by Will Roberts
Farrar-Hockley deployed his meagre number of men, and then calmly lit his pipe. The advance had been successful. The mound was back under the Glosters’ control.
Seven times in the next hour, the Chinese advanced on A Company and the mound and seven times Farrar-Hockley and his men repelled them.
The sun was now above the horizon. The night was over. The Glosters had survived and held hill 235, but still, they came, now in daylight but, for the first time in days, the Glosters had air support.
The roar above his head startled Jackie. It was F-80s, with their payload of the most hideous of weapons which they promptly dropped on the exposed Chinese, still trying to make a breakthrough but being denied by the heroic Glosters.
Hundreds of Chinese were gathering for another attack, using a thicket of trees as cover. The marker for the F-80s pilots was smoke, but there was only one marker grenade left. Farrar-Hockley took the responsibility. He stood, pulled the pin and threw the marker grenade as high and as far as his tired body allowed. The throw was good. It landed in the thicket of trees.
Jackie wondered if Sergeant Taffy Howells had seen the throw and whether he was considering signing the captain for his village cricket team. Then a different thought: the captain had surely gone to public school and almost certainly had his own cricket team. Now he remembered that, in fact, the popular sergeant was not with them but was away on R and R – rest and relaxation. Good for you, Taffy, Jackie thought.
A company held their breath as the F-80s engines roared in again and the pilot released his deadly payload of petroleum jelly.
They had heard of the incident earlier in the war when in similar circumstances the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders had accidentally been hit by the America Air Force with this terrible weapon, napalm – an incident that was extremely distressing and embarrassing to the Americans.
The Glosters watched as the bombs tumbled through the air. Everybody held their breath as the morning sky lit up with the bright orange flame as the bombs detonated in the trees. The pilots had hit their target. The leading F-80 banked off, to prepare for another run as the following F-80s took their turns to deliver their devastating payloads.
Jackie ducked into his trench as the heat from the conflagration reached his trench. Then he watched as the Chinese screamed, the napalm burning through their uniform and then their skin.
In all, the American jets made seven strikes, and Jackie now watched as they streaked away, their holds empty. The only sound to be heard was the cracking of burning wood as the copse of trees burnt, followed by the smell of burning flesh, which made Jackie sick to his empty stomach. He retched, but all that came up was bile.
Lim then re-joined Jackie in the slit trench.
“You okay, Lim?” Jackie asked.
“So tired, Jackie,” Lim answered.
“We’re all tired, Lim, so very tired,” Jackie said.
Jackie leant back in his trench and closed his eyes. He had never been so tired – and thirsty. For a moment he was back in London at The Buccaneer. Andy had just poured a pint of best bitter and placed it on the bar in front of him. He was about to raise the pint glass to his lips when Maria walked into the bar.
“Maria!” He was surprised to see her; he had resigned himself to her not turning up. He immediately stood up and walked towards her.
“Sorry I’m late, Joe,” she said, as she kissed him on the cheek.
Jackie’s dream was then broken by Lieutenant Temple who was passing the slit trench, heading for an officer’s meeting in the Command Post.
“Corporal Gee!” he said, “no time to sleep. There’s still enemy movement at the bottom of the hill.”
“Yes, Sir,” Jackie replied.
Jackie jerked himself awake and immediately grabbed the grip of the Bren, but in doing so, he burnt the back of his hand on the barrel, which was still very hot.
“Shit!” he shouted as he rung his hand and then put it to his mouth. This was for nought as his mouth was dry and his lips cracked.
“Who’s Maria, Jackie?” Lim asked.
Jackie looked across at his Korean friend. “Somebody from another life, my friend,” Jackie answered, as the two peered down the steep hill. That was all he said and Lim decided not to question his friend any further. It was the only time that Lim heard Jackie speak Maria’s name. He had not shown any interest in women, Lim told Adam, even after the war.
Jackie kept glancing back at the Command Post as the CO Colonel Carne addressed his remaining officers. He managed to catch the gist of what Colonel Carne was saying: at dawn, the relief force had been assembled, ready to advance to make the extraction, but had come under fire from Chinese who had advanced further south than anybody had expected. Battalion Headquarters was surrounded and also under attack. The relief force, which they were expecting to extradite The Glosters, would not be coming. It had been redeployed elsewhere. The Glosters had to break out themselves.
A plan was formulating in Jackie’s mind. He couldn’t stand being held captive in a Chinese prisoner of war camp; of that he was sure.
The meeting ended and Jackie watched as Captain Farrar-Hockley headed towards the few that were left of A Company while Mike Harvey headed towards D Company. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Temple assembled B and C Companies and told them they were on their own and to make for the south-west to try and link up with the American tanks and the ROKs.
“What about the wounded?” Jackie asked.
“They are staying, corporal Gee,” was the reply.
Each rifle had only a few rounds each and there were only a few grenades left. The Bren gunners and Vickers gunners, as well as those soldiers who were out of ammunition for their rifles, destroyed their weapons as best they could. Jackie dismantled his Bren gun and Lim his Lee Enfield and both dropped the pieces into the slit trench which had been their home for two days and nights; Lim was about to pull the pin of a grenade he had been given when he charged the mound with Farrar-Hockley but had forgotten about.
“No, Lim!” Jackie said, “That might come in handy.”
Jackie then picked up a heavy boulder and dropped it on the dismantled weapons in the trench.
“That will have to do,” he added.
Jackie watched the remnants of the Gloucestershire Regiment as they climbed down the south facing slopes of hill 235.
“What are we waiting for Jackie? Let’s go,” Lim said as he was about to make his descent down the hill.
“Not that way, Lim, look!” Jackie pointed down to the bottom of the hill where the Glosters were being captured by Chinese who were emerging from their well-camouflaged trenches. There was little or no resistance from the exhausted English soldiers, most of whom were glad the war was over for them.
“We go this way, Lim, north,” Jackie said through dry cracked lips, as he began running to the opposite side of the hill.
“But Jackie, won’t the Chinese be that side as well?” Lim asked.
“We will soon see, Lim. But I don’t think they will expect us to go north. Maybe we can find a boat or something that will float that will take us down the Imjin. Then we go south and link up with the brigade,” Jackie answered.
“Okay, Jackie. Makes sense,” Lim agreed.
The two plunged down the shale slopes on the north side of the hill, passing hundreds of Chinese corpses, some still burning from the napalm. Jackie raised his hand to cover his nose and mouth as the smell of burnt flesh hit him again.
As they scrambled down the slope, they could see the number of dead Chinese was in the hundreds, if not thousands, some stacked three or four high.
They reached the bottom without incident. Ahead of them, they could see a group of about one hundred Glosters who it appeared had had the same idea.
“It looks like Major Harvey and D Company, Lim,” Jackie said.
Jackie and Lim had reached the banks of the Imjin and paused to catch their breath. They had been jogging slowly, but they had very little energy. It was Jackie’s inte
ntion to turn east, but D Company had turned west.
“Maybe we have a better chance in numbers,” Jackie said. “Let’s catch them up, Lim.”
While they were jogging, staggering would be a more accurate description, as they could barely put one foot in front of another, they heard the sound of an airplane. It was an American T-6 spotter plane.
Major Harvey and D Company had stopped and were waving at the aircraft, which acknowledged the column with a wiggle of its wings.
They had gone about one hundred yards when the column in front of them came under fire from a position on the embankment, a Chinese machine gun position. The soldiers dived for cover. Jackie and Lim also dived and watched as pandemonium broke out before them.
Some of the soldiers returned fire but this didn’t last very long as the remaining supply of ammunition was soon exhausted.
Then, at the far end of the trail, a tank appeared. Jackie immediately recognised it as American, but it suddenly opened fire on the Glosters!
“What the fuck is he doing?” Jackie whispered, to himself.
Jackie could see a Gloster officer, probably Lieutenant Harvey, waving at the tank; the spotter plane was making passes over the tank and frantically wiggling his wings.
An ROK officer then appeared and spoke on the radio. The tank now turned its armament onto the Chinese machine gun placement on the ridge and immediately the firing stopped. Then another machine gun opened fire, about thirty yards from Jackie and Lim, and well concealed from Lieutenant Harvey and D company.
“Give me that grenade, Lim,” Jackie said.
“What are you going to do, Jackie?” Lim asked as he handed Jackie the grenade.
“Just watch, Lim,” Jackie replied.
Jackie began to crawl through the undergrowth towards the machine gun placement. When he was around ten yards from the placement, he stopped and looked up. He had been unobserved by the Chinese. He then took out the grenade from his tunic, pulled the pin, paused and lobbed the grenade into the machine gun trench. At the very same moment, a round from the American tank stuck the hillside five yards above the placement. Jackie was covered with stones and dirt. One large piece of rock struck Jackie on his forehead and he fell to the ground.
Lim was immediately on his feet and running towards his friend, who was lying face down, covered with dirt and rubble.
“Jackie!” Lim shouted as he scraped the dirt from Jackie’s back. “Say something, Jackie.” There was desperation in Lim’s voice. After surviving on hill 235 for two days, he couldn’t believe that he had lost his friend with escape just yards away.
He turned Jackie’s body over. There was a deep cut high on Jackie’s forehead and blood was covering Jackie’s face.
“Jackie!” Lim said again. This time Jackie opened his eyes and blinked rapidly as the blood stung his eyes.
“Thank God, Jackie! I thought I’d lost you. Can you walk, Jackie?” Lim asked as he wiped the blood from Jackie’s face, with his tunic.
Without waiting for an answer, Lim heaved Jackie to his feet and threw Jackie’s arm over his shoulder and began walking towards the protection of the American tank.
Those of D Company who had dived for cover were now running towards the protection of the American tank. However, one soldier, who had witnessed Jackie’s attack on the machine gun trench, ran back to help Lim. It was Sergeant Hollins, a friend of Taffy Howells.
“I thought it was you, Corporal Gee. Taffy Howells would be proud of you!” he said, as he threw Jackie’s other arm over his shoulder. “Now let’s get the hell out of here!”
The three of them made it to the tank and collapsed.
The ROK officer was amazed at the condition of the Glosters soldiers. Few of them had weapons, many had no footwear and their appearance was wretched. All of them looked in desperate need of food and water. He took his own water bottle and handed it to Jackie who took a long gulp and then handed it to Lim.
After Jackie and the American tank had silenced the Chinese machine gun positions, the American tank commander appeared; he was distraught that he had opened fire on The Glosters.
Later, Jackie learnt that only nine per cent of the already decimated battalion had got out, the remainder being either captured or killed. This was, in effect, the end of The Gloucestershire Regiment.
29th Infantry Brigade Headquarters
Sosa, 9th May 1951
Jackie and Lim stood at ease as the Commander of the US 8th Army, Korea, General James Van Fleet, spoke of the heroic stand of the Glosters on Hill 235, or Gloster Hill as it was now known. Jackie heard words such as ‘indomitable spirit’, ‘fighting beyond the call of duty’, ‘gallant stand’, which made him proud; then he heard words which made his blood boil: “Time and again efforts were made to reach the battalion, but the enemy strength blocked each effort,” he heard from Van Fleet.
“Bullshit!” this from Taffy Howells, standing to his left.
Taffy had been on R and R during the stand on hill 235 and he and Major Digby Grist had been desperate to re-join their company, as part of the force that had been standing by for the extraditing of the Glosters.
Now Major Grist was the new commanding officer of The Gloucestershire Regiment and was in the process of receiving the US Presidential citation on behalf of the Gloucestershire Regiment and C Troop, 170 Mortar Battery, The Royal Artillery, who were now entitled to wear blue-shoulder flashes, indicating a unit citation.
It had been a very stressful time for the new commanding officer. The Gloucestershire Regiment, or the ‘Glorious Glosters’, as they had now become known, were on the verge of being disbanded. After their exertions on hill 235, what remained of the Regiment was a mere one hundred and twenty-nine men, a number that was greatly increased when Jackie and the forty-one members of D Company under Major Harvey joined the decimated regiment, nonetheless, this number needed to be increased dramatically.
Grist sent men to the airfield at Kimpo to try and persuade new arrivals to sign up for the Glosters. What’s more? Word was that the Glosters were to be sent to the Falkland Islands. Grist was determined to stay in Korea until the whereabouts of his fellow officers and men were known, at the very least. He made a heartfelt plea to Brigadier Brodie, who was understanding and gave the Glosters a mission protecting the bridges over the river Han.
The Gloucestershire Regiment had survived and not only had they survived but had become the most talked-about regiment in the British Army. Everybody wanted to interview the men of the ‘Glorious Glosters’.
Corporal Jackie Gee, who had been awarded the Military Medal for his heroics on hill 375 just weeks before was, of course, one of the most sought-after soldiers to be interviewed but Jackie, did not want this attention and often refused interviews – especially when he saw cameras.
He listened when some of his colleagues were being interviewed and smiled as they exaggerated their participation and described actions and events that Jackie could not remember.
On one occasion, Lim was interviewed and spoke about how Jackie saved his and Mina’s lives. Afterwards, Jackie was angry with Lim, but at the time Lim was mystified as to why this had angered Jackie so much. Later, after the war, when they were in Changwon and Jackie had explained his situation, Lim understood why.
Despite the acclaim that the Glosters received there was some resentment from other regiments of the 29th Brigade, who had also shown remarkable valour, including the Northumberland Fusiliers and the Royal Ulster Rifles, who had survived against extreme odds. Some from these regiments felt that they had done as well, if not better, than the Glosters but had not received the recognition.
Jackie would have liked just to serve his time and be left alone; the new attention would lead him to make a decision he would have to live with for the rest of what turned out to be his short life.
On the night of 29th April, the Chinese had begun to withdraw. Peng’s Fifth Offensive was over and for the Chinese, it was regarded as a failure. The only success that th
ey could claim was the virtual elimination of the Glosters – much less than Peng’s aim, which had been the annihilation of 1 Corps.
When the Chinese had returned to the north, across the Imjin River, the remnants of The Glosters, including Jackie and Lim, returned to hill 235 to recover and bury the bodies of their fallen friends and compatriots. This would prove to be a most traumatic experience, not only for Jackie but also for all the remaining soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment and, of course, all the other Regiments.
Jackie and Lim accompanied Captain Mike Harvey, who retraced his escape route back to hill 235. The captain recovered his beret, with which he had signalled the spotter plane and, later, furiously tried to attract the attention of the American tank as it fired on his men. The beret was riddled with bullet holes.
They discovered the bodies of their fallen colleagues in the ditch where they had fallen. As they tried to move the rotting corpses, body parts fell off in their hands, extremely distressing for all those involved.
The men continued to retrace their steps back to the now famous hill 235, or Gloster Hill as it was now known. A Greek Battalion was now occupying the area, and the Greeks had buried many of the bodies. At the summit, there were now only a few bodies but a ghastly smell of death hung over the area.
This was the worst time for Jackie and the mood of the remaining Glosters dropped. The normally easy-going, carefree nature of the West Country soldiers was replaced by a melancholy demeanour, as was also the case with the other regiments.
Joe found the slit trench that had been his and Lim’s home for two days and nights and where they had destroyed their weapons. It had now been filled in and held the bodies of two of Jackie’s fallen countrymen.
He was walking away when something caught his eye. Something was catching the sunlight in the brush, near his trench. He reached down and picked up a dented brass bugle. He immediately thought of Drum Major Buss and the sight of him standing by the side of his trench playing ‘Reveille’ flashed across his mind, bringing him out in goose-bumps.