TODAY is the 75th anniversary of the start one of the most celebrated – and costly – battles in the history of the Gloucestershire Regiment.
The last stand of the Glosters at the Battle of the Imjin River during the Korean War in 1951 helped save the city of Seoul from invasion by a huge force of Chinese soldiers – but came at a cost of 59 men killed in action and 522 taken prisoner, with 34 of them dying in captivity before the end of the war in 1953.
The Glosters were an Army infantry regiment headquartered at Horfield Barracks in Bristol, and drew many of their recruits from the city, surrounding area and Gloucestershire itself.
Sent to Korea as part of the United Nations force defending South Korea from the North and its Chinese allies, the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment was part of the 29th Infantry Brigade, a force of around 4-5,000 guarding a ford over the Imjin River.
On the night of April 22 the 27,000-strong Chinese 63rd People’s Volunteer Army launched an attack, with the aim of sweeping aside the defenders and reaching Seoul by May Day.
Surrounded and out of ammunition
Over the following three days, the 750 men of the 1st Battalion fought a defensive battle across a series of positions overlooking the river, against more than 10,000 Chinese regular troops, becoming increasingly isolated and eventually surrounded on Hill 235, which would become known as Gloster Hill after the battle.
While other units of the 29th Infantry Brigade managed to withdraw, attempts to relieve the Glosters and help them break out failed due to the overwhelming numbers of Chinese troops.
Describing the last stand, the National Army Museum says: “Towards the end of the battle the Glosters were completely surrounded and running out of ammunition.
“Some men were reduced to fighting with bayonets and fists. Against overwhelming odds they held the line against the Chinese for four days.
“When they were finally given the order to break out only 40 men managed to reach safety. The Chinese captured or killed the rest.
“The Gloucestershire Regiment’s actions in delaying the Chinese allowed the rest of the United Nations forces time to regroup and block the advance of the enemy towards the South Korean capital Seoul.”
Chinese casualties during their frontal assaults on UN positions were estimated at 10,000-15,000, and the 63rd Army was withdrawn from the front line after the battle.
‘Superb battlefield courage and discipline’
The 1st Battalion’s actions earned the Gloucestershire Regiment the nickname the ‘Glorious Glosters’.
Commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel James P. Carne, who was among those captured, was awarded a Victoria Cross, along with Lieutenant Philip Curtis, who was killed in a lone counter-attack on enemy machine-guns. Other Glosters received decorations including the George Cross, Distinguished Service Order, Military Cross and Military Medal.
The Gloucestershire Regiment and 170 Battery of the 45th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery were both awarded a US Presidential Unit Citation, the highest American award for heroism and collective gallantry.
Their citation said: “Without thought of defeat or surrender, this heroic force demonstrated superb battlefield courage and discipline.
“Every yard of ground they surrendered was covered with enemy dead until the last gallant soldier…was overpowered by the final surge of the enemy masses.”
The Gloucestershire Regiment became part of the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment in 1994, then part of The Rifles in 2007.
The battle is remembered at the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum in Gloucester Docks – more details can be found online at soldiersofglos.com.
Chief executive Matthew Holden said: “Sadly, there are very few remaining survivors of the battle.”
Surgeon remembers POWs’ return
RETIRED surgeon Harold Griffiths, of Rudgeway near Thornbury, treated Glosters taken prisoner at Imjin after their release at the end of the conflict.
Harold was an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps, based at the British Commonwealth General Hospital in Kure in Japan from 1952 until the end of the conflict in 1953, after which he was sent to take charge of a casualty collection post in Korea itself, as a company commander for the 26th Field Ambulance.
Born and bred in Monmouthshire, Harold was sent to Japan and Korea during his National Service after finishing his medical training in London.
The hospital in Japan received convoys of wounded twice a week from Korea. The wounded would be treated first at a US or Norwegian MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) in Korea before being transported to Seoul and shipped to Japan.
Harold remembers treating soldiers injured in battles during the later stages of the war, including from Duke of Wellington’s Regiment during the Battle of the Hook in 1952.
He said: “The only time I got to see the Glosters was when there was a prisoner swap, and they came through and had to be examined before they could be given a clean bill of health to travel on the ship home.
“A lot had got parasitic infections in captivity, and several had got anaemia, dysentery and tapeworm, and were very thin.
“Lt Col Carne, the CO, was given a uniform but he was so thin it sort of hung off him – he was treated particularly badly in captivity.
“The thing that struck me was that most of these people were National Servicemen, all these soldiers who behaved as seasoned warriors.
“We felt very sorry for them – they were shipped into National Service and ended up with some very serious injuries.
“Most of them were very stoical.”
After being posted to a base near Imjin after the war finished, Harold was able to see the battlefield and took pictures of abandoned positions.
He said: “We were situated just north of where the Glosters made their last stand and within a mile of the Imjin river.
“You had to be careful where you walked – there was a certain amount of ordnance still lying in the grass.”
After the conflict ended, medical staff were still kept busy treating soldiers for a variety of illnesses and injuries.
They included haemorrhagic fever, a severe and often fatal virus. Anyone suspected of having the disease was evacuated by US helicopters (above), which would later become familiar to millions of TV viewers through the American Korean War drama M*A*S*H, because they would not survive long enough to be taken to hospital by land and sea.
After the end of his service Harold returned to the UK and became an orthopaedic surgeon in London and Glasgow before moving to Bristol, where he was based at Southmead and Frenchay hospitals until he retired.
He was on the Army’s reserve list for two years and transferred to the Territorial Army, commanding the field hospital in Keynsham for several years.
Top picture: Roll-call of the surviving soldiers of 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, after the Battle of Imjin River in 1951. Picture: National Army Museum