ADVANCE PARTY OF K FORCE LIVING IN JAP BARRACKS

Wanganui Chronicle, 20 December 1950, Page 6

ADVANCE PARTY OF K FORCE LIVING IN JAP BARRACKS

(From Capt. Peter Llewellyn, Public Relations Officer with K-Force in Korea). FRIDAY, Dec. 15. —The K-Force advance party, which flew to new quarters on December 14, is now quartered in Japanese barracks a few miles froip the nearest town. Some of the buildings are roofless and only one has windows, and the party is at work trying to make them habitable before the regiment arrives. The New Zealanders in Korea will be joined shortly by Capt. H. Dudfield (Gisborne), Lieut. R. Kake (Whangarei), and ten other ranks whose freighter, the Ganges, is carrying the regiment’s guns, ammunition, vehicles and stores, was off the coast this morning. The freighter was boarded this afternoon by Capt. G. J. H. Atkinson (Christchurch), who is making preliminary arrangements for her unloading. Their three-weeks’ trip from Auckland to Korea was smooth and Uneventful Except for lectures on map-reading, first aid and world affairs, the men were free to sunbathe and enjoy the amenities of a very comfortable ship. News from the shore prepared them for a different life in the near future. The advance party has fpund its new town even dirtier and more crowded than the old. Yesterday officers and men had a chance of seeing it from an army lorry, which took them by a c.rcuitous route to the barracks. The roads leading to the city are hidden by pink mist of dust from the red soil of the hills and fields, and the town itself is uniformly grey. Trams, squat rust-coloured and with barred windows, cary loads that make Wellington trams in the rush hour seem empty by comparison. The sunshine enjoyed recently has vanished and today the men are wearing thick jerseys and wind cheaters. Nonetheless, in spite in uncomfortable quarters and increasingly cold weather everyone is in high spirits, and the only complaint is that the regiment will not be here for some days yet. Brigadier R. S. Park flew in this afternoon to rejoin the party after a second meeting with Lieut.-General Sir Horace Robertson, administrative commander of the British Commonwealth troops in Korea and Japan