Captain Tony Towell
Young officer who won an MC risking his life searching for a missing comrade in the Korean War
CAPTAIN TONY TOWELL, who has died aged 91, was awarded an MC when he was 21 and on active service in the Korean War. The 1st Battalion The Royal Norfolk Regiment, part of 29th Independent Infantry Brigade, arrived in Korea in November 1951. Towell, then a 2nd lieutenant, was in command of a platoon.
On the night of May 29 1952 he was in command of a 40-man fighting patrol comprised of three sections. Their objective was to advance to a feature nicknamed “Tombstone”, on higher ground about 700 yards away, then snatch a Chinese soldier from an enemy trench and hold him for interrogation.
Jonathan Wormald, a lieutenant in the Assault Pioneers, set off with the leading section at 23.00 hours. Towell’s orders were to follow about 200 yards behind him. Suddenly, at 01.20 hours, just as Wormald’s section was preparing to assault, the Chinese opened up with machine guns, mortars and grenades.
Towell heard the noise of a big battle, but it was a pitch-black night and the only light came from enemy red and white tracer fire. He called down artillery fire on the crest and shoulders of the hill to prevent the Chinese bringing up reinforcements.
His repeated calls for a situation report got no response so, taking 12 men, he crept up the slope through scrub and outcrops of rock to within a few yards of the trench. There, he came across dead and wounded men; those who had not been hit were wandering around dazed and disorientated.
Three-quarters of the section, including the wireless operator, had become casualties. He was told that Wormald had been wounded and was lying further up the slope. For the next hour there was a fierce battle, with supporting fire from US howitzers and New Zealand 25-pounders, while all around them he and his men were under relentless machine gun and mortar fire.
Towel continued searching until he decided that it was too dark to continue. There was no sign of Wormald so he escorted those who were severely wounded back to his base and they were then evacuated to the company lines. By this time, it was close to 04.00 hours.
“Tombstone” was still under machine gun and mortar fire, but Towell was convinced that in daylight he would be able to find Lt Wormald. He took four men, including a Bren-gun team and a signaller and, under cover of smoke, they crawled to the foot of “Tombstone” and hid themselves in an old mortar pit.
An hour later, at first light, when the incoming fire had slackened, they searched the area thoroughly, but there was no trace of the young officer. Later that day, Towell volunteered to join another search party but again their search proved fruitless.
He subsequently learnt that Wormald was lying dead in the trench. The citation for Towell’s Military Cross paid tribute to his “great leadership and the highest standards of courage, endurance and initiative”.
Anthony Philip Towell, an only child, was born at Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, on April 16 1931. Tony won a choral scholarship to the King’s School, Canterbury, and at the outbreak of war the pupils were evacuated to Carlyon Bay on the south coast of Cornwall. At 17 he left school and joined the Suffolk Regiment before attending Sandhurst and being commissioned into the Royal Norfolk Regiment.
In Korea, he and his men lived off US rations and in small dug-outs which protected them from everything except a direct hit. He said later that they lacked intelligence of which Chinese units they were facing, and that was why making a night raid and capturing an enemy soldier for interrogation was important. Sometimes the best they could do was to bring back a wounded soldier, but even if only slightly wounded he usually gave up and died.
After returning from Korea, Towell was promoted to captain and seconded to Hong Kong. He resigned from the Army in 1957 and worked for Shell, who sent him to learn Spanish and then posted him to Thailand. Quick-thinking, decisive and with considerable charm, he made a successful career in marketing, posted to Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia and the US, where he led the sales and marketing departments. After leaving the company he held directorships in the oil and gas industry.
Towell and his wife settled in Long Island, New York, and later in Florida, close to their son and his family. They spent winters in Florida, and summers in Kent with their daughter and her sons.
After his wife died, Towell settled in a London retirement community. He represented his regiment at parades and reunions and was often interviewed about his experiences.
He married, in 1955, Jackie Honnor, whom he had met in Hong Kong and who had been held as a child in a Japanese internment camp in Manila. Their children survive him.