FIFTY years on the achievements of our County regiment, The Glosters, in the famous Battle of the Imjin is to be told in the words of many of those who took part.
Faithfully recorded in over 30 years of interviews by local councillor Andrew Gardiner, of Ruardean, they are to be drawn together in a book to be called 'Baiting the Dragon.'
And one of the first copies will be sent to the Regiment's Colonel in Chief, the Duke of Edinburgh, who has encouraged Mr Gardiner to "get on with it."
Mr Gardiner met Prince Phillip following the recent service in Gloucester Cathedral to mark the 50th anniversary of the Imjin battle this week.
"We talked for some time and there was considerable banter about the time spent researching the book. But he twice asked me to hurry along the publishing," said Mr Gardiner.
"There were many Forest boys in Korea and in the Battle of the Imjin and I now intend to publish their book to give voice to those young men who gave so much and who were able to speak to me so freely during my research. In publishing their stories I hope that, like America did all those years ago, their own country can move a little closer to recognising their courage. So many acts of unbelievable heroism still await the recognition they deserve 50 years on," he said.
Mr Gardiner has good reason to remember the Imjin – his brother Dave was there.
"My memories of the events from 50 years ago remain as vivid today as they ever did. I arrived home on what was – up until I saw my mother – just another school day. However, rather than being met with the usual hug and kisses I opened the kitchen door to find Mum sat in the chair desperately trying to hide her tear-stained face. Her indomitable spirit had been replaced by a heavy air of sorrow.
"I soon learned that the cause of her grief was a newspaper editorial that read: "... the Gloucester regiment has been surrounded and totally overrun by the Chinese army. Many soldiers have been killed ..."
Mr Gardiner said the reports indicated that 'A' Company in which his brother Dave and his best friend, Roy Mills, served had taken the brunt of the battle.
"The newspaper report had an instant and devastating effect on our family but I knew that if anyone could survive it would be Dave. That evening I left the house and walked down to Tommy's Wood. Leaning on the five-bar gate I watched the red sun set on the horizon and my thoughts reached out to unfamiliar and far away places," he said.
Mr Gardiner said the battle had since been described as the "most ferocious and sustained infantry battle of all time."
"In the book I have simply given voice to the people many of whom shared their most personal of memories with me. For instance the late David Haines, from Mitcheldean, welcomed me into his home and admitted that expressing his feelings to me were easier than talking to his closest friends with whom he had been in Korea. Dave had literally been confined in a cage during his period as a prisoner of war and he reproduced the details including a drawing for the book," said Mr Gardiner.
•The Battle of the Imjin will be told in a future issue of the Review.