Glorious Glosters at Battle of Imjin River
In his research into the Korean War RICHARD PURSEHOUSE has found this newspaper report on the heroic action of 70 years ago
“COME on then you bastards, and get your breakfast.” Anonymous Gloucester Regiment soldier, 6am, 25 April, 1951.
The Commanding Officer of the 29th Commonwealth Brigade, Brigadier Tom Brodie coined the new name by which the Regiment would become famed around the world: “The Glorious Glosters”
In his final radio transmission he scribbled down for transmission to the men on Hill 235 “None but the Glosters could have done it.”
Sunday Mirror 6 May, 1951. At last, the full epic story: Gloucesters’ Stand May have Foiled Offensive
The heroic three-day stand of the 1st Gloucesters – which cost the British battalion 500 to 600 men – probably halted the Chinese spring offensive. This was suggested today by United Nations Intelligence reports.
The enemy are said to be licking their wounds and trying to rebuild their centre – which suffered so heavily under the Gloucesters’ fire. Men of the 1st Gloucesters were back in the line today. Replacements were hastily mustered from Tokio [sic] dance-halls and cinemas, reformed, and air-lifted to the front.
The first full official story of the stand by 700 Britons against 20,000 Chinese was told today. It came out piecemeal from the forty or fifty men who got back. And it goes like this: Sunday, April 22, was a cool, quiet and sunny day along the Imjin River. The companies of the Gloucestershire Regiment were dug in along the south bank not far from the 38th Parallel that divides Korea.
In the afternoon a returning tank patrol rumbled past them and reported: “The Chinese are moving up.” On the Gloucesters’ left were the South Koreans. On the right the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, covered by a Belgian battalion just across the river. Behind were the Royal Ulster Rifles. Night came down swiftly.
Young Second-lieutenant Guy Temple’s platoon, waiting in ambush, suddenly saw the north bank of the river alive with Chinese. The attack was on. The great spring offensive of the Chinese armies was pointing straight at the Gloucesters. Its objective was Seoul, South Korean capital and propaganda hub of the campaign.
Allied artillery hurled their steel along the river. Sand and water ran red. But the Chinese kept crossing – all along the brigade front. The assault cost the enemy twenty men to one, says BUP (American).
All through the night the slaughter went on. On Monday morning the three leading companies fell back. Battalion headquarters and the reserve company moved up a hill, while the others clustered at their feet.
Dwindled
The Chinese attack dwindled with the darkness but they still filtered through the Gloucesters.
That night the attack was renewed. “C” Company, which had been in reserve, took the brunt this time. Decimated “B” Company fought beside them. The Gloucesters held. But by dawn on Tuesday it was obvious that they were cut off.
The battalion closed up on a single hill. Ammunition was low. They were almost out of food and water. The Gloucesters had refused an organised airlift. They said it would be too dangerous for the pilots.
Centurion tanks of the 8th Hussars backed by Filipino infantry, were stopped as they tried to reach the Gloucesters.
It was bitterly cold that Tuesday night. The Chinese came over the sparkling frost in white masses, screaming into the muzzles of the British guns.
Ben Whitchurch of the Gloucesters recalls: “Our Vickers machine guns were watercooled and through the fierce fighting the water ran out. My sergeant was running round among us with a bucket, telling us to pee in it because they needed water, but you just couldn’t pee. We were fighting for survival.”
Wednesday’s dawn showed the carnage in front of the Gloucesters’ trenches. Then, through the mist came the clear, cool notes of the Long Reveille, a call of defiance from the British to answer the bugles sounding the Chinese attack. The battalion adjutant Farrar-hockley, fed up with the Chinese bugles, had ordered Drum-major Philip Buss to play the bugle. Buss got out of his slit trench, stood to attention and also played ‘Cookhouse’, ‘Defaulters’, and ‘Officers Dress For Dinner’. The men’s resolve was stiffened to meet another attack on their positions. One tune Buss never played was ‘Retreat’.
Rumbled
The 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars’ tanks tried again to batter through. As they rumbled back past 29th Brigade command post that afternoon, says Captain Watkin-williams, a battalion staff officer, “they were piled high with dead and wounded, and blood ran down their sides, turning the dust into crimson mud.”
It was nearly over now Brigadier Brodie radioed the Gloucesters: “You have my permission to break out.” Carne gave the order to attempt to make it to the Brit