The story of the Royal Engineers in the Korean War. The Korean War,
which began with an unprovoked attack by North Korea in
1950, went on for three long years. Over 100,000 soldiers of the United Nations
forces, including those of the Republic of Korea, were killed and three times that
number wounded. United
Kingdom casualties amounted to some 300
Officers and 4,000 Other Ranks. The Royal Engineers deployed a Field Squadron to
Korea in the autumn of 1950 and this
was expanded to a Regiment the following year. Involved in fierce fighting, the
Sappers suffered grievous casualties including 42 killed and several hundred
wounded. Their gallantry was rewarded by numerous gallantry awards, including
two DSOs, thirteen MCs, (one by the author), eight MMs and the most
distinguished of all, a Distinguished Conduct Medal, second only to the Victoria
Cross. It was a vicious war whose intensity never slackened and in the last two
months alone the Communist artillery fired over 700,000 rounds against 4.7
million fired back by the United Nations. The Royal Engineers were involved at
all levels, from patrols and minefields, to defence works and, providing support
to all manner of operations such as transportation, bridging and the important
provision of postal services, so vital for morale. Inevitably, though, the focus
in that of a war like Korea is often on sapper
participation in the forward area where they were often involved in
close-quarter fighting with the enemy. Sappers certainly lived up to the title
of this book: Fight, Dig and Live.
