Going home from Korea

NZ soldiers on their way home from the Korean War.

Commentary about this image by Bob Jagger

These blokes were in the first lot on the way back home.They were the ‘Originals’ and we were relieving them, to take over their jobs. As a result they were pretty well unknown to us. The cross-over time would only have been about four to six weeks.

The Originals were sent out in small lots and they travelled back home, probably by plane.

When we left, we went by road to Seoul, by train to Pusan and then travelled by ship to Japan, going up through the inland sea. We were in Base Camp, Kure, Japan for a couple of weeks before we went by Qantas to Sydney, stopping off again at Guam, Port Moresby and then we flew by flying boat to Evans Bay in Wellington, where we were met by the Minister of Defence, Thompson, who thanked us for our time in Korea.

One of the men was a Kelly from Nightcaps in the South Island. He was a real hard case, drove the truck to Seoul to pick up the rations. We called him‘Ned’.