VC Heroes - The True Stories Behind Every VC Winner Since World War Two. Nigel Cawthorne
the Chinese attack. He was replaced by General Matthew B Ridgway.
The war swung back and forth across the 38th parallel with huge casualties on both sides. It soon became clear that the war could be won by neither belligerent. On 8 July 1951, liaison officers from both sides met at the ancient capital of Kaesong on the front line. While they talked, the fighting continued. In October 1951, the talks were moved to a more secure area in the village named Panmunjom, where an armistice was signed on 27 July 1953. However, no peace treaty has ever been signed. Technically, despite the long-lasting truce, the two sides are still at war and meetings continue at Panmunjom.
This long and bloody struggle from stalemate to stalemate produced four VCs.
MAJOR KENNETH MUIR
23 September 1950, 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise’s) (Posthumous)
In August 1950, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were mustered in Hong Kong. While their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel George Neilson, and an advanced party travelled to Korea by United States transport plane, the 1st Battalion of the Argylls boarded the cruiser HMS Ceylon in Victoria Harbour under their second-in-command Major Kenneth Muir. Although full of trepidation, the men had enjoyed one last weekend of freedom among the bars and pretty girls of Kowloon.
At around 6.30 a.m. on 23 August, with the men secured below, the Ceylon began to move away from Holt’s Wharf, played out by the pipe band of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers and the Leicesters, both in full dress uniform. The pipes of the Argylls and the band of the Royal Marines responded from the Ceylon’s quarterdeck. As they sailed out into the South China Sea, accompanied by the Middlesex Regiment on board the fleet support carrier Unicorn and escorted by the Australian destroyer Warramunga, the US transport with their commanding officers on board circled the ships and dropped a flare.
Before they had left Hong Kong, the Argylls had been issued with the latest 3.5-inch anti-tank rocket launcher to replace the 2.36-inch model, the original bazooka, which had not proved effective against the Soviet T34 tanks. They had also been issued with twenty rounds of live ammunition so that they could familiarise themselves with the weapon during the voyage. In Korea, they were to be part of the UN force that had been pushed back to a small toehold around Pusan. The British contingent were to be known as the ‘Woolworth Brigade’, because they relied on the Americans for everything, from rations to artillery and air support.
As they approached the quay at Pusan, the British contingent were greeted by US Army band playing the popular song ‘Silver Dollar’, which slipped tempo into ‘God Save the King’ as the Ceylon and Unicorn tied up. Then a Korean Army band and a choir of Korean schoolchildren joined in. Korean government officials and the press corps were there to greet them.
‘They marched ashore as if they were still on parade. And they all looked fighting fit,’ noted the Daily Mail.
The soldiers were young, though anyone in the regiment younger than 19 had been left behind in Hong Kong. Then the Argyll pipers, in their distinctive white tunics and regimental kilts, struck up. An American journalist asked Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Man of the Middlesex Regiment why they had no band.
‘Well, the Scots need those contraptions to fight with,’ he replied.
Trains were waiting to carry them up to Kyongsan. The Royal Navy helped load their equipment, then the Argylls had to wait all day among the refugees who had fled the North and the stench of open sewers and the wood smoke of a thousand cooking fires. Finally, by 2330, they had boarded the train and it pulled out to carry them the 60 miles to Taegu.
As they were moving up into active service, the colours of the battalion, along with the regimental silver, had been left behind in Hong Kong, together with the heavy vehicles. The Americans were to supply the British, though this presented logistical problems. Despite a quayside speech about the ‘historic unity of the Anglo-Saxon people’, transatlantic ammunition calibres did not match and the US quartermasters had to search long and hard to find a special issue of tea that would suit British tastes.
For the next two weeks, living under makeshift shelters, the battalion survived on bread, cheese, cold sausage at midday and ‘some form of exotic American tinned meat’ for dinner. Winter clothing was held in reserve. The men kept fit by running or climbing the hills. They continued to practise with the new bazooka, while officers began liaison visits to the American units in the line.
On 4 September the British were moved into the line along the Naktong River, relieving the 3rd Battalion of the American 23rd Infantry, holding the left flank of the US 1st Cavalry Division. They were to hold 10 miles of the 35-mile front there, supported by a platoon of Sherman tanks, a battery of 155mm artillery, one of 105mm guns and an attachment of Tactical Air Control from the 5th Air Force. The Argylls were to hold the southern sector, the Middlesex the north.
The handover was to be done at night, to avoid alerting the enemy. During the day, reconnaissance parties had been sent ahead. Then, at dusk, the main body was brought up on board US trucks. They set off in single file down mountain tracks that soon petered out. After that, they navigated by compass, making as little noise as possible. This was not without its difficulties on hillsides coved with scrub and dwarf oaks. The advance was covered by Vickers medium machine guns and 3-inch mortars. But there were such gaps in the defensive cover that the enemy could come and go unseen.
By sunrise the Argylls were in position, though they had not been helped by their American guides, who had lost their way. The Middlesex were in more trouble. A subaltern returning to his platoon after a recce was shot by a sentry. On 8 September their vehicles arrived, having been bought my merchant ship from Hong Kong and by railway flatcar from Pusan.
With American and Republic of Korea troops fighting defensive actions to either side, the British set up listening posts on either side of the Naktong River and sent out reconnaissance patrols at night. They soon discovered that a large force of the North Korean People’s Army was forming up on the hills to the south of the Argylls. One early patrol engaged one of its outposts and American artillery and British mortars pummelled the enemy’s position.
The Argylls’ left flank was difficult to supply. Air drops were not accurate enough and supplies had to be brought up by Korean porters. American helicopters medevacked the wounded out. Some 230 poorly armed and badly trained Korean policemen were brought up to fill the gap between the British and the US 2nd Division to the south. An ex-World War Two prisoner of war was chosen to liaise with them because he spoke some Japanese, a language widely understood by Koreans after Japan’s long occupation.
On the night of 20 September, the British crossed the Naktong in force in an effort to begin the breakout from the Pusan perimeter. After they had established a forward position the other side of the river, the first objective was to take the high ground beyond. That afternoon, with the support of two US Sherman tanks, A Company managed to take Hill 148 without losing a man. But there was not enough time before nightfall to take to the two hills – Hill 282 and Hill 388 – that formed ends of a ridge about a mile long beyond.
During the night of the 22nd, the British brought up mortars and Vickers machine guns to guard the flanks, and American forward artillery observers joined the Argylls. Colonel Neilson set up his headquarters at the eastern end of a ridge held by A Company, which overlooked B and C Companies’ start line for the next day’s assault. The Argylls were told that they would be making a surprise attack, so there would be no artillery softening up or preliminary aerial bombardment that might warn the enemy of their intentions.
Although they had spent most of the night digging in, the 1st Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were woken at 0400 and drawn up facing northwest and