The terrain was very rough, a dreary landscape of barren hills and precipitous ridges, shrouded by the early morning mists that heralded the advent of winter. The heat of battle, terrain and weather determines re-supply, and today was one of those days. For some reason or other supplies were a bit late coming up to B Company and the Chinese had been probing all night with patrols and dummy attacks. You could feel in the air something was going to happen. I think we had a pack of cigarettes between us and were just about to light up when we heard the bugles.
Some explanation is required here.
The Chinese always attack to the sound of bugles, whether they were a form of signal, or a rallying call, or perhaps to demoralize the enemy is not known. Whatever the reason, the first of the Chinese assault troops soon appeared in the valley. Their artillery then laid down a barrage on our positions and the enemy soldiers started to come up the very steep slope towards us on our hilltop position. I had 5 and my mate had 4 in the magazine of his .303 Lee Enfield rifle. There was, however, no time for recriminations.