John Pound served with the Royal Navy in the Korean War from 1952 to 1954. Aged 19, he travelled to Korea on the Empire Pride before boarding HMS Charity, the small C-Class destroyer upon which John was based for the duration of the war. Prior to this overseas engagement, he had spent his first two years in the Navy training at Victoria Barracks and aboard HMS Bulwark and HMS Vanguard. Trained as a radar plotter, 3rd class, John shares his experience of work aboard HMS Charity in the operations room and details what his role entailed. He also talks about life out at sea, including the freezing conditions, the system of currency around rum rations, swimming in the Yellow Sea, and visiting the American base in Sasebo and the Australian base at Kure. Recalling having to be on action stations at all times, John delves into the dangers involved in his naval duties, including one particular Easter Sunday when Korean batteries hidden in caves ambushed their ship! Upon leaving HMS Charity, John returned home and completed his radar plotter course, 2nd class, before being assigned to the HMS Albion. Now a proud member of the Suffolk Korean Veteran’s Association, John’s story permits a wonderful insight into what life was like aboard a Royal Navy ship during the Korean War.

When Joe Pitcher was called up into the Royal Navy in 1941, his military career began at HMS Glendower, a training facility preparing sailors for service on defensively equipped merchant ships (DEMS). Throughout his ensuing service, Joe sailed on the coastal, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific convoys. He shares his memories of how it felt each time he changed ship and had to get used to working with a completely new crew, and adapting to the ship’s life and rules. He also remembers with wry humour a number of near misses along the way, including a scramble to find an ammunition locker stopcock, dodging a bullet from a round accidentally fired off by a young sailor in the mess, and surviving two separate torpedo hits on the same ship. Joe’s service ended in Singapore where the true horrors of war were brought into sharp focus when the hospital ship he was on took aboard countless near-to-death POWs. With great modesty, Joe says he was glad to have been able to do his bit, and shares with deep emotion his gratitude for surviving the war when so many others weren’t so lucky.