One for the Road

by Will Roberts

  “We’re nearly there, Sir,” Jackie said, as he threw the officer’s left arm over his shoulder and helped him down off the hill. He carried the injured officer the rest of the way down the hill and placed him in an area where the rest of the injured were being attended.

  A medic immediately rushed over when he realised it was Lieutenant Hall. He called to two Korean stretcher-bearers, who quickly carried the officer away to a tracked vehicle that was waiting to take the injured away from the battlefront to a MASH unit.

  “Bayonet wound to the right side,” he told the medic, “and he’s lost a lot of blood.”

  He noticed Taffy Howells smoking a cigarette but smiling as a medic was dressing a bullet wound to his leg, and another medic stitching the gash to the side of Kelly’s head.

  “How is it, Kelly?” Jackie asked.

  “I’ve got a splitting headache, Jackie!” Kelly answered.

  “Another inch to the right and you wouldn’t have had to worry about another headache, Kelly,” Jackie replied.

  “Aye, you’re right there, Jackie!” Kelly said.

  Jackie sat down, took a cigarette from his pack and took a long draw on the American blend. Would he ever get used to them? he wondered.

  As the sun began to rise in the west, he looked around at the injured colleagues around him and thought how well the young soldiers had done that night, attempting to subdue a Chinese army that massively outnumbered them, as they fought to hold hill 375, on the Imjin River.

  He looked across at Dolan. He had tears in his eyes and a bemused look; his whole body shook suddenly at the sound of a nearby explosion. Dolan was obviously not cut out for this and, as Jackie looked at the terrified boy, an officer came and led the young soldier away; that was the last time he saw him. But Dolan was not the only one to suffer from ‘battle shock’. Jackie was later to learn that several others from the company suffered this syndrome. In fact, Dolan was to suffer the effects of ‘battle shock’, or, Post-concussion Syndrome, as it became known, for the rest of his life, as would many others.

  The soldiers had performed admirably, he thought. He looked around at the remnants of his company.

  “Let me look at that, Jackie.” Jackie’s thoughts had been interrupted by a medic. Harry Peters stood before him.

  “What’s that, Harry?” Jackie asked.

  “Your arm, Jackie!” Harry replied, pointing at Jackie’s left arm.

  Jackie then realised that he had received a bayonet wound on his upper arm, though when it had happened he had no idea.

  “It’s nothing, Harry,” Jackie said, “look after the others.”

  Jackie was then aware of the blood running down his arm and dripping from his fingers.

  “Let me check it out, Jackie.” The medic had taken a pair of scissors from his pack and was cutting the sleeve of Jackie’s tunic to reveal a jagged cut on Jackie’s bicep.

  “I’ll put a field dressing on it for now to stop the bleeding, Jackie, but it will need stitches when you get back to headquarters,” Harry said.

  “Yeah okay, Harry. Thanks,” Jackie replied.

  The medic finished applying the dressing to the wound and started to walk towards another soldier who was being dragged towards the group. This soldier’s left lower leg was missing and he was screaming in pain.

  “Make sure you get it stitched, Jackie. Otherwise it will get infected,” the medic said as he took a syringe of morphine from his pack and injected it into the screaming soldier.

  “Right, Harry. Will do,” Jackie answered.

  Jackie didn’t know it at the time but more than half of his company had been either killed or wounded and deemed out of action and there would be no stitches at headquarters for his lacerated arm.

  The Glosters also lost many of their officers during that first massive offensive by the Chinese.

  Jackie also didn’t know it then, but when Lieutenant Hall had recovered and made his report, Jackie Gee was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Military Medal for his heroics on that day at the Imjin River. He was also promoted to Corporal.

  As hill 375 was lost, Jackie’s company, or what was left of it, were instructed to withdraw to a second line of defence on the lower ground.

  The Glosters D Company, who were defending the ridge to the right of hill 375, had only to defend a probe, rather than a full attack that Jackie’s company had to withstand, and had held with only light casualties and no fatalities.

  Jackie was now joined by Lim, who had been released from his interpreting at Headquarters; together, they began digging in again in their new position. After making an acceptable defensive position, the exhausted Glosters tried to get some sleep before nightfall when they expected another Chinese offensive.

  What they didn’t know was that the Chinese had broken through behind them – The Glosters were completely cut off.

  During that day, the Belgian Division, which was still isolated on their hill, which they had miraculously held, on the north side of the river, were to be extracted.

  Jackie and Lim watched as American helicopters flew to the Belgian’s hill to remove the injured; then again as a platoon of what looked like Americans advanced on an adjacent hill to draw fire from the Chinese, who were on the hill close to where the Belgians were. With covering fire from a tank division, the Americans allowed the Belgians to retreat.

  The Belgian vehicles were driven over the pontoon bridge, which, unbelievably, was still intact, and the soldiers that were able to walk forded the river at what was now known as ‘The Ulster Crossing’ and the surviving Belgians all made it across without any further loses.

  The now abandoned positions that the Belgians had vacated, Jackie could see were now being occupied by the Chinese, but these positions soon came under fire from the Americans and within minutes of the Belgians reaching the beach and the American transport vehicles, the sound of US jets could be heard as they released canisters of Napalm. Jackie could see the burning bodies and heard the screams as the napalm hit their targets.

  The Belgian’s remarkable achievement in holding hill 175, on the night of April 22nd, would be duly recognised and earned them the US Presidential Citation.

  The Battle for the Imjin River

  Day 2, 23rd April 1951

  The odds were decreasing badly for the Glosters: the Chinese had managed to get two whole divisions across the Imjin on the night of twenty-second of April, and during the twenty-third, they had reinforced the two divisions with a third. The Glosters were outnumbered by almost twenty to one.

  Everybody was on full alert. They knew an attack was imminent. They couldn’t see the enemy, but they knew he was there. The moon was now high in the night sky and the eerie silence was broken only by the Chinese bugles; however, the attack did not materialise for C Company. Jackie could see the fighting on the hill to the left of their position.

  Lieutenant Temple was now the C Company commanding officer. He had little contact with the enemy during the night and in the morning found his position isolated and was unable to get any radio contact with headquarters. The only activity he could see was on the hill to his right.

  He led his men down through the valley and up to hill 235. As they marched up the hill, they were continuously sniped at. Several men were lost. Passing through the valley, they had seen the now abandoned Support and Headquarter Companies, with their abandoned jeeps and various other transport vehicles. The CO Colonel Carne had ordered these companies up the hill 235.

  When they reached the summit, they were ordered to dig in on the southern slopes. B Company later joined them on the slopes of the hill, or what was left of them. Twenty had survived, out of a strength of one hundred and twenty. In short, the company had been wiped out.

  What was left of The Gloucestershire Regiment were here on hill 235 and they were completely cut off.

  The sun rose on the twenty-fourth of April, and their dire situation became clear – the Regiment was surrounded by Chinese.

  Wo
rd came late in the morning that a force was en-route, to reinforce – not extract the regiment. Later, this order was changed and the Glosters were told they should fight their way out and make their way south toward the relieving force. However, this would mean leaving the wounded behind, which the Commanding Officer, Colonel Carne, refused to do. They would wait for the relieving force.

  Brigadier Brodie radioed Colonel Carne that the relieving force had failed to get through; they were now told that they would have to hold out for the night. Brodie was, in turn, informed by Carne that he no longer had what could be described as a fighting force. He commanded a mere four hundred to four hundred and fifty men.

  This relieving force, which consisted of Filipino infantry, M-24 light tanks and Centurion tanks from the Hussars, had been forced to use a narrow valley and when the leading M-24 was disabled. It in effect blocked the valley route. The remaining tanks had been forced to withdraw, back down the narrow valley. Without tank support, the relief effort had been called off.

  The Glosters were fortunate in that they had the support of artillery from a hill five miles to the east, and the mortar group had somehow managed to get their heavy mortars to the top of the hill but, generally, ammunition for the artillery and mortars was very much in short supply.

  There was not going to be a relief force that day. The Glosters were told that they were to hold out until the following day. That was easier said than done: apart from the shortage of ammunition, there was no food, water, or medical supplies; nobody had had anything to eat or drink for two days, nor any proper sleep for three days. The situation was desperate in the extreme.

  A party of Glosters, including Jackie and Korean porters, were sent to the former Battalion Headquarters encampment, hastily abandoned the previous day but clearly visible from hill 235, and well within range of the Bren guns and Lee Enfield’s.

  The artillery guns of 45 Field on the hill to the east fired a barrage of phosphorus shells to give the raiders a smoke screen.

  Each man was ordered to retrieve specific items, such as radios, batteries and rations; the sortie into the deserted camp was being covered by C Company’s Bren guns.

  As the group entered the compound area, a group of Chinese appeared and were immediately mown down by Temple’s Bren guns.

  As vehicles burnt and tent flaps blew in the wind, the encampment felt eerie; Jackie rushed from tent to tent trying to find the ammunition ‘dump’. He had to step over bodies of Chinese soldiers who had been ‘picked off’ by the Glosters’ marksmen on the hill.

  When he eventually found the location which had been given to him by the CO, he removed the A-frame backpack and stuffed it full of .303 rounds. There was a large duffel bag lying on the ground near the store full of somebody’s personal kit, discarded as its owner hurriedly evacuated the camp. Jackie now emptied it onto the floor and stuffed it full of rounds, then made a dash back to the hill, followed by his fellow foragers.

  The forage was deemed successful, each man returning overloaded with essentials, especially ammunition. The officers were extremely happy with the result, as each of the foragers laid out their loads before them.

  “Well done, men,” the CO said. “This could make all the difference.”

  The only items still in short supply were water and rations.

  A supply drop was arranged, consisting of ammunition, Bren guns, and radios. A great roar was heard from The Glosters as the two spotter planes appeared over the hill, but the summit was so constricted that most of the bundles missed the target and tumbled down the steep slopes of the hill and into the hands of the Chinese eagerly waiting at its bottom.

  Throughout that day The Glosters observed the ominous sight of the Chinese enforcing their positions. On all four sides, there were Chinese digging in, waiting for night to fall.

  During this time, Jackie managed to get the wound on his arm stitched and dressed despite the fact that there were very few medical supplies available.

  The sun was settling in the west. The CO had brought all units to the summit. There were around four hundred men to defend this hill that was so strategically important and which the Chinese desired so much.

  Jackie and Lim were on the south-facing brim of the hill. Jackie had been given a Bren gun though he preferred to use a rifle. Under the circumstances, he was more than happy to take the Bren; that being said, he was far from happy with the amount of ammunition available for it.

  The sun had now disappeared below the dark Korean hills and a full moon hung in the night sky. An eerie silence settled over hill 235.

  All the Glosters that were able to hold a rifle were peering into the darkness waiting for any slight movement or the faintest of sounds. Lieutenant Temple was patrolling his men’s slit trenches.

  “Take your time, men. Make every bullet count,” he whispered as he crawled from trench to trench, not wanting to give the enemy any shape to aim at.

  Then they came, as was the norm, they were heard before they were seen, a clink of steel, boots scraping on loose shale and of course the prattle. Then the goddamn bugles and whistles. They rose from their cover, discarding the shrubs and foliage they had used as camouflage so effectively during the daylight hours.

  Lim fired his Lee Enfield as he saw a Chinese soldier rise from his well-concealed hide. The soldier slumped to the ground.

  “Here they come, gentlemen!” somebody shouted.

  Jackie opened up with the Bren and a group of five Chinese screamed as they slumped to the earth but the most effective weapon in this situation was the grenade, and scores of these were now tumbling down the hillside into the mass of humanity desperately climbing hill 235 to rid the 29th Battalion of the stubborn Gloucestershire Regiment.

  Such were numbers trying to break the defence of the Glosters that if one position were overcome, the whole of the summit would be compromised, spelling the end of Regiment.

  In a lull in the firing, Jackie was frantically reloading the Bren’s magazines with .303 shells when he glanced to his right and saw the CO, Colonel Carne, and his adjutant, Captain Farrar-Hockley, each with a rifle to their shoulders picking off Chinese at will.

  Later, Joe remembered seeing the pair rushing to support an area where the Chinese were threatening to break through.

  During lulls in the fighting, Colonel Carne was to be seen almost crawling between trenches offering words of encouragement and, on occasion, calming some of the younger soldiers.

  “Remember Alexandria!” somebody shouted – that historic battle in Egypt where they had also been forced to fight ‘back-to-back’.

  45 Field Artillery were playing their part, landing shells within twenty metres of the Glosters position, but the Chinese mortars were also finding their targets with mortar bombs landing all around the hill summit.

  The Glosters also had the Vickers machine gun, a key weapon in the defence of hill 235 but which used a lot of ammunition. Furthermore, it was water-cooled, but there was no water on the summit. Something had to be used to cool the Vickers! A sergeant jumped into Jackie and Lim’s slit trench and ordered them to urinate in a bucket. This wasn’t easy if you’d had little or nothing to drink for the best part of two days.

  The Chinese continued to attack all through the night, wave after wave, and everybody knew when a new wave was coming because of the incessant bugle calls that drove everybody crazy and were extremely demoralising.

  Then Colonel Carne had an inspired idea: fight fire with fire. The Glosters had their own buglers, but did they have a bugle? Fortunately, one was found and senior Drum Major Buss, stood to attention outside of his slit trench, as bullets flew past his ears; he began by playing ‘Reveille’.

  When Jackie heard the bugle coming from behind him, he immediately turned this weapon, thinking the Chinese had broken through. What he saw instead was the immaculate Drum Major standing to attention with the bugle to his lips, oblivious to the bullets ricocheting off the rocks and stones around him – a sight Jackie would neve
r forget.

  The Drum Major continued to play the full repertoire, including ‘Last Post’ and ‘Cookhouse’ but not, it should be noted, ‘Retreat’.

  The night was almost over. The sun would soon be rising in the east. The Glosters were tired, hungry, and thirsty and their spirits were low, but this inspirational idea from the Colonel had galvanised the tired soldiers and a great cheer went up as the Drum Major lowered the bugle.

  Silence. The Chinese bugles had stopped.

  Then the enemy came again, hitting the Glosters with everything that they had. Soldiers took whatever cover they could find. Jackie and Lim’s Bren’s, Vickers and rifles still returned fire and still, they came.

  Throughout the night the Chinese had concentrated their attacks at particular points. The north, where Major Harvey’s D Company had withstood the attacks, then the easterly side and the west; now they were concentrating on the south and it appeared they were having some success.

  There was some concern to Jackie’s right: a mound, the highest point on the summit, had been lost to the Chinese. If they consolidated this position, they could rush down from this vantage point, the hill would be overrun and the Gloucestershire Regiment would be lost.

  Farrar-Hockley, in the trench to Jackie’s right, rose and began running towards the mound. “Lim, with me,” he said as he passed their slit trench. Lim immediately rose from the cover of his trench and rushed to fall in behind the officer. Farrar-Hockley called other soldiers from trenches as he made his way to the compromised position.

  Without orders, more soldiers, mostly veterans from other companies, realising the seriousness of the situation joined the small group. They formed up just below the mound; then as one, they charged. Dirt and earth could be seen kicking up from the mound as the soldiers fired on the run. The Chinese were taken completely by surprise and had no time to counter, with the Glosters firing their weapons and thrusting with their bayonets. Very soon the Chinese, realising their short residence on the mound was over, began to flee back down the steep slope of the mound.