Last ditch stand
One shot, one kill: that approach ensured Pte Ian Roberston survived a firefight that pitted him and a sniper mate against a platoon of North Korean soldiers, as Cpl Cameron Jamieson reports.

Life together: Robbie as he is today with his wife Maika. Photo

by Cpl Cameron Jamieson, Army newspaper

Top shot: Pte Ian “Robbie” Robertson rugs up against the Korean winter during his operational service with 3RAR’s sniper section.

Photo provided by AWM, ref P037332.001

THE ONLY time Ian “Robbie” Robertson really talks about his old Army trade is when he is with other soldiers.

The son of an Anzac sniper, he joined the infantry in 1945 but was too young to see active service in World War II.

Undeterred, he served with the occupation forces in Japan.

Later, as 3RAR’s photographer, he snapped many an image of the battalion as it prepared for the Korean War in 1950.

But Robbie also possessed the sniper skills of his Gallipoli-veteran father, so he was assigned to the sniper section.

On October 22, 1950, he was one of two snipers protecting the battalion’s CO, Lt-Col Charles Green, as he prepared to commit his troops into action against the North Koreans at an apple orchard near the town of Yonju.

The enemy were poised to wipe out the paratroopers of the US 187th Airborne Regiment, who were surrounded and low on ammunition.

Lt-Col Green had a reputation for staying close to the front so he could better direct his troops.

But the enemy was closer than the CO thought.

There was probably a platoon’s worth of North Koreans less than 40m from where he decided to hold his O group.

All that stood between them were the two snipers.

Against the odds

“He had called all the company commanders up so they could have view of the battlefield,” Robbie recalls. “The enemy were lined up, ready to go in and wipe out the airborne troops.

“We had arrived in a great position to roll them up from the flank, and C Coy had raced around into an attack position while Lt-Col Green delivered his orders.

He didn’t realise there was an irrigation ditch full of enemy just metres away waiting to join the attack.

“Lance Gully and myself were escorting the CO as part of our sniper duties and Lance, being the senior sniper, sent me around to the right to meet the lead scout from the company to our right.

“I then heard rifle shots and a flurry of grenades bursting.” Gully had moved over to the irrigation ditch and, when the enemy threw number of grenades out, he dived into the trench, landing among the North Koreans. He came out backwards, firing as he went.

He killed nine enemy soldiers, but suffered numerous wounds from grenade fragments.

“He came staggering out with seven holes in him and a big flap of scalp sticking up,” Robbie says.

“I ran towards him, thinking that he looked pretty sharp in his Mohawk haircut, and he said ‘there’s a million of them in there, and they’re all yours Robbie’. “So then it was my turn.”

Good advice

Robbie stayed on the ground above the irrigation ditch and worked his way along it.

“I did what an old soldier had told me,” Robbie says.

“The first time you see the enemy, the butt of your rifle is hard against your shoulder – he’s dead before he knows it, and before he hits the ground so is his mate on the left and on the right; they’re all down.

“What you’re doing is looking straight over the sight of the rifle – one shot, one kill.

“Keep attacking and keep them off balance, and whatever you do, count the rounds.

“I started off with 11 rounds, and would fire until I had four rounds left and then I would insert another clip of five.

“Five will go in on top of four quite smoothly, but with five on top of five, the last round is hard to push into the magazine – don’t get trapped trying reload your magazine during the middle of a fire fight.

“So that’s what I did – it all floated out of my memory.

“A hard grip with both hands, take up the first trigger pressure, deliver the shot with both eyes open so you have a wide-angle view of the battlefield in front of you, keep knocking them down, move fast.

“You keep the pressure on them, keep attacking, then skip back and shove five rounds in, then fly back in again.

That’s exactly what I did, and it worked. The whole ditch was cleaned out.”

A matter of luck

The commander of the enemy platoon was located in a nearby bunker.

He was armed with a Soviet PPSh 41 7.62mm sub-machinegun, commonly referred to as a burp gun because of the sound it made when fired.

He was unable to see Robbie because of the foliage of the orchard, so he used his weapon against other Australian targets.

Robbie next turned his attention to the commander, but as he approached the bunker another Australian threw grenade into it.

The grenade was thrown straight back out at Robbie, but luck was still on his side. The grenade hit a sapling and bounced back into the bunker as Robbie dived to the ground.

“He was a really good soldier, he came boring out of the bunker and hosed me down with his burp gun,” Robbie recalls.

“I fired a shot at him as I went to ground, but I missed. As I re-cocked the weapon the bolt caught on a roughly- machined section of the weapon.

I was struggling with that while he was fired three long bursts at me.

“Only one round hit me, slashing across my wrist, before I could move the bolt and close the breach.

“Then I started to run at him and I killed him.

He was absolutely unlucky that bloke. A real good, hard-fighting soldier.”

Just before engaging the enemy, Gully and Robertson had a short conversation about ammunition that probably saved Gully’s life.

“Lance asked me how many rounds I had in the weapon,” Robbie says.

“I said I had one round in the breech, and another 10 in the magazine. He said ‘why 11?’

and I joked and said I might meet 11 of the enemy. “He said ‘I only carry five in mine, I don’t want to weaken the magazine spring’. “I said ‘for God’s sake Lance, put a

nother five in, the enemy are just up here and we could be in a firefight in a minute’.

“So he put in another five rounds, and after he returned to the battalion from hospital he told me he had fired nine rounds and had killed nine enemy soldiers.

“Had he not put that extra five rounds in he would have gone.

“That’s how it works; survival in battle is based on skills and luck, and some of the luck you make yourself.”

Still committed

The men of 3RAR soundly won what became known as the Battle of the Apple Orchard.

The three-hour battle resulted in more than 250 enemy dead and 200 prisoners, for only seven Australians wounded. The remaining enemy withdrew and the paratroopers were saved from destruction.

Although Gully and Robertson’s encounter was only a small part of the battle, their actions ensured their command group was not killed.

“Had we missed them, one-shot one-kill, as they were bobbing up then the O group probably would have been wiped out,” Robbie reflects.

Despite retiring from the service after returning from Vietnam, Robbie still remains committed to the Army.

His is one of group of 3RAR Korean War veterans which sponsors 24 Platoon at Kapooka, and he regularly travels north to talk to the new diggers in training, often joining them in the field overnight.

When asked why he tries to meet each member of the platoon, Robbie smiles and relaxes in his chair.

“It’s simple,” he says.

“Every individual is important.”