During the night of 4/5 November 1950, the PVA and KPA mounted a full-scale assault on US 24th Infantry Division. Before dawn, 19 RCT had become heavily engaged, and was pushed back nearly . The PVA force turned west to advance between the Taeryong and Chongchon rivers, threatening the rear of the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade by cutting the Pakchon–Sinanju road. The previous afternoon a patrol from the Middlesex had clashed with a large PVA patrol to the north-east and suffered a number of casualties, yet the main PVA attack did not come until early the next morning. Meanwhile, large numbers of refugees continued to move south, causing the British and Australians further concern given the possibility that they might be used by the PVA to cover the infiltration of their positions. At 08:00 on 5 November a group of around 200 PVA attacked C Battery, US 61st Field Artillery Battalion, which was attached to the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade. The American guns had been supporting the brigade from a position beside the road about south of Pakchon, and were protecting the vital concrete bridge south of the Argyll's battalion headquarters at Kujin.