All Aboard the Windrush

Men of the Gloucestershire Regiment, the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars and the Royal Engineers embark at Southampton in October 1950 for Korea, to fight as part of the United Nations forces tasked with preventing the seizure of South Korea by the Communist North. Fifteen nations will send contingents but by far the biggest comes from the United States, reflected in the 142,000 Americans killed in the war, compared with the combined total of 17,000 dead from the other 14 countries. The disastrous opening phase of the war is over and the Americans have been able to drive the North Koreans back up the peninsula after the daring landings in mid-September at Inchon, 200 miles behind enemy lines, devised by General Douglas MacArthur. Since British National Servicemen are only allowed to serve abroad over the age of 19, many reservists, who fondly imagined they would never have to fight again after 1945, have had to be recalled. They must be hoping that by the time they arrive all they will be required to do is a little light mopping up. No such luck.