OFF TO WAR

"JIM" PASHEN

Service Details

James "Jim" PASHEN joined the Australian Army in August 1950and served for over 20 years, being discharged in March 1971 with the rank of WarrantOfficer 1 and appointed Honorary Lieutenant. His records show service with 3 Battalion RAR(Korea and Enoggera), 1 RAR (Ingleburn and Holsworthy), the Pacific Islands Regiment andthe 35 Cadet Battalion in the then Territory of Papua-New Guinea (PNG). He haddistinguished service with the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) plus numerousother postings. After leaving the ARMY he held senior managerial appointments with theIrrigation and Water Supply Commission, the Main Roads Department and the ForestryCommission. He retired in 1985 (ill health) but continues to lead a busy life as an activemember of the AATTV Association and the RSL as well as writing short stories and articlesfor a number of journals. He lives at Peregian Beach, Queensland.

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Prior to joining "Old Faithful", 3 Battalion Royal AustralianRegiment (3 RAR) in 1952 my training at Ingleburn allowed me to come into contact withsome very interesting people, "Bob" O'Brien, "Mick Dent" and"Geoff" Hart, to name a few. I was to meet up with them again in Korea. Justtaking time off to sit down and ponder on memorable events which affected me in some wayduring my tour has been the hard task. However, having done so, I'll now offer a briefresume on each, as I recall them from the past. If the intervening period of 42 years hasdimmed my memory it also may allow for any possible distortions and embellishments and Iapologize for that.

My first Platoon Commander, in Korea, was a young baby faced Lieutenant"Maurie" Pears. I'll never forget my arrival in 7 Platoon C Company. They werelocated on an almost suicidal position named "George Outpost". Feature 227looked down on us and was occupied by the Chinese. Hill Feature 355 overshadowed us fromthe rear. We shared our location with 8 Platoon C Company. Our position had recently beentaken over from the "Van Doos", Vingt Deux, Royal Canadian 22nd Regiment (R22R),a French Canadian Regiment. Their personal hygiene left much to be desired requiring amassive clean up by us when moving in..

Maurie and I shared a hoochi (dugout). We got on very well though hedid provide me with my first real scare. This occurred one night when I was dozing betweenpicquet checks. I was rudely wakened by the sound of a few bursts from an Owen gunsounding off in my bunker. I thought the Chinese had arrived but it was only Maurie on arat killing episode. Rats were in a abundance in the rafters of the bunkers. That is atrue story. Maurie left us soon after for re-posting to the mortars.

The toilet pit was located right on top of the platoon position, infull view of the enemy, as it was the only place it could be sited. When the need arose touse it, you exited out of your bunker waving a newspaper over your head. This indicated tothe Chinese your intentions. They allowed you to sit in peace for a reasonable time. Ifyou were too long they would fire a few rounds to let you know that they had you undersurveillance. Constipation was never a problem for most of us, believe me.

Every Platoon has its characters. One was Infantryman "Karl".He caused me a deal of concern before I was able to get him shifted. One night his turn onpiquet involved a complete "stand to" for the whole platoon. He arrived at hispost and promptly threw three grenades down the hill. The sound of the explosionsinstantly alerted everyone. "That'll keep the bastards quiet for awhile" was hisonly comment. Other eccentric behaviour was having an adverse effect platoon morale. Hehad to go, and eventually did.

Between our location and Hill 227 (the enemy outpost called"John") we used to man a Listening Post by night, "Dog" Outpost ( ourbase position was "George"). The Chinese used to snipe at us from there duringthe day.

A Section of 8 men used to move up to it at last light. They also wereequipped with an old L Type telephone which tied into cable previously laid up to thearea. On one occasion, the section commander, in error, left the telephone behind in thebunker when he left to come back to his platoon. The party line was connected to theCompany Commander back on Hill 210. Answering his phone on this particular morning he wasgreeted by a Chinese caller nattering on at a rapid rate. I later heard that this was theonly time that Major John "Blanc" White was at a loss for words. Shortlyafterwards it was decided to vacate Dog Outpost permanently. Acting as an escort, 8Platoon (our neighbours) provided protection and security for a troop of engineers who'booby' trapped the whole outpost area. They came off their task about an hour beforefirst light. They had only been back in their own lines for about 15 minutes when incomingsmall arms fire was detected coming from the area they had just booby trapped. Charliemust have been coming up behind the engineers and disconnected the explosives just afterthey had been laid. During the time on George/Dog outpost my platoon never took part inany patrolling mainly because of our firm base duties.

Shortly afterwards both 7 and 8 Platoons were moved to the reverseslopes of Hill 355. Our area was a new one and pits and bunkers had to be dug. In summer afair enough ask but in winter almost an impossible job. The engineers came into help us asthe ground was solid ice. After the siting of the Platoon Headquarters was determined theyused a beehive charge. Most will remember the conical shaped charge containingapproximately 10lbs of TNT and the three spindly legs it stood on. The indented recessionon the underside was shaped like the bottom of a champagne bottle after the beehive wasfired. I believe we could have dug a bunker to house the whole platoon, it was just thatbig. On arrival on Hill 355, a horrifying view was the sight of 7 dead Chinese soldiers.They were in the kneeling position and crouched over as they came under the barbed wireperimeter fence. They had been frozen solid and had remained that way until they thawedout when they were recovered and given a decent burial.

Just after we finished our 'digging in' the Company was moved across toHill 220. Hills 227 and 355 were now off to our right front about 300 yards distant. I hadan additional task while there. It was to keep the beam of a strong searchlight focusedonto Hill 227. The light was situated about 5 miles to our rear. It was said to have been1 million candlepower and to everyone, a very strong light indeed. It shone for 55 minuteswhen it was turned off to replace the carbon burning rod. This usually took 5 minutes. Itspurpose was to light up the forward slopes of 227 to stop Charlie from digging in andhighlight any troop movements. The 5 minute interval between switch off and switch on wasused by Charlie to send out large numbers of troops who would dig like crazy (as only theycould). The powers that be informed me that I was to switch off after 40 minutes, wait 5minutes and then switch back on. At that time, the whole of the Brigade artillery targetedonto Hill 227 and would fire 3 rounds per gun. I have forgotten how many artillery piecesthis involved or how many rounds were fired but I can say, it was a hell of a show. As aspectator, viewing this display of might, I can say it was awesome. It took about 20minutes for the smoke and haze to disperse. Charlie had really been caught out.

Sergeant 'Rough' Barker and I arrived in the Company on the same day.He went to 9 Platoon while I was sent to 7. My first outing was on an Ambush patrol. Togain experience I went out with Sergeant "Slim" Cotton from 8 Platoon. It was anexperience that I'm never likely to forget. The patrol went out through B Company,Lieutenant "Bob" O'Brien's area, and onto the floor of the valley. Slim hadplaced a cut-off group at our rear as we went to our position. On the way back we came upon our cut-off group from a different direction. The ensuing fire-fight must have beengreat to listen to with Bren, Owen and rifle fire plus 4 High Explosive (HE) grenades and2 White Phosphorous (WP) smoke. Fortunately the kill tally amounted to a big fat zero. Atour debriefing, the Company Commander, wanted to know who were the bloody cowboys playingcops and robbers out on the floor of the valley. Embarrassing to say the least, and forme, certainly a learning experience.

"Rough" Barker went out with "Nipper" Neyland, aCorporal acting Platoon Sergeant of 9 Platoon until Rough took over from him. One of mydigger mates, "Froggy" Seddon was on the patrol. Apparently the patrol hadwalked over a "Jumping Jack" mine. As the ground was frozen solid, the initialcharge blew it out of its position and up onto its side before exploding. It wouldnormally project well into the air giving greater kill coverage. "Rough" wentdown and had to be stretchered back to base. "Froggy" limped home with shrapnelwounds to his right heel.

I went down with one of my sections to help and assist in carryingRough back up the snow covered hill. By the time he had been transported to the BattalionRegimental Aid Post (RAP) he had left us. A piece of shrapnel the size of half a 1 centpiece had pierced his chest, lungs and spleen. Severe internal bleeding had resulted inhis death. He was a great mate. I still miss him.

Late April 1952 I was medically evacuated to Japan and spent the next11 weeks in the British Commonwealth Division Hospital Kure. On discharge, I spent sometime at Miyajima in convalescence. After 10 days I was sent to the Convalescence Depot atKure. This was a "Pommy" Unit. Finishing a medical check, I was placed in"O" squad. Each week you were medically examined the result of which determinedwhich squad you were allotted to for the following week. Advancement depended upon yourimproving physical fitness. Squad 4 was the tops. "0" squad's physicalactivities involved walking around the sports oval once in the morning and the same in theafternoon. It was at that time the "Nips" (Japanese) went on strike on thewharves. I found the idea of a strike by the vanquished highly unpalatable and mistakenlythought the Allies won the war. The Brits in charge ran a tough and unhappy camp. Thestaff were tyrants and the Company Sergeant Major a pain. The food was worse than combatrations. The CSM ordered me to work on a wharf. I informed him that I was only fit for aleisurely stroll around the sports oval twice a day and that manual labour was just noton. He told me that I would be charged and that I was to report to his office later. Iwent back to my cell, packed my gear, walked out of the Depot and caught a taxi back to 1Reinforcement Unit at Hiro.

Reporting into the Regimental Sergeant Major, Colin"Chickensticks" Henwood I was paraded before the Officer Commanding, Major JackGerke. After a verbal tongue lashing, he arranged for me to go back to "OldFaithful", 3 Battalion in Korea. I had first to go through the 1 CommonwealthDivision Battle School at Haramura, not far from Hiroshima.

Back at the Battalion there had been many changes. I went back to myold platoon for a short while before being sent to the Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM),"Bill" McCombe to assist in running Non Commissioned Officers (NCO) Courses asthe Battalion had just gone into reserve. This was also the first time that the Officersand Sergeants Mess had operated in a semi formal manner.. "Bill" McCombe reallymade our Mess one of the best and it was a pleasure to be in it. He had to control somepretty hard and tough characters. "Jack" Morrison, "Leo" Walsh,"Lofty" Maher, "Horse" Goggin and "Fred" Williams to namebut a few. I'll never forget Jack's attempts at eating electric light globes and thebloodied result. Who would ever forget his solo performance of "Dancing the PrizeWaltz with You" as he acted out the one-armed fiddler with the crabs. I still canmanage a laugh as I recall that. My mates "Jack" Jamieson, "Snow"Aspinall and "Jack" Gay and I spent many a pleasant evening in our Mess.

If you had been hospitalized for any period, the time spent out of theline had to be made up so that everyone had to serve 12 months in action in Korea beforeRotation.. Eventually such an anomaly was abolished. As I had been making up time whenword came through I departed the Battalion. Three weeks Recreation and Rest after serving8 months was allowed for all who served in Korea. I hadn't taken mine and had to take itbefore shipping home to Australia. Arriving at Shinjuku, Tokyo and the R & R Centre Ifound that my CSM from Ingleburn. Mike Dent was the RSM. He really treated me well, a niceroom, full mess facilities in the staff Mess and Dining Room etc. I really enjoyed my stayand I was profuse in my thanks.

I had a series of Platoon Commanders in the Battalion, LieutenantsMaurie Pears, Peter Stanton, Clarrie Green and Alan Limburg. They came, stayed awhile andthen moved on. I certainly hope I wasn't the reason for their onward movement. There aremany names from my platoon I recall. All names I remember with pleasure. "Jock"Roy, "Reg" Neal, "Rex" English, "Jack" Allan,"Snow" Kiernan, "Bill" Mundy, "Ted" Manego, "Jack"Curley, "Alan" Saunderson and "Tubby" Millard are just some who crossmy thoughts. I dare say I could write many more personal anecdotes but these few will, Ihope, assist in painting a picture of how one Platoon Sergeant proudly viewed his periodof service with 'Old Faithful', the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment.