Leaving school at 15, Keith Nutter worked refurbishing shoe-making machinery before joining the army at 18, serving as a wireless operator in the Royal Norfolk Regiment. After basic training at Colchester, Keith applied for the Parachute Regiment. However, after sustaining a head injury during a motorbike accident, Keith was returned to his unit. Despite losing his opportunity to join the regiment he wanted, Keith remains grateful, as his service allowed him to visit a country that he only heard of for the first time upon joining the army. Keith speaks on the leisurely voyage he and his comrades had out to Korea, his first impressions on arriving in Pusan, and the devastation witnessed as they took a train North to Britannia camp in Samichon Valley. Keith goes into some detail about his training and role as a wireless operator, the conditions of living and working in the signalling bunker, and the process of transporting and using the radio set. Keith also addresses how the role of communicator relies heavily on trusting your platoon as you were ‘deaf to the battle environment’ due to the headset and unable to open fire easily due to handling the microphone. Keith talks of the listening, capture, and recce patrols he was involved in. One such patrol involved ambushing Chinese soldiers digging a trench on an unoccupied hill in the middle of the night. During this ambush, Keith, along with three other men, were responsible for collecting the wounded and stayed until first light to try and find the two men that remained unaccounted for. For his bravery displayed here, Keith was mentioned in dispatches; however, he speaks modestly, describing how he ‘was proud of it, but I just done me job … nothing brave.’ It was on this patrol that Keith lost a very close friend, Roy McDonald, killed by a Chinese mortar. Though he didn’t shed a tear at the time, once home, the devastation of the loss of his friend hit him hard. Keith was interviewed for the Britannia magazine in which he spoke about the sympathy he had for the Chinese army as the British had ‘better weapons, better clothing, better food’. When asked how he feels all these years later about being a veteran, Keith proudly says that he ‘loved it in C Company’, he’s really glad he went, and has ‘never regretted it.’ It led him to meet lifelong friends, one of whom he revisited Korea with some years later.

Janet began her journey with the WRAC in the early 1970s and knew on arrival that it was the right career for her. Although she initially found life at Guildford a bit of shock, by the time she had finished her trade training with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, she felt like a soldier. She describes her first posting to Rheindahlen where aside from working on classified clerical work, she embarked on many trips to surrounding cities and landscapes. Janet also recalls the rising threat of Eastern Germany, and her own exposure to the realities of the Cold War. After Germany she was posted to Beaconsfield, Krefeld and Deepcut where she became chief clerk of the WRAC company in 1976. Although this was a great achievement, Janet remembers still feeling outnumbered by men in the army and experiencing gender discrimination even at her rank. The rest of the interview follows her journey to London, back to Rheindahlen, and finally becoming quartermaster at Aldershot where she campaigned for contraceptive machines in the women's blocks. A fantastic interview and a true trailblazer, we thank Janet for her inspiring story of the frustrations, limitations and power of women in the army.

Keith Watson was a carpentry apprentice before he was called up into the Royal Norfolk Regiment for his National Service. His first posting was on the Yugoslav/ Italian border in 1952. When he returned home, he served as batman to the Regimental Sergeant Major, a role that kept him out of trouble until he arrived in Korea. On arrival, Keith was moved to B company and sent to the frontline. He gives a first-hand account of life on the hills in Korea, which mostly involved: digging trenches, keeping warm, and trying to avoid the mosquitoes. Keith details the configuration of barbed wire fences and mines in No Man’s Land and how, as a patrolman you had to be very aware of how to navigate these defences. He recalls being sent to a small hill in No Man’s Land nicknamed “the island” to survey the enemy – the hill was very exposed, and Keith counts himself lucky not to have been attacked. Keith served the maximum of 12 months in Korea and was pleased to be sent home. His interview culminates with a moving poem dedicated to soldiers who served in Korea.