Between 3 and 8 October 1951, troops of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) captured a heavily fortified hill called Maryang San. Over 5 days of fierce combat, they dislodged a larger force from strong mountain defences. 3RAR had 20 men killed in action and 104 wounded. The official historian described it as ‘probably the greatest single feat of the Australian Army during the Korean War.’
Maryang San was the Australian part in a four division offensive called Operation Commando, and the last Australian manoeuvre battle before the war became one of trench lines...
Strategic context
The Korean War started to change in 1951. The early phase of rapid movement up and down the peninsula had ended. As peace talks began in July, both sides sought control of strategic high ground to gain leverage in the negotiations.
Throughout mid-1951, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) had already undertaken a major fortification program along its sector of the front. As such, Chinese infantry held Maryang San (Hill 317), a heavily fortified peak.
Maryang San rose 200 m above the valley with commanding views over the surrounding land. From Maryang San and nearby Kowang San (Hill 355), Chinese troops could observe and target United Nations Command (UNC) positions to the south.
In late September 1951, UNC launched Operation Commando. The goal was to push its front line north to a new, defensible position called the Jamestown Line. Capturing Maryang San was vital to securing this line.
Forces involved
The Chinese 571st Infantry Regiment held the front line at Maryang San. It was a combat unit of the PVA's 191st Division, 64th Army. Some 2,000 troops were dug into deep bunker networks, foxholes and trenches across Maryang San and the adjacent ridges. They were well supplied with weapons and ammunition.
The UNC forces involved in the capture of Maryang San included:
- 3RAR, led by 33-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Frank Hassett, with about 320 troops in the main attack
- 28th British Commonwealth Infantry Brigade, led by Brigadier George Taylor, including the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers and the King's Own Scottish Borderers
- New Zealand artillery support from the 16th Field Regiment
- British Centurion tanks from the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars.
D Company of 3RAR led the main assault, while C Company provided a diversion.
Major Jack 'Basil' Hardiman, commander of D Company, recalled his initial reaction when told his depleted company would lead the assault:
I thought how unprepared we were for such an operation — too many new faces, lacking some items of equipment and not fit enough for a long, tough attack. We spent the last three months in defence. In attack you use entirely different muscles to defence.
Throughout the battle, local South Korean porters helped the UNC forces. Under heavy Chinese artillery and mortar fire, they carried heavy loads of water and ammunition up steep slopes to 3RAR positions. They also carried wounded diggers back down on stretchers.
During the battle
The 1st Commonwealth Division was to advance across the Imjin River and take a line of heights from the 19th Chinese Division. The Chinese line was not continuous. It consisted of company- and battalion-sized entrenchments on key hills.
3RAR was part of the 1st Commonwealth Division. Lieutenant Colonel Hassett of 3RAR used a tactic that had been successful for the Australians against the Japanese in similar terrain in New Guinea during World War II. Called ‘running the ridges’, it involved attacking along the crest of a ridge rather than up the sides.
The operation began on 3 October with 28th Brigade attacking, supported by 16th Field Regiment, Royal New Zealand Artillery and Centurion tanks of the 8th King's Own Irish Hussars.
First, B Company 3RAR took Hill 199, which Hassett intended to use as a base for the main attack along the Maryang San ridge 2 days later.
Meanwhile, C Company moved forward to support the King's Own Shropshire Light Infantry (KOSB) attack on the next hill to the south, Kowang San. The KOSB attack failed.
The following day, C Company was committed to attack the hill from the north-east. This time the hill fell.
Hill 317 (Maryang San), September 1950. (AWM 044421)
On 5 October, the main assault on Maryang San commenced. In a successful attempt to deceive the Chinese that the main Australian attack was coming from south of Maryang San, A Company attacked west along a parallel ridge. They captured a Chinese position and drew local Chinese reserves towards it.
The main attack along the northernmost ridge was a series of company assaults.
First, B Company took 'feature whiskey' and provided fire support when D Company assaulted through and took the next 2 Chinese positions. Lastly, C Company, which had marched by a circuitous route from Kowang San, passed through B and D companies along the ridgeline and seized the crest of Maryang San.
The battle was not yet won as 'the Hinge' and Hill 217 remained in Chinese hands. Believing 3RAR required support to take the whole hill, the divisional commander sent the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (RNF) to aid 3RAR. This battalion attacked but failed to take Hill 217.
On 7 October, 3RAR, now in one body along the spine of Maryang San, attacked and took the Hinge. Chinese reinforcements from 3rd Battalion, 571st Regiment arrived to counterattack. A bombardment from Chinese artillery, the worst the Australians had experienced in the war so far, preceded an assault by the fresh Chinese battalion.
The Chinese assault failed. The Chinese conceded defeat and withdrew to the next line of hills 2 km away. They also evacuated Hill 217.
Outcome and casualties
The assault on Maryang San was a tactical success for 3RAR. The troops dislodged a larger, entrenched force and secured the high ground along the Jamestown Line.
The UNC captured 30 Chinese troops and counted nearly 300 dead on the battlefield. Hundreds more were estimated killed or wounded. The UNC forces had effectively decimated 2 Chinese battalions.
3RAR suffered 20 killed and 104 wounded at Maryang San, including 15 wounded men who remained on duty.
Private Denis O'Brien was a 26-year-old schoolteacher who joined K Force out of a strong conviction to stand with his mates against communism. The night before the assault, O'Brien and his 12th Platoon mates sang an old traditional soldiers' song:
Let's drink to the dead already, and three cheers for the next man to die.
Serving as a Bren-gunner in the lead section, O'Brien became the first Australian soldier killed in the battle on 5 October.
Non-wounded survivors of the 5th Platoon, B Company, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), Korea, 8 or 9 October 1951. B Company had just been withdrawn from the line at the end of the Battle of Maryang San (3 to 8 October 1951). The 5th Platoon helped capture the Hinge and held it through days of heavy shelling and human wave assaults. Identified in the back row, Private Frederick Charles Healy, far right; in the middle rows, Lieutenant Russell John McWilliam (in dark singlet); Corporal John Park (with white shaving cream on face) and Private Raymond James 'Tubby' Hellings, 5 Platoon runner (smiling, without shirt, behind Park); in the front row, Sergeant Ray Norman Parry MM, Platoon Commander (in light-coloured undershirt). Also in the photo, Cooke (probably Corporal Stanley Dennistoun Cooke). The shirtless soldier, front, right, is a reinforcement who did not fight at Maryang San. Parry, Park, Cooke and several others in this photo also fought during the Battle of Kapyong. Donor Ray Parry. AWM P04953.002