| Hills 614 to 410, March 1951 |
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We were in support of B&D Company's efforts to take objective 614. The forward, or northern, face of our position was covered with at least 18" of ice and about 4" of snow. Living conditions were similar to living in a deep freeze. Machine guns had to be fired every hour to avoid freezing. After eight days of this we were issued with overboots. On the ninth day we moved off along this mountain in a westerly direction. We had moved about three hundred yards when we came to a valley on our right, it was a most beautiful sight, completely covered with snow and a sprinkle of pine trees. Being a small valley it had a back drop of mist at the end. It looked like a stage setting. I said to one of the boys "Fancy coming to a dump like this to see a scene like this." We made our way further a few hundred yards to find out the reason for the overboots, we walked into snow up to our knees. After six paces everyone threw the overboots away. Trying to extract your feet from the snow was exhausting work, we then walked/marched for quite some hours knee deep in snow. By this time our minds became blank to time. The night before the attack, 1 and 3 platoons assembled at the top of a mountain about 2000 yards opposite the objective we were to take. We arrived at about 2300 hrs. While waiting to move off, we were informed that a reconnaissance party from Bn H.Q. had looked at the slope we were to descend and believed it was ok to scale down. It turned out tha the face of the mountain was sheer ice. At 2400 hrs we were directed to move off. The first two soldiers to step on the slpe promptly fell on their backsides and slid down the mountain and quickly vanished from view. Major O'Dowd said "Well, we have to follow", or words to this effect. We then proceeded to sit down on the edge and push ourselves off. We slid down at a terrific speed. Within seconds you were looking for something to grab to break up your speed, in most cases it was a sapling where you paused for a few seconds. You would then be hit in the back by another soldier unable to stop himselv, so this went on till we reached the bottom of the hill which as stated was about 410 meters or 1300 feet. The two mountains appeared to be the same height. On reaching the assembly point, we were advised we might lay down and have a sleep (and pigs might fly, the snow in that position was about 6' deep. The ice underneath?) At day break which was about 0600 hrs we got ourselves organised ready for the attack. It quickly became broad daylight and we thought we would be moving any minute. Finally at 0700 we were directed to "Move off". Then a strange incident occurred. Not a soul moved. Aftr about a minute I noticed most of the men took their private out and had a widdle. I said to one old hand "What's going on?" He replied "That's what you call a nervous piss." We then moved across the valley floor and ascended 410. About halfway up we walked into a deadly machine gun crossfire which cut the leading group of 1 ptn down like nine pins. We then fell flat onto the ground where the Chinese poured machine gun fire at us for about 15 mins with what seemed unlimited ammunition. There we sustained further casualties, mainly head and shoulders. All that saved the rest of us was a slight rise in the ground in front of us. The next fifteen minutes the Chinese gunner gave us a good spray every 5 mins. Needless to say, all we could do for the rest of the day was to lay where we were. About 1000 hrs a soldier next to me said "Have a go at what is behind us." On looking around there was a column of soldiers heading west. At first we thought they were Chinese, but they turned out to be South Koreans who were supposed to carry out the "Out Flanking" movement and were going in the wrong direction. The Company Commander then called for mortar support from the American 4.2" The Sighter round came pretty close to target, so the Americans then sent in 2-4 round round brackets of H.E. The first bracket fell right amongst 1 ptn. "Bennie" called for a "Cease Fire" but too late. The second bracket was on its way. They also fell amongst us, fortunately only 1 wounded. We were then informed that it was difficult to bed the mortars down in the snow. Later we were told that "D" Coy would carry out the "Out Flanking movement" as the South Koreans who were to do it had got lost. And so we lay on that frozen ground till 1600 hrs, by that time "D" Coy had achieved its objective. We then dug in for the night and were directed to go back a section at a time to our assembly point and retrieve our packs that we were ordered to leave behind. Only to find they had been ratted by the South Koreans. 2/400383 Pt. P. J. Knowles "A" Coy 3Bn RAR |
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