The Drum Major grabbed my bugle and blew every call in the British Army... except ‘Retreat’

The Sun.co.uk: The Drum Major grabbed my bugle and blew every call in the British Army... except ‘Retreat’
SIXTY years ago this week 866 brave British soldiers held out for three days against the 27,000-strong Chinese 63rd Army at the Battle of Imjin River during the Korean War.

It was one of warfare's most heroic stands, yet today the war - let alone the battle - rarely features in school history lessons.

Here, veterans of the attack, from the 1st Battalion, the Gloucestershire Regiment, recall their amazing fight against the odds.
THE sun was just setting on the Imjin River on the night of April 22, 1951, when the first shadowy soldiers waded into the water, the spearhead of a massive Chinese invasion force.

On a hill overlooking the river ford, a patrol of just 16 men from the 1st Battalion, the Gloucestershire Regiment, witnessed the start of the onslaught to come.

Korea, previously ruled by Japan, had been divided in half in 1945 but five years later, with post-war tensions growing between East and West, the peninsula suddenly provided the battle ground for the Cold War to turn white hot.

When Communist North Korean troops, equipped by the Soviet Union, invaded across the 38th Parallel divide in June 1950, the United Nations, including Britain, sent forces to protect the democratic South.

The UN counter-offensive brought China into the war on the side of the North and in early 1951 the Chinese and North Korean armies launched a huge spring offensive, with 270,000 men and the stated aim of retaking Seoul and "wiping out" US, British and Turkish forces defending South Korea.

At the strategically crucial Imjin River, little more than 4,000 men of the British 29th Infantry Brigade, thinly spread along a 12-mile front, stood between three divisions of the Chinese army and the road to Seoul.



Target ... the Imjin River in Korea
National serviceman Private Ben Whitchurch's anti-tank company of the 1st "Glosters" had arrived in Korea in November 1950.

Now, after five months of minor skirmishes, he had driven Lieutenant Guy Temple and half his platoon, with three Bren guns, a two-inch mortar and as much ammunition as they could carry, to the hill above the Imjin crossing.



Call to arms ... painting of Drum Major Buss bugling at Imjin River
Ben, now 79, from Bristol, said: "The next thing, there was a bang on the side of my troop carrier and I thought, 'Oh, they want me to go back for them,' but this guy says, 'Don't bother. Listen to that,' and it was the start of the battle.

"Within hours we knew it would be a major offensive, when you saw how many of them there were."

Regular Army Drummer Tony Eagles was one of the members of Defence HQ platoon, dropped off by Ben at the listening post, who first saw the Chinese advance.

Tony, now 82, from Gloucester, said: "We watched them coming. Corporal George Cook was on the telephone to the adjutant Tony Farrar-Hockley to tell him what was happening and Farrar-Hockley said, 'Don't let them cross. Wait until they get halfway and then let them have it.'

"So that's what we did, and a few of them went floating down the river. We did not feel it was a major threat, but apparently Farrar-Hockley did."

For two hours the patrol kept the advancing Chinese at bay with small arms fire, then withdrew to the battalion HQ. The British division was soon being overrun by the overwhelming numbers of enemy troops.

After a brave fight by the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, the Royal Ulster Rifles and a Belgian battalion, the huge Chinese force threatened to break the UN defensive line and the Glosters were left alone to slow the enemy attack.



When the Cold War got hot ... Chinese troops being taken prisoner during the Korean War
By the afternoon of April 23 the Chinese had fought round the flanks and surrounded the Glosters, who regrouped on Hill 235 - later to become known as Gloster Hill.

For two days they fought desperately, and by the night of April 24 they were being attacked from all sides.

Private Morris "Brassy" Coombes was in the thick of the fighting with C Company. Morris, now 79, from the Isle of Wight, said: "What ammunition we had left was reserved for the machine-gunners and I was designated as a stretcher-bearer to get some of the wounded - and there were many."



Heroes ... (left-right) Tony Eagles, Albert Fulgoni and Ben Whitchurch
Ben Whitchurch said: "Our Vickers machine guns were water-cooled 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."

Tony Eagles recalled a bid to keep up morale: "Drum Major Philip Buss came for my bugle. I would gladly have played myself but Farrar-Hockley insisted. He stood up and blew every call in the British Army except Retreat."



National Serviceman Private Roy Mills found himself besieged with his comrades from A Company on Castle Hill and then Gloster Hill.


Roy, now 79, from the Forest of Dean, Gloucs, said: "The worst thing on Gloster Hill was when the American Sabre jets came in, machine-gunning and dropping napalm. You could see the bomb drop and then all you could see was cinders and just burnt bodies where the napalm had dropped."

Tom Clough, a Royal Artillery gunner, now 80, recalled: "We were firing and firing. The barrels were red hot but the Chinese seemed to be coming from a bottomless pit."

By dawn on April 25, with the rest of the UN infantry line retreating to defensive positions north of Seoul, the order was given to Glosters officers to make for the British lines as best they could.

Albert Fulgoni, 82, from Warminster, Wilts, was a private with D Company. He said: "When we were given the order 'Every man for himself,' we went up the back of the hill and headed north.

"We hit a few valleys and went for about two hours but then the Chinese cottoned on where we were and 41 managed to get through, but not me. I got pinned down and that was it."



Remembrance ... (left-right) Tom Clough, Morris Coombes and Roy Mills
The 29th Brigade had suffered 1,091 casualties - a quarter of their strength - with 620 from the Glosters, including 59 killed in action.

But the war was not over for the brave men of the "Glorious" Glosters, 522 of whom became prisoners and endured a 300-mile march to the Yellow River prison camp, then more than two years in hellish captivity, during which a further 34 died.

The fighting finally stopped with an armistice in July 1953 and Korea remains divided to this day.

Gloster Hill is a monument to the bravery of 866 British troops, and today the Duke of Gloucester will open a new exhibition commemorating the Battle of Imjin River at the Soldiers Of Gloucestershire Museum in Gloucester.