{"id":47,"date":"2013-04-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yule-tide.generalsemiotics.net\/index.php\/2013\/04\/26\/post-40-the-fall-of-gloster-hill-april-25th\/"},"modified":"2013-04-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T00:00:00","slug":"post-40-the-fall-of-gloster-hill-april-25th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yule-tide.blog\/index.php\/2013\/04\/26\/post-40-the-fall-of-gloster-hill-april-25th\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-40: The Fall of Gloster Hill, April 25th"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t<\/span>\"Picture\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Possible photo of the “Gloucestershire Battalion”
from 1951 \/ Found on the Internet<\/div>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201c<\/em>Though minor in scale, the battle’s ferocity caught the<\/em>
<\/span> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 imagination of the world<\/em>\u201d, especially the fate of the 1st
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, which was
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 outnumbered and eventually surrounded by Chinese
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 forces on “Hill 235”, a feature which became known as
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gloster Hill<\/strong>. The stand of the Gloucestershire Battalion
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 together with other actions of 29th Brigade in the Battle
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of the Imjin River have become an important part of
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 British military history and tradition. [Wiki<\/a>]<\/p>\n

April 25th was the day the Battle of <\/strong>Gloster Hill<\/strong> ended in 1951.<\/p>\n

There were 700-800 men in the Gloucester [Gloster] Battaltion on April 22nd. By noon April 25th, all but 40-60 (pictured below) were dead or en-route to NK\/Chinese POW camps.\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/span>\"Picture\"<\/a><\/p>\n
The several dozen men of the Gloucester Battalion
who escaped from Gloster Hill [from here<\/a>]<\/div>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n<\/span>In total, it seems<\/a> that sixty-eight ‘Glosters’ died in the battle, and thirty more died in the POW camps, for a total of 98 dead as a result of the Gloster Hill action. In total, 1,109 UK soldiers died in Korea, so the small Gloster Hill action alone accounted for 8.8% of UK military deaths in the war. <\/p>\n

<\/span>There is a good write up on the battle here<\/a>, and a series of posts about its commander, Lt. Col. Carne, here<\/a>, written at the ROK-Drop blog.\n<\/div>\n

\n
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<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/span>I<\/span> visited the site of this battle last year. Today, it is a leafy picnic area, with a few memorial stones and British flags. I wrote about this trip way back in post-3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Gloster Hill is near Jeokseong village (\uc801\uc131\uba74) in the Paju region, and is neither easy to find nor easy to get to. The village of Jeokseong [pronounced “Juhk-Suhng”, formerly written as Choksong in English] is a short way north. We got a bus to Jeokseong and walked southeastward to find Gloster Hill. (It is also near a temple and a mountain, and supposedly a waterfall, which I don’t remember seeing).<\/p>\n

<\/span>Here is a Google-map, zeroed-in on the precise spot of today’s ROK\/UN\/UK flag display that anchors the memorial: <\/div>\n