Rescue of the Gloucestershire Battalion
After the fight on the Battle of the Yultong, the PEFTOK soldiers once again found themselves in the reserve. However, the rest for the Filipinos in the reserve would be short lived as the British Gloucestershire Battalion located on a ridge along the frontlines of the 29th Brigade became surrounded after desperate battle that night. British 29th Brigade Commander Brigadier Tom Brodie, was looking for options to extract the British soldiers from their isolated position and decided to have the 10th BCT’s Commander Colonel Dionisio Ojeda take his men north with a column of British tanks and infantry in order to try and rescue the Gloucestershire Battalion.

The combined Filipino-British rescue team left at 0730 on April 24th and traveled up Highway 5Y towards the Gloucestershire Battalions positions. However, once the road entered a mountainous valley it became very narrow and uneven. As it turned out the British Centurion tanks were too heavy and wide to use the road and only four light M24 tanks that the 10th BCT had could traverse the road. Once Brigadier Brodie was informed of the problem, he ordered the unit to establish a blocking position approximately 2 miles short of the Gloucestershire Battalion while he decided with his staff how best to proceed to rescue the surrounded battalion.

After conferring by radio with the Gloucestershire Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel James P. Carne, Brigadier Brodie decided that the Gloucesters were too weak to mount a fighting withdrawal and needed an allied unit to clear the Chinese from the surrounded ridgeline in order to save the battalion. Brodie decided to send the 65th Infantry and the 64th Tank Battalions to clear the ridgeline with the Filipinos following behind them to protect their flanks from a Chinese counterattack. The attack was to begin at 0630 on April 25th, which meant that the Gloucesters were going to have to survive yet another night of Chinese attacks on their position.

British 29th Brigade Commander Brigadier Tom Brodie pictured on right.

However, as the Glosters fight on the hill became more desperate Brigadier Brodie decided to see if the Filipinos could be able to extract the surrounded battalion. He ordered Colonel Ojeda to move his unit up the road and see if he could complete the link up with the Gloucestershire Battalion. Ojeda’s tanks moved up the narrow valley and the first tank in his column struck a land mine destroying it. An ambush from entrenched Chinese on the hillsides followed and the Ojeda’s men found themselves in full contact with the enemy. The British centurion tanks down the road could see the ambush taking place and began firing into the hillsides at the Chinese infantrymen. The fire from these tanks allowed Ojeda to get his wounded men extracted from the tank destroyed by the landmine. Ojeda then has three remaining tanks act as a rear guard as his unit withdrew back down the valley to link up with the British tanks again. Colonel Ojeda radioed back to Brigadier Brodie to inform him that there was no way his men could extract the Gloucesters by themselves. They needed help and no help came.

Kamak mountain valley in the distance that the PEFTOK soldiers traveled up to try and rescue the Gloucestershire Battalion.

During this fight to relieve the Gloucesters Brodie was informed that the allied leadership had decided to pull the UN forces’ frontline further south to all UN units to reorganize their frontlines. Due to this, the attack the next morning by the 65th Infantry Regiment was called off and only one platoon of tanks from the regiment was assigned to try and breakthrough to the Gloucesters which of course the next morning failed because approximately an entire Chinese division had moved into the valley by this time. On the western side of the ridgeline a combined US-ROK assault had also failed to reach the trapped unit but they were able to rescue a few stragglers that were able to evade the Chinese when they overran their position.

Colonel Ojeda’s unit was also called off from any counterattack and likewise were ordered to redeploy south to the new frontline. Ultimately the rescue of the Gloucestershire Battalion would end unsuccessfully and the unit was completely destroyed with only a 67 men able to make it off the mountain that day with the rest of the 700 man unit either dead or captured. Out of all the units that tried to rescue the Glosters, the 10th BCT came the closest to them by having the Chinese turn back their rescue effort a mere 2 kilometers from the surrounded battalion.

65th Infantry Regiment withdraws south from the Battle of the Imjim.

Aftermath of the Chinese Spring Offensive
In an investigation into the loss of the Gloucestershire Battalion, the I Corps Commander General Frank Milburn drew particular attention to how the attack by the LTC Ojeda’s 10th BCT was not followed up on by more allied units to break through the Chinese lines to reach the lost battalion. Colonel Ojeda’s men had opened up a wedge into the Chinese frontlines but without more follow on forces to fight the entrenched Chinese, there was no way the Filipinos could break through themselves. Brigadier Brodie would later explain that he decided not to send more forces to aid the Filipino rescue attempt because he thought the Gloucestershire Battalion could hold out until the next day when his planned operation with the 65th Regiment could rescue them, but the withdrawal order and the fact that the Glosters were in worse shape then Brigadier Brodie believed all combined to cause the loss of the unit. Sadly in the failed attempt to reach the trapped unit, Ojeda had five of his soldiers killed and more wounded by the Chinese.

When the Eighth Army Commander General Matthew Ridgeway read the results of the investigation he concluded the loss of the Gloucestershire Battalion was the fault of Brigadier Brodie not knowing his men. Ridgeway felt Brodie should have known the Glosters commander Lieutenant Colonel Carne had a habit of understating things and should have moved more soldiers in sooner to aid the 10th BCT’s rescue effort.

Overall the Chinese Spring Offensive was a failure and the allies ultimately reclaimed the lost territory with an offensive operation that Lieutenant Colonel Dionisio Ojeda’s 10th Battalion Combat Team participated in. After the battle the allies estimated that 75,000 enemy soldiers died during the Spring Offensive with 50,000 of them dying in the Seoul corridor where the Battle of the Imjim occurred.

The Chinese would never truly recover from this defeat and after their failed second spring offensive two weeks later the communists initiated ceasefire negotiations after even more heavy losses. 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 heroic fighting of LTC Ojeda’s 10th BCT along with the rest of the allied forces that fought tenaciously in the Seoul corridor, 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 part due to the actions of what the US command began calling the “Fighting Filipinos” of the 10th BCT.

PEFTOK soldiers receive Presidential Unit Citation from South Korean President Syngman Rhee.

Remembering the PEFTOK Soldiers
Lieutenant Colonel Ojeda and the 10th BCT redeployed from Korea in September 1951 and were replaced by another Filipino PEFTOK unit. The Philippine government maintained their PEFTOK troop commitment to Korea until May 1955, two years after the Demilitarized Zone was established with the signing of the armistice agreement. Overall 7,420 Filipino soldiers fought in the Korean War making the Philippines the fourth largest contributor of combat troops to aid in the defense of Korea. 112 soldiers died and approximately over 400 were wounded during the PEFTOK participation in the Korean War. The “Fighting Filipinos” would receive many combat decorations during the Korean War to include Lt. Artiaga posthumously receiving the US Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during the Battle of the Yultong. The Tank Company received a 8th Army unit citation for their actions at the Battle of the Yultong as well. The PEFTOK units were also awarded the Presidential Unit Citations from South Korean President Syngman Rhee.

To this day the Korean government honors the veterans of the Philippines who fought in the Korean War with a memorial located near the location of the Battle of the Yultong:

Additionally the PEFTOK soldiers are memorialized in the Korean War memorial in Seoul where reunions for Filipino veterans are held and have even been attended by prior Korean presidents:

Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and his wife meet with Filipino Korean War veterans.

Without a doubt the person that brought out the best of the first PEFTOK battalion sent to fight in the Korean War and set the standard for all follow on PEFTOK units was Lieutenant Colonel Dionisio Ojeda. Because of his leadership and combat ability LTC Ojeda is truly a hero of the Korean War.

Prior Posting: The Chinese Enter the War