FROZEN CHOSEN

"Slim" Cotton

Service Details

3/1538 "Slim" Cotton was born 1924 and first posted toKorea in 1951. He was the soldier's soldier and gained the distinction of being thefirst Lance Corporal to command 8 Platoon C Company 3 RAR, a platoon in battle in Korea.His success in this role, dedicated service and initiative was typical of many of theRegiment's soldiers in Korea. He reflects the true spirit of mateship, courage andleadership which has contributed to the Regiment's success. He is now retired happilywith his family in Cobden Victoria and retains an interest in Veterans' affairs.

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Dear Maurie,

I will see what I can write about my service in Korea. I hope you canmake sense of it and can put a story together from it. I was in Korea from June 1951 toJuly 1952 so you can see and understand it was some years ago and we are all getting olderand forgetting things. One thing, I am not like the Government. I will never forget Koreaand the boys I served with. Firstly some of the officers. I served under Major Gerke,Captain Saunders, Major White and I think his name was Major Farquarson. We called him"guts and gaiters", not to his face though. Then there were LieutenantBattersby, McWilliam, Hone and Stewart and Captain Greville.

When I first went to Korea I was posted to 8 Platoon C Company. There Istayed.

I forget the names of the Hills and Ridges I was on. Dare say this willmake it hard to put a story together. I will always remember 355 and 127. I think wecalled them the "Hell Box" and "Shrapnel Valley". You were saying youdid not remember my substantive rank. I was Lance Corporal, temporary Sergeant, actingPlatoon Commander of 8 Platoon. I also had a go as acting Company Sergeant Major, CCompany under Major White.

Now for some of the patrols we went on. Captain Greville took us out incompany strength on a night patrol.. No one knew where we were. You could hear the enemygiving signals to one another, like cockatoos screeching. We were all glad to get back toour own lines.

Lieutenant Battersby out on day patrol. We finished up at the back of355. You could see the Yanks on the hill quite plainly. I don't think they knew wewere there. I thought we would never get back to our lines. Seems like we walked 20 milesor so.

Major Gerke took us out on the longest patrol ever. We had to secure aposition until the Canadian battalion moved into these positions. I think we were outthree days. It was the first time I ever hit an officer and got away with it. It was nighttime and some guy beside me went to light up a cigarette. I hit the match out of his handand abused him. When I had a closer look it was Major Gerke. All he said was " youare on the ball Sergeant."

I will never forget the day Lieutenant McWilliam was killed, 7 November1951. Our signaler D'Arcy O'Keefe was wounded badly in the head at the same timeand all we had was our issue rum to pour over the wound, then. sit tight until some onecame to carry Lieutenant McWilliam and D'Arcy out on stretchers. LieutenantMcWilliam's last words before he died were "take over Sergeant". As I amwriting this I can still see the stretchers being carried away. Lieutenant McWilliam was agood soldier and a gentleman. I then took over the platoon for a period of about fiveweeks until relieved by Lieutenant Stewart.

I remember the day on Hill 127 (John) just down from the ridge of 355.We were supporting 7 Platoon and Lieutenant Hone and things got a bit hot. We were orderedto come back down. Our platoon medic, "Sleepy" Harkness was bending overdressing a wounded digger when one of the mongrels on the hill shot him in the back andkilled him. That hurt me more than anything I had seen in Korea. I made up my mind to be agood platoon commander and do as much damage to the enemy as possible.

In time Lieutenant Stewart took over 8 Platoon. He was straight fromDuntroon and went by the book. I don't think he liked it when I told him to throwaway the book. Them little buggers out there don't go by the book. He was a good guyand later won the Military Cross.

I took a night patrol out. It was to be a standing patrol for so manyhours. I had three reo's ( reinforcements) left behind at base. I said, "checkyour time, we will be back at a certain time on a certain track". Unbeknown to me,their watch had stopped. I was leading our patrol back when I heard weapons being cocked.Then someone said "fire the first burst!" It took the pocket out of my jacket.It also smashed all the cough lollies we carried in case some one wanted to cough. Thosethree digs were later taken down the back of the ridge for additional target practice. Isaid to them "if you miss a target my size you have no hope of hitting those enemy.They are much smaller than me."

We were getting ready to pull off our position when we were visited byDanny Kay the American comedian. He said; "how far away are the enemy?" When Ireplied "just over there," he did the disappearing act quick time.

The Filipino battalion had taken up their [position further down theridge. As we were getting near them, I, once again heard weapons being cocked. I yelledout "Australianos coming through" and I started swearing at them. When we didreach them, their officer greeted us in English. I asked him how he knew we wereAustralians, and he answered, " Only an Aussie can swear like an Aussie!"Isn't it lucky I learnt plenty of swear words in my younger days?

8 Platoon was then on a ridge with the Imjin River running at the backof us. This is where I was hit in the head with a lump of shrapnel. I was standing near mypit, when artillery came at us. I knew it was high because you can tell by the sound. Someenemy idiot had dropped one short! The blast picked me up and threw me in my pit, right ontop of our new signaler "Flash" Howarth. He was having a nap and I landed righton top of him. He started to cut crook when he noticed the blood running down my face."Hell" he said, "you've been hit. You OK?" They put a fielddressing on my head and bandaged it. When they were through it looked like I had my headblown off.. "Sailor" Hawkins had also been hit in the shoulder. They fixed himup and loaded me up with all my gear and "Sailor's" as he couldn'tcarry anything. I could hardly see because of the dressing. "Sailor" Hawkins ledme out. Talk about "the blind leading the blind."

I could go on and on Maurie, but I must be giving you a touch of thetrots by now.

I remember losing some good men. To me, 8 Platoon was the best. Theywere a rough and tough crew, but, boy, we stuck together. Every time one of the boys waskilled, and this may sound childish, but, I am sure a part of me died too. I think I usedup my nine lives in Korea. I was lucky.

I went on R&R to Japan at the end of October and the Sergeant whorelieved me Sergeant Barker, stood on a land mine taking his first patrol out and waskilled. That could easily have been me Maurie. Another mate, Sergeant Eccles was alsokilled. We used to call them "Heckle and Jeckle".

It was not all Doom and Gloom in Korea.

We were on the 38th parallel when Mr. Francis, Minister of theArmy, came to visit us and have Xmas dinner 1951. He was saying how far he had come to seeus when one smartie from the rear yelled "How far to you think we've come".Much laughter from the ranks!

Major "Guts and Gaiters" had a bottle of whiskey to have adrink with Mr. Francis. He had the whiskey on the table with his hand on the bottle. Helater took his hand off and asked the Minister " would you like a drink, Sir?'Back went the hand but the whiskey was gone. Boy was the Major mad. I'm not sayingwho Knocked it off but it came into good hands!

One of my men was carrying a crate of beer ration down the hill for uswhen a sniper put one into the box. Beer poured everywhere over the digger. He pit thecrate down and started waving and jumping up and down. I yelled out "get down you maybe next." But there were no more shots. I'll bet the sniper was laughing hishead off.

I got an order from above to get the boys to tidy things up and cleantheir boots. They grudgingly agreed but said, "if we clean our boots and get attackedwe won't have time to fight and we'll get killed. "Don't worry ",I said " if they do get into our trenches they will do us over 'all cleaned upwith clean boots'. At least we'll look like soldiers.

We had a young "reo". Hell he was nervous. One day we werecleaning and drying the fuses in our grenades, when the lad said, " excuse mesergeant, the grenade is smoking!" Being the idiot I was I replied, "Wellit's old enough isn't it!" But I grabbed the grenade, placed it on thesandbags in front of the pit and pulled the lad down and yelled out "grenade!",and everyone, except me, hit the bottom of their pits. The grenade burst and blew off oneof my gloves into the air. Everyone thought my hand had been blown off!

After my battle school at Haramura my report said, "He will make agood NCO but his sense of humor will get him into trouble."

I am now 72 years old and I still have a sense of humor, and Ihaven't been in trouble yet? That's how much the Poms know.