The IMJIN River DMZ

Korea 1951

Australian soldiers patrolled the Imjin River area in November 1951.

This photo shows the view over the DMZ.

On the right the seriousness of the situation shows on the face of a 3R.A.R. Aussie.

Many patrols were made into this area, almost every night at least one patrol would go out. One reason for these patrols was to try to capture prisoners for interrogation for information about enemy plans. This was a directive of the American Command. Rarely did the patrols achieve this objective and most soldiers thought it was not a good way of obtaining information about the enemy. In the heat of a battle it was difficult to not try and kill the enemy. In fact popular opinion from the other allied forces was that the Australians were the least likely to bring back prisoners as they were very good at fighting. The cost in terms of casualties was way out of proportion to the quality of information obtained by this method.

When enemy contact was made often a firefight would ensue; under the cover of darkness and in the extremes of the Korean weather, the chances of capturing a enemy soldier under these battle conditions without getting casualties was remote, as history now shows. Casualties arose from firefights, minefields (ours and theirs) and the severe cold -20C.

After their tour of duty (a standard tour of duty was 8-12 months)had finished the Australian soldiers were given a thank-you letter. If you want to read it click here

If you recognise either of these soldiers could you please sign my guestbook or email me. I believe that the soldier on the above left was in D company and died in Korea.

12Platoon D Company view