Bernard Charland (Primary Source)

Transcript

Then it started. We got to Korea and had been there for about a week or two (Mr. Charland served with the 3^rd Battalion, Royal 22^e Régiment). I don't remember the dates too well, but the Royal Canadian Regiment, which occupied a position at the front, got slammed. We say “slammed", because we were overloaded by the Chinese, the (North) Koreans or Chinese (during the battle of Hill 187, May 2-3, 1953). And then there were several deaths. I remember the first image I saw of that war was the stretcher-bearers, the men who carried the stretchers. They washed it in the creek, you know. It’s shocking. I said:"Yup, I wanted it, I got it!" It was serious business.

In fact, when we played the role of counter-attack, it wasn't a counter-attack. It was the rest of us who were in reserve, we arrived, we were in a reserve position. We had to go and replace people because they had retreated (withdrawn). The Chinese were supposed to be in position. When we arrived, they were all gone. We maintained that position for..., I can't remember how long.

The mountains were named according to their height in meters: 212, 209, 189, 355. That’s what it was like. And then, well, that's it, we stayed there, I think, for a week in that position. The RCR (Royal Canadian Regiment) went. They reorganized the company and brought it back up. We held back until we went to replace a company of the 1^st 22^nd on the line (1^st Battalion, Royal 22^e Régiment). I know the geographical layout, but I don't remember the mountain, I think it was Hill 222, something like that. Nice position. It was supposed to be very secret, but we found it. It was pretty funny. We replaced the position at night, of course, around midnight. Then you go up two at a time. You replace two soldiers who then come down, and so on. You do it from behind.

I had a good team and good corporals. So we exchanged positions with the unit that was there. It was supposed to be a big secret. We didn't want the Koreans to notice. All of a sudden, the loudspeaker, in the valley, they had put a loudspeaker there, the loudspeaker goes: "Welcome to the 3^rd (Battalion) Royal 22^e Régiment!” You know, that was our first impression with the famous loudspeaker. The American soldiers, they had a woman who spoke at night. It reminds me of the former Tokyo Rose we saw in the other war (a nickname given by the Allied forces in reference to those English-speaking Japanese announcers broadcasting propaganda for Japan during the Second World War). She said all kinds of things. We didn't mind, us Canadians. We were a gang of rascals. It didn’t affect our morale. Some Americans were bawling about it. We had a neighbor, who didn't like it at all."Go back home! Your wife is dating other guys!" She said all kinds of things. We did try to destroy those loud speakers. But as soon as we succeeded in destroying one, they put another one somewhere else. It was a lost cause.

That's when I learned what a defensive war was, because Korea was always a defensive war, as far as Canadians were concerned. Perhaps the 2^nd Battalion (Royal 22^e Régiment in 1951-1952) had to march and liberate towns and so on. But we arrived in Korea and took up position on a mountain. I stayed there until the end of the conflict. It took, I don't even remember how many months, but it stopped in (19)53, the conflict. We had just arrived in March (and) it stopped at the beginning of (19)54. I don’t remember the dates. When they signed at Panmunjom (July 27, 1953). We'd been in reserve for about a month at that point. We'd spent the whole war here, in fact. Company D, the major said: "If the guys want to stay here, we'll keep them here". It wasn't as hard as changing that. One month at the back, one month at the front. You don’t do that, you don't have time to learn your position. Then it was a war of defense, by day. It's done at night, a defensive position.

At night, well, you're on patrol. You have to go and see what's going on. You have to go and see on the mountain if they've managed to take it, and then they spy on you from there. Is it big enough for them to put people there and then attack you? Then there were all sorts of things that had to be sorted out. In a defensive war, you have to know what's going on around you. In Korea, we weren't equipped for what we call fighting patrols. Because it takes too many men.