25: Around the World in 60 Years: Operations 1945 2006 in Visual Studio .NET

Encoder Denso QR Bar Code in Visual Studio .NET 25: Around the World in 60 Years: Operations 1945 2006

In three years of conflict, 600 British casualties, including 90 killed, were sustained During the autumn of 1967, British troops steadily withdrew inside an embarkation perimeter based on Khormaksar airfield On the afternoon of 29 November the last company of 42 Commando left by helicopter and flew to the carrier HMS Albion At midnight Aden and South Arabia became independent

Britain has been involved in few conventional wars after the Second World War This section gives the lowdown on where British soldiers have served in such wars

Korea, 1951 1953

As part of the Russo/Chinese policy of expansion by surrogate means, communist North Korea was persuaded by those countries to invade noncommunist South Korea in June 1950 The United Nations reacted quickly in arranging for the rapid despatch of military assistance to South Korea The British sent troops from Hong Kong and in July 1951 these combined with the Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian contingents to form the Commonwealth Division alongside divisions from other countries Following some initial success, an amphibious landing at Inchon by the US Marines outflanked the North Koreans The North Koreans fled and the UN forces chased them almost as far as their frontier with China, the Yalu river American General Douglas MacArthur, commanding the UN forces, put forward several wild ideas for carrying the war into China, most of which the American Joint Chiefs of Staff vetoed They did approve one suggestion, involving the bombing of the Yalu bridges, on condition that only the Korean end was bombed! The Chinese were horrified that their Korean pals had taken such a beating, a disaster reflecting badly on the legend of communist invincibility At the end of November they came swarming across the Yalu in huge numbers; so many, in fact, that part of the UN army had to be evacuated by sea from Hungnam By January 1951 the Chinese had advanced into South Korea and temporarily taken Seoul, the capital, before the UN troops pushed them back MacArthur began talking about nuclear strikes That was too much for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President Truman replaced MacArthur with General Matthew B Ridgway

On 22 April 1951 the Chinese attacked once more Their 63rd Army, consisting of about 27,000 men, had the task of crossing the Imjin river and advancing on Seoul down the traditional invasion route, the effect being to trap the UN I Corps with its back to the sea Directly in its path, however, was Brigadier Tom Brodie s 29th Brigade, consisting of 1/Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, 1/Royal Ulster Rifles, 1/The Gloucestershire Regiment, and a small Belgian battalion On the right, the Fusiliers, Rifles, and the Belgians were almost swamped but retreated slowly, making the enemy pay for every metre of ground On 25 April they were ordered to break contact and withdraw south With tank assistance they managed to do so with difficulty On the left, the Glosters, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James Carne, revealed the value of regimental tradition At Alexandria during the Napoleonic Wars (see Part III) their two ranks had successfully fought back to back against separate French attacks, earning the famous back-badge that had adorned the regiment s headdress ever since Although the Chinese quickly isolated and surrounded the battalion and outnumbered the British by six to one at times, the battalion fought off human wave attacks for four days and nights By the last morning the Glosters were concentrated on a single hill They were no longer able to contact their supporting artillery because their radio batteries were exhausted They had little ammunition left, and across the valley heard the Chinese buglers summoning their men for the final assault The Glosters drum major responded, sending the regimental call echoing defiantly around the hills Seven times the Chinese masses charged up the hill, and seven times the Glosters pitched them off it Then squadrons of American F-80 aircraft howled into the attack, blasting the packed ranks of the Chinese with napalm and strafing them with cannon fire Suddenly all was very quiet Carne had received permission to withdraw earlier that morning His battalion had done its job and could do nothing more The medical officer, the chaplain, and their helpers volunteered to remain with the wounded while the rest, in small parties, tried to reach the UN lines A total of 58 Glosters were killed in the fighting and 30 more died in captivity Only 63 got through to form the nucleus of the reformed battalion Reports of the Glosters stand spread around the world and met with something like awe The Glorious Glosters, as they became known, received a very rare distinction for a British regiment, a US Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation They had done their Napoleonic forebears proud As a whole, the 29th Brigade destroyed the Chinese 63rd Army, which withdrew and took no further part in the war in Korea The following month the communists tried again and failed so badly that they began to surrender in droves The front stabilised and fixed position warfare (trench warfare) set in Even the Chinese huge manpower resources were unequal to the UN s massive artillery response