Article From The International Herald Tribune/Joongang Daily in South Korea Thurs, 27th Dec 07
January 4, 2008
Article From The International Herald Tribune/Joongang Daily in South Korea Thurs, 27th Dec 07
Post Mortem for The Glorious Glosters
US Special Operations Troops Visit Korean Wars Most Tragic Battlefield
By Andrew Salmon
Even battlefield is tragic, but just south of the Imjin River, the low hills overlooking the water are particularly poignant. For any invader heading south, this range forms the last geographical obstacle before the strategic Han River valley. Since the 7th century, the hills overlooking the Imjin fords have been drenched with blood and scorched by fire.
Here, on the night of April 22, 1951, the British 29th Brigade Group found itself fighting desperately to stem the key thrust of the Chinese Fifth Offensive the largest communist attack of the Korean War. Assaulted by three Chinese divisions, the brigade fought against odds of approximately nine-to-one.
Isolated on the brigades left flank, the 700-odd Englishmen of 1st Battalion, the Gloster Regiment were deployed on hills overlooking the river, and tracks leading through the area. The soldiers were a mix of keen young volunteers and jaded, but experienced veterans of World War II. They would prove a potent force. In a battle that has passed into legend, they held their ground for three whirlwind days.
Last month, some 30 troops of the U.S. 8th Armys Special Operations Command visited the ground. Battlefield tours are regularly run for U.S. units here by Ron Miller, the 8th Army historian, himself a retired Ranger officer. The Glosters battlefield lies just south of the DMZ, west of the strategic Uijongbu Corridor that strikes through to Seoul.
Standing on the Imjins north bank, Miller pointed out a cutting in the southern bank.
Here, at around 10:00PM, April 22, 1951, the battle began.
One by One, the Companies Fall
The Chinese, as always, attacked under cover of darkness. Our night vision will never be as good as theirs, said Spec Op Commands Lt. Col. Lee Myers, citing the lack of electricity in rural China.
From the top of the cutting, a 16-man Gloster patrol held off a Chinese battalion assaulting across the river, killing perhaps hundreds with small arms fire and artillery. They stood for two hours, firing in the flare light until their weapons glowed pink. Then out of ammunition, the Glosters withdrew. The Chinese crossed in force.
Next to be hit was the foremost Gloster position, held by Able Company. In the cool November morning, the active duty U.S. troops hiked up a dirt track to the summit of the hill, where Miller relayed the story of its grim fate.
The position was dubbed Castle Hill by the Glosters, as a Shilla dynasty fortification once stood there. Around midnight, the forward platoons were swamped by human waves. As commanding officer, Maj. Pat Angier, requested permission to withdraw. It was denied. Fifteen minutes later, he was killed. The companys last radio message was Its all over. Cheerio.
In the early hours, the companys reserve platoon was ordered forward to retake a bunker on the summit. Their officer, Lt. Phil Curtis, had lost his wife in childbirth prior to his Korea deployment. In an interview this summer, one of his soldiers, Sam Mercer, recalled that some men wondered whether their leader would survive his first action. Curtis was wounded in the first attack. His men tried to hold him back, but he single-handedly charged the bunker, destroying it with grenades. He was killed by its last burst of fire. He was later awarded the Victoria Cross, Britains highest award for gallantry.
Dog Company, further east, endured a similar night. On the morning of April 23rd, the remnants of both companies pulled back to Hill 235, the Glosters main position. Volunteers ran forward to cover them in with fire and assist the wounded. During the day, the survivors dug in.
On the night of the 23rd it was Baker Companys turn. In a nightmarish fight to the death, the unit battled all night. Survivor Lofty Large, in his book Soldier Against The Odds writes of crowds of Chinese storming forward in the blackness. It was close quarters. Reloading at the bottom of his trench, he saw a figure looming above him. Instinctively, he thrust with his bayonet, killing the enemy. Francis Carter, a machine gunner who relayed his experiences on audio tapes in Londons Imperial War Museum, was hit in the eye, but continued firing. In desperate combat at the summit of the hill, he watched an officer firing into the masses with a pistol in each hand.
By dawn, the remains of Baker, regrouped on their hilltop, attempted to reach the main Gloster position. Out of 120 men, only 15 made it. They rejoined the remainder of the battalion perhaps 400 effectives, and around 50 wounded – on Hill 235. Although the Glosters had lost the river bank, they still dominated Five Yankee, the route winding southeast through the hills.
The Last Stand
The Glosters padre, Sam Davies, would later write of how far away the green hills of Southwest England, where most of the battalion hailed from, seemed on the afternoon of the 24th. In the warm April sunlight, the men were left at peace, but they knew that they were surrounded, and that as soon as darkness fell, the Chinese would attempt to wipe them out, once and for all.
So it proved. Again, the Chinese attacked. The Glosters fired so fast that the water coolant in their machine guns evaporated. A sergeant toured the trenches, imploring the men to urinate in a bucket, so he could cool the guns. But on the hilltop, many men had drunk nothing for two days, and could not comply. The sergeant was killed on his rounds. In an attempt to silence the eerie bugles the Chinese used to signal their attacks, the Glosters bugler was ordered to play everything except retreat! Standing to attention on the summit of the position, he did so, restoring flagging morale. Anthony Farrar-Hockley, the Glosters adjutant, prepared a counterattack to retake a lost knoll. To his surprise, men appearing at his position, volunteering for the dangerous duty. The attack drove the Chinese off at bayonet point. In the morning, a napalm strike wiped out a Chinese concentration in the valley. It was the first air support the Glosters had received in three days battle.
By the morning of April 25th , the Glosters were an island, surrounded miles behind enemy lines. The rest of the brigade was now facing the same fate. Gloster commander Col. James Carne was at last given permission to break out. His second in command, at brigade headquarters, wept as Carne described his position over the dying radio link.
To the Glosters east, their sister formations in the brigade the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, the Royal Ulster Rifles and Kings Own Irish Hussars punched their way out of the trap in a four-mile death ride down Route 11. But for the Glosters, it was too late. Isolated, out of ammunition, they attempted to break out in small groups, but the hills surrounding them were alive with Chinese. Just 40 men escaped.
It was the only occasion in the Korean War when an entire UN battalion was surrounded and decimated.
Post Mortem
I dont know what the mindset of the soldiers, standing to fight without being reinforced, was, mused one Special Operations Command NCO. I wonder what the mindset of the leadership was – when they had to go back to face their men, telling them that they had to stand and hold?
The loss of the Glosters, and the heavy casualties suffered by 29th Brigade, made some wonder whether the battle was a disaster. In fact, the British position was a key hinge in the line. If they had not held, the Chinese would have broken into the main supply route leading to Uijongbu and Seoul, cutting off the retreat of whole divisions of UN troops. 29th Brigades stand allowed other UN units in the east to fall back and reform. Despite Chinese commander Marshal Peng Teng-huis vow to seize Seoul by May Day, the capital did not fall.
The real success was that it threw off the Chinese timetable by three days, and allowed UN forces to plug the gap, said Miller of the battle. The Chinese offensive was a colossal failure. They sustained terrible casualties.
We know all about the American battles, but dont know much about the ROKs, the Brits and the Aussies, said one officer, who requested anonymity. So it was good to learn about it.
At the base of Hill 235, now dubbed Gloster Hill, the tragedy is memorialized with a stone tablet. Closer to the river, A Companys hill is still occupied by the ROK 25th Division, and the cutting leading to the Imjin where the fighting patrol held off the Chinese assaults is today part of an ROK Army base, overlooked by a watch tower.
Soldiers blood has been spilled here since the seventh century, and there is no guarantee it will not be in the future.
If there is a resumption of hostilities, this ground will be fought over again, said Miller.
ENDS