By J.R. Breen
Contributing Writer
The man the U.K.'s famed wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, called ``my British bulldog'' and who is widely reputed among Korean War veterans as the prisoner the communists could not break was in Korea last week to revisit the battleground where he fought 60 years ago.
Derek Kinne, 80, and now an American citizen, traveled to the Imjin River, north of Seoul, to revisit where he took part in the ``Battle of the Imjin River,'' one of the most crucial conflicts of the war.
Kinne, a former member of Britain's Royal Northumberland Fusiliers regiment, came from his home in Tucson, Arizona, accompanied by two grandsons to join other veterans from other United Nations countries for celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the war.
Kinne and his family members were taken around the battle site by historian and author Andrew Salmon, whose book "To The Last Round: The Epic British Stand on the Imjin River, Korea 1951" recreates the chaotic events of April 1951 from firsthand accounts.
``That is where we were,'' said Kinne, pointing to a low lying ridge near the Imjin River last Thursday. ``A Chinese soldier came running up the hill shouting 'surrender' in English waving a piece of cloth.'' Thinking the Chinese were surrendering, an officer ordered Kinne to ceasefire. ``But I can kill him, I've got him in my sites,'' Kinne recalled saying. ``They didn't want to surrender, they wanted us to surrender.''
Kinne, originally from Nottingham, England, was captured by enemy troops and spent the next two years in Chinese prisoner-of-war camps, where his actions won him the George Cross (GC), the highest British honor for gallantry. He was released in 1953 in a prisoner exchange.
While in POW camps in North Korea, Kinne gained a reputation for being utterly unbreakable. His defiance toward guards became the stuff of legend. He was once confined in a punishment box 7 feet long and 3 feet high for 80 days.
While in the box, he spat back some food, causing guards to take him out and beat him with their rifle butts. When one went off, it killed one of the assailants.
When the stunned guards stopped what they were doing, Kinne calmly sat up and removed a cigarette from one of the guard's mouths and started smoking it.
Kinne also got into trouble after an Australian journalist, Wilfred Burchett, reporting on the war from the communist side, visited the camp.
``I had to write a confession. They said I had to confess, so I thought OK maybe I should confess,'' he said. "`But I want a smoke first,' I said. So, he (the guard) gave me one. But I said, 'Put the pack on the table' so I could smoke while I write. I smoked 17 cigarettes; I was trying to smoke myself to death.
``So I wrote a story for them, 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears,''' he said, adding that he was trying to make the story as long as possible. ``After thirteen and a half pages, he (the guard) took it away. I wasn't even finished; I was just getting warmed up.
``This guard stood up and started reading it out to the other guards. He was furious,'' Kinne said. ``He came at me and I hit him. They all jumped on me, I just started biting their feet, they had canvas shoes on, so I was biting their feet, eventually they got the upper hand of me.
``They tied me up with the rope around my neck and my ankles, which were held up in the air, so if I lowered my legs the rope would tighten around my neck, that way I was responsible for my own death,'' he said. ``I tried to keep my legs up for a while, but it eventually got tighter, so I just gave up and let my legs down.
``But they had been watching me through a gap in the wall and they must of thought 'he is actually going to kill himself' because they came and took me down and then beat the crap out of me.''
Asked why he fought back so much, Kinne explained the reason he signed up for the war in the first place, was because of a pact he made with his younger brother when they were teenagers.
``We thought it would be a neat thing to do, so we made a pact,'' he said. ``The pact was that if one was killed, the other would take his place."
When Kinne's brother died in the first year of the war, he stuck to the pact and took his place.
``After he died, I sort of took it that I had to fulfill the pact, even though I suppose I didn't really,'' Kinne said. ``It was something I definitely was going to do, and I did.
``I didn't do it for my country.
``I came to this country with two things in mind, to put some soil from my garden on my brother's grave, and get revenge,'' Kinne said. ``I didn't want to do anything that would benefit the Chinese and North Koreans, if they said the moon was made out of cheese, I would say it was made from something else.''
His bad behavior, Kinne said, was hard to give up. ``Like smoking, I kept saying I was going to quit acting like I was, but when?''
Last week was Kinne's third trip to Korea since the war. The site of modern Korea still surprises him when he returns.
``When I first came here, it was rubble,'' Kinne said. ``Now, I am actually amazed they've done so much. It is inconceivable.''
For Kinne's grandsons, Derek Trujillo, 18, and his brother Peter, 16, their grandfather is a marvel. His pact with his brother is one point of interest for them.
``That he would do that is so impressive,'' Derek said. ``Yeah, he is really impressive,'' agreed Peter.
``It is interesting to see the areas that he fought in and to follow in his footsteps,'' Derek said. ``When we were little kids, the stories were nice, but after reading 'To the Last Round,' I realize my granddad is a hero. It is an honor to be named after him.''