"The Australians had done a lot more than their fair share of fighting in the first eight months of the Korean War. And by April they were more than well deserving of a rest and they would receive one. They moved into a rest area at the end of the Kapyong Valley, at the southern end of the Kapyong Valley, where there was beer ration, a very copious beer ration I might add, and they were about to enjoy themselves immensely with sports and special parades and this kind of thing.

Then the Chinese Spring Offensive came to intervene and the Australian battalion found itself right in the path of a Chinese field army which was coming down the Kapyong Valley, having just routed a whole South Korean division. They were quickly rushed into battle, they quickly manned areas where they had no chance to improvise defences. They had no wire to put in front of them, to protect them from Chinese attack, they had no mines to lay minefields, they were dependent entirely on their two hands, their personal weapons, to defeat - or to try and halt - an advance which could have made a significant difference, a vast difference to the whole of the Korean War."

SERGEANT JACK GALLAWAY