VC Heroes - The True Stories Behind Every VC Winner Since World War Two. Nigel Cawthorne
was a slight delay while they waited for a platoon that had got lost in the darkness. Then they finally set off at 0520.
All was quiet as they crossed a dry rice paddy and started their ascent. About halfway up, there were several bursts of fire from above. But this was probably just a response to noise heard from below. After a brief halt, the advance began again. It was hard going, since the hill was steep and covered with scrub, loose rocks and fir trees. But at 0550, just as dawn was breaking, B Company reached an open stretch just below the final ridge. There they surprised a bunch of North Korean soldiers having breakfast in the open just 100 yards from the summit.
‘The North Koreans were not used to being attacked at 5 a.m. and the leading Argylls were able to get within 50 yards before making their charge,’ said one of the Argylls who was there.
Those who stood and fought were killed. Others made off, dragging their wounded behind them. The firing alerted another Korean position that the Argylls had passed in the darkness. They opened fire with everything they had, so B Company had to turn back to clear it. Fifteen NKPA soldiers were killed for the loss of five wounded and one dead – a platoon commander. Then followed a classic ‘highland charge’. Screaming like banshees, the Argylls used their rifles and bayonets to clear the North Korean positions. The aggression of the Scots regiment was too much for the NKPA and those who were left alive fled. At 0618 Major Alastair Gordon-Ingram, the commander of B Company, could report back that they had taken Hill 282, at the cost of another ten casualties.
At 0630, C Company, under Major J M Gillies arrived, minus a platoon, which had already joined B Company. They deployed along the ridge, digging slit trenches and collecting the wounded for evacuation. This would be difficult, because the hillside was too steep for stretchers. To get the wounded down, each would have to be carried by four men holding a ground sheet. In the meantime, a request was sent for extra morphine.
Colonel Neilson then ordered Major Gillies to take Hill 388 at the other end of the ridge. This lay 2,000 yards away across a low saddle. But, first, defensive positions had to be completed and an artillery plan drawn up. At 0815, battalion headquarters moved up to Hill 148 and A Company was stood down for a wash and breakfast. Then at 0830 ranging fire of North Korean mortars began to rain down, but the ridge-top defences were almost complete, minimising British casualties. Half an hour later, small parties of North Koreans began infiltrating around the left flank and the British forward position had to be reinforced.
For Major Kenneth Muir, the position of second-in-command was a frustrating one. In the ordinary course of events, all he could do was wait until his superior officer was sick, wounded, killed or in some other way incapacitated. But Major Muir was a man of action and, when a carrier party sent forward to evacuate the wounded got lost, he volunteered to lead a second team. By 0900, he was at the top of Hill 282 and in the thick of it.
Having established the range, the enemy were now bombarding the ridge with mortar and shell fire. The weather was not good, but the Americans were trying to get a Mosquito spotter plane airborne to find out where the enemy guns were. In the meantime, they were shelling Hill 388 in the hope of dislodging a possible artillery observation post there.
As the North Korean bombardment continued, there were soon nearly thirty British casualties, more than Muir and his party could handle. It was as much as they could do to move them to the collection point. Then at 0930 the British were informed that the American artillery support would have to be withdrawn, because it was needed elsewhere. They protested, but were assured that the American batteries would continue their support until some relief was found. In fact, the guns were already on the move and the Argylls were left with no weapons with the range to reach the North Korean positions on Hill 388 that overlooked them.
On the ridge, C Company reported what they thought was a small force approaching through the scrub. Things were no better to the rear, where A Company encountered the NKPA coming in from the southwest and west, and found themselves in a battle to hold onto Hill 148.
C Company then found that they were under full attack by a much larger force than they had imagined.
‘The scrub is full of them,’ they radioed.
Two sections of B Company moved forward to reinforce them while the battalion pummelled the scrub with 3-inch mortars. Two Bren guns held back the frontal attack, but the North Koreans began another flanking action. For the next hour this infiltration increased, as did the shelling and mortaring, causing further casualties to the two companies.
Major Muir, a natural leader, took charge and consolidated his forces in the perimeter on Baker Ridge, being held by C Company. According to one report,
Major Muir, although only visiting the position, automatically took over command and with complete disregard for his own personal safety started to move around the forward elements, cheering on and encouraging the men to greater efforts despite the fact that ammunition was running low. He was continually under fire, and despite entreaties from officers and men alike, refused to take cover.
In fact, after assessing the situation, he had radioed Colonel Neilson and proposed that he take command of the hilltop defences. He was confident that he could hold Hill 282, he said, provided they were well supplied with ammunition. However, they were sitting ducks for enemy artillery and mortar fire, and could promise no offensive action unless he was given fire support.
Colonel Neilson immediately agreed that Major Muir should take command on Hill 282. Ammunition was on its way, carried by C Company’s returning stretcher bearers, and Neilson said he had already requested an airstrike on Hill 388, sending full map references. Then the news came through that three American Mustangs would strike at noon.
As the Argylls waited on the hilltop, under fire, for the American airstrike, they laid out large white panels, indicating the presence of friendly troops. At midday, a Mosquito spotter plane appeared above the ridge. The ground troops had no means of communicating with it, but its presence comforted them, since it indicated that help was on its way. In fact, the American forward air controller sent to coordinate the attacks was on the ground at an observation point some way behind.
At 1215, the three Mustangs came roaring in. They circled, looking over the ground. Then they formed a single file and began their attack. They came in low, guns blazing, dropping tanks of napalm. But these hit not Hill 388 but Hill 282. Baker Ridge exploded in a plume of flame a billowing black smoke.
‘I’ve never seen anything as black, even as a fireman,’ said Pat Quinn, an Argyll on the hill who went on to become a fire-fighter in Greater Manchester.
As the hilltop was engulfed in a sea of orange flame, survivors plunged 15 metres (50 feet) down the slope to escape the burning napalm. Then the Mustangs turned for a second run. Major Muir jumped to his feet and waved the white panel. But it did no good. This time the Mustangs fired rockets into the ridge. Then they pulled away and attacked A Company on Hill 148. It was all over in about five minutes.
Some of the wounded had been killed. Fresh wounded made their way to the collection point, if they could. Those badly burned had to be carried.
With the main defensive position destroyed, the Argylls withdrew to a position some 15 metres (50 feet) below the crest.
‘There is no doubt that a complete retreat from the hill would have been fully justified at the time,’ it was reported in dispatches.
But Major Muir was not going to give up the hill. He realised that the enemy had not taken immediate advantage of the incident and the crest was still unoccupied, although under fire.
‘I’ll take them up again, and this time we’ll stay,’ said Muir.
According to Major David Wilson, the commanding officer of A Company and the last man to talk to Major Muir on the battalion net, ‘He said he was going to get the summit back to give the wounded a chance… and in the style of the Northwest Frontier somehow got back to the top. I have never seen anything like it. From perhaps 2,000 yards away, I watched through by glasses, impotent to do anything.’
Major Muir mustered Major Gordon-Ingram, Captain Penman, Company Sergeant