In February 1951, while Australia slept, soldiers from 3RAR were crawling through knee-deep snow on frozen Korean ridgelines — fighting a war their own country barely noticed and has largely forgotten since.

In this episode, Mat McLachlan tells the story of Operation Killer — the brutal UN counter-offensive that turned the tide of the Korean War. Through the voices of the men who were there, we follow 3RAR from the catastrophic Chinese intervention that sent 300,000 enemy soldiers smashing into UN lines, through the longest retreat in American military history, to the desperate hill-by-hill fightback that began on the frozen slopes above Chipyong-ni.

From the corporal and two soldiers who stood up and charged fortified Chinese bunkers on the summit of Hill 614, to the stretcher bearers who carried their wounded mates down snow-covered mountains with no helicopter evacuation and no mechanical assistance, from Private Snow Dicker burying himself in rice straw to survive minus twenty-five degree nights to the sniper who called a Chinese bunker "Flinders Street Station," these are stories of endurance, mateship and raw courage in conditions that would break most people.

How did a battalion that had retreated 320 kilometres in nine days rebuild itself into one of the finest fighting units in Korea? What did the battles at Hill 614, Hill 587 and Maehwa-san teach the men who would hold the line at Kapyong — the action that saved Seoul and earned 3RAR a United States Presidential Unit Citation? Mat traces the chain of battles that transformed a demoralised, frozen, under-strength battalion into a force the Chinese couldn't break.

A powerful tribute to the Australians who fought in the Forgotten War — and a reminder that the men who held Kapyong in April first proved themselves on the frozen ridgelines of February and March, one hill at a time. Day after day. Without relief.

"Their courage, determination and loyalty were inspirations to me. I was never to meet their equal for the rest of my life." — Lieutenant Maurie Pears, 3RAR

Episode Length: 27 minutes

Features: First-person accounts from 3RAR veterans including Lieutenant Maurie Pears, Major Ben O'Dowd, Private Ian Robertson, and Captain Don Beard; the story of General Ridgway's transformation of the Eighth Army; and the chain of battles from Hill 614 to Kapyong that Australia has largely forgotten.

Presenter: Mat McLachlan

Producer: Jess Stebnicki

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Ep263: Korea - Operation Killer, 1951