lewis. Joe Watts was my uncle, great uncle to Paul and Lewis,” Adam answered.

  “Well, well, well! Please take a seat,” she said to Adam, Lewis, and Paul who were still standing feeling even more awkward. She indicated with her hand to the three-seater sofa,

  “Can I get you a cup of tea – or maybe you prefer coffee?” she asked.

  “Thank you, Mrs Hutchins! Coffee would be very nice,” Adam answered.

  “And you two young men, what would you like?” she asked Paul and Lewis.

  “Coffee would be fine, thank you,” Lewis replied.

  “For me too, thank you,” Paul also accepted coffee.

  “They are very polite young men, Audrey,” she whispered to her daughter-in-law, as she turned to go back into the kitchen.

  “You entertain our guests, Jean, and I will make the coffee. After all, they are here to see you!” Audrey answered,

  “Oh, all right,” Jean said, as she removed her apron and took a seat on the comfortable sofa, directly opposite Adam, Paul and Lewis. Jean Hutchins was extremely spritely for someone who was well into her seventies, Adam thought to himself. He began to explain, without going into too much detail and leaving out the jewellery theft and the diamond. As soon as he mentioned Joe Watts again, she immediately interrupted him.

  “Joe Watts disappeared in nineteen forty-nine. We all assumed that the gangland boss McNichol had something to do with it as Joe was seeing his girlfriend, that actress from the West End? Ellie and I thought he was fish food in the Thames, or maybe he was buried in concrete on a building site. There was a lot of building work going on at that time in London, after the war of course,” she said.

  “No, Jean! Joe died in South Korea in nineteen fifty-five. He had joined the army to get away from McNichol, we presume. When he joined up, he didn’t use his own name but that of his friend, Jackie Gee,” and added, “oh, by the way, McNichol’s actress girlfriend was Maria Fuentes,” Adam added.

  As Adam finished, the younger Mrs Hutchins arrived from the kitchen with five cups of steaming coffee. “There’s milk and sugar, help yourselves,” she said, as she placed the coffee cups on coasters and then sat down beside her mother-in-law on the sofa.

  “Thank you,” the three said in perfect harmony, as they reached for the cups of steaming coffee.

  “Yes, I remember now, it was Maria Fuentes. I can understand Joe falling for her. She was a real beauty. You boys have certainly been doing your homework! But why would Joe take Jackie’s name?” Jean asked.

  “Because Jackie died after being shot by an unknown gunman, just before Joe disappeared,” Adam answered.

  Jean laughed, “Did he indeed? Jackie Gee! Actually, his name was Jackie Golaszewski, but everybody called him Jackie G, for obvious reasons. No, gentlemen! Jackie Gee died in nineteen ninety-seven.”

  Adam, Lewis and Paul looked at one another, mouths agape. “But they found a body in the Thames!” Lewis managed.

  “They may well have done, Lewis, but it wasn’t Jackie’s body! Jackie was shot at about that time, that’s true, but it was only a flesh wound. It was just before he and Ellie immigrated to Canada.”

  Jean then got up from the sofa, took down a framed photograph from the sideboard behind the sofa and handed it to Adam,

  “This was taken about five years ago: Ellie and Jackie, with their four children and seven grandchildren. Jackie had a very successful haulage company in Calgary, which is now being run by their two sons, Joe and Jackie junior. Ellie and Jackie’s first son was named after Jackie’s great friend, Joe Watts, by the way,” Jean added.

  “Jackie died of cancer in nineteen ninety-seven and Ellie died a year later. We all went over for the funerals.”

  The photograph showed the Golaszewski family sitting on the porch of a very nice house with snow-capped mountains in the background.

  Despite the fact it was taken when Jackie Golaszewski was in his seventies, he still had a full head of hair, brushed back, and Adam could see a discernible likeness to his uncle Joe.

  Adam handed the photograph to Lewis, who then handed it to Paul.

  “Jackie did very well for himself, Jean, I guess from the proceeds of the jewels from his last job with Joe?” Adam offered, with a wry grin on his face.

  “I don’t know anything about any jewels, Adam,” Jean said, also with a knowing smile on her face, “but I did hear something about a blue diamond!”

  Prisoners of War

  Brigadier Brodie, Lieutenant Colonel James Carne, Captain Anthony Farrar-Hockley, Second Lieutenant Guy Temple, Lieutenant Harvey and Drum Major Buss are not fictitious characters. They were actual participants in The Korean War and played major parts in the defence of hill 235.

  Brigadier Brodie was not present on the hill during this time but was in radio communication with Colonel Carne from Command Headquarters.

  The other officers and NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) featured in this book are characters that I have invented, as are all the other soldiers.

  Colonel Carne, Captain Farrar-Hockley, Second Lieutenant Guy Temple and Drum Major Buss were captured by the Chinese while attempting to flee the hill on the morning of 25th April 1951, along with most of the other officers, with the exception of Lieutenant Harvey, who managed to escape and re-join the main force, as I have depicted in my writing.

  These officers, along with hundreds of others of the Gloucestershire Regiment and other British and United Nation Regiments, were then marched north by their Chinese and North Korea captors.

  During his flight from hill 235, Captain Farrar-Hockley lost his boots on the shale slopes as he scrambled to get away and was forced to march barefoot. During the march, his feet became badly infected and a doctor from The Hussars was forced to operate. However, there was no medical equipment available and the poor doctor was forced to use a safety razor to carry out the procedure. Farrar-Hockley was then carried by his colleagues until his feet healed and he was able to walk again.

  Throughout the march north, Colonel Carne could often be seen, by the side of the road, encouraging his men, who were heartened when the Colonel spoke to them and called them by their name. He knew all his men’s names.

  As they passed through the totally devastated country, where towns had been completely destroyed by American airstrikes, the North Korean people were belligerent towards the procession of prisoners as they trudged through burnt out towns and villages. Many, including the North Korean soldiers, wanted to kill the POWs and, on several occasions, they would only back down when the Chinese raised and cocked their weapons. There was a great rancour between the Chinese and North Korean soldiers.

  It took eight to twelve weeks to complete the march north to the Prisoner of War camps, either in an area north of Pyongyang or further north towards the Chinese Manchurian border; not everybody made it. Food was in short supply for the prisoners. Many died on the roadside from lack of proper food, while there was an infestation of lice, which led to Typhus, and many also suffered from dysentery. Many soldiers were seen rushing into the undergrowth at the side of the road to empty their bowels, desperately unbuttoning their trousers in mid-stride, as the main column continued their march north.

  On occasion, the soldiers were treated to a beef soup, but this was only when American airstrikes had killed oxen that had been in the vicinity of the strike.

  When eventually the soldiers reached their destination, which, for most of The Glosters, was Camp Number One, at Chiang-song, the officers and senior NCOs were separated from the rest of the men. The more fortunate of the soldiers w
ere the ones who were under the control of the Chinese, as the North Koreans were more vicious than the Chinese. However, by the end of 1951, all the prisoners of war came under the control of the Chinese.

  The prisoner of war camps consisted of typical Korean houses, each being home to around eight inmates. There were, however, no high fences or walls to keep them in. The mere fact that these Caucasian men were completely unable to blend in with the local people, the locals being also intolerant of the British and particularly the Americans, meant there was little chance of escape, though many still tried.

  Conditions were extremely bad though, over the two and a half years that many were held in these camps, things did improve slightly, despite the fact that North Korea and China never signed up to the Geneva Convention.

  Meals normally consisted of ‘Dikon’, which was a bitter tasting yellow vegetable similar to a turnip, cut into chunks and boiled and served twice a day. Later the meal was flavoured with herbs and the inmates were allowed to grow their own vegetables.

  During this time the POWs were continuously being ‘re-educated’ into the communist way.

  One, a Royal Marine Andrew Condron, did, in fact, convert to the virtues of Marx and Lenin and indeed refused to travel with his compatriots during the exchange of prisoners, remaining in China until 1960 when he returned to the United Kingdom.

  Disease was rampant, even in the camps, and Second Lieutenant Guy Temple contracted beriberi, jaundice, and dysentery and also had gangrene.

  He was also ordered to give English lessons to the Chinese officers and received food and cigarettes from his students who he gave good marks, while others, who he marked down, were punished.

  Although the odds were stacked against successful escape, many tried not once but several times, including Captain Anthony Farrar-Hockley, whose first attempt at escape was during the march to the camps. He was recaptured and returned to the camps on each attempt, where he would spend time in solitary confinement.

  Not one escape attempt was successful throughout the whole time the UN soldiers were interned in North Korea. One escapee did, in fact, nearly reach South Korea; he evaded detection and got two hundred miles south but was eventually apprehended and returned to the POW camps.

  The stoic Colonel Carne, who was the most senior British officer in Communist hands, was also subjected to special punishment for opposing the ‘political re-education’ programmes and while his fellow officers were attending these re-education lessons he spent nineteen months in solitary confinement. Apart from the periodic beatings, he was also subjected to continuous ‘brain-washing’ procedures including the use of drugs.

  However, the indomitable Colonel Carne was not idle during his time in solitary. When released from his tiny, cramped cell, he was carrying a small, stunningly carved, Celtic cross that he had fashioned from a lump of Korean rock, a quite remarkable accomplishment considering he had been working in almost complete darkness and silence. This cross was then used by the Regimental Chaplain to The Glosters, Sam Davies, in what became known as the ‘Church of Captivity’.

  (The Chinese later confiscated the knife that Colonel Carne had used to make the cross and his carvings came to an end.)

  This wonderful piece of craftsmanship, achieved in what were dire circumstances, is now revered by the Gloucestershire Regiment, and was presented to Gloucester Cathedral after the release of the Glosters from internment on their return to Gloucester and can still be seen in Gloucester Cathedral. Colonel Carne was also granted the Freedom of The City of Gloucester.

  For his leadership on the twenty-second and twenty-third of April 1951, on Hill 235 at the Imjin River Colonel James Carne was awarded the Victoria Cross. For his service in the Korean War, he was also awarded The Distinguished Service Order and The Distinguished Service Cross by the President of The United States of America.

  In the year 2017, as I write this novel, the conflict is still far from over and, if anything, is escalating. With Kim Jong-Un, grandson of Kim Il-Sung, one of the initiators of this conflict, threatening the United States with alleged nuclear weapons, the situation on that much fought over peninsula is again precarious, exacerbated by The President of The United States, Donald Trump who has threatened to hit North Korea with ‘Fire and Fury’.

  Technical Notes

  Steelmaking

  Without going into too much detail, I would like to give a brief explanation of some of the terms I have used in the section where Adam was working in South Korea at the new steel mill.

  There are two primary routes to make steel. The first is through what is known as a ‘Blast Furnace’, where iron ore, (from the ground), is mixed with limestone and coke and melted using a ‘blast’ of hot air. The result is liquid iron, which contains a high percentage of carbon. The process is continuous so as the molten iron is ‘tapped’ from the bottom, so more iron ore, coke and carbon are ‘charged’ through the top.

  The next stage of the process is ‘refining’, where the carbon is reduced using oxygen (decarburisation), and the other elements, particularly silicon and manganese, are adjusted to the final requirements of the customer using ferro-alloys.

  After this stage the steel is then ‘cast’ into the semi-finished form, normally either into a ‘slab’, (flat products), ‘billet’ or ‘bloom’, (long products) or occasionally into ingots, normally for forging.

  The alternative steelmaking route is through an Electric Arc Furnace, where steel scrap is melted using primarily electrical energy.

  As with the blast furnace, when the ‘heat’ (each batch of melted steel is called a heat) is tapped – poured from the furnace into a ladle, it is taken to the next stage, refining, where the elements are adjusted for the customer’s requirements and, as with the blast furnace route, cast into slab, billet, bloom or ingots.

  The route that I have experience with is the Electric Arc Furnace route, and hence Adam’s commissioning project was with this route.

  If anybody requires more details about steelmaking, please contact me on my website.

  The Military Cross

  The Military Cross is a decoration bestowed for extreme acts of bravery on the field of battle. Previously it was awarded to only officers, but since 1993 it can be awarded to any rank and can also be awarded posthumously.

  As Jackie was only a private, and privates could not be awarded this medal during the Korean War, I took the liberty of ignoring this qualification.

  The Korea Medal

  The Korea medal or The Queens Korea Medal was a campaign medal awarded to those who participated in the Korean War to troops, not only from the United Kingdom, but from Australia, Canada and New Zealand between July 1950 and July 1953.

  Those who received the Queens Korea medal were also entitled to receive the United Nations Korea Medal.

  The United Nations Korea Medal

  The United Nations Service Medal for Korea, was the first international decoration awarded by the United Nations to an international force.

  It was awarded to those who participated in the defense of South Korea, from June 1950 to July 1954, though those from the Netherlands received the award for their participation up to January 1955, and those from Thailand and Sweden for their participation up to July 1955.

  This is what became known as ‘The Carne Cross’ which was carved from a lump of Korean rock by The Gloucestershire Regiment’s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel James Carne, during this time in solitary confinement when held as a Prisoner of War by the Chinese in North Korea.

  The Carne Cross is now on display in Gloucester Cathedral.

  TheCarneCross©willroberts2017

  Notes

  You may have noticed that the spelling of Pusan/Busan changes throughout the book. This is due to a new method of transliterating Korean which was introduced in 2000 and the name changed overnight from Pusan to Busan, though the Korean character ㅂrepresents both ‘p’ and ‘b’. Hence, where the story takes place during the Korean War in the ninete
en fifties, I refer to the city as Pusan and in the later references as ‘Busan’.

  Bibliography:

  To the Last Round, by Andrew Salmon.