Category: Korean War

I continue to be impressed with how the ROK government continues to find ways to honor United Nations and American Korean War veterans and their families and here is the latest example:

The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said Friday that 51 family members of 22 U.S. soldiers who were killed or went missing during the Korean War will visit South Korea between Saturday and next Thursday.

Arranged by the ministry, the families will visit Seoul National Cemetery, the War Memorial of Korea and the truce village of Panmunjeom at the inter-Korean border.

They will also attend a memorial service for the fallen U.S. soldiers during the Korean War. The service will be held at the Imjingak Pavilion at 10 a.m. on Monday.

The ministry vowed to host the families with hospitality and help them overcome the pains and grief of losing their beloved ones. It hoped that the visit will also help the families feel proud of their beloved ones, knowing their sacrifices were not in vain.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link, but I have to think that the trip and memorial service has to help the surviving family members take pride in seeing what their loved one died for because Korea today has become one of the world’s great countries.

It is always amazing to see that even after all these years the US military continues to identify remains of servicemembers from the Korean War.  The latest remains identified were of Sergeant Wilson Meckley Jr. from Pennsylvania.  His remains were turned over by the North Koreans back in the 1990’s and were just recently identified through DNA analysis.  Welcome home Sergeant Meckley:

The Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Sgt. Wilson Meckley, Jr., 22, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, will be buried April 4 in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C.  In November 1950, Meckley was assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, and was assembled with other soldiers into the 31st Regimental Combat Team, historically known as Task Force Faith.  While operating along the eastern banks of the Chosin Reservoir, elements of his unit were overwhelmed by Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces and were forced to withdraw to more defensible positions at Hagaru-ri.  During this withdrawal, Meckley was reported missing on  Dec. 2.  [Fox 43 via Twitter tip]

You can read the rest at the link.

Great opportunity for those interested on April 9th, 2016 to be part of a tour of where the Gloster Regiment made their final stand along the Imjim River during the Korean War.  The tour will be led by a ROK Drop favorite Andrew Salmon:

History writer and journalist Andrew Salmon will run a tour to one of the Korean War’s most notorious battlefields next week under a Royal Asiatic Society tour.

Salmon will guide the group around the hills that surround the Imjingang River, where the British Gloucester Regiment was wiped out holding back a Chinese assault.

The attack was part of the largest communist offensive of the war, and though the Glosters were eventually overrun, their actions blunted the assault sufficiently for U.N. forces to repel the Chinese before they could take Seoul.

The battle has since been compared to the battle of Thermopylae because of the extent to which the British regiment was outnumbered.

Two of the Glosters were awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest military medal for their actions in the battle. Salmon will look at where one of them, Lt. Philip Curtis, died in actions that would later see him honored and suggest an explanation for why he acted in the way he did.  [Korea Herald]

Read the details at the link.

Basic Information

• Name: George Koumanakos
• Born: Laconia, Greece
• Battlefield: Battle of Outpost Harry, June 1953
• Time of Service: January 4th – July 20, 1953

Historical Parallels

The recent animated film 300 dramatized the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC that featured a protracted battle between a small Spartan force led by King Leonidas that was tasked with delaying the advance of the much larger force of invading Persians led by King Xerxes.

The battle was portrayed as the small Spartan force protecting the fledgling start of western democracy from being enslaved by the dictatorial Persian King. This movie would go on to be a huge box office success and raise public awareness about the significance of the battle. However, though this famous historical battle happened nearly 2,500 years ago few people today (even in Greece) realize that Greek soldiers over 60 years ago had fought in their own modern day Battle of Thermopylae during the Korean War for similar reasons and fortunately even better results.

Background

When the United Nations authorized the use of force to expel the North Korean military who had invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950 for the sole purpose of reuniting the peninsula under communism, one of the nations that provided a large contingent of combat troops was the nation of Greece. Greece volunteered to supply one Air Force transport squadron and one combat infantry battalion of 840 men to fight in the defense of the Republic of Korea.

It would seem strange at first that a small nation like Greece would be willing to send so many soldiers to fight in a war that on the surface would appear to have nothing to do with them considering how far Korea is from Greece. However, before the Korean War Greece had its own internal civil war against a communist movement that was ultimately crushed by the Greek government. Greece’s own experience against communist backed forces caused much Greek sympathy with the situation that South Korea was faced with back in 1950.

Greek soldiers parade through Athens prior to departing to Korea.  Picture from the book, Eagle of the Triangle. 

Another factor that influenced Greece’s decision to go to war in Korea was that their ancient rivals, the nation of Turkey had also agreed to send a large combat force in support of the US led war effort in South Korea. Turkey had sent a large combat force to build stronger defense relations with the United States in case Turkey ever needed military assistance in return from the US due to the looming threat of Soviet expansionism. Much of the same thought process could be attributed to the Greek government that sat on the frontier of Soviet expansionism as well. So there was a variety of reasons for why the Greeks decided to go to war in Korea and with that decision the Greeks really did their best to put together a capable combat force to fight for the freedom of South Korea.

Arrival in Korea

The Greeks arrived in Korea on December 9, 1950 and their Air Force transport squadron was immediately put to use in support of allied operations. The Greek ground forces which were deployed under the name, The Royal Hellenic Battalion had to go through initial pre-combat training at the allied training facility located in Daegu. Unlike some other allied nations that had arrived in Daegu for training the Greek forces were quite well trained on arrival due to many of the soldiers in the unit having prior combat experience fighting in the Greek civil war.

By January the Royal Hellenic Battalion would see its first combat operation when it was assigned to the 1^st Cavalry Division and fought in the Battle of Hill 381 at Icheon on January 29, 1951.  The 334th Regiment of the Chinese 112th Division conducted a surprise attack that night against the Greek battalion.  The Royal Hellenic Battalion inflicted heavy casualties on the Chinese troops giving them confidence that they could hold their own in what was becoming a bloody war.

The unit would go on to conduct other combat operations in Korea with the 1st Cavalry Division, but when the Korean War’s frontline began to solidify and the war turned into one of holding hill top garrisons as peace talks went on at Panmunjom, the Greeks spent a year defending the South Korean frontier near the village of Yeoncheon just north of Seoul before being moved to conduct operations in the Chorwon area which had by then begun to be known as the infamous Iron Triangle.

Despite the amount of combat the Greeks had seen in two and half years of fighting in the Korean War the bloodiest fighting and their greatest combat achievement of the entire war would occur ironically enough during the very last days of the war.

Prelude to Battle

By June of 1953 an armistice from the peace talks at Panmunjom appeared to be imminent. The Chinese military leadership understood that a truce could be signed at any time and thus they began a series of operations to capture key strategic territory from the United Nations forces that would give the communist allies a military advantage when a truce was signed. One of the most key pieces of terrain that the Chinese wanted to capture was a lonely mountain top outpost in the Iron Triangle known simply as Outpost Harry.

Outpost Harry had received its name because other adjacent hilltops were known as Tom, Dick, and then there was Harry. However, unlike Outposts Tom & Dick, Harry stretched out as a peninsula like landmass from the rest of the allies’ frontlines and the landmass was connected to a Chinese occupied hilltop known as Star Hill. The hill top that the allies garrisoned on OP Harry was 1,280 feet high and looked across the ridge line of the landmass back at Star Hill which was only about 400 yards away and slightly taller then OP Harry.

The reasons the Chinese decided that OP Harry was an important tactical landmass to capture was because the hill offered the best observation of the surrounding area that allowed the allies easy view of any enemy troop movements on their side of the frontline. If the hill was captured the allies wouldn’t just lose their ability to observe Chinese troop movements, but the allies would also have to fall back a distance of about 10 kilometers because the Chinese would have the ability to rain down accurate artillery on the allied side of the border due to the great observation the hilltop provided of the Kumwha Valley that the allies currently occupied.

At the time OP’s Tom, Dick, & Harry were all being defended by the US 15^th Infantry Regiment of the US 3^rd Infantry Division. At the time, the Greek Battalion, which had become known as the Sparta Battalion was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Koumanakos and was attached to the 15^th Infantry to help fortify this section of the frontline. Companies from the regiment would rotate defending the outposts the regiment was responsible for holding on their sector of the frontline. The regiment at the time had roughly 4,000 soldiers including the Greek Battalion to defend their sector.

The Chinese on the other hand had decided to commit their entire 74^th Division of 13,000 soldiers in their offensive operation to capture OP Harry from the US 15^th Infantry Regiment and fully expected the operation to be a quick and easy success due to the sheer size of the force they were committing. The confidence of the Chinese was quite evident to the soldiers of the 15^th Infantry defending the OP because the Chinese made no effort to disguise their offensive operation. It was clear that the Chinese were going to launch an attack as additional troops, equipment, and supplies could be seen entering the Chinese side of the frontline. An attack was imminent and the soldiers of the 15^th Regiment to include Colonel Koumanakos and his men of the Sparta Battalion braced themselves for the heavy combat to come.

The Battle of Outpost Harry Begins

The Chinese assault began on June 10, 1953 with a heavy artillery and mortar barrage on the allied positions. A night time assault which was customary by Chinese forces during the Korean War due to the allies’ air superiority was launched against all the 15^th Infantry Regiment’s positions to include the Chinese main effort attacking across the ridge line from Star Hill to capture OP Harry. The American defenders of OP Harry held off the Chinese attack until day break, but fighting continued.

Just after midnight on June 12^th the Chinese forces through hand to hand fighting against US forces had captured the northern trench of OP Harry. Once the trench line was captured the Chinese then began efforts to reinforce it before proceeding over the hilltop to capture the southern trench line the US forces still occupied. As the Chinese began to reinforce the trench line a US counterattack using heavy artillery and tanks targeting Chinese soldiers trying to reinforce those in the trench line was launched. The Chinese began to take heavy casualties and by day break withdrew out of the northern trench line when it became apparent they would not be able to successfully hold it from US air attack once the sun came up.

Picture of ridgeline leading to OP Harry from the Korean War Educator website.

During the day the Chinese continued their artillery barrage on OP Harry as a fresh batch of US forces rotated on to the hilltop while the prior unit carried their dead and wounded off the mountain. Over 200 dead and wounded were pulled off the hill from the previous days fighting all because of the need to hold a bald barren hill. The next night would be a near exact repeat of the night before as the Chinese would once again capture the northern trench line to only lose it once again due to a US counterattack and the Chinese having to abandon the trench line at daybreak. The next day the American unit dragged their dead and wounded back down the hill and were replaced by another American company just like the unit before it.

This cycle would continue until June 15^th when Lieutenant Colonel Koumanakos was alerted that his men of the Greek Expeditionary Force would be the next unit to defend OP Harry. By this time nearly two US infantry battalions of soldiers had been decimated by the five prior days of fighting on the hill and the Greeks would be the next to withstand the fury of the Chinese attacks.

Defending “Outpost Harros”

On the morning of June 16^th the Greeks began their march up the hill to OP Harry as American soldiers from the 15^th Infantry Regiment they were replacing, dragged their dead and wounded down the mountain. By now the Greeks had begun to call Outpost Harry, Outpost Harros which means death in the Greek language. This moniker was appropriate considering the amount of blood that was being spilled to defend this remote hilltop fortress. When the Greeks reached the top of the hill they were amazed to find there was nearly nothing left standing due to the blasting the hilltop had taken from Chinese artillery. The Greek soldiers had knew the hilltop had been fairly devastated, but even though they were forewarned about the damage done to OP Harry the level of destruction once on the hilltop still surprised them and made them wonder how anybody had survived such an attack in the first place? More importantly it made them wonder how they were going to survive such an attack as well?

Realizing how the hill could not be held if the fortifications were not reconstructed, Lieutenant Colonel Koumanakos immediately had his soldiers with the aid of Korean Service Corps workers, begin redigging the trench lines as well as reconstructing the sandbagged fortifications. The Chinese rarely ever attacked during the day so as much work as possible had to be completed during the daylight hours they had left. The Greek soldiers felt like they were digging up a graveyard due to the sheer amount of Chinese bodies left on the hill. The smell of death wreaked everywhere from the decomposing Chinese bodies. Occasionally the Greek soldiers and KSC workers would find an American body intermingled with the masses of Chinese bodies which really showed how up close and personal the hand to hand combat had been to hold the hill. As the American bodies were found the Greeks would carry them back down the hill to be transported to a casualty collection point. It was a grim task that made the Greek soldiers wonder if the next morning it would be them being dragged down the mountain like their American comrades?

Reconstruction on the southern trench line of OP Harry was going well, but Lieutenant Colonel Koumanakos faced a great problem with trying to refortify the northern trenchline of the hilltop garrison. When he sent soldiers to the northern side of the hill to begin the reconstruction the Chinese soldiers were able to see them unlike with the southern trench line and began to rain down accurate mortar fire on them. The first casualties for Colonel Koumanakos men during the Battle of Outpost Harry came from this mortar barrage. Koumanakos ordered his men back to the southern side of the hill and decided to wait until dark to begin work on the northern trenchline again.

This was a risky proposition considering the Chinese usually attack at night which meant the soldiers probably had little time to reconstruct the trench. As night fell Colonel Koumanakos pulled his machine gun teams forward to overwatch the soldiers he had working in the darkness to reconstruct the northern fortifications. Surprisingly that night the Chinese did not attack the outpost. The Greeks were lucky that the Chinese had taken a night off on their offensive to reconsolidate and rest their troops. Ceasing this opportunity Colonel Koumanakos had has men work through the night to rebuild the northern defenses. At daybreak the Chinese saw the Greek soldiers working on the northern defenses again and began firing mortar rounds at them. With some of the fortifications reconstructed enough to shelter from mortar fire in, the Greek commander decided to keep his troops on the northern hill face in order to keep improving the defenses. The Greeks worked throughout the day improving the northern defenses despite the mortar fire and then that night they readied themselves for the inevitable Chinese onslaught that was sure to come.

The Final Chinese Offensive

At 11PM the night of June 17^th the Chinese onslaught did come as the Chinese after their operational pause made their last ditch effort to capture OP Harry. However, this time it wasn’t the Americans they would be fighting, but the men of Lieutenant Colonel Koumanakos’ Greek Battalion. Just like in the prior battles the Chinese just through sheer numbers were once again able to get into the northern trench line. Lieutenant Colonel Koumanakos just like the ancient Spartan warrior King Leonidas fought hand to hand with his soldiers against the numerically superior foes. By midnight the Greeks were able to push the Chinese back out of the northern trench line with the aid of a massive artillery barrage the allied forces employed against the advancing Chinese. Despite this initial setback the Chinese were not done with the Greeks yet.

The Chinese launched another attack on the northern trench and this time brought even more soldiers to capture it. The Greeks fought on the hill for three more hours that included once again hand to hand combat in the northern trench line. The Chinese by 3AM on June 18^th had recaptured the northern trench line and tried to refortify by massing a ring of artillery fire around the position to deter any counterattack. However, Colonel Koumanakos decided to commit another Greek company of men backed by a platoon of US tanks to recapture the trench line. The Greek soldiers charged through the artillery fire and descended into the trenches to expel the Chinese invaders. The counterattack was successful and the Greeks recaptured the northern trench.

Picture from the Outpost Harry Survivors Association Newsletter, April 2006. 

Day break on June 18^th approached and the Chinese still had not captured OP Harry and were in fact reeling from the heavy casualties inflicted on them by the gallant Greek defense. Seeing that they had no chance of recapturing their lost positions the Chinese decided to start withdrawing back down the hill in defeat. The Battle of Outpost Harry would be a combat victory worthy of the recognition of their ancient Greek ancestors since the Greek Battalion had held their ground despite overwhelming odds.

However, like the American units they had replaced, the next morning the Greeks began their grim task of dragging their own dead and wounded back down the mountain. Amazingly the Greek casualties had been relatively light in comparison to the Chinese with six Greeks being killed in action with 21 others wounded. The Greek battalion would continue to rotate companies on to OP Harry until June 21^st when they handed the outpost back over to the US 15^th Infantry Regiment. After the final battle against the Greek defenders the Chinese never did attack again as the allies continued to hold the hill.

The Aftermath

It is estimate out of 13,000 Chinese soldiers used to assault OP Harry 4,500 of them died with many more wounded which left the entire Chinese division combat ineffective for the few remaining weeks of the war. The allies losses were heavy though they were no where near as bad the sacrifice in blood the Chinese made on their assault of OP Harry. American units had 91 men killed as well 8 Korean KATUSA soldiers. The Greeks would ultimately loose 15 men over the course of the eight day battle to defend OP Harry. American and Greek units also had a combined total of 419 more men wounded in action. The amount of men that died, Chinese, American, Greek, and Korean over eight days of fighting over a featureless hill is staggering; especially when one considers that when the ceasefire was signed a little over a month later on July 27, 1953, the allied forces agreed to abandon this featureless hill anyway as part of the Armistice Agreement.

Korea, May, 1953: Two American soldiers cross the battered terrain surrounding Outpost Harry, where enemy troops regularly mounted attacks from three sides. One sergeant recalled a battle during which “the first Red I met came along the trench yelling ‘Comrade, comrade’ holding a grenade in one hand and firing a burp gun with the other.” In mid-June, the Americans weathered an eight-day assault by more than 13,000 Chinese troops.  [Stars & Stripes]

There has probably never been as many people killed and wounded in the history of warfare fighting over such an utterly barren and featureless rock. To make matters worse the sacrifice of the men of the Battle of Outpost Harry have never been truly remembered since they are overshadowed by more famous battles during the Korean War that didn’t nearly have the same amount of lives lost.

Despite all this, it is important to realize these men did not die in vain. The valiant defense of OP Harry showed the Chinese that the allies were still resolved to defend South Korea as well as delivering a huge blow to Chinese morale with the steep casualties they received attacking OP Harry. These steep casualties served to speed up the armistice talks to end the war to stop the heavy losses the Chinese were taking. The fact that the large agricultural plain of the Kumwha Valley remains as part of South Korea today is largely because of the sacrifice in blood made by the men who fought on OP Harry back in 1953. I wonder how many people in South Korea know that the existence of a large portion of some of the nation’s most productive agricultural land is because of the largely unknown efforts of a battalion of soldiers from the far away land of Greece?

Greek display at the War Memorial of Korea in the Yongsan District of Seoul.

In the aftermath of the battle a number of awards for combat valor were handed out to include for the first time in US military history five Distinguished Unit Citations to five different companies for actions during one battle. Distinguished Unit Citations were award to four companies from the US 15^th Infantry Regiment and to Company P of the Greek Sparta Battalion that conducted the hand to hand fighting to hold Outpost Harry on the final night of the Chinese assault.

Here is the wording of the Company P’s Distinguished Unit Citation:

Company P Greek Expeditionary Forces Battalion (Second Award) is cited for extraordinary heroism and outstanding performance of duty in action against an armed enemy in the vicinity of Surang-NI, Korea during the period 17 June to 18 June 1953. Assigned the defense of a vital outpost position (Harry), the company encountered a major enemy assault on the evening of June 17. After an intense concentration of enemy mortar and artillery fire, the hostile forces, which had taken up an attack position on the northeast and northwest side of the outpost , moved rapidly through their own and friendly artillery fire to gain a foothold on the northern slope of the position. Refusing to withdraw, Company P closed in and met the attackers in a furious hand to hand struggle in which many of the enemy were driven off. The aggressors regrouped, quickly attacked a second time, and again gained the friendly trenches. Immediately, the Greek Forces launched a series of counterattacks, simultaneously dispatching a diversionary force to the east of the outpost which successfully channeled the enemy thrusts. After 2 hours of close in fighting, the aggressors were again routed and the friendly positions restored. The outstanding conduct and exemplary courage exhibited by members of Company P, Greek Expeditionary Forces Battalion, reflects great credit on themselves and are in keeping with the finest traditions of the military service and the Kingdom of Greece.

Lieutenant Colonel Koumanakos’ six month tour of duty in Korea would come to an end on July 20, 1953 just days before the signing of the Armistice Agreement officially ending the war. He would receive many combat awards due to his service in Korea.  Most notably he was awarded the US Legion of Merit and Silver Star for his actions during the Korean War.

Article from the March 25, 1954 edition of the Stars & Stripes newspaper.

In total the Greek forces in the Korean War would be awarded six Distinguished Unit Citations, along with individual servicemembers being recognized with 32 Silver Stars and 110 Bronze Stars from the US military. A total of 4,992 Greeks would fight in the Korean War with 18 officer and approximately 200 enlisted men killed in action and 400 more wounded.  The final Greek unit would redeploy from the Korean peninsula in 1955 with the stabilization of the Demilitarized Zone.

Koumanakos would go on to become a Major General in the Greek Army and would remain the nation’s most decorated military officer before retiring and unfortunately passing away in 2003.  Unfortunately in 1968 a military junta that took control of Greece ended up imprisoning the then retired Major General Koumanakos.  They imprisoned him due to his domestic fame that the junta feared could one day cause him to become a political rival.

Article from the July 9, 1969 edition of the Stars & Stripes newspaper.

However, nothing in Lieutenant Colonel Koumanakos long military career would be able to surpass the truly heroic stand against overwhelming odds by the soldiers of the Greek Battalion he commanded during the Korean War. Lieutenant Colonel Koumanakos was not only respected by the soldiers of the Sparta Battalion, but many US soldiers respected him as well as evident by this passage from a book written by a soldier who fought in the Battle of Outpost Harry:

For the first time in my experience we had company. In addition to the scouts, this bunker housed a forward observer for the artillery, along with his aides and other occasional guests. For example, it was the custom of the commander of the Greek Battalion, Colonel Koumanakos to sleep on the front line when his troops were on line. He and his staff would come forward to the outpost at night, returning to their battalion headquarters to work during the day. This resolve of the high ranking Greek officers to expose themselves to the same dangers as their men impressed me at the time and still impresses me. Our squad had not seen its own officer up front in the two months I been on the line. So far as we knew, neither had our other squads seen him. To see the lieutenant, someone had to drive back to regimental headquarters. If the lieutenant needed to communicate with us, he used the telephone, if it was working, or the radio.

We Are Innocents: An Infanryman in Korea
By William D. Dannenmaier, page 119
Outpost Harry Survivors Association Newsletter, April 2006.

Lieutenant Colonel Koumanakos may not have been singularly as heroic as King Leonidas, but his combat leadership as witnessed by both Greek and American soldiers is sure to have made the spirit of King Leonidas proud and that is why he and all the soldiers of the Greek battalion are truly heroes of the Korean War.

Further Reading:

• The Eagle of the Iron Triangle (book)
• The Outpost Harry Survivor Association Newsletter
• The Korean War Educator

Note: You can read more of the ROK Drop featured series Heroes of the Korean War at the below link:

https://twitter.com/thejointstaff/status/708706701583601665

For those that enjoy reading Korean War history, below I have consolidated the links to my on going series of Heroes of the Korean War. The Korean War is filled with many great heroes, but due to little public interest in the war, the stories of their heroics has largely gone unnoticed. Here at the ROK Drop the leadership, bravery, and sacrifices of the brave servicemembers who fought in the Korean War does not go unnoticed. I hope through my on going series to educate readers about these heroes.  So take the time and read the stories of these brave men who served so notably during the Korean War:

1950:
Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Smith (USA), Commander 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, Taskforce Smith Battle

Major General William Dean (USA), Commander 24th Infantry Division, Battle of Taejon

Corporal Mitchell Red Cloud Jr. (USA), Squad Leader 2-19 Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, Battle of the Chongchon River

Captain Charles M. Bussey (USA), Commander 77th Engineer Combat Company, Firefight at Yechon

General Tahsin Yazici (Turkey), Commander 1st Turkish Brigade, Battle of Kunu-ri

Ensign Jesse L. Brown (USA), US Navy 32nd Fighter Squadron, Chosin Reservoir

Lieutenant Colonel William W. Harris (USA), Commander 65th Infantry Regiment, Chosin Reservoir

Lieutenant Colonel Russell Blaisdell (USA), Chaplain US Air Force, Operation Kiddy Car Airlift

1951:

Captain Lewis L. Millett (USA), Commander E Co. 27th Infantry Regiment, Battle of Bayonet Hill.

Colonel Paul Freeman (USA), Commander 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, Battle of Chipyong-ni

Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Monclar (France), Commander French Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, Battle of Chipyong-ni

Lieutenant Colonel James P. Carne (UK), Commander Gloucestershire Battalion, Battle of the Imjim x

Lieutenant Colonel J.R. Stone (Canada), Commander Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Battle of the Kapyong

Lieutenant Colonel Dionisio Ojeda (Philippines), Commander Philippines Expeditionary Force To Korea (PEFTOK), Battle of the Yultong

First Sergeant Benjamin Wilson (USA), First Sergeant Company I, 3d Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, Battle of Hell Hill

Private First Class Anthony T. Kaho’ohanohano (USA), 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, Battle of Chup’a-ri

1952:
Brigadier General Haydon Boatner (USA), Commander Geoje POW Camp

Colonel Young-oak Kim (USA), Commander 1-31 Infantry Regiment, First Asian-American Battalion Commander

1953:
Lieutenant Colonel George Koumanakos (Greece), Commander Greek Battalion, Battle of Outpost Harry

Post-Korean War:

Lieutenant General Subayya Kadenera Thimayya (India), Commander of the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission (NNRC), Operation Big Switch

Basic Information

• Name: James P. Carne
• Rank: Lieutenant Colonel
• Born: April 11, 1906
• Battlefield: Battle of the Imjim River
• Date: 22-25 April, 1951

Introduction

In November of 1951 the Chinese military entered the Korean War and launched a massive invasion of the Korean peninsula in support of their communist ally North Korea. The overwhelming numbers of Chinese forces initially had a shocking effect on the US military and its United Nations allies. The Chinese military won victory after victory against the retreating coalition forces and eventually captured the then mostly destroyed South Korean capitol city of Seoul.

It wasn’t until February of 1951 that the 23rd US Infantry Regiment led by Colonel Paul Freeman and augmented by the French Battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Monclar, were able for the first time to stop the Chinese advance after the 23rd Infantry’s heroic stand at the Battle of Chipyong-ni.  In April of 1951 the United States military and its United Nations allies had begun to consolidate their gains against the Chinese Communist Forces by establishing a front line near the 38th parallel that had served as the pre-war border between the two Koreas. One of the United Nations forces manning this new front was the British 29th Brigade Combat Team commanded by Brigadier General Tom Brodie. The Brigade was composed of three British Battalions, the Gloucestershire Regiment, the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, and the Royal Ulster Rifles. Additionally the brigade was augmented with one Belgian battalion.

UN frontline prior to the Battle of the Imjim.

The 29th Brigade was tasked to man a frontline along the Imjim River that stretched for 12 miles. Due to the length of the frontline and the number of soldiers available, General Brodie could not deploy his force in one consistent front against the enemy; he instead deployed each battalion to hold a strategic piece of ground opposite of the Chinese force, but this left gaps in between the battalions for the Chinese exploit. On the farthest left flank of the brigade near the village of Jokseong was the Gloucestershire Battalion commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James Carne.

The 45 year old, tall, and pipe smoking LTC Carne had served with the Gloucestershire Regiment for 26 years before finding himself in command of the unit he had long been part of, now in the far distant hills of Korea. He lived and breathed the Gloucestershire Regiment, which was credited with being the most decorated regiment in the entire British military with campaign streamers from other far off distant places such as Waterloo, Quebec, and Gallipoli. April 23rd was the British holiday of St. George Day and LTC Carne had an elaborate celebration planned to honor the British patron saint. Unfortunately the British celebration would never materialize due to roughly 30,000 Chinese party crashers that day.
Tea time for the soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment.

The Chinese Spring Offensive

On April 21, 1951 the Chinese launched what has now become known as the Chinese Spring Offensive. This massive offensive operation launched by the Chinese had the overall objective of recapturing the South Korean capitol city of Seoul. The Chinese believed that if they recaptured the city it would break the will of the United States and its allies to continue fighting what was quickly becoming an unpopular war. Capturing Seoul would put them in a position of strength during ceasefire negotiations that were sure to follow such a military success.

The offensive was launched all along the frontlines but the two most important objectives that the Chinese needed to achieve in order to march on Seoul would be to capture the Kapyong Valley to the north east of Seoul and to secure a river crossing across the Imjim River to the north. It was here along the Imjim River that LTC Carne and his men of the Gloucestershire regiment would go on to fight a battle that would make the veterans of Rourke’s Drift proud, against the vastly superior Chinese forces that would ultimately live forever in the anals of British military history.

The Battle of the Imjim Begins

The modern day Imjim River Valley as seen from he summit of Kamaksan mountain.

The Battle of the Imjim officially began on April 22, 1951 when the Chinese 34th and 29th Divisions assaulted the US 3rd Infantry Division located to the east of the British 29th Brigade. The 29th Brigade would not be assaulted until midnight on April 22nd. On that night the Chinese 187th Division exploited gaps on each side of the Belgian battalion to surround them and completely cut them off from the rest of the brigade. The assault against the 29th Brigade continued to expand throughout the day and by the night of April 23rd the entire British frontline, including the Gloucestershire Regiment, were in full contact with the enemy.

The Gloucestershire Regiment initially enjoyed much success in rappelling Chinese attempts to ford the Imjim River at the one known crossing point. However, the Chinese discovered a crossing point to the northwest of the regiment that previous reconnaissance by the British had failed to reveal. The Chinese quickly took advantage of the undefended crossing point and poured troops across the river.

View from Kamaksan mountain of the Imjim River where the Chinese would have crossed north of Joeksong.

The troops of the Chinese 187th Division that had crossed the river were soon scaling the spurs of the hills being held by A Company soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment. Throughout the night and into the early morning hours the A Company soldiers held off the massive Chinese assault but they eventually had to withdraw from their position overlooking the river and back to a supplementary position on Hill 235 to the south. In the typical understated British way the company’s radio man radioed LTC Carne to inform him their position was overrun by declaring, “We are overrun. We’ve had it. Cheerio.”

D Company located on Hill 182 held against the Chinese assault, but with the withdrawal of A Company to their western flank D Company was also forced to withdraw towards Hill 235 as well so they would not be surrounded by the advancing Chinese. Their withdrawal was protected by heavy artillery and mortar fire as the British soldiers moved to Hill 235. The heavy artillery had stopped the Chinese momentum for the time being as they sought shelter from the incoming rounds. This allowed the Gloucestershire Regiment to consolidate a front line with two companies holding Hill 235 and the other two companies holding a ridgeline based around Hill 314 just to the east.

Throughout the rest of the day on April 23rd the Gloucestershire Regiment held their positions against the Chinese probing attacks. However, the Chinese had not committed themselves to a full scale assault on the regiment because they were waiting for soldiers from the Chinese 192nd, 187th, and 188th Divisions to cross the Imjim River. The single British Regiment of 750 soldiers now found themselves opposed by three Chinese divisions numbering roughly 30,000 soldiers. With such a disparity in numbers the outcome of this impending final battle was never in doubt, it was only a matter of how long the men of LTC James Carne’s Gloucestershire Regiment were going to make the Chinese earn every piece of ground they tried to take.

That night thousands of Chinese soldiers charged at the waiting guns of the Gloucestershire Regiment. Casualties were heavy on both sides with the Chinese taking the vast majority of the casualties. As the fighting continued through the night the soldiers began to run low on supplies and ammo. If they were not resupplied soon, they would be over run. LTC Carne had to organize a party of soldiers to assault into the Chinese lines to recover supplies from his regimental headquarters that had been over run by the Chinese earlier on the 23rd. The raiding party was able to successfully break through the Chinese lines and recover some supplies. The supplies ended up being enough to get them through the night.

The Fight for Hill 235

The morning of April 24, 1951, Lieutenant Colonel James Carne found his men of the British Gloucestershire Regiment in dire straits. They had survived a brutal night of fighting against the Chinese hordes and now found themselves with very few supplies left especially ammunition. They had one hope and that was an aerial resupply. LTC Carne organized by radio a mission by the US Air Force to resupply the regiment. At 0700 that morning the US Air Force tried to parachute in resupplies to the Gloucesters. However, as was often the case during the Korean War most of the supplies landed within the Chinese lines with little of it landing on Hill 235 for the Gloucesters. With a little luck the British likely hoped they had enough supplies to last them to the next morning; if they lived long enough to see it.

Soldiers from the Gloucestershire Regime battle Chinese troops during the Korean War.

During the day of April 24th, the Chinese continued to launch their assault on the British lines. The Chinese were unsure of the exact British positions and thus their human wave assaults were initially ineffective as the British riflemen carved up the Chinese that were advancing towards the British front lines. However, once the Chinese were able to accurately assess how the British defensive positions were deployed they quickly launched a massive attack on the C Company position near the road that ran in between the British regiment. The Chinese penetrated into the C Company frontlines and LTC Carne ordered C Company to withdraw from their positions on the east side of the road and consolidate into a final defensive perimeter on Hill 235. The withdrawal of C Company to Hill 235 across the road caused B Company to sit on top of a hill that was quickly surrounded by the Chinese after the pullout of C Company.

Literally with a sea of angry Chinese infantrymen surrounding them B Company continued to hold off the furious Chinese assaults on their hill. With little success from their full scale assault on all sides, the Chinese changed their tactics and decided to focus their assault on one location on the north of the hill. By focusing their forces on one location the Chinese through their human wave assaults were able to break through B Company’s perimeter. With their perimeter broken B Company had no choice but to try to make a run for Hill 235 where the rest of the regiment was located. LTC Carne ordered all the fire power he had available to lay covering fire with the mortars from his attached C Troop, 170th Independent Mortar Battery. Though the mortar battery provided plenty of suppressive indirect fire against the Chinese the withdrawal of B Company ended up being a disaster. Out of an entire company of about 150 men only 20 made the sprinting retreat to Hill 235 to rejoin the rest of the regiment. The rest of the men were either killed or captured by the Chinese.

Despite the Chinese success in removing the British from around Hill 314 they still needed to get them dislodged from Hill 235 before they could advance their main columns up the narrow valley towards Seoul. The stingy British defense had already cost the Chinese two days of time off of their scheduled offensive plan, thus they were eager to keep the momentum of the operation moving before the allies had a chance to regroup.

Even if the British wanted to retreat from the hill they had no choice due to the fact they were completely surrounded. Attempts were however being made to breach the Chinese lines and exfiltrate the regiment. Throughout the day of April 24th a platoon of British tanks and soldiers from the Philippine 10th Battalion Combat Team tried to breakthrough the valley where the Gloucestershire Regiment was located from the south.

The peak in the background is Kamaksan and the road leading towards it is the route the Filipino rescue team would have followed.

However, every time they tried to breakthrough they were held off by the Chinese troops that had completely surrounded Hill 235. The combined Filipino/British assault had actually come within two kilometers of Hill 235 but were unable to breakthrough the Chinese lines due to the steep terrain. Due to this, General Brodie ordered the Filipinos and the British armor platoon to pull back and hold a blocking position to the south of the valley and then requested help relieving the surrounded Gloucesters from the US 3rd Infantry Division. The 3rd Infantry Division Commander Major General Soule sent the 65th Infantry Regiment to aid in the offensive operation to relieve the Gloucesters.

However, the regiment would not be ready to execute the attack until 0630 on April 25th. General Brodie was confident that the soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment would be able to hold that long. However, this assumption was based off the ability of the Gloucesters to hold off the Chinese attacks during the day. The Chinese were in fact waiting until night fall on the 24th to launch a full scale attack to wipe out the British regiment. What the Gloucesters thought was a full scale Chinese assault already during the day was in fact only probing actions with no intent to over run the British positions; they would wait until night fall to do that.

Joeksong area as viewed from the slopes of Kamaksan mountain.

As soon as night fell the Chinese horns and bugles sounded and ferocious human wave attacks unlike the British had ever seen before fell upon Hill 235. LTC Carne personally led multiple counterattacks against the Chinese every time they overran a portion of the hilltop forcing the Chinese attackers back off the hill. The Chinese bodies continued to pile up next to the bones and skulls of prior dead soldiers that appeared all over Korea’s hill sides with the on set of spring and the melting of the winter snows.

Amazingly the Gloucestershire Regiment survived to see the sun rise on April 25th. However, there was only 350 men out of the 700 strong regiment left that could hold and fire a rifle, plus they now had no food, medicine, and very little ammo left. The bad news for the Gloucesters would only continue that morning as the attack to relieve the regiment by the 65th Infantry was cancelled because the regiment was redeployed to fill a whole in the defensive line elsewhere that the Chinese had penetrated through. Instead of an entire US infantry regiment trying to rescue the Gloucesters, the task fell on one company of American tanks from the 65th Infantry Regiment.

Modern Day Hill 235 outside Joeksong, South Korea

Due to the steep terrain and narrow road of the valley leading to the Gloucesters, only one platoon of American tanks were sent into the valley to try and break through the Chinese lines. How anyone thought that one platoon of American tanks could accomplish what a British tank company and entire battalion of Filipino infantrymen could not do is anyone’s guess. Predictably the tank platoon’s assault up the valley failed once they made heavy contact with the enemy. The tank platoon put up a furious fight, but were forced to withdraw when they ran out of ammunition and the Chinese infantry began to flank their column.

With the failure of the tank platoon’s attempt to penetrate the Chinese lines a battalion of Korean soldiers from the ROK 1st Division tried to breakthrough the Chinese lines that morning as well from the west. At 0900 on April 25th the ROK soldiers found themselves in heavy contact with the Chinese forces in their attempt to relieve the Gloucesters. At about the same time LTC Carne received his last orders from General Brodie before his radio batteries went dead and the final order was for his unit to conduct a fighting withdrawal from their position.

Preparing for the Escape

LTC Carne and his officers were left that morning to figure out how they were going to make an escape from the sea of Chinese soldiers that surrounded the British island on Hill 235. To make matters worse, LTC Carne did not know exactly where the units tasked to try to breakthrough the Chinese lines were located since the batteries in his radio went out. He decided that trying to make a break from Hill 235 using a saddle of land to his southwest to link up with soldiers of the 1st ROK Division that was located somewhere to their southwest was the regiment’s best chance.

 

However, the D Company commander CPT Mike G. Harvey felt that the Chinese would expect the Gloucesters to try and use the saddle as an escape route and may have set a trap there for them. He felt the best way to breakthrough the Chinese would be to do what they would never expect, assault down the steepest portion of Hill 235 to the north and keep moving north away from the Chinese front lines. Once away from the frontlines the soldiers would then try to infiltrate to the west toward the 1st ROK Division.

Since no one could agree on one course of action it was agreed upon that all the soldiers of the regiment besides D Company would make a break towards the southwest while the 100 men from D Company would try to penetrate the Chinese lines to the north. LTC Carne decided to stay on Hill 235 with the 50 wounded men on the hill. With that decision the regimental chaplain, the sergeant major, surgeon, and medics agreed to stay with LTC Carne as well and surrender to the Chinese.

Before surrendering the battalion chaplain had this to say to the remaining men of the Gloucestershire Regiment in memory of their fallen comrades, “They will remember for a little while in England. The soldier does have his day. I want to remind you this afternoon that it is not enough to remember now. We’ve got to show what we think of their sacrifice in the way we conduct ourselves in the days ahead.”

The Escape

With the decisions made and final farewells given, the remaining soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment made their break towards friendly lines, but not before the pipe smoking LTC Carne could hit up CPT Harvey one last time for some smoking tobacco. The soldiers that decided to try and run across the southwest saddle towards the 1st ROK Division were met with heavy machine gun fire from the Chinese the minute they exposed themselves on the saddle. Completely surrounded and being fired at from above the soldiers laid down their weapons and surrendered to the Chinese. Some other soldiers would leave the column to try and escape on their own but they to would eventually be rounded up and captured.

View of the valley leading to Joeksong from Kamaksan Mountain.

The column led by CPT Harvey would prove to be more successful. CPT Harvey’s hunch was correct about penetrating the Chinese lines to the north because they ran into only two Chinese infantrymen and quickly killed them. They moved about a mile north before changing direction and heading west. An American plane had spotted the British soldiers and began relaying signals to them where the the 1st ROK Division was located. The column began moving southwest towards a valley that would lead them to friendly lines.

They moved about one mile through the valley when they began to be engaged by Chinese machine gunners on the hills above them. The Gloucesters took cover in a ditch then ran through the valley and then began to make a desperate sprint through the gauntlet of fire towards friendly lines. Gloucesters were being shot on the left and right during this last desperate attempt to free themselves from the Chinese assault.

Gloucestershire Regiment escape routes on April 25, 1951.

CPT Harvey and the remaining men that made it to the end of the valley saw a platoon of American tanks in the clearing ahead that were supporting the ROK 1st Division. The British soldiers attempted to sprint towards the tanks, but the tanks opened fire on them mistaking them for Chinese since they were covered in mud and were not wearing their customary British berets. Six British soldiers were killed in the friendly fire incident before the spotter plane dropped a note down towards the American tanks letting them know they were British. By this time Chinese infantrymen were screaming down the hillsides and bayoneting British soldiers who had long since run out of ammunition.

By the time the American tanks and ROK infantrymen could rescue CPT Harvey’s column at around 1400 hours on the 25th, only CPT Harvey, three officers, and thirty-six men for a total of 40 soldiers out of the 100 who had began the D Company escape attempt had made it out alive. Sadly beside the D Company soldiers few others escaped the envelopment, the rest were either dead or captured including their commander LTC Carne who had volunteered to stay behind to care for the dying and wounded.

Final roll call of the Gloucestershire Regiment following the Battle of the Imjim.

Only 67 men had escaped with 59 men dieing that day on the mountain. In all 526 men had been captured out of a regiment of 700 men. Of the captured men 180 of them were wound and 34 of them would die in captivity. LTC Carne’s men would be held in Chinese re-education camps for the rest of the war while he instead was held in solitary confinement during his entire time in captivity. After the war was over and the British POWs were returned LTC James Carne would receive the Victoria Cross, the highest military honor in the British Empire for his actions during the Battle of the Imjim as well as honourably surviving captivity for so many months.

The Return Home

Upon his return to Britain LTC Carne told British intelligence that during his time in solitary confinement that the communist had experimented on him with drugs. He feared the drugs may have been introduced into him in order to turn him into a communist sleeper agent. This story by LTC Carne would go on to live in the popular imagination with the release of the Manchurian Candidate years later based off his story.

James P. Carne in 1953 after his release.

Also back in the Britain, the loss of the Gloucestershire battalion made huge headlines and the commander of allied forces in Korea, General Matthew Ridgeway ordered an investigation into how the regiment was lost. The investigation concluded that everyone had done what they thought was reasonably possible to relieve the Gloucestershire Regiment and that the strength of the Chinese attack was what was overall responsible for the regiment’s loss.

Privately General Ridgeway blamed the 29th Brigade Commander General Brodie for the loss of the regiment because he had never made it clear to US forces how desperate the situation was for the Gloucestershire Regiment and did not adequately use the Filipino infantry battalion and the supporting British tanks to relieve the regiment. Brodie took 50% responsibility for the loss and believed that the 3rd Infantry Commander General Soule should have shown more initiative in learning the true state of the Gloucesters himself and sending a larger rescue force. Nevertheless it is clear the Gloustershire Regiment should have never been lost on the hill that day.

I think a strong case can be made that LTC Carne should share in some of the blame himself considering how he allowed the regiment to be enveloped instead of falling back sooner. The Gloucestershire Regiment and the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry regiment commanded by LTC J.R. Stone during the Battle of Kapyong faced exactly the same conditions as the Gloucesters and yet the results were vastly different. The Canadians stopped the Chinese at a loss of only 10 people while the British stopped the Chinese at the cost of the entire Gloucestershire Regiment. The Gloucesters fought very valantly, but I think it is pretty clear that if their commanders made some slightly different decisions the regiment could have been saved. I think another strong case can be made that the Gloucestershire Regiment became something of legendary proportions simply to cover up the bad decisions that led to the regiment’s destruction in the first place. Despite this LTC Carne’s brave actions under fire as well as the heroic conduct of himself while imprisoned still makes him a hero of the Korean War.

However, the loss of the regiment was not for nothing, it is estimated that the Chinese battle against the British Brigade had cost the Chinese 11,000 casualties with the stubborn defense of Hill 235 by the Gloucesters costing the Chinese something even more precious than their manpower, time. The time bought by the Gloucesters was used to fortify the allied frontlines which made any further Chinese attempts to advance on Seoul from the north across the Imjim River, impossible. Seoul had been saved by the successful defense of the Imjim River and the Kapyong Valley plus the Chinese had been dealt a great defeat with the number of Chinese soldiers killed across the allied frontlines during the First Chinese Spring Offensive.

The Chinese would never truly recover from this defeat as the allies would eventually push the Chinese back across the Imjim River which after their failed second spring offensive two weeks later caused the communists to initiate ceasefire negotiations. The ceasefire negotiations caused the war to turn into a hill top war for the next two years until a final ceasefire had been declared. Without the brave sacrifice paid in blood by the men of the Gloucestershire Regiment the ceasefire may have come much sooner with the communist controlling Seoul and in a position of strength to dictate the terms of the ceasefire. As history turned out the position of strength the allies ended up negotiating from during the ceasefire negotiations was in large part due to the incredible stand for four days by the men of the Gloucestershire Regiment.

Note: You can read more of the ROK Drop featured series Heroes of the Korean War at the below link:

Basic Information

• Name: Dionisio Ojeda
• Rank: Lieutenant Colonel
• Country: Philippines
• Notable Battles: Battle of the Yultong, Chinese Spring Offensive
• Korean War Service: Sept. 1950 – June 1951

Background

One of the first United Nations members to answer the call to deploy troops and would go on to make meaningful battlefield contributions to the war effort in Korea was the Philippines. The Philippine government deployed one regimental combat team to fight in the Korean War that became known as the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea (PEFTOK). The PEFTOK soldiers arrived in Korea on September 19, 1950 at the port city of Pusan shortly after MacArthur’s successful Incheon Landing Operation that turned the tide of the Korean War.

During the nearly five years PEFTOK was deployed to Korea they participated in a number of heavy combat operations and established themselves a solid reputation as tough, tenacious fighters in the hills of Korea. Much of the tactical skills the Filipino soldiers used in Korea to great effect was honed during their own struggle against tyranny when the Japanese invaded the Philippines and Filipino guerrillas took to the hills to launch attacks against the Japanese. The Filipino military’s guerrilla warfare skills only improved when the military was called on to fight its own communist insurrection occurring in the highlands of the Philippines against the Hukbalahap which were guerrilla fighters aligned with the Philippine Communist Party.

PEFTOK 10th Battalion Combat Team patch

This communist insurgency in the Philippines was the deciding factor for the Filipino President Elpidio Quirino to deploy forces to Korea. President Quirino feared that if Korea fell to the North Koreans then the global communist movement would then be encouraged to aid the Hukbalahap guerrillas fighting to overthrow the national government of the Philippines. President Quirino decided the Philippines had to make a stand against global communist movement and Korea was going to be that place. Here is how President Quirino opened his address to the Filipino soldiers about to deploy to Korea:

“Poor as we are, this country is making a great sacrifice in sending you there, but every peso invested in you is a sound investment for the perpetuation of our liberty and freedom.”

And poor they were because the Filipino government was nearly bankrupt at the time of this deployment due to the destruction of World War II as well as the continuing counterinsurgency struggle against the communist guerrillas in the highlands. Despite this the government was committed to deploying troops to Korea.

Lieutenant Colonel Mariano Azurin Parades the 10th BCT passed Filipino President Elpidio Quirino

The Deployment of the 10th BCT

The military unit that heard this speech before they deployed was the 10th Battalion Combat Team (BCT). The Philippine military rotated combat teams to Korea every year with the 10th BCT being the first unit deployed to the peninsula which subsequently saw the heaviest combat of all the PEFTOK units sent to Korea. The 10th BCT was deployed with three infantry companies, a motorized reconnaissance company that was equipped with light M24 Chaffee tanks, a armored company with no tanks, and its own internal artillery battalion. The Filipinos were promised Sherman tanks from the US, but never received them to field the armored company with. In total the regiment was assigned approximately 1,400 men. An American trained tank commander, Lieutenant Colonel Mariano Azurin was chosen to lead this first PEFTOK unit into a war that would have great ramifications for his country if it was not won.

The 10th BCT was without a doubt a well equipped unit, but the UN command foundly them unprepared for combat in Korea and the unit spent it first weeks in Korea conducting pre-combat training in the city of Miryang. In October 1950, the 10th BCT received their first combat mission and was sent to the village Waegwan, which is the modern day home to the US military installation Camp Carroll. At Waegwan the 10th BCT’s reputation of being hardened anti-communist guerrilla fighters was put to the test. Throughout the hills in this area the Filipino soldiers worked with the US 25th Infantry Division to root out and destroy the remaining communists hiding in the hillsides.

Hunting Communist Guerrillas in the Hills of Korea

Before the Korean War South Korean communist guerrillas reinforced with North Korean infiltrators had tried to overthrow the ROK government and during the Korean War they were responsible for a number of attacks against the rear areas of American forces deployed to Korea. It was estimated that 35,000 communist guerrillas were operating in South Korea’s countryside and ironically enough it was up to a US trained tank commander LTC Azurin to help do something about it. The 10th BCT launched continuous small five man patrols during the day and at night to intercept the guerrillas trying to launch ambushes against UN supply lines in their area. The teams were small enough to avoid detection and sneak up and ambush the small guerrilla cells operating in the hills.

It was during this anti-guerrilla operation the PEFTOK would experience their first casualty with Private Alipio Ceciliano losing his life in defense of the Republic of Korea. However, the operation around Waegwon was a success with the 10th BCT killing large numbers of guerrillas in the hills and keeping the UN supply lines to Seoul open. The UN military leadership would turn to the Lieutenant Colonel Azurin again to lead another anti-guerrilla movement further north.

Example of 10th BCT soldier at Korean War Memorial in Seoul.

In late October LTC Azurin received orders that his men were going to be shipped north to the city of Kaesong to root out guerrillas harassing UN supply lines between Kaesong and Pyongyang. UN forces had moved across the 38th parallel and into North Korea to destroy the last remnants of the North Korean army and needed secure supply lines to support the offensive. LTC Azurin and his men would cross the 38th parallel themselves on October 31, 1950. The Filipinos were transported north by truck to conduct their operations in conjunction with the 65th Infantry which was an infantry regiment from Puerto Rico commanded by Colonel William Harris. The Filipinos were assigned to the 65th Regiment because of the mistaken belief that Filipinos spoke Spanish like the Puerto Ricans. Despite initial communication problems the two units’ leadership spoke enough English to coordinate operations between each other.

It was during this operation to secure the UN supply lines between Kaesong and Pyongyang that the Filipino battalion fought their first battle against a non-guerrilla unit. A battalion of North Korean soldiers ambushed the 10th BCT near the North Korean city of Muidong, but the hardened Filipino soldiers quickly counterattacked and killed 50 of the North Korean soldiers while only losing one Filipino soldier. Lieutenant Colonel Azurin continued his small team patrol tactics in this region to intercept guerrillas operating in the hills. Amazingly one of these small five man patrols was able to capture 77 North Korean soldiers that surrendered to them.

Relieving Colonel Azurin

It was during their anti-guerrilla campaign in North Korea that the bitter Korean winter hit the 10th BCT. The Filipino soldiers in the 10th BCT had never even seen snow before much less the extremely cold temperatures they found themselves in and were not properly equipped to deal with the cold. The 10th BCT was promised that they would receive cold weather gear from the American 24th ID regiment they found themselves working with in North Korea, but none arrived. Colonel Azurin fought bitterly with the American leadership to provide the clothing.

The 10th BCT’s first two commanding officers LTC Mariano Azurin and LTC Dionisio Ojeda.

The 10th BCT would eventually receive their cold weather gear, but not before many Filipino soldiers received cold weather injuries and Colonel Azurin was relieved of his command at the request of the request of Colonel William Harris who accused Azurin of being, “much of a protester and not a doer”. The fight over the cold weather gear was the tipping point to remove Azurin because Colonel Harris had also fought bitterly with Azurin over dividing the 10th BCT from one whole battalion to five separate companies to conduct separate guerrilla operations in five different North Korean towns. Azurin wanted to keep the battalion together so each company could support each other and he could better command and control of them. All indications are that Colonel Azurin was a good man trying to do his best for his soldiers, but as fate would have it, it ended up being a good thing for the 10th BCT to have Azurin relieved. The man who hand picked by Colonel Harris to replace Lieutenant Colonel Mariano Azurin would go on to become a great leader and a legendary hero of the Philippine military during the Korean War. This man was Lieutenant Colonel Dionisio Ojeda.

LTC Ojeda was a World War II veteran who fought on Bataan and Corregidor against the Japanese and was a survivor the Bataan Death March. He was tough, experienced and used to working with Americans which is what the 10 BCT needed at the time.

The Chinese Enter the War

On Thanksgiving of 1950 the Chinese military launch their massive sneak attack against the allied forces which found the PEFTOK soldiers retreating south with the rest of the UN forces to escape the nearly 300,000 marauding Chinese soldiers that were steam rolling down the peninsula.

The 10th BCT retreated with the rest of the UN forces in what became known as, “The Big Bug Out” as soldiers from all the various nations’ armies retreated from the Chinese enemy that in the minds of the soldier fighting them had taken on superhuman characteristics. The truth was that the Chinese were not superhuman and were in fact taking heavy casualties during the offensive sweep south down the peninsula from allied artillery and aerial bombing.

The UN forces were able to strengthen their frontlines just south of Seoul and the 10th BCT ended up spending their first Christmas in Korea in the walled city of Suwon. By February Lieutenant Colonel Dionisio Ojeda and his men of the Filipino 10th BCT were attached to the US 3rd Infantry Division. Following the Chinese defeat at Chipyong-ni by the US 23rd Infantry Regiment with support from the French Battalion, the 3rd ID was tasked to begin an offensive operation against the retreating Chinese forces. The 3rd ID aided by the 10th BCT helped the allies to push the Chinese out of Seoul and across the Imjim River.

The Chinese Spring Offensive

After the offensive operation the allies fortified their positions on the southside of the Imjim River while the Chinese reconsolidated their forces on the north side in preparation of a spring offensive to crush the UN forces once and for all. In April 1951 the 10th BCT was transitioned to the reserve of the US 65th Infantry Regiment, which would be the 2nd time the Filipinos worked with the Puerto Rican unit. The reserve duty was to allow the Filipinos some time to rest after the long offensive operation against the Chinese.

The 10th BCT is located on the above map between Highway 33 and the Imjim River on the north-central front.

However, rest for Lieutenant Colonel Ojeda and his men would not last long as on April 22, 1951 the Chinese launched a massive counterattack dubbed the Chinese Spring Offensive against the allied forces. LTC Ojeda received orders to deploy his men along Highway 33 running to Chorwon to reinforce the allied front lines along the Imjim River. The area they were to reinforce was a ridgeline to the west of the highway and bordered by the Imjim River on the location’s western flank near the city of Yeonchon. On the left flank of the Filipinos the Puerto Ricans had dug themselves in and even further west of the Puerto Ricans was the British 29th Brigade augmented with a Belgian Battalion that were also attached to the US 3rd Infantry Division just like the Filipinos. To the right flank and to the east, the 10th BCT was bordered by the Turkish Brigade that was just recovering from heavy losses inflicted on the brigade by the Chinese during the Battle of Kunu-ri a few months prior. Further to the east of the Turks were units from the US 25th Infantry Division that the Turks were attached to.

Battle of the Yultong

Directly opposite of the Filipino positions were four Chinese division numbering about 40,000 men. The 10th BCT did not receive contact from these Chinese units until just after midnight on April 23rd. The Chinese opened their attack with a heavy artillery barrage before advancing on the Filipino defenders in the darkness of the night which they preferred to fight in. Once the artillery barrage ended it was clear an assault on the 10th BCT’s fortified ridgeline was coming because of the loud noises from the Chinese’s bugles, gongs, and drums that they used to communicate between their units. The first Chinese assault on the 10th BCT position was from the east side of the ridgeline. Baker Company of the 10th BCT successfully defended the east side of the ridgeline and inflicted heavy casualties on the Chinese aided with mortar and artillery support from the Filipino artillery battery.

However, during the massive Chinese assault on the east side of the 10th BCT the Chinese were able to push the Turkish Brigade from their positions and began to envelope the eastern flank of the Filipino battalion. LTC Ojeda was aware of the danger to his flank by the Chinese trying to surround Baker Company. To fortify his flank Ojeda organized and led a makeshift unit of the battalion’s clerks and cooks to form a defensive line on Baker Company’s flank. This makeshift unit with help from the M24 light tanks and the battalion’s own internal artillery support, was able to hold off the Chinese.

An M24 “Chaffee” light tank with a 75 mm gun belong to the 10th BCT.

However, the situation only got worse for the 10th BCT as the Puerto Rican 65th Infantry Regiment on their western flank began to fallback from the Chinese attack on their exposed flank because of the withdrawal of the Turks. The Chinese attackers had gone behind the 10th BCT’s lines and attacked the Puerto Ricans. As the Puerto Ricans began to fall back to reconsolidate another defensive line to fight the Chinese from, the Chinese then turned their attention towards the Filipinos. The Chinese began to advance up the exposed Filipino flank and Lieutenant Colonel Ojeda used the men of his tank company that were supposed to receive tanks from the US but didn’t, as infantrymen to stop the Chinese advance. The Chinese began to attack a platoon of soldiers from the Tank Company that had just positioned themselves on a small hill on the 10th BCT’s flank overlooking the Korean village of Yultong.

The platoon was commanded by Lieutenant Jose Artiaga who refused to have his men abandon their positions despite the overwhelming Chinese numbers advancing up the hill at them. The platoon stood and fought heroically against the Chinese. This stubborn stand by Lt. Artiaga and his men bought time for his company commander Captain Conrado Yap to mount a counterattack to save the platoon of soldiers from the Chinese onslaught. Captain Yap led the counterattack against the Chinese and would die in the fight. Likewise his platoon leader Lt. Artiaga would also go down fighting, but the counterattack proved successful in saving the platoon from total annihilation by extracting them from the hill and stopping the Chinese advance from reaching the exposed flank of the battalion.

Picture of CPT Conrado Yap and 1LT Jose Artiaga before they were killed in action during the Battle of the Yultong.

At first light Lieutenant Colonel Ojeda used his light M24 tanks to launch another counterattack against the Chinese who were trying to regroup on the hill they had just ceased from the Filipino defenders at great cost. The Chinese were surprised by the sudden counterattack and the 10th BCT was once again able to drive the Chinese back off the ridgeline.

Despite the success of the counter attack LTC Ojeda found himself with a major problem on the morning of April 23rd; his unit was completely surrounded by the Chinese due to the withdrawal of the units positioned to his left and right flanks that night. Being a soldier from an island nation it was a tad bit ironic that from his battalion’s fortified ridgeline position LTC Ojeda found himself literally as a Philippine island in the middle of a sea Chinese infantry swarming past them. However, to hold this Filipino island, the 10th BCT had 10 soldiers killed, 14 missing, and 26 wounded in action after the battle that night, which wasn’t to bad of a result considering how out manned the battalion had been.

Withdrawal from Yultong

By mid-day Lieutenant Colonel Ojeda’s unit still firmly held the ridgeline and the Chinese had pretty much quit fighting to capture the ridgeline. Instead they continued to flow around the ridge and press their attack against retreating allied units. The commander of the 3rd ID, General Soule saw how his attached Philippine battalion was surrounded and alone, north of his front lines and ordered it to conduct a fighting withdrawal south to link up with the rest of the division. The division had another unit, the Belgian Battalion, that was also surrounded north of friendly lines it was trying to extract as well. General Soule ordered the Puerto Rican 65th Infantry and the 64th Tank Battalion to occupy blocking positions north of the Han-tan River along Highway 33 to cover the withdrawal of both the Belgian Battalion and the 10th BCT. LTC Ojeda led his men off the ridgeline and fought through light Chinese contact before linking up with the allied units positioned at the Han-tan River. The extractions of both the Filipino and Belgian Battalions had been a success.

June 9, 1951 article in the Stars & Stripes newspaper describing a commendation from the 3rd ID commander MG Robert Soule.

Once LTC Ojeda linked up with his American counterparts, he received orders from General Soule to lead a withdrawal south with the 65th Infantry in order to link up with the commander of the British 29th Brigade, Brigadier Tom Brodie in order to fill in gaps in the British unit’s frontline. Starting at 1400 on April 23rd, the 10th BCT led a withdrawal down Highway 33 and then turned down Highway 11 to link up with the British 29th Brigade. However, due to light contact along the way Colonel Ojeda was not able to link up with Brigadier Brodie’s unit until 20:00 that night. Brigadier Brodie figured it would be to difficult for Ojeda to get his men organized and dug in during the night on the brigade’s frontlines and decided to keep the Filipinos in reserve until the next morning.

Rescue of the Gloucestershire Battalion

After the fight on the Battle of the Yultong, the PEFTOK soldiers once again found themselves in the reserve. However, the rest for the Filipinos in the reserve would be short lived as the British Gloucestershire Battalion located on a ridge along the frontlines of the 29th Brigade became surrounded after desperate battle that night. British 29th Brigade Commander Brigadier Tom Brodie, was looking for options to extract the British soldiers from their isolated position and decided to have the 10th BCT’s Commander Lieutenant Colonel Dionisio Ojeda take his men north with a column of British tanks and infantry in order to try and rescue the Gloucestershire Battalion.

April 28, 1951 edition of the Stars & Stripes newspaper features a full page article on the “Fighting Filipinos” of the 10th BCT.

The combined Filipino-British rescue team left at 0730 on April 24th and traveled up Highway 5Y towards the Gloucestershire Battalions positions. However, once the road entered a mountainous valley it became very narrow and uneven. As it turned out the British Centurion tanks were too heavy and wide to use the road and only four light M24 tanks that the 10th BCT had could traverse the road. Once Brigadier Brodie was informed of the problem, he ordered the unit to establish a blocking position approximately 2 miles short of the Gloucestershire Battalion while he decided with his staff how best to proceed to rescue the surrounded battalion.

After conferring by radio with the Gloucestershire Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel James P. Carne, Brigadier Brodie decided that the Gloucesters were too weak to mount a fighting withdrawal and needed an allied unit to clear the Chinese from the surrounding ridgeline in order to save the battalion. Brodie decided to send the 65th Infantry and the 64th Tank Battalions to clear the ridgeline with the Filipinos following behind them to protect their flanks from a Chinese counterattack. The attack was to begin at 0630 on April 25th, which meant that the Gloucesters were going to have to survive yet another night of Chinese attacks on their position.

However, as the Glosters fight on the hill became more desperate Brigadier Brodie decided to see if the Filipinos could be able to extract the surrounded battalion. He ordered Colonel Ojeda to move his unit up the road and see if he could complete the link up with the Gloucestershire Battalion. Ojeda’s tanks moved up the narrow valley and the first tank in his column struck a land mine destroying it. An ambush from entrenched Chinese on the hillsides followed and the Ojeda’s men found themselves in full contact with the enemy. The British centurion tanks down the road could see the ambush taking place and began firing into the hillsides at the Chinese infantrymen. The fire from these tanks allowed Ojeda to get his wounded men extracted from the tank destroyed by the landmine. Ojeda then has the three remaining tanks act as a rear guard as his unit withdrew back down the valley to link up with the British tanks. Colonel Ojeda radioed back to Brigadier Brodie to inform him that there was no way his men could extract the Gloucesters by themselves. They needed help and no help came.

Kamak mountain valley that the PEFTOK soldiers traveled up to try and rescue the Gloucestershire Battalion.

During this fight to relieve the Gloucesters Brodie was informed that the allied leadership had decided to pull the UN forces’ frontline further south to all UN units to reorganize their frontlines. Due to this, the attack the next morning by the 65th Infantry Regiment was called off and only one platoon of tanks from the regiment was assigned to try and breakthrough to the Gloucesters which of course the next morning failed because approximately an entire Chinese division had moved into the valley by this time. On the western side of the ridgeline a combined US-ROK assault had also failed to reach the trapped unit but they were able to rescue a few stragglers that were able to evade the Chinese when they overran their position.

Colonel Ojeda’s unit was also called off from any counterattack and likewise were ordered to redeploy south to the new frontline. Ultimately the rescue of the Gloucestershire Battalion would end unsuccessfully and the unit was completely destroyed with only a 67 men able to make it off the mountain that day with the rest of the 700 man unit either dead or captured. Out of all the units that tried to rescue the Glosters, the 10th BCT came the closest to them by having the Chinese turn back their rescue effort a mere 2 kilometers from the surrounded battalion.

Aftermath of the Chinese Spring Offensive

In an investigation into the loss of the Gloucestershire Battalion, the I Corps Commander General Frank Milburn drew particular attention to how the attack by the LTC Ojeda’s 10th BCT was not followed up on by more allied units to break through the Chinese lines to reach the lost battalion. Colonel Ojeda’s men had opened up a wedge into the Chinese frontlines but without more follow on forces to fight the entrenched Chinese, there was no way the Filipinos could break through themselves. Brigadier Brodie would later explain that he decided not to send more forces to aid the Filipino rescue attempt because he thought the Gloucestershire Battalion could hold out until the next day when his planned operation with the 65th Regiment could rescue them, but the withdrawal order and the fact that the Glosters were in worse shape then Brigadier Brodie believed all combined to cause the loss of the unit. Sadly in the failed attempt to reach the trapped unit, Ojeda had five of his soldiers killed and more wounded by the Chinese.

When the Eighth Army Commander General Matthew Ridgeway read the results of the investigation he concluded the loss of the Gloucestershire Battalion was the fault of Brigadier Brodie not knowing his men. Ridgeway felt Brodie should have known the Glosters commander Lieutenant Colonel Carne had a habit of understating things and should have moved more soldiers in sooner to aid the 10th BCT’s rescue effort.

Overall the Chinese Spring Offensive was a failure and the allies ultimately reclaimed the lost territory with an offensive operation that Lieutenant Colonel Dionisio Ojeda’s 10th Battalion Combat Team participated in. After the battle the allies estimated that 75,000 enemy soldiers died during the Spring Offensive with 50,000 of them dying in the Seoul corridor where the Battle of the Imjim occurred.

The Roman Catholic men of PEFTOK attend mass at the county of Chorwon.

The Chinese would never truly recover from this defeat and after their failed second spring offensive two weeks later the communists initiated ceasefire negotiations after even more heavy losses. The ceasefire negotiations caused the war to turn into a hill top war for the next two years until a final ceasefire had been declared. Without the heroic fighting of LTC Ojeda’s 10th BCT along with the rest of the allied forces that fought tenaciously in the Seoul corridor, the ceasefire may have come much sooner with the communist controlling Seoul and in a position of strength to dictate the terms of the ceasefire. As it turned out the allies were in the position of strength during the ceasefire negotiations in part due to the actions of what the US command began calling the “Fighting Filipinos” of the 10th BCT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iZm15cmYSc

Remembering the PEFTOK Soldiers

Lieutenant Colonel Ojeda changed command in June 1951 and the 10th BCT redeployed from Korea soon after him in September 1951 and were replaced by another Filipino PEFTOK unit.  The Philippine government maintained their PEFTOK troop commitment to Korea until May 1955, two years after the Demilitarized Zone was established with the signing of the armistice agreement. Overall 7,420 Filipino soldiers fought in the Korean War making the Philippines the fourth largest contributor of combat troops to aid in the defense of Korea. 112 soldiers died and approximately over 400 were wounded during the PEFTOK participation in the Korean War. The “Fighting Filipinos” would receive many combat decorations during the Korean War to include Lt. Artiaga posthumously receiving the US Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during the Battle of the Yultong. The Tank Company received a 8th Army unit citation for their actions at the Battle of the Yultong as well. The PEFTOK units were also awarded the Presidential Unit Citations from South Korean President Syngman Rhee.

To this day the Korean government honors the veterans of the Philippines who fought in the Korean War with a memorial located near the location of the Battle of the Yultong:

Additionally the PEFTOK soldiers are memorialized in the Korean War memorial in Seoul where reunions for Filipino veterans are held and have even been attended by prior Korean presidents.  Without a doubt the person that brought out the best of the first PEFTOK battalion sent to fight in the Korean War and set the standard for all follow on PEFTOK units was Lieutenant Colonel Dionisio Ojeda. Because of his leadership and combat ability LTC Ojeda is truly a hero of the Korean War.

Note: You can read more of the ROK Drop featured series Heroes of the Korean War at the below link:

Basic Information

• Lewis Millett
• Rank: Captain (during Korean War)
• Born: December 15, 1920
• Battlefield: Battle of Hill 180
• Date of Battle: February 7, 1951

Introduction

The Korean War featured some heroes that had colorful life stories such as the Frenchman Ralph Monclar & the Turk Tahsin Yazici before finding themselves in the frozen rice paddies of the Korean peninsula. However, probably no American combat hero from the war had as unconventional military career as the legendary Lewis L. Millett.

Millett was born in Mechanic Falls, Maine, on December 15, 1920, but spent the majority of his childhood growing up in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. He left high school at Dartmouth after his junior year in 1938 to enlist in the state’s National Guard. Millett wanted to fight the fascism he saw threatening the world that was rising from Nazi Germany and thus left his National Guard unit and joined the Army Air Corps in 1940. However, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that he United States would not enter the war against the Nazis, Millett deserted the US Army and hitchhiked to Canada where he enlisted in the Canadian military.

In the Canadian Army Millett was selected with one other American to attend “Top Secret” training in radio location in what later became known as radar. It was a bit ironic that one US Army deserter and the other American a Marine that was released from service for a bad conduct discharge were now receiving “Top Secret” training in Canada. However, Millett would never serve as a radar operator because of the aerial gunnery training he had received in the Army Air Corps. The Canadian Army decided to put these skills to use by deploying him to England to man an anti-aircraft artillery gun during the bombing blitz of London.

Service During World War II

In the aftermath of the bombing at Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war against Nazi Germany. In early 1942 as US troops began to flow into England, Millett took this opportunity to leave the Canadian Army and re-enlist in the US Army. In August 1942 Millet was deployed to North Africa where his first combat action ironically enough involved fighting not the Germans, but the French. The Vichy Regime forces that were allied with the Nazis were guarding the French colonial possessions in North Africa. When Millett’s unit conducted an amphibious landing at Oran, Algeria his unit suffered a number of casualties from the fight against the French forces.

Millet would go on in North Africa to be awarded the Silver Star for driving a burning half track filled with ammunition away from his unit and bailing out just before it exploded. Millet would also serve in the invasion of Italy to include the Battle of Anzio. It was here that his prior desertion caught up to him and the then Sergeant Millett was court martial by his command. He was found guilty and ordered to pay a $52 fine. He was angry about the court martial, but his command told him that they conducted the court martial now in order to prevent him from receiving greater punishment in the future. A few weeks later Millet was awarded a battlefield promotion to 2nd Lieutenant.

Combat Actions In Korea

When the war ended Millet left active duty, joined the Maine National Guard, and eventually enrolled at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. He attended school for three years before being called up for duty in Japan in January 1949. The now Captain Millet was assigned as a battery commander in a field artillery battalion that was part of the 25th Infantry Division.

The 25ID saw heavy combat during the Korean War and Millet was of course in the thick of it. When the company commander of the E company, 27th Infantry Regiment Captain Reginald B. Desiderio was killed on November 27, 1950 he would posthumously be awarded the nation’s highest award for combat valor, the Medal of Honor. The regimental commander needed a new commander to replace the heroic CPT Desiderio and the person he recommended wasn’t even an infantryman, it was the unit’s forward observer, CPT Lewis Millett.

Picture of Capt. Regniald B. Desiderio via the VictoryInstitute.net.

However, Millett couldn’t immediately take command because he had been wounded in the same battle that CPT Desidero had been killed. While he was recovering from his wounds Millett was assigned to fly as an observer in an L-5 observation plane. It was during this time that Millett was awarded his most unusual combat award. The plane was flown by a fearless pilot by the name of Captain James Lawrence who witnessed a South African fighter plan make a crash landing behind enemy lines. Lawrence skillfully landed his plane to evacuate the injured South African pilot by the name of John Davis. The L-5 was only a two seat aircraft and Lawrence asked Millett if he wouldn’t mind jumping out of the plane while he evacuated Davis back to the rear. Most people probably would have minded being left behind enemy lines especially when injured yourself, but Millett jumped out of the plane while Lawrence loaded up Davis and evacuated him to the rear. Lawrence flew back and picked up Millett just in time because they flew out in a hail of bullets from a Chinese patrol that detected his landing. For volunteering to jump out of the plane while Davis was evacuated the South African Air Force awarded Millett a bottle of scotch. Millett would remember years later how ironic it was that Davis a white man of apartheid South Africa would ultimately give his life a few months later flying air support for the all-black US 24th Infantry Regiment.

After recovering from his injuries Millett then took command of E Company. Millett knew he had a tough task on his hand trying to live up to the Medal of Honor bravery of his predecessor, but it didn’t take long for him to prove he was up to the task. On February 7, 1951 Millett’s undersized company of about 100 men were traveling north up an ice covered road near the small hamlet of Soam-ni supported by two tanks. While advancing up the road his unit was engaged by a patrol of Chinese infantrymen located on Hill 180 overlooking the road. One of Millett’s platoons was penned down by automatic weapons fire and Millett could not extract them. This is when Millett made the decision that became one of the most recognized combat actions of the Korean War, he told his men to fix bayonets.

Painting of CPT Millet and his men conducting their famous bayonet charge via the VFW Post 10216 website. 

Millett had heard that the Chinese were passing around propaganda leaflets saying that the US soldiers were afraid to fight up close with bayonets and because of this Millett had begun training his men long and hard on close combat fighting. Ironically Millett being an artilleryman never received any bayonet training in the US Army, but during his time in the Canadian Army he did he receive this training and after all this years he was able to put those skills to use training his company.  This training ultimately paid off for Millett and his men because he felt that the only way to extract his trapped platoon was to lead the rest of his company up the hill with a bayonet charge that the Chinese would have never expected. Just three days before this engagement Millett had led another bayonet charge against a Chinese ambush that caused them to flee, which Millett was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for. Millett found himself now in almost the same identical situation and he was betting that the result would be same.

Millet order his men to run across a frozen rice paddy to the base of the hill. From here Millett with his big red handle bar moustache decided to lead the charge himself up the hill. Unlike the bayonet charge three days prior, these Chinese decided to stay and fight. Millett half way up the hill noticed that not everyone was advancing up the hill and that was when he made his now famous quote of, “C’mon you sons of bitches and fight!” Maybe not all of Millett’s American soldiers were following him up the hill, but at least one Korean Augmentee to the US Army (KATUSA) soldier did. Millett directed him to place covering fire at the Chinese while he advanced further up the hill and assaulted a foxhole that had an anti-tank team in it. Millett bayoneted and killed all three men in the foxhole who were so surprised to see him that they had no time to react.

Millet continued to assault through the position and engage more Chinese infantrymen when he was wounded by shrapnel from a grenade blast, however Millett refused to be medically evacuated until his men had secured the hill top and defeated the Chinese attack.

Picture of CPT Millett after the Battle of 180 via the VFW 10216 website.

A few weeks later Millett would be removed from his command, but it wasn’t from his grenade shrapnel injuries. His regimental commander told him he was being removed from command because he couldn’t afford to have him get killed when he was going to be awarded the nation’s highest award for gallantry, the Medal of Honor.  A few months later on July 5, 1951 Captain Lewis L. Millett was awarded the Medal of Honor at the White House by President Harry Truman. Here is the text of Millett’s Medal of Honor citation:

Capt. Millett, Company E, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action. While personally leading his company in an attack against a strongly held position he noted that the 1st Platoon was pinned down by small-arms, automatic, and antitank fire. Capt. Millett ordered the 3d Platoon forward, placed himself at the head of the 2 platoons, and, with fixed bayonet, led the assault up the fire-swept hill. In the fierce charge Capt. Millett bayoneted 2 enemy soldiers and boldly continued on, throwing grenades, clubbing and bayoneting the enemy, while urging his men forward by shouting encouragement. Despite vicious opposing fire, the whirlwind hand-to-hand assault carried to the crest of the hill. His dauntless leadership and personal courage so inspired his men that they stormed into the hostile position and used their bayonets with such lethal effect that the enemy fled in wild disorder. During this fierce onslaught Capt. Millett was wounded by grenade fragments but refused evacuation until the objective was taken and firmly secured. The superb leadership, conspicuous courage, and consummate devotion to duty demonstrated by Capt. Millett were directly responsible for the successful accomplishment of a hazardous mission and reflect the highest credit on himself and the heroic traditions of the military service.

Post-Korean War Service

After returning from Korea Millett would go on to become an aide-de-camp to General John R. Hodge. Hodge used to be the commander of US forces in Korea prior to the Korean War before he was forced out due to his poor relationship with South Korean President Syngman Rhee as well as General Douglas McArthur. After completing his aide duties the now Major Millett was then sent to Greece as a military adviser to the Greek Army. Following his assignment in Greece Millett then attended the advanced infantry course at Ft. Benning, Georgia. Due to his battlefield commission and postings he had never attended this course that young captains are required to attend. I can only imagine what the captains in this course thought of having a veteran of two wars and a Medal of Honor awardee as a classmate?

In 1958 Millett would also attend and graduate from Ranger School where he would ultimately go on to establish the first Ranger school in Vietnam in 1960 as well as serving two years in Laos between 1968-1970. In 1970 he was transferred to Vietnam to work with the infamous Phoenix Program that was killing or capturing Vietcong leadership operating in various villages. Incredibly he was able to bring his wife and kids over to Vietnam and even had his kids participate in some patrols with him. By 1972 Millett had felt they had won the war and he and his family returned home. However, in 1973 Millett retired from the Army as Colonel because he felt that the US government had quit on the Vietnamese after what he felt was a US victory just a year earlier.

After retirement Millett worked as a deputy sheriff in Tennessee before moving out to California where he spent the rest of his life being active in various veterans groups. Millett was married for forty years to his wife Winona Williams who he met in 1951 at an event celebrating his awarding of the Medal of Honor. She died in 1993 after giving birth to four kids with Millett. Tragically one of Millett’s sons, John an Army Staff Sergeant, would die in the Arrow Air Flight 1285 crash in Gandar, Newfoundland that claimed the lives of 240 members of the 101st Airborne Division that were returning home from a peacekeeping mission in the Egyptian Sinai.  Colonel Lewis Millett would eventually pass away himself on November 14, 2009 at the age of 88 thus ending the incredible life of an extraordinary man who was clearly a Hero of the Korean War.

Further Reading:

• History.net
• NBC Nightly News

Note: You can read more of the ROK Drop featured series Heroes of the Korean War at the below link:

Basic Information

• Name: Gloucestershire Regiment Memorial
• Where: Jokseong, Gyeongi-do Province
• Cost: Free
• More Info: Cultural Heritage Admin. Korea

Narrative

For those that have read my posting about the Hero of the Korean War, Lieutenant James P. Carne and his men of the Gloucestershire Battalion during the Korean War, you may be interested in seeing what the battle site looks like today.  Fortunately the area that the battle took place has turned into the nicest memorial of any other Korean War battle field I have seen yet.  The memorial is located below the large Kamaksan mountain and just outside the village of Jokseong on Highway 56:

It takes less than hour to drive to the site from both Dongducheon and Uijongbu on Highway 56.

The memorial is easy to spot due to this large sign on the side of the highway:

Besides the sign the prominent flags also give away the fact that this area is a Korean War memorial site.  The flags were backdropped by Gloster Hill which is where the Gloucestershire Regiment made their final last stand during the Battle of the Imjim:

I have been to the site three times and each time the site has been well maintained and very clean which is not always the case with other Korean War memorial sites I have been to.  The memorial is divided in half with a park on one side of the river and the actual memorial on the other. The park is actually a popular picnic area for Korean locals. There are even restaurants and cafes adjacent to the park for visitors to use.

To reach the actual memorial you have to cross over the creek with the use of this bridge:

The bridge is specially decorated with British flags:

Seeing so many British flags just seems so odd considering you are in Korea, but their are many more Union Jacks on display here than Taegukis. Near the bridge is also a plaque and map describing to visitors the Battle of the Imjim:

Just across the bridge and at the base of Hill 235 is this memorial carved in the rock face:

Here is how the memorial looks up close:

Here is a close up look at the inscriptions on the plaques:

Conclusion

The site may be easy to find, but it can be a bit difficult to get to if you don’t have transportation. Buses from Dongducheon run to Joeksong regularly and from Joeksong the site is only a short cab drive away. This is how I first visited the site but I had to walk back to Joeksong afterwards to catch the bus again.  I later led a group of Soldiers to the site for a leader development session that I did.  This battle has a lot of interesting lessons learned and leadership examples that make for a great professional development opportunity.  Ultimately I recommend this memorial to anyone with an interest in Korean War history.