Korean War

madeleine whitfield
Nov 2 · 6 min read

A visit to a battle site

Last week I went on a tour with the Royal Asiatic Society. I was reluctant because it meant leaving my residence at 6:40 a.m.!! Yes, dawn. It was still dark when my alarm went off. However, I was inspired by my neighbour next door. She’s an American who’s been teaching in Korea for 25 years or so and did her PhD in anthropology while living here. What she doesn’t know about Korea isn’t worth knowing, so when she said this would be a good trip, I got out of bed for it.

The tour leader was Andrew Salmon, a well-known historian —

I must read his book as soon as I can get to a library that will let me take a book out! They won’t let me here, and I don’t believe in buying books that take up room on shelves.

There were quite a few of us going, and as the bus pulled out of Yongsan at 8 a.m., I suddenly felt really glad that I’d got up for this. Andrew started talking almost right away, explaining what was going to happen.

We were going to visit three famous sites where the Gloucester Regiment from England had held back the Chinese People’s volunteer army so that the Americans and Republic of Korea (ROK) army could get behind the action to liberate Seoul. Seoul has been taken by the North Koreans and they needed to be cleared out. The job for making it possible was given to the Gloucesters. What is written below is no exaggeration. They literally faced an army of 10,000. This is from a quote in an English newspaper on an anniversary commemorating the Gloucestershire Regiment’s service in Korea.

“HALF a century ago, 650 British fighting men — soldiers and officers from the 1st Battalion, the Gloucestershire Regiment — were deployed on the most important crossing on the Imjin River to block the traditional invasion route to Seoul. They knew they faced a major Chinese attack.”

If you want to look up the area, look for images of the Imjin River just below Paju, a small city close to the border between North and South Korea. I didn’t take pictures of this area because it was just grass, rocks, and a river in the distance. Very difficult to see details. However, Andrew made it come alive for us.

As we stood right on the edge of the actual trenches that are still there today, he pointed out the river crossing where the Chinese were coming in hordes. The few men in the front trenches were firing so constantly that their gun barrels became extremely hot. In the end, they couldn’t hold the Chinese off because there were too many to kill. They retreated to another hill, which we all went to at the appropriate part of the story.

It was a very steep climb up a small mountainside and I found it rough going. One very nice man, a tall Norwegian, stayed with me all the way up. At the top, we could see the bunker and the trenches still there, and with Andrew’s red hot lecture style where he practically acted all the parts (and did a bit of swearing), we could get an extremely accurate picture of the whole tragic situation. It was hopeless from the start and the powers-that-be knew it. The men knew it too, but they stayed. As they lost more and more men, the survivors had to run back to where there were some reserves with the big guns.

At this point when we were all wound up with the action (it was almost like being there), Andrew declared lunch time! Phew. A break. He took us to this little Korean restaurant that looked like a hole in the wall where were took up three long tables and had a sumptuous meal. I tried to take a nice picture, but it came out looking not so great. It doesn’t really give a good idea of how nice the meal was—

The big silver pipe is for taking out the fumes of the table top stoves and any grilling of food
Some more of the group and a new friend, Susan

This picture isn’t great because I took it too soon. The broth was just heating up and the beef and mushrooms hadn’t been put in yet. Susan works for the American school in Seoul. It’s a school for U.S. soldiers’ kids.

After lunch we went to the final site, and listened to a harrowing tale of how the Gloucesters went from 650 men to 150. Andrew did a superb job, and as we looked at the mountainous terrain and heard of how men fought for 3 days straight with no food or water or sleep, we really got caught up in the misery of it. Apparently the soldiers were so dehydrated that when one of the sergeants asked for the men to pee on the barrel of a gun firing mortars, nobody could do it. They had no pee. It’s a wonder they didn’t all die of exhaustion and stress. It’s amazing what the human body can take. Of course, most of them were under 30 and fighting fit, but still…

This was the original monument to the Gloucesters built by the people of Paju.

You can can see by this picture that the stone memorial plaques are set in the side of the mountain. There was a cave behind left over from an old mine where many of the soldiers’ bodies were kept until they could be properly buried. Since this memorial was built, the people of Paju raised a million dollars U.S. to build a proper monument. This picture is part of it. —

On the back of this monument the names of all who died are engraved — all 500+

It was a doomed effort from the start. It makes me wonder why men will fight to the death for a country not their own. After some of the men of rank were killed, kids as young as 19 actually had to take over leadership of the men who were left.

Andrew relives the action

Andrew was really an excellent guide. He made us feel part of the action and want to read more about the whole situation. Some of the stories were heartbreaking because brave young men taking risks for others were, of course, killed. So young and so brave.

While we were there, Andrew happened to meet up with a soldier from the ROK that he obviously knew. Much laughter and excited talk.

Fancy meeting you here!

Here’s a touching group. A very moving memorial to some of the men —

I think the faces are accurate representations of the young men who fought here

The Korean War was a terribly sad episode in Korean history, but from what I’ve read and heard, it was quite unavoidable because of the events following the end of world war 2. Japan had occupied Korea since 1904/9 (depending on how you date it), so the American bombing of Japan actually left a big vacuum of power in the region that Russia, China, and the States were ready to fill. These poor Koreans!

We loaded onto the bus quite exhausted. Andrew fell asleep! Not surprising. He’d put on quite a performance for us.

We didn’t get back to Seoul until 7 p.m. and then had the train rides back to our various haunts. That was a night that I fell into bed and didn’t budge for 8 hours!

Postscript

One last thought: As I listened to Andrew recounting the action of those few terrible days, I thought of the men in my family and wondered. How awful it must have been for the mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters of these men.

madeleine whitfield

Written by

Interested in history and all things Korean, I am enjoying my retirement following my dreams and desires. My dream — to return to South Korea is now a reality.

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