LEWIS MILLETT
This captain led the last bayonet charge in US military history, with two platoons, to take a strongly held enemy position near Soam-ni, Korea
True story of America’s last bayonet charge
The UN forces in Korea endured a disastrous start to 1951. On 31 December 1950 the Chinese 13th Army breached UN defences below the 38th parallel as part of the Third Phase Campaign and, on 3 January, Seoul was evacuated by the US Eighth Army. The Eighth Army was commanded by Lieutenant General Matthew B Ridgeway, who had been in office for little over a week, taking up his command only on 26 December 1950. One of the regiments in the Eighth Army was the 27th Infantry Regiment, the Wolfhounds (a name given to them by their Bolshevik enemies in Siberia when they served there during the Russian Civil War in 1918-19). Commanding Company E, Easy Company, of the 2nd
Battalion was 30-year-old Captain Lewis Millett, a veteran of several theatres in WWII whose red handlebar moustache had led, unsurprisingly, to the nickname Red, although men who knew him called him Lou.
Less than three weeks after evacuating Seoul, Ridgeway, determined to improve morale, organised a reconnaissance in force. Operation Wolfhound was to be led by I Corps and spearheaded by the 25th Infantry Division. The central force of this operation was the 27th Infantry Regiment, after whom the operation was named. The operation pushed north, with artillery and air support back towards Seoul. It was an immense success, establishing a new front line. A new offensive, Operation Thunderbolt, was then launched on 25 January, and I Corps advanced towards Suwon, 19 miles (30km) south of Seoul, taking it from the communist forces in one day. By 31 January the front line had advanced north of Suwon, and on 4 February a general advance was ordered towards the south bank of the Han River, prioritising the taking of Inchon and Kimpo
Airfield. The enemy maintained resistance, delaying the advance with minefields and destroyed bridges, but seemed to be preparing for a major offensive on 8 February (after the Chinese New Year and perhaps on the birthday of the Korean People’s Army).
The strongest enemy positions were placed directly in the way of I Corps’ advance, centred on Kwanak Mountain, the last defensible heights before reaching Seoul. These positions were held in strength by the North Korean 47th Division and towards them marched the men of the 27th Infantry Regiment.
The Division left Suwon on 3 February and marched 16 miles (26km) to a point near Anyang. From that vicinity, the Division proceeded to operate a series of patrol actions between 4-10 February. Several of these patrols were intended to attack smaller enemy strongholds during daylight hours.
On 7 February, 1951, Millett’s company was involved in just such a patrol. Captain Millett was personally leading the 100 men of Easy Company in an attack on enemies positioned on Hill 180, near Soam-ni. The approach was from a smaller line of hills, and as he advanced he noticed that 1st Platoon was pinned down by machine-gun and anti-tank fire. These were
“CAPTAIN MILLETT ORDERED THE 3D PLATOON FORWARD, PLACED HIMSELF AT THE HEAD OF THE TWO PLATOONS, AND, WITH FIXED BAYONET, LED THE ASSAULT UP THE FIRE-SWEPT HILL” Medal of Honor citation
Russian 14.5mm PTRD-1941 anti-tank rifles, known as ‘buffalo guns’, used for long–range sniping as well as taking out vehicles. Each North Korean Division was equipped with 36 of these old but deadly weapons. Gathering the men of 3rd Platoon, Millett went to the support of his 1st Platoon.
Millett later recalled that he fixed his own bayonet and then ordered his men to “fix bayonets and follow me”. The men charged up the hill, encouraged by Millett shouting: “Grenades and cold steel!” As they approached the position, Millett saw the 14.5mm anti-tank nest and charged it himself, killing the threeman gun crew with his bayonet. (His citation would claim he killed two men). Millet then waved his men forward from the top of the hill and they continued the attack with grenades and bayonets. Pictures of Millett at the time (and in the life-size diorama of his action at the National Infantry Museum, Fort Benning, Georgia) show him with grenades attached to his harness. Once the North Korean commander was killed, the remainder of the enemy, perhaps 200 men, broke and fled.
The communist forces suffered 18 dead to the bayonets of Millett’s company, which suffered nine dead in the daring attack.
Another version claims that 50 enemy were killed, 20 by bayonet.
Millett would later claim that he had already led bayonet charges to take similar enemy strong points in patrols on the 4th and 5th of February, but his may have been part of General Ridgeway’s plan to re-instil morale. Of the action, Millett later claimed that:
“The Chinese had put out the word that we were afraid of bayonets. ‘Americans afraid of bayonets is just ridiculous,’ I thought, so I intended to prove a point.” Another version of this recollection is more colourful, with Millet telling another interviewer: “We had acquired some Chinese documents [propaganda leaflets] stating that Americans were afraid of hand-tohand fighting and cold steel. When I read that I thought, ‘I’ll show you, you sons of bitches!’” Millett also claimed that the reason for his unit’s success in their charge on the enemy was that it was a composite unit, made up of men from diverse ethnic backgrounds. “I had a composite unit, from every national group in the United States. We had black, white and brown – I’d say typically American – and typically American, they took the objective, and typically American they were very proud after it.”
Immediately after the enemy fled from
Hill 180, Millett was wounded by grenade fragments in his shin, but he refused to be evacuated until the objective was secured. One version of events claimed Millett was wounded before he even charged.
Historian of the US Army, SLA Marshall, called Millett’s charge “the most complete bayonet charge by American troops since Cold Harbor”, recalling the June 1864 battle in Virginia during the US Civil War. Marshall was present the day after Millett’s charge and would write the recommendation for his Medal of Honor. (Marshall called the location Anyang-ni).
It would not be long before Millett received his medal, with President Harry S Truman presenting it to him in July 1951. It was the pinnacle of a remarkable and unique military career (and one which continued until 1973). In all, Millett served for 35 years in the military.
“IN THE FIERCE CHARGE CAPT. MILLETT BAYONETED TWO ENEMY SOLDIERS AND BOLDLY CONTINUED ON, THROWING GRENADES, CLUBBING AND BAYONETING THE ENEMY, WHILE URGING HIS MEN FORWARD BY SHOUTING ENCOURAGEMENT” Medal of Honor citation
He enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard when he was only 17, possibly as part of the 101st Artillery Regiment in which his uncle had served in WWI. He then joined the Army
Air Corps in 1940. When President Roosevelt announced that no American would fight on foreign soil in a speech that September, however, Millett deserted and travelled to Canada to enlist in the Canadian Army. In early 1941 he travelled to London as part of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, serving as a gunner (some accounts say radar operator) during the latter stages of the Blitz.
When the USA entered the war, he went to the US Embassy and asked to be transferred to the US Army, joining the 27th Armored Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Armored Division, in 1942. He was involved in Operation Torch in Tunisia and was awarded the Silver Star after jumping into a burning ammunition-filled halftrack and driving it away from Allied soldiers before jumping clear just before it exploded. Soon after that he shot down a Messerschmitt Me-109, firing a machine gun mounted on a half-track and shooting the pilot through the cockpit. Millett then joined the invasion of Italy at Salerno and then Anzio as a sergeant. In Italy, his desertion was uncovered and he was court-martialled and fined $52; in the field he was soon promoted again and awarded a Bronze Star. He spent six months in North Africa and six months in Italy.
After his service in Korea, Millett graduated Ranger School at Fort Benning. He served with the 101st Airborne Division in the Vietnam
War as an intelligence officer and was involved as an adviser in the Phoenix Program, the controversial operation to identify Viet Cong sympathisers. He later went on to command a reconnaissance commando school to train small teams for covert actions in Vietnam at the Army Security Agency at Fort Devens. Millett retired in 1973 having achieved the rank of colonel. In all he was awarded the Medal of Honor, Silver Star, Distinguished Service Cross, two Legions of Merit, three Bronze Stars, four Purple Hearts and three Air Medals.
Every year on the anniversary of ‘the Battle of Bayonet Hill’ a commemoration is held by troops stationed at Osan Air Base in South Korea. It’s one of the base’s major annual events. Millett himself visited the base and joined in the commemorations on several occasions, beginning in 1975. A plaque within the base claims that the battle took place within the grounds of the airbase, but the site of the battle was actually some distance north of the base. The reasons for claiming the battle in such a way are understandable, as is the esprit de corps the association encourages. Unfortunately, the original Medal of Honor record contained an error in its map reference number, allowing for confusion to creep in.
What this mislocation also meant, however, was that the actual location of the battle was lost. That is, until 2018 when it was placed once more in its correct location by retired
US Air Force colonel David Murphy (although others argue for alternative locations). Murphy’s investigations were not helped by the fact that Millett, on his visits to Osan, stated that the ‘Hill 180’ within the Air Base was the site of his action and he would point out on his visits where parts of his action occurred on the hill within the base. For this reason, Osan personnel have been unwilling to accept the revised location of the battle even though it accords with official maps of the operation (which began north of the position of Osan, which itself is south of Suwon, where the 25th Infantry Division was on 3 February).
We don’t know if Millett misremembered the location of the engagement – his first visit to Osan occurred in 1975 and it had been 24 years since the battle. It’s possible that the hill there looked similar to the actual Hill 180 some 25 miles (40km) further north. Murphy speculated that Millett was taken to the wrong hill by his hosts and did not question them or the location. Millett’s recollections across several visits then cemented the tradition that the hill within Osan was the site of the battle. That provided the personnel of the base all the proof they needed that the base contained the location of the battle and that this tradition should not be questioned. Millett himself may have realised his mistake – in a 1993 interview he stated that the battle took place “north of Osan” and in 1994 claimed to not remember the hill at all. Debate over the exact location of the battle should not, however, distract from the outstanding bravery of Millett’s action. His death in 2009 has meant arguments continue.
Millett’s reflection on his lengthy service provides a better epitaph than debate on the location of the battle: “I believe in freedom, I believe deeply in it. I’ve fought in three wars, and volunteered for all of them, because I believed as a free man that it was my duty to help those under the attack of tyranny. Just as simple as that.”