The Korean War and Tilman’s Travels enlivened our April meeting
The Role of the Royal Navy and Commonwealth Navies in the Korean War 1950–53
Our member David Verghese is a naval researcher covering the period 1900-70. He writes naval biographies of sailors who served in the Royal Navy during this time and regularly speaks at naval meetings in the west and south of England.
The Korean War is sometimes called the ‘forgotten war’ yet drew in fourteen countries fighting under the United Nations flag and involved 100,000 British troops. It was mainly fought on land with the result that most histories skim over the maritime aspects of the campaign. David began his talk with an overview of the campaign which began on Sunday 25 June 1950 with a surprise assault by ten divisions of the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) supported and trained by the Soviet Union. This came worryingly close to uniting the peninsula under Communist rule. A counterattack did not stop at the 38th parallel, leading to an intervention by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and a stalemate which persists to this day.
A UK task force happened to be in the area on exercise when war broke out and was immediately tasked to act under US control. The immediate response was to carry out air attacks on airfields and ammunition dumps to which was added a continuing task of blockade and bombardment which forced the NKPA away from the coast and into difficult inland terrain. Support to amphibious landings was later added to the task list.
Some fifty RN ships along with others from the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian navies kept up a punishing duty rotation throughout the three-year war. Special mention should also go to the Fleet Air Arm pilots who flew their Seafire, Sea Fury and Firefly aircraft constantly into an environment dominated by Mig-15 jets, often flown by Russian pilots.
David drew on his extensive archive of photos and interviews to illustrate his talk, which prompted lively discussion afterward.
Voyages of H.W. Tilman
Bob Comlay sailed with Tilman as a deckhand during breaks from his studies, and since retirement has republished all fifteen of his books. There can be few people still breathing better qualified to speak about him.
Bill Tilman is described as a soldier, farmer, climber, navigator and writer. He served with the Royal Field Artillery in the First World War, earning a MC and Bar. Post war he farmed in what was then British East Africa, took the opportunity to climb Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, and formed an enduring partnership with Eric Shipton. This led to attempts on Nanda Devi and Everest and a track record of first ascents. The Second World War saw him back in uniform, first in the Battle of France then in the 8th Indian Infantry. From 1943-5 he was involved in special operations in Albania and northern Italy.
In 1950 he led the first British expedition to Annapurna but felt that he was no longer able for extreme altitude. However, Greenland and some of the rocky islands in the far south offer serious climbing at sea level. So, sailing it was. In 1955 he bought Mischief, a former pilot cutter. Following her loss in 1968 he bought another, Sea Breeze (lost in 1972) and then Baroque. Finally, he signed on as navigator with En Avant, which departed Rio de Janeiro on 1 November 1977. Neither boat nor crew was ever seen again.
Bob’s fascinating talk was illustrated with his own photos and experiences of (for example) being ice-bound in a small boat or breaking a gaff somewhere in the Atlantic. In a talk cut down from its usual hour and a half he easily held the room’s attention throughout the tricky ‘after the break’ slot.
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