The Escape

With the decisions made and final farewells given, the remaining soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment made their break towards friendly lines, but not before the pipe smoking LTC Carne could hit up CPT Harvey one last time for some smoking tobacco. The soldiers that decided to try and run across the southwest saddle towards the 1st ROK Division were met with heavy machine gun fire from the Chinese the minute they exposed themselves on the saddle. Completely surrounded and being fired at from above the soldiers laid down their weapons and surrendered to the Chinese. Some other soldiers would leave the column to try and escape on their own but they to would eventually be rounded up and captured.

View of the valley leading to Joeksong from Kamaksan Mountain.

The column led by CPT Harvey would prove to be more successful. CPT Harvey’s hunch was correct about penetrating the Chinese lines to the north because they ran into only two Chinese infantrymen and quickly killed them. They moved about a mile north before changing direction and heading west. An American spotter plane had spotted the British soldiers and began relaying signals to them where the the 1st ROK Division was located. The column began moving southwest towards a valley that would lead them to friendly lines.

They moved about one mile through the valley when they began to be engaged by Chinese machine gunners on the hills above them. The Gloucesters took cover in a ditch than ran through the valley and then began to make a desperate sprint through the gauntlet of fire towards friendly lines. Gloucesters were being shot on the left and right during this last desperate attempt to free themselves from the Chinese assault.

CPT Harvey and the remaining men that made it to the end of the valley saw a platoon of American tanks in the clearing ahead that were supporting the ROK 1st Division. The British soldiers attempted to sprint towards the tanks but the tanks opened fire on them mistaking them for Chinese since they were covered in mud and were not wearing their customary British berets. Six British soldiers were killed in the friendly fire incident before the spotter plane dropped a note down towards the American tanks letting them know they were British. By this time Chinese infantrymen were screaming down the hillsides and bayoneting British soldiers who had long since run out of ammunition.

By the time the American tanks and ROK infantrymen could rescue CPT Harvey’s column at around 1400 hours on the 25th, only CPT Harvey, three officers, and thirty-six men for a total of 40 soldiers out of the 100 who had began the D Company escape attempt had made it out alive. Sadly beside the D Company soldiers few others escaped the envelopment, the rest were either dead or captured including their commander LTC Carne who had volunteered to stay behind to care for the dieing and wounded.

Final roll call of the Gloucestershire Regiment following the Battle of the Imjim.

Only 67 men had escaped with 59 men dieing that day on the mountain. In all 526 men had been captured out of a regiment of 700 men. Of the captured men 180 of them were wound and 34 of them would die in captivity. LTC Carne’s men would be held in Chinese re-education camps for the rest of the war while he instead was held in solitary confinement during his entire time in captivity. After the war was over and the British POWs were returned LTC James Carne would receive the Victoria Cross, the highest military honor in the British Empire for his actions during the Battle of the Imjim as well as honourably surviving captivity for so many months.

The Return Home

Upon his return to Britain LTC Carne told British intelligence that during his time in solitary confinement that the communist had experimented on him with drugs. He feared the drugs may have been introduced into him in order to turn him into a communist sleeper agent. This story by LTC Carne would go on to live in the popular imagination with the release of the Manchurian Candidate years later based off his story.

Also back in the Britain, the loss of the Gloucestershire battalion made huge headlines and the commander of allied forces in Korea, General Matthew Ridgeway ordered an investigation into how the regiment was lost. The investigation concluded that everyone had done what they thought was reasonably possible to relieve the Gloucestershire Regiment and that the strength of the Chinese attack was what was overall responsible for the regiment’s loss.

Privately General Ridgeway blamed the 29th Brigade Commander General Brodie for the loss of the regiment because he had never made it clear to US forces how desperate the situation was for the Gloucestershire Regiment and did not adequately use the Filipino infantry battalion and the supporting British tanks to relieve the regiment. Brodie took 50% responsibility for the loss and believed that the 3rd Infantry Commander General Soule should have shown more initiative in learning the true state of the Gloucesters himself and sending a larger rescue force. Nevertheless it is clear the Gloustershire Regiment should have never been lost on the hill that day.

I think a strong case can be made that LTC Carne should share in some of the blame himself considering how he allowed the regiment to be enveloped instead of falling back sooner. The Gloucestershire Regiment and the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry regiment commanded by LTC J.R. Stone during the Battle of Kapyong faced exactly the same conditions as the Gloucesters and yet the results were vastly different. The Canadians stopped the Chinese at a loss of only 10 people while the British stopped the Chinese at the cost of the entire Gloucestershire Regiment. The Gloucesters fought very valantly, but I think it is pretty clear that if their commanders made some slightly different decisions the regiment could have been saved. I think another strong case can be made that the Gloucestershire Regiment became something of legendary proportions simply to cover up the bad decisions that led to the regiment’s destruction in the first place. Despite this LTC Carne’s brave actions under fire as well as the heroic conduct of himself while imprisoned still makes him a hero of the Korean War.

However, the loss of the regiment was not for nothing, it is estimated that the Chinese battle against the British Brigade had cost the Chinese 11,000 casualties with the stubborn defense of Hill 235 by the Gloucesters costing the Chinese something even more precious than their manpower, time. The time bought by the Gloucesters was used to fortify the allied frontlines which made any further Chinese attempts to advance on Seoul from the north across the Imjim River, impossible. Seoul had been saved by the successful defense of the Imjim River and the Kapyong Valley plus the Chinese had been dealt a great defeat with the number of Chinese soldiers killed across the allied frontlines during the First Chinese Spring Offensive.

The Chinese would never truly recover from this defeat as the allies would eventually push the Chinese back across the Imjim River which after their failed second spring offensive two weeks later caused the communists to initiate ceasefire negotiations. The ceasefire negotiations caused the war to turn into a hill top war for the next two years until a final ceasefire had been declared. Without the brave sacrifice paid in blood by the men of the Gloucestershire Regiment the ceasefire may have come much sooner with the communist controlling Seoul and in a position of strength to dictate the terms of the ceasefire. As history turned out the position of strength the allies ended up negotiating from during the ceasefire negotiations was in large part due to the incredible stand for four days by the men of the Gloucestershire Regiment.

Next Posting: The Gloucester Valley Today 

Prior Posting: The Fight for Hill 235

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