Memories - Ken Plane

 

Army No. 1/2105 Kenneth Alfred Plane

 

I was with the 1st Bn RAR 4 Pl B Coy. We left Sydney early 1952 on the troopship Shropshire which berthed at Kure Japan, where we were camped for about 3 weeks doing heavy training before sailing for Pusan, then by train to some place south of Seoul.

 

We then had another couple of weeks training before moving up to take our positions on the 38th Parallel, the Samizhong valley. Most of the men were young in their early twenties, some were more experienced having seen service in New Guinea. I was a CPL Section leader.

 

The country was dry, hilly and rugged, it had all the extremes, hot as hell in summer, freezing in winter and the rainy season made our positions pretty unbearable with flooding of our trenches and dug-outs etc.

Most of the time we lived on yankee C rations, everything had bloody beans in it.

During our time in Korea we had approximately 3 to 4 months action then were relieved and had 5 days leave in Japan, then back to work again for another 5 months then 21 days leave in Japan which was really welcome. Our Battalion came home approximately June 1953 on the New Australia. 

I guess that it was certainly an experience never to forget and also I would say most of us were lucky to come home in one piece.
Terry Midson and Kenneth Plane.

 

Yes our Battalion did the job that was asked of it and I would say that everyone in the Battalion served with pride that they carried out their duties in the true Aussie spirit.

Gerry, I guess like most KV’s I have forgotten a lot, some I choose to, some I don’t.

 

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This page was last modified on 14 May 2000.

 

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