"Now a bug out is a - well apparently an acceptable American tactic whereby when the enemy arrives and you don't think you can beat him, with or without your weapons, you turn around and flee at the highest possible speed. In a vehicle if possible, but on foot if not. There's some strange tales told about an American bug out.

"One of our sergeants once claimed that he was doing 30 kilometres an hour down the road in a jeep and he saw an American go past him on foot, still in his sleeping bag. Whether or not that's true, I don't know. But being an Australian sergeant he'd probably tell the truth. But this was an American tactic which most upset us. The South Koreans of course they bugged out by instinct. They were poorly trained, conscripts, ploughing the field one day, in the army the next, no training. Sent into the field. If they ran away who the hell could blame them. The Americans of course were unwilling conscripts in a war that they really wanted no part of. We didn't have a high opinion of American officers. I think they were, a lot of the units were badly led. This doesn't apply to the marines of course, but to the general infantry units of the American army. And this was an acceptable tactic, whereby they just loaded up their vehicles and took off.

"One American artillery unit used to get one of its big semi-trailer artillery ammunition vehicles, park it across the road to stop the rest of the traffic while it got its unit out and took off to the south. And sometimes, if the Chinese were in hot pursuit, the driver of the articulated vehicle across the road, he'd get a bit toey, so he'd take off and leave it there. And then someone else would have to come along and push the damn thing out of the way before the rest of the convoys could pursue. But this was the bug out. It was a, it was a term that we hated.

"We didn't do it. The Australian battalion was part of a British brigade who used the old fashioned withdrawal tactic of simply leaving one battalion in place to fight a rearguard, while another battalion moved back to take up a second rearguard position, and the third battalion moved even further back again. So that you went back step by step."

SERGEANT JACK GALLAWAY