Year by Year
Discover the history of the HMS Cossack from 1944 to 1960.
You can search the ‘year’ and ‘month’ to find a specific date and also ‘click’ on the date itself to reveal any images and moments from that date.
01 November 1950
Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg. “Sasebo. Well we’ve got ourselves up to the War at long last – just two months after I took command – to find the war rapidly folding up on us, if not actually folded up offically yet! Anyhow everyones mind is set on dispersal and there are, I gather, no bits of Korea within reach of our guns held by the “hated foe” – most disappointing, after I had driven everyone pretty hard to get here. This harbour is a good advertisement for the United Nations and a cheerful uplift, after one’s usual feeling that the opposition have got all the cards. He certainly hasn’t got them at sea and the Armada is a sight for sore eyes”
By kind permission of Peter Begg
15 November 1950
Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg. ” Inchon (port of Seoul) South Korea. I went up to Inchon yesterday to see what the form was up there. We have a very free hand now on patrol and are really acting like the policeman on the beat, wandering around and being there when wanted. So I thought I’d see if Ichon had anything to offer us in the way of recreation or victuals. It hadn’t! It’s in a nasty mess as a result of a very thorough air and sea bombardment which the ballon having gone up the UN forces gave it last month before the assualt forces went in…. I had my first, but doubtless not my last bump going along side an oiler!”
By kind permission of Peter Begg
03 December 1950
Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg. “Sasebo. We got recalled here yesterday from Kure, the balloon having somewhat gone up in Korea. With this latest Communist offensive, I don’t imagine we shall be in long. We left Kure in a such a hurry that I had to leave my motorboat, which I smashed on the oiler and which the dockyard at Kure was mending, behind…. Kure looked like being great fun and I shall strive to get back there as soon as things quieten down again”
By kind permission of Peter Begg
23 December 1950
Extract from a letter sent home by Captain Begg. “At sea. We are getting a bit bored with all this sea time. One has to to be alert all the time operating so close to Russian and Chinese naval aair bases. I hope we shall get a spell in Japan but that is in the lap of the gods and depends on the military position in Korea……. Off again to our old stamping grounds and getting very sick of them I’m getting. The news from Korea is bad again and indeed one can’t say it’s particularly cheerful anywhere at the moment…. I have been buying the children toys – Timothy a train (electric) and Peter a car. The Japanese of course make wonderful toys very cheaply, although the finish as with anything else they make is shoddy…I visited Hiroshima a couple of days ago. I think it rather encouraging really. It doesn’t look anymore as if a bomb has been dropped on it tha any other Japanese city”
By kind permission of Peter Begg.
