Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The ‘Bill Speakman V.C. Action’ Korea M.M. group of five awarded to Corporal J. R. Pender, King’s Own Scottish Borderers, for his magnificent gallantry when ‘United’ ridge was attacked by an entire Chinese Division; as ‘B’ Company KOSB was on the point of being over-run, acting entirely on his own initiative Pender joined Speakman’s party of grenade throwers, taking up a position right next to Speakman, despite being exposed to heavy machine-gun fire; for almost four hours Pender charged repeatedly, firing his Bren machine-gun from the hip and ‘mowed down the enemy not hit by the grenade party’; like Speakman, he was seriously wounded but carried on fighting, until the KOSBs had withdrawn with all their casualties

Military Medal, G.VI.R, 2nd issue (22202755 Pte. J. R. Pender, K.O.S.B.); Korea 1950-53, 1st issue (22202755 Pte. J. R. Pender, M.M., K.O.S.B.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, unnamed as issued; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, E.II.R. (22202755 Pte. J. Pender, K.O.S.B.) surname partially officially corrected; General Service 1962-2007, 2 clasps, Radfan, Borneo, clasps mounted in this order (22202755 Pte. J. R. Pender, K.O.S.B.) mounted court style, generally good very fine (5) £14,000-£18,000

M.M. London Gazette 23 December 1951.
The original Recommendation, submitted by Major D. H. Tadman, O.B.E., on the same date that he put forward Bill Speakman for the V.C., states: ‘On 4 November 1951, Private Pender was serving as a Bren gunner in ‘B’ Company which was situated on “United”. At approximately 1600 hours the Company was subjected to very heavy artillery and mortar fire, and shortly afterwards attacked by wave after wave of the enemy.
The fighting very soon became confused and as a result Private Pender attached himself to a grenade party organised by Private Speakman. Without hesitation, and with no regard to his personal safety, he took up position on the right of the party in the face of heavy machine-gun fire. He made and continued to make repeated rushes forward at the enemy as they assaulted, firing the Bren gun from the hip. As a result of his action the crest of the Company position was kept clear. Private Pender displayed the greatest gallantry and skill and mowed down the enemy not hit by the grenade party. With his jersey filled with Bren magazines he continued to expose himself to the enemy’s fire and after being badly wounded refused to be evacuated.
During the final withdrawal of the Company from “United” Private Pender again displayed outstanding courage and disregard for his own condition by continuing to fire his Bren gun to cover the withdrawal. He called again and again for more and more magazines until the operation was successfully accomplished.
His personal courage and devotion to duty throughout the action, for the major part of which he was badly wounded, deserves the highest praise.’

Pender’s gallantry was closely linked with that of Bill Speakman, given the direct reference to the V.C. winner in his M.M. recommendation. Speakman’s V.C. is one of just four V.C.s awarded for the Korean War, all of which are displayed in different museums. His citation reads: ‘From 0400 hours, 4th November, 1951, the defensive positions held by 1st Battalion, The King's Own Scottish Borderers, were continuously subjected to heavy and accurate enemy shell and mortar fire. At 1545 hours, this fire became intense and continued thus for the next two hours, considerably damaging the defences and wounding a number of men. At 1645 hours, the enemy in their hundreds advanced in wave upon wave against the King's Own Scottish Borderers' positions, and by 1745 hours, fierce hand to hand fighting was taking place on every position. Private Speakman, a member of ‘B’ Company Headquarters, learning that the section holding the left shoulder of the Company's position had been seriously depleted by casualties, had had its N.C.O.s wounded and was being overrun, decided on his own initiative to drive the enemy off the position and keep them off it. To effect this he collected quickly a large pile of grenades and a party of six men. Then displaying complete disregard for his own personal safety he led his party in a series of grenade charges against the enemy; and continued doing so as each successive wave of enemy reached the crest of the hill. The force and determination of his charges broke up each successive enemy onslaught and resulted in an ever mounting pile of enemy dead. Having led some ten charges, through withering enemy machine gun and mortar fire, Private Speakman was eventually severely wounded in the leg. Undaunted by his wounds, he continued to lead charge after charge against the enemy and it was only after a direct order from his superior officer that he agreed to pause for a first field dressing to be applied to his wounds. Having had his wounds bandaged, Private Speakman immediately rejoined his comrades and led them again and again forward in a series of grenade charges, up to the time of the withdrawal of his Company at 2100 hours. At the critical moment of the withdrawal, amidst an inferno of enemy machine gun and mortar fire, as well as grenades, Private Speakman led a final charge to clear the crest of the hill and hold it, whilst the remainder of his Company withdrew. Encouraging his gallant, but by now sadly depleted party, he assailed the enemy with showers of grenades and kept them at bay sufficiently long for his Company to effect its withdrawal. Under the stress and strain of this battle, Private Speakman's outstanding powers of leadership were revealed and he so dominated the situation, that he inspired his comrades to stand firm and fight the enemy to a standstill. His great gallantry and utter contempt for his own personal safety were an inspiration to all his comrades. He was, by his heroic actions, personally responsible for causing enormous losses to the enemy, assisting his Company to maintain their position for some four hours and saving the lives of many of his comrades when they were forced to withdraw from their position. Private Speakman's heroism under intense fire throughout the operation and when painfully wounded was beyond praise and is deserving of supreme recognition.’
Speakman’s reaction after being informed that he had been awarded the V.C. was to ask, “What about the other guys?”. The ‘B’ Company Sergeant Major received the D.C.M. for zeal and leadership throughout the campaign; Pender and two other men (Wood and Buchanan) from Speakman’s group of grenade throwers were awarded the M.M.; the remaining ‘other guys’ (including Duncan and Wilson) were not decorated. The War Office strictly limited the number of higher gallantry awards for the Korea War; although around 60,000 men served in Korea, of whom over 1,100 were killed, the authorities approved fewer higher-tier bravery citations than the intensity of the fighting warranted, especially for iconic and desperate hand-to-hand struggles where British forces were vastly outnumbered, such as the battles near the Han and Imjin rivers in 1950-51 before the UN defence lines were stabilised in 1952-53 as armistice arrangements were slowly and painfully negotiated.

John Rodger Pender was a Bren gunner in ‘B’ Company, 1st Battalion, King’s Own Scottish Borderers. The KOSB were holding a defensive line on the recently captured “United” ridge feature which was suddenly subjected to a massive Chinese artillery bombardment followed by an infantry onslaught. The British Popular Press of the time dubbed the PLA counterattack “Charlie Chinaman’s Gunpowder Plot”, because it was launched on Sunday 4 November 1951, the eve of Guy Fawkes Day. As the battle approached its climax. ‘C’ Company had been overrun and forced to retire, and ‘B’ Company beside it, holding Hill 217, began to crumble. The ferocity of the response from a handful of the private soldiers of ‘B’ Company led by the company signaler/runner, Bill Speakman, cost the enemy over 1,000 casualties. In contrast, the Borderers’ lost three officers wounded and one missing, seven other ranks killed and 81 wounded.

Speakman’s modest account gives the most authentic picture of what took place on Hill 217: ‘We were out reinforcing the wire and had a funny feeling that something was going to happen. Two or three hours later, all hell broke loose. There were thousands of Chinese - they must have concealed themselves like rabbits in the ground. They were very skillful at it. It was getting dark and we could only just pick them out. They came at us in a rush all along the front. There was a lot of hand-to-hand. There were three waves - the cannon fodder who flattened the wire, the second and then the third are the really tough ones, and you have to mix it with them. There were so many of them, you just had to get on with it.
They were milling around you - you can’t even pull your bolt back, so you fight with the butt of your rifle and bayonet. The battle went on for six hours. When we ran out of ammunition we started to throw rocks and stones and anything we could lay our hands on. I led up to fifteen counter-charges - we had to get our wounded. We couldn’t just give in - we’d fought for so long we just couldn’t give up that bloody hill. You are fighting for your life and its your job to hold the line. If you give in they’ll attack the other units from the rear. We were told to withdraw, and that’s when we went forward to clear the hill - to get our wounded off... I was ordered off the hill to get my wounds dressed. The medical orderly tending me was caught in a burst and I said ‘Stuff it’ and went forward again.’

Over the rest of his life, Speakman gave many interviews, and he was usually asked profound questions such as how many beer-bottles he threw at the enemy when he ran out of grenades. Resenting the insinuation that he and his comrades were drunk, sometimes he denied the story, at other times he said that he had run out of grenades quite often during the fight (he threw over 100) and had picked up anything that came to hand in the dark, including stones and fallen weapons. Others who were present confirm that beer bottles were also thrown by Jimmy Burgess (see Bill Ballinger, 2002, on britains-smallwars.com) and that Speakman had to make about a dozen trips back to the rations pit, which was some way down the reverse slope of the ridge, to collect more grenades. During each pickup trip he and his comrades were vulnerable and had few means to defend themselves. Without the protective covering fire provided by Pender’s Bren gun shooting from his hip, the story of ‘Speakman’s Six’ may never have been told.

A Special Order of the Day, from Lieutenant-Colonel J. F. M. Macdonald, D.S.O., O.B.E., commanding 28th Infantry Brigade, read: 'Sunday, 4th November 1951, will be remembered and revered for all time in the annals of the King's Own Scottish Borderers. On this day you stood your ground from early dawn in the face of intense and accurate enemy bombardment, and as the afternoon wore on, you met and held a major Chinese Communist attack and dealt the enemy a deadly blow. The actions fought by you all, both collectively and individually on this day, were beyond praise, and it is true to say that your gallantry and sacrifice saved the divisional front from being penetrated. Your adversary was clearly confident that his intense bombardment and human mass-attack, in which he used one division (6,000 men), would overwhelm the defenders of the now famous Point 217-Point 317 ridge line. He had failed completely and utterly, however, to appreciate that he was opposed by men, whose courage, tenacity and fighting skill was second to none - The 1st Battalion King's Own Scottish Borderers. Your magnificent exploits on this fateful Sunday have, therefore, given him further proof, if such be needed, that such tactics against you are doomed to disaster.’

Like Speakman, Pender was promoted to become an N.C.O., due to the example he had set on Hill 217. Pender’s subsequent career largely mirrored Speakman’s, both men seeing action with the KOSBs in Malaya, then Radfan and Borneo in 1964-66. Pender fought in an action in Aden on 10 May 1964 when rebels got to within yards of his piquet.

Both Pender and Speakman sold their original medal groups after leaving the army but replaced them with made-up replica sets for wearing on suitable occasions. John Pender, “still a proud Borderer” (KOSB Regimental Journal refers), died in Edinburgh on 30 August 2017. Pender’s family bequeathed his set of replica medals to the Regimental Museum of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers at Berwick-on-Tweed. Speakman also donated his own replicas to the KOSB Museum (Speakman’s original V.C. and his other medals are owned and displayed by the National War Museum of Scotland, located within the walls of Edinburgh Castle). The two replica groups have been displayed side-by-side in the KOSB Museum’s ‘Korean Medals Case’.