TWO hundred veterans joined together to mark the anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War.

Ex-servicemen took part in a special parade and service yesterday to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the conflict.

Stanley Pace, 82, of Danesfield, Benfleet, served in the Royal Engineers in Korea in 1954 as a sapper and said he hoped the service would remind local people of the conflict, which claimed the lives of more than 1,000 British servicemen.

Mr Pace helped repair bridges and lay defensive lines during his time in the forces.

He said: “It’s almost a forgotten war. We went out there and we were forgotten, really. I think I had two letters from home, but we kept ourselves busy.”

The Southend and district branch of the British Korean War Veterans’ Association enjoyed a dedication of a monumental signpost, made and put up by the branch.

It is a replica of the one that stood at Songdo Incheon, South Korea, made then by the British and Commonwealth (Allied) Servicemen.

The veterans’ parade went through the Living Memorial Gardens, at Whitehouse Farm, in Rettendon.

Ron Madle, 82, chairman of the Southend and district branch, who joined the Royal Navy when he was 18, was soon put to work as a telegraphist and was sent out to Korea in 1950.

He spent two years trawling up and down the coast there, trying to decode and disrupt the North Koreans’ lines of communication.

He said: “I was involved in sending coded messages, as well as decoding ciphers. We used a machine very similar to the British machine which helped decode German messages in the Second World War.”