Ron - a veteran of the Korean War & the Malayan Emergency (195)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY Times

Ian Sanders

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2021

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ron Knight served in the Royal Marines on HMS Belfast during the Korean War of 1950-53. He was a gunner and describes the shore bombardments and how his gun was used in anti-aircraft defence. We also hear Ron describe life aboard the Belfast during this period Ron also served with the Royal Marine Commando during the Malayan Emergency which was a guerrilla war fought in the Federation of Malaya between Communist pro-independence fighters against the armed forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth between 1948 and 1960. He shares details of the dangers of jungle warfare including from their own air force! I’m asking listeners to support my work and enable me to continue producing the podcast. If you become a monthly supporter via Patreon, you will get the sought after CWC coaster as a thank you and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ If a financial contribution is not your cup of tea, you can still help us by leaving written reviews wherever you listen to us and sharing us on social media. It really helps us get new guests on the show. I am delighted to welcome Ron Knight to our Cold War conversation… There’s further information on this episode here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode195/ If you can’t wait for next week’s episode, visit our Facebook discussion group where guests and listeners continue the Cold War Conversation. Just search Cold War Conversations on Facebook. Thank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated. Please leave a review. If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a written review. 0:00 Introduction and Ron Knight's early life and training 2:35 Ron Knight's experiences in the Royal Marines and HMS Belfast 9:01 Discussing air attacks on HMS Belfast and life on board 17:42 Royal Marines' shore raids and interactions with American forces 20:20 Shift in relations with Japan and interactions with Chinese and North Korean POWs 21:45 Encounter with Typhoon Ruth and its impact on HMS Belfast 26:58 Incident of a man overboard and transfer to 45 commando 29:23 Ron Knight's experiences in the Korean and Malayan jungles 38:20 Communication, safety measures and recognizing friendly units in the jungle 43:39 Reflecting on dangerous moments in service and transition to HMS Victory 51:13 Outro and Patron Acknowledgement Table of contents powered by PodcastAI✨ Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:05.8	In fact, if you needed to go to the toilet, as it were, you have to be very careful about that.
0:10.6	You were just going to creep behind a bush because in the jungle, if anything moved,
0:15.0	everyone with their guns and anywhere near it would blast it.
0:19.8	This is Cold War Conversations.
0:24.8	Thanks to John O'Connor for providing our intro today.
0:29.1	If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand Cold War history accounts.
0:35.2	Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app so that you don't
0:38.3	miss out on future episodes. Ron Knight served in the Royal Marines on HMS Belfast during the Korean
0:45.9	War of 1950 to 1953. He was a gunner and describes the shore bombardments and how his gun was used in anti-aircraft defence.
0:56.9	We also hear Ron describe life aboard HMS Belfast during this period.
1:02.9	Ron also served with the Royal Marine Commandos during the Malayan Emergency, which was a guerrilla
1:09.3	fought in the Federation of Malaya between
1:11.9	communist pro-independence fighters against the armed forces of the British Empire and the
1:17.2	Commonwealth between 1948 and 1960. Ron shares details of the dangers of jungle warfare, including
1:25.8	from his own air force.
1:36.5	Now, I'm asking listeners to support my work and enable me to continue producing the podcast.
1:43.1	If you become a monthly supporter via Patreon, you will get the sought after Cold War Conversations drinks coaster as a thank you and bask in the warm glow of knowing that you are helping to preserve Cold War history.
1:52.5	Still not sure, he's Andrew Hawes, one of our monthly supporters.
1:57.3	Hi, I'm Andrew and I'm very proud to support Cold War conversations with a small donation each month
2:02.8	because Ian's put together such a brilliant range of interviews.
2:06.4	If you want high power, there's the son of Nikit and Khrushchev that are cross-border romances,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ian Sanders, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ian Sanders and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.