"Well our biggest problem was lice. We used to get them on our bodies and in our clothing and what have you. And then we had the rats and mice and they carried a flea which caused a dreadful usually fatal fever.

"Our nickname for it was Manchurian Fever. That's not the medical name. The only combat we had against these things because living in the line both winter or any other time for that matter there was no washing facilities available so you more or less stayed in the same clothes for a couple of months changing your underwear and your socks as you could. The only method of combating these pests was the DDT. They used to issue us with a rubber bomb with a nozzle on it and you squirted your clothes, you squirted yourself, you squirted your hoochie, you squirted everything that might possibly harbour these lice and fleas. So we literally lived in a world of DDT and in those days of course nobody knew the slightest thing about the harmful effects of DDT. Well I've lived this long so obviously it didn't polish me off but no doubt a few fellows suffered from it because it was just part of our daily ritual. In some of my photos you can see the DDT sprayed all about the wall in the foxholes, in the bunkers and our clothes and ourselves.

"We used to shave our heads occasionally if things were very bad, shave hair off our other body parts and keep the seams of our clothing well doctored with DDT. It was the only way otherwise you were driven stark raving mad by these lice.

"The rats and the mice they were another problem. The DDT didn't do anything with them but they used to get into our foxholes and fossick around amongst our foodstuffs and our gear and nest in our equipment if they could.

"The rats, they were particularly unsavoury. They used to feast off the dead bodies that may be laying around out the front and come back and bunk in with us which wasn't a very pleasant experience.

"I think the rats were probably the most hated and loathed thing in Korea even more than we loathed the enemy actually."

CORPORAL RON CASHMAN