Col. Lewis Millett, Led Bayonet Charge in Korea, Dies at 88

NOVEMBER 19, 2009 TAGS: WAR, VETERANS, HISTORY ADD A COMMENT

Col. Lewis Millett was a red-faced, moustache-bearing veteran of three wars. During the Korean conflict, he led an expedition of anachronistic bravery, commanding his troops to affix bayonets to their modern rifles and charge up a hill towards the enemy. His company took and held that hill, and Millet was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1951.

The details of the charge, dubbed by military historians as the taking of Bayonet Hill, are laid out in the obituaries in both the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. It is quite astounding.

The New York Times makes note of the Millett family’s storied history as American serviceman as far back as the Revolutionary War and the extraordinary steps Millett took to try to see military combat.

Colonel Millett’s forebears fought in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War I. He was so eager to follow in their footsteps that he deserted the American armed forces in the months before the Pearl Harbor attack and joined the Canadian military in the hope of seeing combat quickly. He was eventually court-martialed for desertion, but not before he had returned to the American Army and fought with distinction.

The Los Angeles Times narrates the bayonet charge:

Millett and his men were patrolling in the vicinity of Soam-Ni when they encountered enemy troops along a ridge known as Hill 180.

After one of his platoons was pinned down by small-arms, automatic and antitank fire, Millett ordered his men to fix bayonets.

He then led an assault up the hill, where, according to his citation, he "bayoneted two enemy soldiers and boldly continued on, throwing grenades, clubbing and bayoneting the enemy, while urging his men forward by shouting encouragement."

The New York Times steps up the gore factor, narrating Millet’s kills (which it numbers at 3):

“I assaulted an antitank rifle crew,” he told Military History magazine in 2002. “The man at the point was the gunner. I bayoneted him. The next man reached for something, I think it was a machine pistol, but I bayoneted him — got him in the throat.”

The third soldier had a submachine gun.

“I guess the sight of me, red-faced and screaming, made him freeze,” he recalled. “Otherwise he would have killed me. I lunged forward and the bayonet went into his forehead. With the adrenaline flowing you’re strong as a bull. It was like going into a watermelon.”

Millet died on November 14th and the ripe old age of 88.

Added bonus: The Washington Post, in their Obituary highlighted Millett's achievements during the Second World War:

As an antitank gunner in Tunisia, he earned the Silver Star after he jumped into a burning ammunition-filled halftrack, drove it away from allied soldiers and leapt to safety just before the vehicle exploded. Not long after, he shot down a German Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter that was strafing Allied troops. Col. Millett, who was firing from machine guns mounted on a halftrack, hit the pilot through the windshield.

Obit from the New York Times
Obit from the Los Angeles Times
Obit from the Washington Post