Greatest tank battles the korean war10/3/2023 Hand-to-hand fighting ensued with grenades and bayonets. Meanwhile B Company, which had spent the night on a hill near the riiver, discovered Chinese occupying some old bunkers on a small knoll. Throughout the night the Chinese repeatedly pressed the Australian positions, attacking in waves over their own dead and wounded.Īt dawn, A Company, under the command of Major Bernard "Ben" O'Dowd, found that the Chinese had infiltrated its position, but a counter-attack was able to eject them. The Kapyong valley was too large an area to defend with the forces available, and the brigade was spread very thinly. Soon afterwards a platoon of American tanks supporting 3 RAR was overrun. The 1st Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, were to the rear.Įarly in the evening, retreating South Koreans streamed past the Commonwealth position, with Chinese forces closely intermingled. Also forward were headquarters units, tanks and artillery. On 23 April, the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR), under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Ferguson, and the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, occupied prominent hills on either side of the seven-kilometre-wide valley, where a small tributary joined the Kapyong River. Thirty kilometres further south, the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade hastily occupied defensive positions in an attempt to halt the Chinese advance. They quickly overran South Korean forces defending one of the major approach routes, the valley of the Kapyong River. In April 1951 the Chinese launched their spring offensive with the aim of retaking the city of Seoul. Kapyong came to be the most significant and important battle for Australian troops in Korea.
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