Basil Coad Major General Basil Aubrey Coad CB CBE DSO & Bar ( 27 September 1906 – 26 March 1980 ) was a senior British Army officer . He held battalion , brigade and divisional commands during the Second World War and immediately after , but is best known as the commander of 27th British Commonwealth Brigade during the Korean War . After his involvement in Korea , he held a further divisional command , and then a senior administrative position in the army before retiring . In retirement , he continued his connection with the army , serving as Colonel of his former regiment , and assisting in writing the official history of the Korean War . He was also appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire . Early life and career . Coad was born on 27 September 1906 at Portsmouth . He was educated at Felsted School and Royal Military College Sandhurst . From Sandhurst he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Wiltshire Regiment on 4 February 1926 . He was soon bound for British India to join his battalion . After a few years ' service there he was posted to Shanghai , then one of the treaty ports , in January 1929 , promoted to lieutenant on 4 February , and appointed as Deputy Assistant Provost Marshal from December that year . Coad returned to the United Kingdom in 1934 and was appointed adjutant of 2nd Battalion Wiltshires . On 22 January 1937 he was seconded to the 4th Battalion ( a Territorial Army battalion ) to serve as its adjutant , at the same time he was granted temporary rank as a captain in the TA . He was promoted to substantive captain on 18 March 1938 . Second World War . With the outbreak of the Second World War , Coad was promoted to acting major for service as an instructor in 43rd ( Wessex ) Infantry Division , he became a temporary major on 1 February 1940 . In January 1941 he was appointed second in command of 2nd Wiltshires . By August 1942 he was an acting lieutenant colonel in command of 43rd Division ' s Battle School . He was then appointed commanding officer of 5th Battalion , Dorset Regiment at the beginning of 1943 . He was promoted substantive major on 4 February 1943 . The 5th Dorsets participated in Operation Overlord ( the Normandy Campaign ) as part of 130th Infantry Brigade , 43rd Division , VIII Corps , Second Army , 21st Army Group . It was later transferred to XII Corps and then XXX Corps . On 10 July 1944 , during the opening of Operation Jupiter , the unit was ordered to capture Chateau de Fontaine , near Fontaine - Étoupefour . They successfully captured the chateau , and were then ordered to take a further objective . Coad personally reconnoitred the route across open country , despite heavy machine gun and mortar fire . The attack was launched and the objective taken , but it could not be held . Coad withdrew his two furthest forward companies and prepared the chateau as a defensive position . As a result of his leadership on this occasion Coad was awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 19 October 1944 . The citation concluded : The brigade participated in the continued Allied advance , and in September 1944 was involved in the ill - fated Operation Market Garden . On 7 October 1944 , Coad was promoted acting brigadier and given command of 130th Brigade . A year later he was awarded a Bar to his DSO on 11 October 1945 for his leadership in the intervening period , which covered the Western Allied invasion of Germany . The citation remarked : After this Coad was promoted war substantive lieutenant colonel ( and retained the temporary rank of brigadier ) . Then , on 28 January 1946 he was given command of 43rd Division , now part of the British Army on the Rhine , as acting major general . He relinquished the command , and reverted to temporary brigadier on 10 March 1946 . He returned to 130th Brigade , and then reverted to lieutenant colonel and returned to his own regiment , commanding 2nd Wiltshires . He was then again made a brigadier and commanded 30th Infantry Brigade , before returning to 2nd Wiltshires again . He was promoted substantive lieutenant colonel on 8 February 1948 . Korean War . After returning to the UK from Germany in August 1948 , he was again made a temporary brigadier , and given command of 27th Infantry Brigade . In June 1949 , the brigade arrived in Hong Kong as part of Far East Land Forces ( FARELF ) , and was designated United Kingdom Strategic Reserve , theoretically able to deploy anywhere in the world at ten days notice . On 6 April 1950 he was made a substantive colonel . A year after the brigade ' s arrival in Hong Kong , North Korean forces crossed the " de facto " border with South Korea , the 38th parallel , triggering the outbreak of the Korean War . On 6 July the British Cabinet decided not to send land forces to Korea . British forces were already heavily committed in Malaya in the developing Malayan Emergency , aid had been promised to the French in Vietnam , and there were fears that the escalating tensions could lead to China threatening Hong Kong . However , as July wore on the South Koreans and Americans suffered further reverses , and with the Foreign Office pointing out that the UK ' s standing as a world power , and its relationship with the US , was in danger of being jeopardised , on 25 July the Cabinet resolved to send land forces to Korea . The decision was announced in the House of Commons the following day by the Minister of Defence , Manny Shinwell who said : It was initially envisaged that the British contribution would consist of 29th Infantry Brigade . This was based in the UK , and reservists had to be recalled to bring it up to strength . As the situation Korea continued to worsen , it was decided to send other British forces from closer at hand , and this decision was announced in the Commons on 20 August 1950 . Coad ' s brigade , then consisting of the first battalions of the Middlesex Regiment , Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and Leicestershire Regiment , plus some supporting services , was selected to form this force . The Leicesters were left in Hong Kong due to the ongoing concern over China ' s attitude . The brigade had no artillery , and little transport , Coad was told he would have to rely on US support and supplies , including rations . Compounding the difficulties of organising the move to Korea , most of the men had just been given leave after a hard exercise , and were on their way into Hong Kong City for a Friday night out , and would prove hard to retrieve over the weekend . Both battalions were somewhat under strength , and this problem was exacerbated by a government decision that those under 19 should not serve in combat , volunteers were hurriedly drawn from other units in Hong Kong to try to get the battalions up to establishment . Coad flew into Pusan on 27 August 1950 , ahead of the rest of the brigade which travelled on the aircraft carrier HMS " Unicorn " and cruiser HMS " Ceylon " and arrived in Korea on 29 August , just nine days after the decision to deploy them was officially announced . They joined the defence of the Pusan Perimeter . One battalion went into action on 3 September , with the brigade as a whole being given its own section of the front line along the Naktong River , south - west of Taegu on 5 September . The brigade ' s first casualties came on 6 September , Private Reginald Streeter of the Middlesexes and Captain Neil Buchanan and his batman , Private Tam Taylor , of the Argylls . With the pressure somewhat relieved following the amphibious landings at Inchon on 15 September , the brigade joined the subsequent breakout from Pusan , and then covered the flank of the main US advance aimed at retaking Seoul . On 22 September the brigade crossed the Naktong by a hurriedly constructed bridge that could only be walked over in single file . To secure the road on the other side , the brigade , now attached to 24th Infantry Division ( United States ) , was ordered to take high ground on either side . To the right of the road were " Plum Pudding Hill " ( their name for it ) , three miles south of Songju , and a 900 - foot high feature which later became known as Middlesex Hill . The Middlesexes , supported by two American tanks , took Plum Pudding at the point of the bayonet , and then took Middlesex Hill . Total casualties were one officer and six other ranks killed and seven wounded . Now the brigade had to take the high ground on the left of the road . Early on 23 September the Argylls began the Battle of Hill 282 , suffering the heaviest casualties so far as a result of both heavy fighting with North Korean force and a communications failure which led to an attack by US aircraft in a " friendly - fire " incident . The Argylls ' second in command , Major Kenneth Muir was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his efforts ( ultimately unsuccessful ) to hold the position . In total the Argylls suffered two officers and eleven other ranks dead , four officers and seventy OR wounded , and two missing , about forty percent of these casualties being from the US airstrike . Despite this setback the brigade participated in the capture of Songju on 24 September , working with 1st Battalion , 19th Infantry Regiment ( United States ) . The brigade was then detached from 24th Division , and placed under the command of Eighth United States Army . On 28 September 3rd Battalion , Royal Australian Regiment arrived in Korea and they were attached to the brigade to bring it back up to strength . The Australians had been on occupation duties in Japan , and with just two weeks training were thrown into the fighting in Korea . The brigade was now retitled 27th British Commonwealth Brigade . With the " status quo ante bellum " now restored , the Commander - in - Chief of UN Forces , Douglas MacArthur offered surrender terms , but these were rejected , so the UN forces began their advance into North Korea . Later career and retirement . He commanded 2nd Division from 1951 to his retirement in 1954 .