Korea Pair To the Black Watch, Taken POW At The Battle Of The Hook

Korea Medal 22384293 PTE B MURPHY B W UN Korea Medal unnamed

Pte Murphy was taken POW at the battle of the Hook , Korea

In 1952 the 1st Battalion Black Watch sailed to Korea to be part of the Commonwealth Division in the United Nation force containing the Chinese invasion of South Korea. There it took over a vital position known as “The Hook” from American troops. On 19 November 1952 it was subjected to attack by waves of Chinese troops attempting to take the position.

After stiff hand to hand fighting and even having to resort to bringing artillery fire onto its own defensive positions, the Battalion succeeded in fighting off the hordes of attackers. The Hook became the Regiment’s 151st battle honour.

THE SECOND BATTLE OF THE HOOK NOVEMBER 18th/19th 1952



Having swamped the two patrols "A" Company now took the full force of the Chinese attack. From 2110-2140 No 1 Platoon under 419717 2/Lt MDG Black, who was to win the MC, at the western end of the Hook was heavily engaged. There was then a lull until 2150 when it was again subjected to heavy shelling along with the whole of "A" Company and "D" Company to the east.

No. 1 Platoon retired to the tunnels which had been prepared on the Hook and VT was fired into the position and this continued until 2215. Cpl Wilson of 1 Platoon "A" Company described the situation thus:
"When the heavy bombardment started we made for our tunnels as ordered by 2/Lt Black. This barrage was exceptionally heavy and only the following members of my section reached the tunnel: -Ptes Millar 11, Dow 34, Stanley and MURPHY. There were also two RE personnel and 2 KSC parties in the tunnel."

"L/Cpl Watson, Ptes Swan and Oram of my section did not make the tunnel. Neither did Pte Dellow and Coley who were manning the Browning which fired out to Ronson".

"I was the last man to get into the tunnel and standing at the entrance saw the China Men come over the ridge in their own barrage. They fired a burp gun into the tunnel but it only hit the corner of it. I then went to the corner and fired a sten gun magazine out at them"

"Pte Millar then threw a grenade but it hit the wall and bounced back landing only six feet from me. On exploding a piece went into my knee. None of us now had anything left to fight with. I therefore let out a lot of groans and the chinamen came in".

The tunnel had been occupied one hour before the Chinese entered the tunnel and they did not know that it was occupied until Cpl Wilson fired his sten gun. The Chinese took all the men out of the tunnel where they searched them in a trench owing to the heavy shelling. After some time Ptes Millar, Dow, MURPHY, Stanley and the two engineers were led off. Cpl Wilson was carried thirty/forty yards to a "Hutchie" (sic) or "Hootchie" which had ten Chinese in it, where he remained whilst the shelling was heaviest. Later in the trench he watched throughout the night as the Chinese pulled out their dead and wounded. Eventually one Chinaman came along and shook his hand and said "good luck"

By 0630 the Hook was clear and at 0710 Col. Rose went forward. The Battle was over and by 0933 all wounded were off the Hook.

It was estimated that the enemy had attacked in Battalion strength. More than one hundred of his dead were actually counted but some were removed as the Chinese withdrew. The Battalion had lost 107 all ranks. 16 were killed or mortally wounded and 76 were wounded with 15 missing.

1st Black Watch had triumphed because it fought to the finish. The Battalion was largely made up of National Servicemen who maintained the long tradition of the regiment.

Medals in GVF condition

Code: 51092