Everyone Goes With Me! The Story of the Last Great Bayonet Charge in American History & the Korean War Hero of Hill 180

 By February 7, 1951 Captain Lewis Millet of the United States Army was already a hardened warrior.  He is a seasoned veteran of combat in two of America’s major wars.  

Millet served with distinction in Italy during the Second World War, and now, at the still tender age of 31 Captain Millet is on his second tour of duty in Korea.

In the cold snowy dawn, on a barren hillside near the 38th parallel, labelled as Hill 180 on military maps, outside a town called Anyang in South Korea, a platoon of American infantrymen is pinned down by ferocious Chinese mortar and machine gun fire.

Unable to move forward, the beleaguered American troops scrape at the frozen ground with entrenching tools and attempt to press their bodies into the earth to avoid being killed by the relentless Chinese fire which is falling on them like rain from the entrenched and fortified Communist positions atop Hill 180.

After beating back the North Korean invasion of the South in the summer of 1950, United Nations forces, once the free world passed a UN Resolution to defend the sovereignty of South Korea, led by upwards of 200,000 American combat troops had driven Kim Il Sung’s Red Army all the way to the Yalu River, North Korea’s natural border with China.  But then in the late Fall of that year, the Red Chinese, fearing western and specifically American encroachment onto their soil, unexpectedly intervened in the Korean War and a see-saw battle across the peninsula that would last for nearly 3 more years and cost hundreds of thousands of lives in the process began.

By early 1951 Chinese and American forces were at a near stalemate in the center of the country, locked in a bloody war of attrition, a deadly cat and mouse game, among the peaks and valleys of Korea’s mountainous terrain.

Tens of thousands of brave Americans will die in combat fighting over fortified nameless hills between 1951 and 1953.  One such nameless hill is Hill 180, now known in military lore as “Bayonet Hill” because it is the site of the last major bayonet charge in American history.  In a way “Bayonet Hill” itself could be said to represent the heroism and futility of the entire Korean War, and the unfortunately largely forgotten place that war now holds in America’s collective memory because to this very day despite the momentous and heroic events that happened on that hill in February of 1951, no one is exactly sure where Hill 180 was.

American Troops Fighting in Korea

But no matter where Hill 180 might have been, at that nameless place on February 7, 1951 Americans were pinned down under heavy fire from Communist Chinese positions, and praying to God that they would survive.

Captain Lewis Millet in command of E Company of the 27th Infantry Regiment, part of the 25th Infantry Division, sees the men of that forlorn platoon catching Hell from the Chinese and trapped on the side of Hill 180.

Thinking fast on his feet Millet assumes personal command of two platoons (approximately 50-60 men) of E Company.  He knows he needs to relieve the troops under fire before they’re all killed and also get the rest of the men under his command to higher ground as quickly as possible before a Chinese attack overwhelms their position at the bottom of the hill.

Millet stands up at the front of the two platoons and shouts, “We’re going up the hill!  Fix Bayonets!  Everyone goes with me!”

He then courageously ran up Hill 180 under intense small arms and machine gun fire.  Two platoons of American troops, screaming and ready to drive the Chinese from the top of Hill 180 followed right behind their brave Captain.

Esteemed United States Army military historian S.L.A. Marshall called the charge that Captain Lewis Millet led up the side of Hill 180 on that fateful day during the Korean War, “[T]he most complete bayonet charge by American troops since the Battle of Cold Harbor during the Civil War.”

Millet ran far ahead of his own soldiers on his way up the hill and was forced to dodge not only fire from the Chinese, but also grenades that were being tossed at the entrenched positions by his own men.

As he caught up to the pinned down platoon and neared the top of the hill an enemy grenade exploded mere inches from Captain Millet and sprayed him with shrapnel, wounding him severely in his back and in both legs.  But even bleeding and in excruciating pain Millet continued up Hill 180 and waved his men forward until the Chinese position was finally overwhelmed by the relentless American bayonet charge.

M1 Rifle with Bayonet as Used in Millet's Charge

Over 100 Red Chinese were killed, with 17 confirmed deaths by bayonet including two by Captain Lewis Millet’s own hand.

In July of 1951 for his bravery and leadership in action President Harry S. Truman would personally present the Congressional Medal of Honor to Captain Lewis Millet of the United States Army.  Millet’s Medal of Honor Citation reads as follows:

“Capt. Millet Company E distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty...while personally leading an attack against a heavily fortified enemy position.  With fixed bayonets he led the assault up the fire swept hill.  In the fierce charge Captain Millet bayoneted 2 enemy soldiers and boldly continued on while urging his men forward...His dauntless leadership and personal courage so inspired his men that they stormed into the hostile position and used their bayonets with such lethal effect that the enemy fled in wild disorder.  Captain Millet was wounded by grenade fragments but refused evacuation until the objective was taken and firmly secured.”

After earning the Congressional Medal of Honor Captain Lewis Millet would continue to serve honorably in the United States Army until 1973 eventually achieving the rank of full Colonel and serving once again in combat during the Vietnam War.

Hill 180 is somewhere near Osan, South Korea, which today is the site of a major American and South Korean airbase and still used to protect the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

American Planes over Osan Airbase

It is not known for certain where the site of the last major bayonet charge in American history is, or was, though it is commonly thought that in the months and years leading up to the ceasefire signed at Panmunjom, along the 38th parallel that brought live hostilities in the Korean War to a tenuous halt on July 27, 1953, that Hill 180 was fought over and taken and re-taken by Chinese and American forces several times.

Today at Osan Airbase in South Korea, only about a mere 30 miles from the free Korea’s border with the corrupt and inhumane Communist North, is a road named Millet’s Road in honor of the brave action of Captain Lewis Millet in leading the charge up “Bayonet Hill” on February 7, 1951.

Millet’s Road leads from the airbase to the site of what is believed to be Hill 180.  At the summit of that nameless hill is a memorial to the heroes of Hill 180 and to all the heroes who served with honor and fought so bravely for the United States of America and for free people all across the world during the Korean War.

Each year, a ceremony is held at the memorial on February 7th in memory of the brave heroes of Bayonet Hill, site of the last great bayonet charge in American history.