Adrien Brisson (Primary Source)

(Enlistment and training)

I lived in Saint-Calixte in the north, in the Laurentians (Quebec). I started working when I was quite young. My mother passed away when I was thirteen. I worked in the woods, logging, then in the sawmills and that sort of thing, you know. I wasn't very healthy. Then a friend of mine left and went to enlist in Montreal, on Sherbrooke Street. Then when I saw him dressed as a soldier, it made me want to go as well. That's why I enlisted. Eventually, I ended up here, enlisting in August 1950, on Sherbrooke Street.

Then after that, we did the training. First, in Valcartier (Quebec) for three months and then in Fort Lewis (Washington State) for six months. After that, we took the boat. It was very good. We had a pretty tough training session because Lieutenant-Colonel Dextraze (commander of the 2^nd Battalion, Royal 22^e Régiment) was pretty hard on the men. We had good training and maybe that helped us a lot when we went to war in Korea. We had a pretty tough training session. Taking walks, sometimes going away for a month at a time (…) they call it. Then going and sleeping in tents, business as usual, in the rain. Walking a lot with your boots in the water, your feet all bloody, that sort of thing. It was quite difficult. After that, we practiced shooting, on shooting the range. Then because I had shot well, they signed me up to be a "Bren Gunner".

(The crossing to Korea)

We took the boat on April 19 (1951). It was the day of my 19th birthday. Then we crossed. It took seventeen days. We arrived in Korea on the fourth of May. It was quite long, seventeen days in the ocean. Then, since it was my birthday, when we left, I leaned on the edge and then I said to myself, I saw the coasts of Seattle, of the United States, fading into the distance. I thought to myself: “Will I come back here, one day?” I was lucky, I was hurt a bit, but it went well. But the worst scar is the post-traumatic stress disorder, as they call it. That's what made it so much harder.

The crossing with the guys was great. A whole gang of guys, "chums" you know, there together. We'd have fun and play cards. To start with, on the boat, two days before we arrived, they, the commanders, had made us go up on deck. Then they said: "Look into the distance, you can see Korea in the distance", we couldn't see it, but we could see flashes from the bombs. They told us: "That's where we're going!" So it's not very interesting when you see it, when you walk away in all the flashes of bombs falling.

(At the front: The Battle of Hill 355)

Then, after that, when we went up higher (to the front), the first day, we caught some young prisoners who were trying to shoot at us. Then we took them prisoner, and they weren't old. Fourteen, fifteen, thirteen, fourteen years old. Young fanatics, you know. That's why we took these prisoners.

The worst interaction we had after that was in November 1951. We had a big battle for "355" as they call it (the Battle of Hill 355, November 21-25, 1951). The Hill 355 was a very high mountain, and the Chinese occupied it. Then we took the mountain from them. Then when we took up positions, we carted in rolls of barbed wire as they call it, and install it around our mountain, to prevent (...) when the Chinese attacked us.

They mostly attacked in the evening. We attacked at dawn while they attacked in the evening. When they attacked us, there were always a lot of them, sometimes three or four ranks of them attacking. But when they got caught in the barbed wire, we had installed flare parachutes, so we could see them very well. Then, well, we had no choice but to shoot. It was a pretty tough battle. It lasted three days. As a result, we were attacked and a bomb fell just in front of the trench. About three or four feet forward, and that's when I lost my left ear. I can barely hear anything out of it anymore. And then the earth came crashing down on the rest of us. If it had been a little further away, I'd have been done for. (The shell) sent the earth tumbling and then there were three of us. There was always a No. 2 with me who loaded the magazines, and then the other guy was in charge of nothing more or less. Then I was always the one on the Bren (as the shooter).

(Patrols)

We were going, trying to get closer. We left at night, in the evening, to get as close as possible to the lines, to be close to the Chinese and the North Koreans. Then you could hear them talking. Sometimes they were on the other side of the coast, so we didn't make any noise to avoid being spotted, so they wouldn't know we were there. After that, we'd come back and say they were at this place, or this place, this place. Then, the very next day, the commander ordered the artillery to shell, to bomb there. So it was not, it wasn’t very easy. It was hard at times.