Veteran stunned after his wartime diary is translated

Son of a Royal Navy Sailor, Jim Jacobs, from Fareham, served 28 months in Korea as a National Serviceman in 1950 and later on a second tour as a regular soldier.

His autobiography, From the Imjin to The Hook detailing his time in The Forgotten War and the Third Battle of the Hook, was published in 2014 and has since been translated into Chinese.

Jim said: ‘I received the astonishing news that my memoirs had been translated into Chinese, and it has been published in China by Beijing World Publishing Corporation.’

He received an email from a Chinese literary agent informing him they planned to take the book to China.

Jim, born in 1932, said: ‘I found it hard to believe that our former enemy in Korea would find a market for the memoirs of an unremarkable National Serviceman.’

He explained that perhaps the book was wanted in order to tell ‘a story about an ordinary soldier.’

Jim added: ‘Possibly it is due to the fact that I was always fair and complimentary to the ordinary Chinese infantryman, whose bravery in attack could not be faulted.

‘They were there to do their jobs and we were there to do ours.’

He added, ‘Keeping in touch with a few of the colleagues left, we all had the same opinion.

‘We had no beef with the ordinary Chinese solider.’

Jim hopes that those in China reading his book get another side of the story.