In the Kansas defence line, a maze of bunkers, barbed wire and crawl trenches south of the 38th ...

In the Kansas defence line, a maze of bunkers, barbed wire and crawl trenches south of the 38th Parallel, the rain often penetrates places that are even atom-bomb-proof, and gives the diggers extra work in tracing leaks to make sure their bunkers are comfortable as well as safe. Here 51818 Private (Pte) Desmond Martin (Des) Flanagan of Leederville, WA, searches for leaks in an underground passageway in the Kansas positions. Pte Flanagan is probably one of the most travelled diggers in Korea. He is at present a member of the Pioneer Platoon in the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR). He had been nine months in Korea and two years in the army. Before that he was a merchant seaman on British , Norwegian and Panamanian ships. At 26 he has memories of America, England, France, Holland, Malaya, Canada and Argentina. Pte Flanagan was only 15 when he signed on a Norwegian ship at Fremantle, and he spent seven and a half years at sea as an engine room hand before he decide on a spell ashore as a soldier. But even in the army he was not really ashore. He joined up as an engineer, and his first job was coxswain of a work boat on Fremantle harbour, and when his time in Korea expires, he hopes to go back handling army boats. (Original British Commonwealth Forces Korea (BCFK) Public Relations caption).