Battles for The Hook
During my time in Korea I witnessed, fortunately at some distance, two very serious battles on the Hook position.
Namely 18th / 19th November 1952 involving The Black Watch, and 28th /29th May 1953 when the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment was defending the position. Casualties were high on both occasions, especially for the Chinese and North Koreans who were more exposed to our well planned artillery defence barrage.
I believe that a further extremely savage attack was made on the Hook immediately before the truce documents were signed, possibly as bargaining power. The attack was driven off by the brave action of 2 RAR (Royal Australian Regiment) plus a Divisional Artillery Barrage, which must have cost the Chinese heavy losses.
I have since learnt that both the pilot and observer parachuted safely to ground, unfortunately behind the Chinese lines and were taken prisoner.