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Donald Cole joined the Canadian Army in August 1950, not long after the Korean War broke out. He was supposed to be sent over to Korea with the Canadian Army Special Force, he was kept back in order to augment 1 Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. It was with 1PPCLI that Mr. Cole went to Korea in October 1951 where he was a company signaller.
Please be advised that Memory Project primary sources may deal with personal testimony that reflect the speaker’s recollections and interpretations of events. Individual testimony does not necessarily reflect the views of the Memory Project and Historica Canada.
Transcript
I only went to grade 10 in high school and then I went as an electrical apprentice. And I’d been doing that for about two years when I decide to join the army. And it was at night, one night after supper. We were down at my house and there was three or four of us and they were recruiting at night for the Canadian Army Special Force. So we said, “Let’s go down and join the army.” We went down. There was three or four of us. We all got in except one guy. Next morning I had to go in and tell my boss at the electric company that I joined the army. And I think within a week I was gone to Petawawa [Ontario].
After I joined the army, done my basic training in Calgary [Alberta], then we went to Fort Lewis, Washington in December 1950 and just carried on training there. And while I was there the adjutant of our company said, “What did you do in civvy life?” I said, “Well, I drove a taxi for my dad and I was an electrical apprentice.” He said, “Oh, good you’ll make a good company signaller.” I ended up as a company signaller which was the guy carrying the radio on his back. Was a good, good exciting life for a while.
We left, it took us 19 days to get to Korea on that boat, the [USNS] Marine Adder. And there was two companies of Canadians on it and the rest were Americans. And we stopped in Yokohama [Japan], unloaded and let a lot of the Americans off and we were let off the boat for a few hours. And then we got back on the boat and went to, just outside of Seoul [Korea], the base. And we landed by landing craft. Down the rope, brought a ladder into the boat then roared up on to shore and the front drops and we run out. I had the wireless set on me then. I didn’t know what was going on.
And then we took a train off to B Echelon of the Patricias [1 Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry]. And we stayed there a few days getting oriented or whatever and then we marched up the front lines. It took us a couple of days. We went up to the front lines and we exchange with a company of the 2nd Battalion of the PPCLI. We had changed position. It was in the middle of the night or, you know, three or four in the morning, pitch black. And I remember, when the company signaller was showing me around and I remember we were kind of like on the reverse slope of the hill and he’s showing us how, where the other platoon was and how the telephone cables were laid on the line and that, and I can still remember walking over the top of the hill and looking over and see the Chinese lines. I didn’t know whether to duck, run or what. What a funny feeling.
[At Hill 159, 5 to 6 November 1951] The second night we’re there, four guys were killed in the company. I said to myself, “What am I doing here?” We got attacked by the Chinese. We were surrounded all night. And that was on our second night in the front lines. But we buried 32 Chinamen that were killed on our hill. And they take away a lot of the, and we got one prisoner. And I remember the prisoner, he was kind of big for Chinese and he was on a stretcher beside my bunker and I gave the guy a cigarette. I felt sorry for him. He was cut, bleeding, everything. I think he survived.
They started out later on in the afternoon with some artillery shells. I don’t know, about midnight, they attacked us three times that one night, troops. And we held out. I don’t know how come or why or what but we had our own artillery and mortars firing right practically on our position. As a matter, three of those guys that were killed were killed by one of our own mortars because we had to call the mortars down on ourselves. But that’s the way things were.
I really enjoyed my time in the army. I really did, you know, as things turned out. At the time I was saying, “Well, I shouldn’t be here.” But after looking back, it was great. My very best friend died over there. His name was Laurie Canning and he died in May of ’52. He died. He wasn’t killed. He died. Something burst, pancreas burst or something and, but he was only 21.
