0:00:06 > 0:00:09Hidden in the hills near Bathgate lies a war memorial.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13It's scarcely visited and falling into disrepair.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16And yet, it commemorates the lives of young men,
0:00:16 > 0:00:19many of them Scots, in their teens.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26There were quite a few boys killed in our company.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30And we used to go down and see them and, you know,
0:00:30 > 0:00:32they got buried the way they were,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36with their boots sticking out the bottom of the bag,
0:00:36 > 0:00:38in the body bag. Still in their boots, and all their...
0:00:38 > 0:00:40That's how they got buried.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS
0:00:45 > 0:00:48This forgotten war, fought halfway across the world,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52was one of the biggest, most brutal conflicts of the last 100 years.
0:00:53 > 0:00:58Where's Korea? You didn't know where Korea was. You soon found out.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01EXPLOSION
0:01:03 > 0:01:07Thousands died in a war few now remember.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12When I came back home, I would never speak about the Korean War,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16simply because it was so soon after the Second World War,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19that if you said anything - "Och, that was nothing, son.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21"What we suffered in the Second World War was..."
0:01:21 > 0:01:23So you never spoke about it.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25BAGPIPE MUSIC PLAYS
0:01:28 > 0:01:3360 years on, the young Scots who survived Korea are now old men,
0:01:33 > 0:01:36and their quest for acknowledgement of what they sacrificed
0:01:36 > 0:01:39has become more urgent as their numbers dwindle.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41For this generation, time is running out.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47Here in Korea, the legacy of the war between North and South
0:01:47 > 0:01:51is evident, yet British veterans say their sacrifice
0:01:51 > 0:01:54has been largely ignored by people at home.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57Yet more British soldiers were killed in Korea
0:01:57 > 0:02:01than in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Falklands combined.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04So why has it become the Forgotten War?
0:02:09 > 0:02:13# If I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake... #
0:02:13 > 0:02:1560 years ago, Britain was a country of rationing and poverty.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19It had recently emerged from the ravages of World War II,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22and hadn't the stomach for another.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25# Had you dropped me a letter I'd have hired a van... #
0:02:27 > 0:02:32But in a distant Asian peninsula, over 60,000 British soldiers
0:02:32 > 0:02:35were already embroiled in a savage conflict...
0:02:38 > 0:02:43..during a harsh environment of brutal cold and searing heat.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47In 1950, Communist North Korea had invaded
0:02:47 > 0:02:49the American-backed and strategically crucial South.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53With Russia pulling the strings of the Northern army,
0:02:53 > 0:02:55and later China providing massive manpower,
0:02:55 > 0:03:00America was forced to call for help from the United Nations.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05The Korean War was the moment in the Cold War
0:03:05 > 0:03:08when it became a hot war, and for the first and only time
0:03:08 > 0:03:10in the confrontation between East and West,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13the two sides actually fought against each other.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15We wanted to stand shoulder-to-shoulder
0:03:15 > 0:03:19with the United States, just as we did in Iraq,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23and then, of course, again in Afghanistan.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25'Free men will fight for freedom.'
0:03:25 > 0:03:28It was very much like a war their fathers had probably fought in,
0:03:28 > 0:03:32during the First World War. Soldiers found themselves
0:03:32 > 0:03:34having to defend their positions with a bayonet.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37'Back in England, Argyll and Sutherland reinforcements,
0:03:37 > 0:03:41'complete with new type tin hats, prepare to fly to Korea.'
0:03:41 > 0:03:44Among the thousands of British soldiers sent to Korea
0:03:44 > 0:03:46were huge numbers of Scots infantrymen,
0:03:46 > 0:03:48from the Argylls, the Black Watch
0:03:48 > 0:03:50and the King's Own Scottish Borderers.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57But look around the official war memorials in our towns and cities,
0:03:57 > 0:04:02and the 1,090 UK troops who died in Korea don't rate a mention.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07I grew up in this house in Hamilton,
0:04:07 > 0:04:11all the while living next door to old Mrs McCafferty.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14When I told my dad I was researching Scots in Korea,
0:04:14 > 0:04:19he told me that Mrs McCafferty had lost her teenage son Danny in Korea.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21She never spoke of him,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24and no-one in the family really knew what happened to him.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26It seems that Danny's sacrifice
0:04:26 > 0:04:30has become yet another forgotten story in this forgotten war.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Danny's parents had originally come to Scotland from Ireland,
0:04:36 > 0:04:38in search of a better life.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40His mother had been widowed when Danny was a boy,
0:04:40 > 0:04:44but most of this large, close-knit family died
0:04:44 > 0:04:47without knowing what happened to their brother.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50I tracked down one of Danny's few surviving relatives.
0:04:50 > 0:04:51His niece, Jackie.
0:04:51 > 0:04:58Well, all I know is that he was in the Royal Artillery
0:04:58 > 0:05:01and that he was killed when he was 19.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07He was just easy-going, you know, a very happy, happy young man.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09Very light-hearted.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13Erm...she didnae speak much about him,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16because it was very raw for years and years.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19She never spoke in company about him,
0:05:19 > 0:05:23because I think it would have upset her too much,
0:05:23 > 0:05:27and she always kept a photograph of him in her bedroom.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33And that never moved, that never moved at all since 1952.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36It stayed in her bedroom right till she died.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40'Despite trying to find out what happened to him,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43'Danny's brief army life and the nature of his death
0:05:43 > 0:05:48'were as much a mystery to his family as the war itself.'
0:05:48 > 0:05:51'Could I help them tell his story and maybe in doing so,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54'discover why so few of us know anything about the Korean War?
0:05:58 > 0:06:03Bill Hall, husband, father and Korean veteran.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06He was working as a baker's apprentice in Midlothian
0:06:06 > 0:06:10when he was conscripted and shipped 5,500 miles away.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14But he was one of the lucky ones. He came home.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17We were on the machine guns and I was just learning them at the time
0:06:17 > 0:06:21when I was sent there. I wasnae even fully learned on that machine gun.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23Then he said, "We don't want you to use machine guns.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26- "We want you to use bayonets." - Yes.- That's First World War stuff.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31Yeah, so the next thing we knew was, the sergeant came to John and I,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35John was a corporal, and he said,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39"C Company wants a corporal, they might want two."
0:06:39 > 0:06:42He said, "Would you like to go?" And I says, "Oh, yes, I'll go."
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Where else could we go?
0:06:44 > 0:06:49So, anyway, we went there and it was a toss of a coin...
0:06:51 > 0:06:53HE SOBS
0:06:55 > 0:06:57Do you want to stop?
0:06:57 > 0:06:59'For so many veterans, memories of Korea,
0:06:59 > 0:07:03'far from fading with the years, have grown more intense.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07'They're haunted by experiences they still haven't resolved.'
0:07:07 > 0:07:12Right. It was a toss of the coin that, erm, actually,
0:07:12 > 0:07:16John and I...you know, it came down, and I said, "Heads."
0:07:16 > 0:07:19It came down heads, I says, "Och, I'll stay here, with C Company."
0:07:19 > 0:07:22John...
0:07:22 > 0:07:26'That toss of a coin meant John went to his death
0:07:26 > 0:07:29'and left Bill with the lifelong guilt of a survivor.'
0:07:29 > 0:07:35It's a feeling that when somebody dies there, were killed there,
0:07:35 > 0:07:40and you come back and say, "Why me? Why not them?"
0:07:44 > 0:07:46The Korean conflict meant conscription was extended
0:07:46 > 0:07:49from 18 months to two years.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54As much as 85% of the Korean fighting force
0:07:54 > 0:07:56were young National Servicemen.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00I had to go to Pitlochry to register.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04It used to come over the wireless and be in the paper,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07"Aged between so-and-so and so-and-so to go and register."
0:08:07 > 0:08:10There were a lot of young guys,
0:08:10 > 0:08:16I mean, I was 24, nearly 25 and, erm...
0:08:16 > 0:08:18they were 18, just turned 19.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23You were attacked with a lot of emotions.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26I suppose excitement was one of them.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32A young man, 19 years of age, the world's your oyster type of thing,
0:08:32 > 0:08:37tinged with a fair degree of apprehension, too.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39You didnae know what you were doing.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41I mean, we virtually didnae know
0:08:41 > 0:08:43the right end of the gun fae the wrong end.
0:08:43 > 0:08:4716 weeks and you're away...Korea! Didnae even know where it was!
0:08:47 > 0:08:50You didn't even get it at geography at school! Where was Korea?
0:08:56 > 0:08:57'It's all aboard for Korea...'
0:08:57 > 0:09:00A year into the conflict, in 1951,
0:09:00 > 0:09:04the boy whose mum I'd known was drafted for his National Service.
0:09:04 > 0:09:10Sending thousands of conscripts to war meant paperwork, and lots of it.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12Form-filling, as well as fighting,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15were skills at which the British Army was unsurpassed.
0:09:15 > 0:09:20So, in tracking down that paperwork in Danny's official military record,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23I began to see this 19-year-old not just as an image
0:09:23 > 0:09:28on a faded photograph, but as a vibrant young man.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32He enjoyed the cinema, dancing.
0:09:32 > 0:09:38He enjoyed snooker and he read thrillers.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40In terms of what he might do...
0:09:40 > 0:09:43It says in terms of trying to find a role for him in the Army,
0:09:43 > 0:09:45"Attitude to cooking, averse.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48"Attitude to medical work, averse."
0:09:48 > 0:09:52His assessment is that he's of above-average intelligence
0:09:52 > 0:09:55and he was asked to list what he'd like to do in the army
0:09:55 > 0:09:58and, "Number One, Tech Storeman.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01"Number Two, Driver. Number Three, Signaller."
0:10:01 > 0:10:07And there's a stamp, so that's clearly what he was allocated.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10And in terms of personal information about his role,
0:10:10 > 0:10:11this is really it,
0:10:11 > 0:10:15until what's clearly the notification of his death,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18which was to his mother, Mrs McCafferty, Hamilton.
0:10:18 > 0:10:23And all it says is less than a year after joining, June 1952,
0:10:23 > 0:10:25"Killed in action, Korea."
0:10:26 > 0:10:28That's all it says, it's that stark.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36Never, ever forget. Cannae get it out of my mind.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40Lying beside people that were dead.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44The smell of death...
0:10:47 > 0:10:50It's... I get a wee bit thingummy about it,
0:10:50 > 0:10:52but that's the worst.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55To see your pals all killed and what have you...
0:10:55 > 0:10:59no, that is the worst of it.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03That was... That and how frightened you were.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11# A letter to a soldier
0:11:11 > 0:11:16# That I had scarcely known... #
0:11:16 > 0:11:19Danny McCafferty had gone from being a sheet metal worker
0:11:19 > 0:11:23in my home town to a gunner in the Royal Artillery.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27'My search to find out what happened to him
0:11:27 > 0:11:30'took me to London to the Regimental Archives.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34'There, I discovered that every unit keeps a war diary,
0:11:34 > 0:11:38'a day-to-day account of their time in action.'
0:11:38 > 0:11:41- So what would Danny have been doing? - He's recorded as a signaller.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45So his role is quite specific.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48What he's doing is working on radio equipment
0:11:48 > 0:11:52at the forward observation post or the OP as it's known,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55and he is being given data which he is sending back to the guns.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01That's the inside of an observation post. That's what he's in.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04If there is a target on the battlefield
0:12:04 > 0:12:08that every enemy soldier wants to get, it's to get rid of the OP,
0:12:08 > 0:12:10cos that means we can't control our artillery.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12Whoever can see the most and can hit the most
0:12:12 > 0:12:15is going to win in the artillery battle.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17And Danny's in the middle of it.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21And here we have, on the 18th of June...
0:12:22 > 0:12:25There's his name, "Gunner McCafferty, killed."
0:12:25 > 0:12:27During the shelling?
0:12:27 > 0:12:30- Yeah, "Line went out." - What does that mean?
0:12:30 > 0:12:31That's the communications wire.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34What's happened is, he's left the observation post,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37trailing back with that wire to find where it's broken.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39So he's out in the open while all these shells
0:12:39 > 0:12:41are going on around him, fixing the wire.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44So Danny was killed and two others were injured.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46- Does it say any more?- Yeah.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50It confirmed that he's the first fatal casualty
0:12:50 > 0:12:52taken by the regiment since their arrival.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54- Really? Since they were in Korea?- Yeah.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58- How would they have taken a loss like that?- Very, very personally.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00Even though it was in the middle of warfare?
0:13:00 > 0:13:02These are very close people.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06They've spent lots of time training together, working together.
0:13:06 > 0:13:08He would have known everybody around him.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11He's a personal friend, not just a colleague.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13If you lose a friend, you take it personally.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20Danny's death was just one of tens of thousands of Allied fatalities,
0:13:20 > 0:13:25and the memories of lost friends don't fade, even after six decades.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28Now, fulfilling a lifetime's dream,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31Bill is going back to Korea with his son David,
0:13:31 > 0:13:33to see what he fought for.
0:13:33 > 0:13:38It's a search for closure and a chance to lay ghosts to rest.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40I'm going back to see the graves
0:13:40 > 0:13:42of the boys that was killed alongside me.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45That's why I'm going back.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50Are you going out there not only to pay tribute to your pals
0:13:50 > 0:13:53but to give yourself permission to say,
0:13:53 > 0:13:58"I lived, I've had 60 great years, a wife and a family"?
0:13:58 > 0:14:00I think partly that, yes.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03And partly to see.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07Or up there, they'll look down and say, "Well, he came back."
0:14:13 > 0:14:16'Bill couldn't forget his dead friends.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20'But 60 years since Danny's death, who remembered him?
0:14:20 > 0:14:23'Although it was a long shot,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26'I put an advertisement on the Royal Artillery Association website,
0:14:26 > 0:14:30'asking if anyone remembered a young serviceman called Danny McCafferty.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34'Astonishingly, it was answered, taking my search to rural England.'
0:14:34 > 0:14:38- Mr Strudwick?- Speaking. - Hello, I'm Jackie from the BBC.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41- Pleased to meet you.- Pleased to meet you, too.- You've had a long journey.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43I'm looking forward to talking to you.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45Well, thank you. Would you like to come in?
0:14:45 > 0:14:48Yes, thank you very much. Thank you very much.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54'Not only had Stan Strudwick served with Danny,
0:14:54 > 0:14:56'but he'd taken the young Scot under his wing.'
0:14:57 > 0:15:01He was a very bright guy.
0:15:02 > 0:15:08In his nature and his general attitude to life.
0:15:08 > 0:15:13Full of beans, always having a joke and...he was a nice boy.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16I liked him a lot, we got on well.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18He used to call me Struds.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23'Stan then revealed the incident
0:15:23 > 0:15:26'that had haunted him for a lifetime.'
0:15:26 > 0:15:32You get an instinctive awareness from it happening so often.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38I heard the boom, and I knew.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42You've got about three to four seconds.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45I heard this and I said, "Run for it!"
0:15:48 > 0:15:52Danny was running, same as me, but the shell went off,
0:15:52 > 0:15:55came down more or less three or four yards from him...
0:15:59 > 0:16:02..and hit him in the backside and the back legs,
0:16:02 > 0:16:04and just blew them away.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08He said, "Struds, I've been hit!"
0:16:09 > 0:16:13And I ran round, and he was laid out.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15I picked him up, carried him to the First Aid post,
0:16:15 > 0:16:17which was the other side of this track.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21And they could see it was serious
0:16:21 > 0:16:27and they called for the helicopter, which came within about ten minutes.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33And I could see him going paler and paler.
0:16:33 > 0:16:38We just couldn't stop the bleeding. He was...he was just blown away.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41He just looked at me and he knew.
0:16:43 > 0:16:48I could see the life literally draining out of him.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52Still affects you to this day, doesn't it?
0:16:59 > 0:17:03Tragedy wasn't reserved for the military in Korea.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05As the forces from the North and South
0:17:05 > 0:17:07battled for territorial control,
0:17:07 > 0:17:11millions of its inhabitants suffered.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15An estimated two million civilians died over the three-year-long war.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19The city of Seoul bore the brunt of the devastation.
0:17:22 > 0:17:23But rising from the rubble,
0:17:23 > 0:17:2721st-century Seoul bears few scars from the war.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30Its ten million inhabitants live freely
0:17:30 > 0:17:32in a thriving cosmopolitan capital.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37The past, they say, is a foreign country, and that couldn't be truer
0:17:37 > 0:17:40for Bill and the other returning veterans
0:17:40 > 0:17:43as they touch down in a Seoul that bears no resemblance
0:17:43 > 0:17:44to the one they left.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47Wow, look at that.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53South Korea may be an economic powerhouse, but it's a grateful one.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Foreigners who fought for its survival are revered.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59The Korean Government picks up most of the bill
0:17:59 > 0:18:02for what it calls these "revisits by veterans."
0:18:03 > 0:18:06When they drive through the townships,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08there'll be people clapping, old veterans saluting
0:18:08 > 0:18:10and so the war is remembered here.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13Those who do return, and they see what's happened,
0:18:13 > 0:18:16they see that South Koreans have essentially written
0:18:16 > 0:18:20the 20th century's greatest national success story,
0:18:20 > 0:18:23it basically justifies all their actions,
0:18:23 > 0:18:28and when they return home, I think it lays a lot of their ghosts to rest.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35In the national cemetery,
0:18:35 > 0:18:39the scale of the South Korean losses is breathtaking.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41More than 100,000 of its soldiers died.
0:18:43 > 0:18:49'At the National War Museum, foreign sacrifice is also remembered.
0:18:49 > 0:18:55'More than 33,000 American and 2,300 United Nations troops were killed.'
0:18:55 > 0:18:59United Kingdom, United Kingdom.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03'And there on a wall was the name of a boy from Hamilton.'
0:19:04 > 0:19:07There's Danny. D McCafferty.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20For Bill, the journey back is an opportunity to share experiences.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23And a conversation with another veteran
0:19:23 > 0:19:26revealed a staggering coincidence.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29There was three of us manning an observation post.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31There was Easton, Eastcroft and Donnellan.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35That Easton, were you in B Company?
0:19:35 > 0:19:38- Yeah.- Easton was in B Company?
0:19:38 > 0:19:41- Yeah.- Rab Easton?- That's amazing. You knew the same man?
0:19:41 > 0:19:44Oh, yeah. I would like to see his grave, you know, and say...
0:19:44 > 0:19:46That's where I'm going.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old,
0:19:49 > 0:19:53"and years shall not condemn them or..."
0:19:53 > 0:19:55Age them.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59"At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember."
0:19:59 > 0:20:03To think, I had all they years and you were left here...
0:20:03 > 0:20:04That's the guilt.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11'As I listened to the veterans' stories, I wondered
0:20:11 > 0:20:14'what Danny would have told his grandchildren, or what proud tales
0:20:14 > 0:20:19'his mum, my old neighbour, might have passed on to me.
0:20:19 > 0:20:21'Or would he, like many of the men on this tour, have spent
0:20:21 > 0:20:26'a lifetime bottling up his memories of the war that time forgot?'
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Intense, brutal, and on a massive scale.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31The Chinese would infiltrate very close
0:20:31 > 0:20:35and attempt to charge with what they called the human wave tactic.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40A mass attack, men charging, screaming, shouting,
0:20:40 > 0:20:43firing submachine guns, throwing hand grenades,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46to actually just break through and overrun the position.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51The Scottish regiments were pretty well represented in Korea,
0:20:51 > 0:20:55they were the first battalion to land, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59first VC of the Korean War was won posthumously
0:20:59 > 0:21:02by Kenny Muir of the Argylls during the midst of a North Korean attack.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05The Americans napalm-bombed the Argylls,
0:21:05 > 0:21:09wiped out 70 men within seconds, he took control of the situation,
0:21:09 > 0:21:13managed to get his men off the hill, but at the cost of his own life.
0:21:13 > 0:21:14I can still remember it.
0:21:17 > 0:21:22People coming off the hills, especially people that was burnt.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26When the napalm gets on you, you cannot get it off.
0:21:26 > 0:21:27It sticks to your body.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30There's nothing you can do with it.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36- Nothing you could do for them?- No.
0:21:43 > 0:21:48Every soldier has memories that refuse to fade.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52To find the hills where he'd fought and his friends had died,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55Bill and the other war veterans travelled
0:21:55 > 0:21:59north of Seoul into a contemporary no man's land. 2.5 miles wide,
0:21:59 > 0:22:01it cuts across the country
0:22:01 > 0:22:05as a buffer zone between South Korea and the communist North.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12This is where, in 1953, the war ended in an armistice
0:22:12 > 0:22:14that left no side able to claim victory.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17After three years of bloodshed,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20the border was virtually back to where it started.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25Today, the two sides continue to eye each other warily.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28My search had brought me to this dangerous divide.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33I was getting close to the area where Danny was killed.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35This is called The Bridge Of No Return.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39We've got the map references, we know exactly that Danny was killed
0:22:39 > 0:22:44just over there, but frustratingly, this is as far as we can go.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47Because over there is North Korea,
0:22:47 > 0:22:49and this is still a frontline.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02But the most moving experience for the veterans
0:23:02 > 0:23:03came at the end of their visit.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07The United Nations cemetery.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13There's Black Watch.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18On a day when the weather reflected the sombre mood, Bill's search
0:23:18 > 0:23:21for the friend who'd lost his life
0:23:21 > 0:23:24over the toss of a coin came to an end.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28- Is this it?- That's him. That's him.
0:23:30 > 0:23:3323. Age 23.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39For John Donlan, looking for the same fallen comrade as Bill,
0:23:39 > 0:23:41a time for reflection.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44A place like this and a day like this to find it,
0:23:44 > 0:23:46I'm really pleased.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50I just think, how many years did that man lose?
0:23:52 > 0:23:54He could have been still enjoying life.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02'My final task was to find the last resting place
0:24:02 > 0:24:07'of Danny McCafferty, this young man I now knew so much about.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10'The dancing, snooker-playing teenager whose mother could not bear
0:24:10 > 0:24:11'to speak of his death,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15'but kept his picture by her bedside for the rest of her days.'
0:24:15 > 0:24:18Look at the number of flags.
0:24:18 > 0:24:24It's only here that you get an idea of the scale of the loss of life.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26How can it be the forgotten war?
0:24:26 > 0:24:29SOMBRE HARP MUSIC PLAYS
0:24:48 > 0:24:50There it is.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58It's nice to do this, actually.
0:24:58 > 0:24:59It's nice.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03That's your boy.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16'I'd never met Danny, although I'd known his mother well.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20'No-one who knew him had ever been able to visit.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22'No-one had ever knelt at his grave.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26'He was so loved, yet I was the first person to be here.'
0:25:31 > 0:25:36At that particular time, in the circumstances
0:25:36 > 0:25:42we found ourselves in, we thought it was worth it. But now, on reflection,
0:25:42 > 0:25:50when you become an octogenarian, you have a wee bit of history to rely on.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54And I feel now, it wasn't worth it at all.
0:25:54 > 0:25:59If we hadn't made the sacrifice and North Korea had taken over
0:25:59 > 0:26:03the whole of South Korea, I don't think it would've stopped there.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13I don't think it would have stopped. They would've tried to go further.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17To tell you the truth, you never knew what you were going into,
0:26:17 > 0:26:21cos, 19-year-old, you know?
0:26:21 > 0:26:23Just young boys.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26But I was there,
0:26:26 > 0:26:29I came through it, I came home.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32But a lot of the boys didn't come home.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37An unpopular war in a distant land
0:26:37 > 0:26:39robbed Mary McCafferty of a son,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42and Danny of an old age.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Others were luckier.
0:26:45 > 0:26:46'I often sit and think,
0:26:46 > 0:26:49'should we have talked about it more?
0:26:49 > 0:26:53'When we came back, we didn't.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55'We waited too long to talk about it, but by that time,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58'the Korean War was forgotten about.'
0:26:58 > 0:27:03'I think it was just the fact that he was in the wrong place
0:27:03 > 0:27:06'at the wrong time, but there were so many of them
0:27:06 > 0:27:10'killed out there, and it's as if it never happened.'
0:27:10 > 0:27:14These boys went out here to do their national service,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17lost their lives, and there is nothing to show for it.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21It's all about World War I and World War II,
0:27:21 > 0:27:23monuments all over the place,
0:27:23 > 0:27:28but where are the names of all the lads that were killed in Korea?
0:27:33 > 0:27:39Our world wars are justly venerated, but history's neglect of Korea,
0:27:39 > 0:27:42with its lack of a glorious victory, leads you to wonder how
0:27:42 > 0:27:46current conflicts on foreign soil will be viewed six decades from now.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53The Korean War has haunted veterans who lived through it.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57So many young, accidental soldiers experienced horror,
0:27:57 > 0:28:00but came home to indifference.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04'As for those who didn't come back, the monuments tell us
0:28:04 > 0:28:06'not to forget their sacrifice.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10'But it seems, as far as Korea is concerned,
0:28:10 > 0:28:12'that's just what we did.'
0:28:22 > 0:28:26# A letter to a soldier
0:28:27 > 0:28:31# That I had scarcely known
0:28:31 > 0:28:37# A letter to a soldier
0:28:37 > 0:28:42# With no-one of his own
0:28:43 > 0:28:48# Some mail for him to open
0:28:50 > 0:28:53# When others get their share
0:28:55 > 0:29:00# A line to show there's someone who cares. #