KOREAN WAR - Duke of York leads vets to banks of Imjin River

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Duke leads Korea veterans to banks of the Imjin River

By David Rennie in 'Gloster Valley',

THE Duke of York yesterday led Korean War veterans to the banks of the Imjin River, where 50 years ago to the day 3,000 British soldiers fought 10 times their number of Communist Chinese.

The battle is remembered as a British military tragedy - in particular for the fate of the 1st Battalion the Gloucestershire Regiment, which lost all but 67 of its 650 officers and men to death or captivity. Some 59 died, 526 were taken prisoner, including 180 wounded. Many of the wounded later died.

But yesterday, the Duke told more than 100 British veterans on the now peaceful slopes of "Gloster Valley" that their sacrifice had not been in vain. Wearing Royal Navy uniform, he addressed a service of remembrance, not just of the Battle on the Imjin River, but of the entire British involvement in the 1950-53 Korean War.

Six miles from the heavily-fortified border with North Korea, he said: "This war, fought in a far-off country for international duty, was fought to preserve the freedom of a country far from Britain, in order to prevent an ideology of repression and communism from becoming dominant."

His message was echoed in emotional speeches by South Korean army generals and government ministers. Gen Suh Dong-Yull, vice- chairman of the Korean Veterans Association, recalled the terror as Soviet-armed northern forces swept across his country in their surprise invasion of June 1950.

The intervention of United Nations forces - led by America, but including 81,000 British men from all three Services - had saved freedom from being snuffed out, the general said. Turning to the rows of British veterans in their medals and regimental berets, the general said: "May God bless you and may God bless the great nation, the United Kingdom."

Half a century ago, Solma-ri, as the site is called in Korean, was a barren, rocky, place of death, where the Glosters and their comrades fought for three days and nights, surrounded by tens of thousands of Chinese.

Yesterday, its steep slopes were covered with trees and spring blossom as the Duke, veterans and Korean dignitaries laid wreaths to the sound of a lone piper. But Ben Whitchurch, a Gloster veteran, had no trouble identifying the hills where, as a 19-year-old anti-tank gunner, he had looked up and seen Chinese silhouetted against the horizon in every direction.

Mr Whitchurch, from Kingswood, near Bristol, recalled the moments when first his gun's anti-tank rounds were exhausted, then his own rifle ammunition. "The order came through to fix bayonets, it was all we could do." The 550 men still able to fight were told to try to break out, every man for himself. Mr Whitchurch was captured and made to kneel with his hands behind his head.

"That was the most fearful moment. We knew we had killed a lot of Chinese, their dead were stacked 10 deep. I was positive it was execution time." He lived, and survived two and a half years in a Chinese prison camp.

Yesterday concluded with a bleak reminder that the Korean War has never officially ended. The veterans were driven up a dirt track in Korean army jeeps and open- sided lorries to the top of Castle Hill, site of one of the Glosters' last stands. The hill remains a military emplacement to this day, scarred with deep trenches and tank emplacements.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2001


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