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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Sights, sounds, smells capture Kapyong story

Reviewed by: Ron Robinson

Posted: 04/23/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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Princess Pats hold a final parade at Winnipeg's Kapyong barracks.

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Triumph at Kapyong

Canada's Pivotal Battle in Korea

By Dan Bjarnason

Dundurn, 172 pages, $23

Most war memorials crumble and are forgotten. This slim tribute to Winnipeg's own Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry is one for the ages.

This year's 60th anniversary of the April 23-25 defence of Kapyong during the Korean War now has a voice that reaches across the years to speak to the average Canadian about what their fellow citizens did when 700 of them faced 6,000 determined, better armed enemies.

Half the book is devoted to the battle that saved Seoul from capture, casualties and devastation. Adding to the power of the telling is veteran journalist and broadcaster Dan Bjarnason's use of the voices of those who were there.

Bjarnason was a television news and documentary reporter for The National at the CBC for more than 35 years.

With that background, it's not surprising that he has unearthed several startling revelations -- one involving possible biological warfare and the other a suggested instance of anti-Semitism that took over 50 years to set right.

Bjarnason mixes the official histories with a visit to the site, which makes for a rounded description. The sights, the sounds and the smells give an immediacy that official recountings exclude.

And how Canadian is it to be equipped with weapons, uniforms and training suited to the previous great unpleasantness?

Being the scroungers they were allowed the Princess Pats to swap their bolt action Lee-Enfields for Thompson submachine guns and to toss away their British-style tin plate helmets.

The rank and file were civilians looking for adventure and a second chance, while the officers and non-commissioned officers were veterans from the Second World War.

There were very few medals awarded for the action at Kapyong. The Canadian government refused for years to let the Patricias receive a Presidential Unit Citation that U.S. President Harry Truman had awarded them, and there was no Korea medal struck until 1992.

The Kapyong barracks in Winnipeg are now embroiled in an aboriginal land-claims dispute, and most of the vets have died, including our own Tommy Prince.

So Triumph at Kapyong stands as a lonely tribute worthy of mention in the same breath as the defence of Thermopylae.

That battle was won by treachery. Our treachery is a wilful blindness and lack of gratitude.

Ron Robinson is a Winnipeg broadcaster whose father served with the Pats in the Second World War.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 23, 2011 J8

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