Posted on 04/23/2002 6:14:42 AM PDT by Clive
April 23, 1951
It is Easter Monday in Korea, and the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (Colonel James R. Stone) are in their rest area, a village called Kap'yong. At midnight, a massive Communist force of about 200,000 Chinese and North Korean soldiers attacks about 20 km to the north, driving the US I Corps and IX Corps out of the line and leaving the route to Seoul defended only by two regiments of the 6th South Korean (ROK) Division.
At 3 a.m., 2 PPCLI is headed back into action.
Col Stone places his companies on Hill 677, a ridge on the west side of a choke point in the Kap'yong Valley. At the same time, the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment moves onto Hill 504, the east side of the choke point. While the Canadians and Australians are digging in, the South Korean regiments finally give way and the valley fills with retreating soldiers and refugees hotly pursued by the Communist armies.
At 10 p.m., the Chinese attack Hill 504, and the Australians fight savagely through the night and all the next day until 9:30 a.m. on April 24, when they have to fall back. The Patricias spent the day stiffening their defences, are they are braced when the Chinese to veer west after the Australians, and hit B Company and the Battalion headquarters on the east flank of the hill. Again, the battle rages all night, shifting to D Company on the west flank of the hill at 2:30 a.m. Toward dawn, as the Chinese over-run his position, D Company's commander, Captain Wally Mills, calls in an air-burst artillery salvo. The brigade guns oblige with about 2 300 shells poured into D Company Headquarters in 20 minutes flat. At first light on April 25, the Chinese are gone.
Two weeks later, 2 PPCLI parades to receive the Distinguished Unit Citation from General James Van Fleet of the Eight US Army. Unfortunately, the Americans failed to ask the Canadian government for permission, and five years pass before the soldiers are allowed to wear the citation ribbon.
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