{ "slug": "imjin-river", "title": "Battle of the Imjin River", "status": "draft", "era": "WWII and later", "date_text": "22–25 April 1951", "start": "1951-04-22", "end": "1951-04-25", "war": "Korean War", "cdb90_war": "KOREAN WAR", "place": { "name": "Hill 235 (Gloster Hill) and the hills south of the lower Imjin River near Solma-ri, north of Seoul, South Korea", "lat": 37.9425, "lon": 126.9392, "wikidata": "Q16170016" }, "lede": "From 22 to 25 April 1951 Britain's 29th Brigade and a Belgian battalion held the lower Imjin against the Chinese 63rd Army at the start of the Spring Offensive. The Glosters were all but destroyed, but the road to Seoul held.", "result": "Chinese tactical victory; the drive on Seoul checked", "result_cdb90": "attacker win", "belligerents": [ { "role": "attacker", "name": "Chinese People's Volunteer Army: 63rd Army, XIX Army Group", "commanders": [ "Peng Dehuai", "Yang Dezhi", "Fu Chongbi" ], "strength": { "value": 27000, "low": 27000, "high": 27000, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 10000, "low": 10000, "high": 15000, "source": "s1" } }, { "role": "defender", "name": "British 29th Independent Infantry Brigade Group, with the Belgian battalion (attached to US 3rd Infantry Division)", "commanders": [ "Brigadier Tom Brodie", "Lt-Col James Carne", "Lt-Col Albert Crahay" ], "strength": { "value": null, "low": null, "high": null, "source": null }, "casualties": { "value": 1091, "low": 1091, "high": 1310, "source": "s3" } } ], "sections": { "background": "By the spring of 1951 the Korean War had swung up and down the peninsula twice. After the North Korean invasion of June 1950 and the UN counter-offensive to the Chinese border, Chinese intervention drove UN forces back below the 38th Parallel and took Seoul. A fourth Chinese offensive was blunted in February, and UN counter-offensives recaptured Seoul on 15 March. In early April Operation Rugged fixed the front on the Kansas Line, which followed the lower Imjin and then ran east to the coast; Operation Dauntless pushed a salient, the Utah Line, out beyond it.\n\nPeng Dehuai, commanding the Chinese People's Volunteer Army and the North Korean forces, meant to seize back the initiative. He planned to converge on Seoul with three army groups and a North Korean corps, some 305,000 men, and promised Mao the capital as a May Day gift. On the western flank the XIX Army Group was to cross the lower Imjin against the left of the US I Corps: the ROK 1st Division and the US 3rd Infantry Division, to which the British 29th Independent Infantry Brigade Group was attached.\n\nThe brigade sat across the most direct approaches to Seoul, some 45 km away. Its four battalions covered about 12 miles of hills behind the river, served by two minor roads: Route 5Y on the left and Route 11, the brigade's supply road, on the right. A breakthrough here would have outflanked the ROK 1st Division to the west and the US 3rd Division to the east. Expecting to stay only briefly, the British had laid no minefields, dug no deep shelters and put up little wire, and the gaps between battalions could not be closed.", "forces": "Brigadier Tom Brodie could not hold a continuous line, so he placed his battalions on separate hill features. On the left the 1st Gloucestershire Regiment (Lieutenant-Colonel James Carne) held company perimeters astride Route 5Y above Solma-ri, a mile from the ROK 12th Regiment. Two miles of empty hills to the north-east, the 1st Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (Lieutenant-Colonel Kingsley Foster) held four widely spaced company positions near the river bend. The Belgian battalion (Lieutenant-Colonel Albert Crahay, about 700 men, with a Luxembourg detachment) sat on Hill 194, the only unit north of the river, reached by two pontoon bridges. The 1st Royal Ulster Rifles, under Major Gerald Rickord, were in reserve on Route 11. In support were the 25-pounders of 45 Field Regiment RA, the 4.2-inch mortars of 170 Independent Mortar Battery, the 52-ton Centurions of C Squadron, 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars (Major Henry Huth), and 55 Squadron RE. Behind them General Soule of the US 3rd Division held the 7th and 65th Infantry and the Philippine 10th Battalion Combat Team.\n\nAgainst them came the 63rd Army of Yang Dezhi's XIX Army Group: the 187th, 188th and 189th Divisions, each of three regiments of three battalions, some 27,000 men in 27 battalions. They attacked in echelon, one division after another, mostly by night, and their assaults were signalled by bugles and drums. The 64th Army struck the ROK 1st Division on the British left.", "course": "The fighting is the core of CDB90's single engagement for this battle, 'Kansas Line'.\n\n**Night of 22/23 April.** The first night was lit by a full moon. Carne had placed sixteen men of C Company in ambush at Gloster Crossing, a ford his sappers had marked. About 22:00 they watched seven Chinese wade over and shot them down, then beat off three more crossings, killing some seventy, before withdrawing without loss when their ammunition ran out. A battalion of the 559th Regiment, 187th Division, then crossed there and at an underwater bridge the Glosters had missed. On the right, Chinese slipped past the Belgians on Hill 194 to the pontoon bridges; an Ulster Rifles detachment sent to secure them was ambushed. The Fusiliers' X Company was driven off Hill 152 and Z Company's position on Hill 257 was penetrated, leaving Y Company stranded. On the left the Glosters' A Company held Castle Hill (Hill 148) until about dawn, when its 58 remaining fit men lost the crest. Lieutenant Philip Curtis was killed attacking a machine-gun post in the counter-attack and was awarded a posthumous VC.\n\n**23 April.** Brodie formed a new centre astride Route 11 with the Fusiliers and Rifles, two miles below Hill 257. By 08:30 air observers saw Chinese entering the two-mile gap between them and the Glosters. Carne pulled his companies back towards Hill 235 above Solma-ri. In the evening the US 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry, attacked Hill 257 so that the Belgians could wade back across the Imjin and run their vehicles over the bridge, losing several on the way. In the afternoon Chinese attacked the Glosters' supply point on Route 5Y: the battalion was surrounded.\n\n**Night of 23/24 April and 24 April.** The 559th Regiment pressed C and B Companies. Carne brought C Company and his headquarters onto Hill 235, leaving B Company isolated to the east. It threw back rush after rush until a seventh assault at 08:10 broke it; about twenty men reached Hill 235. The 188th Division now attacked the Fusiliers and Rifles, while Chinese on Kamak-san (Hill 675) widened the gap to four miles. A relief column of Filipino infantry, light tanks and Centurions set off up Route 5Y about 07:30. At 15:30, in a narrow defile some two miles short of the Glosters, the lead M24 was disabled, the Centurions were too wide to pass, and the column withdrew. General Soule planned a two-battalion attack by the 65th Infantry for 06:30 next morning, assured by Brodie that the Glosters could hold. About 350 fit men dug in on the crest of Hill 235 by 21:00.\n\n**25 April.** Attacks came up the north-western and south-eastern slopes all night; at daylight the Chinese took the peak and a small counter-attack retook it, and F-80s broke up the next assault. In the early hours, with Chinese bugles directing the attackers, the adjutant ordered Drum-Major Philip Buss to answer: asked which calls, he said everything except Retreat. At 05:00 the I Corps commander, General Milburn, ordered a withdrawal to Line Delta. The 65th Infantry's attack was cancelled, and two light-tank attempts failed. About 09:00 Brodie told the Glosters to break out. Carne stayed with about fifty stretcher cases, the medical officer and the chaplain. The main body went south-west and was trapped at a saddle and surrendered. Captain Mike Harvey took D Company, about a hundred men, north and round the hill; after a running fight down a valley, and fire from American tanks that took them for Chinese, forty reached ROK lines. On Route 11 the Fusiliers and Rifles fought their way south under fire from Hill 675, Centurions carrying some two hundred wounded through the gauntlet. Foster was killed; Huth called it 'one long bloody ambush'. The Belgians held a blocking position near brigade headquarters until the brigade cleared in the late afternoon.", "aftermath": "The brigade lost 1,091 men, about a quarter of its strength. The Glosters lost 620 or so; 522 became prisoners, among them Carne, and the battalion mustered 217 men on 27 April. Carne and Curtis received the VC, and Lieutenant Terence Waters a posthumous George Cross for his conduct in captivity. The Glosters, C Troop of 170 Mortar Battery and the Belgians received the US Presidential Unit Citation. Chinese losses are guesses: at least 10,000 and perhaps over 15,000, and the 63rd Army, a third weaker, was pulled out of the line.\n\nWhether the stand was decisive is argued. The British tradition, voiced by the National Army Museum, holds that it gave UN forces time to regroup and block the road to Seoul. US intelligence at the time thought the Glosters' stand, together with the 64th Army's fumbling, had upset the XIX Army Group's timetable and forced it to commit the 65th Army; Zhang Shu Guang and Andrew Salmon both conclude the brigade disrupted the offensive enough to affect its outcome. The official Chinese history counts the Glosters' destruction a victory but blames the failure to take Seoul on the ROK 1st Division's defence, and Allan Millett stresses that division's performance. US air power and the retreat to prepared positions on the No-Name Line north of Seoul also mattered. And the loss itself was contested: Ridgway told Brodie the Gloster battalion should not have been lost, while Van Fleet privately blamed Soule.", "wargaming": "Imjin works at three scales. The opening is a fine skirmish or platoon game: sixteen Glosters at a moonlit ford against waves of wading infantry, with a limited ammunition supply as the clock. Company actions, such as A Company on Castle Hill or B Company's six-assault night, suit a game with one stand per section, where the defender's question is when to call artillery onto his own position. The whole battle is best as a battalion-level operational game over three days and four nights, with the brigade's four battalions against 27 Chinese battalions arriving in divisional echelons.\n\nKey terrain: Hill 194 and the two pontoon bridges, Hills 152 and 257 on the Fusilier front, Castle Hill (148), Hill 235, Kamak-san (Hill 675) dominating the gap, and the two roads, Route 5Y and Route 11. Night should favour the Chinese, day the UN with artillery, Centurions and air strikes; the defiles on Route 5Y stop Centurions, which are wider than the road.\n\nThe decisions are on the UN side's chain of command. Should the Belgians be north of the river at all? Does the UN player commit the 65th Infantry on the 24th rather than the 25th? Can the Glosters break out on the night of the 24th, as Brodie asked and Soule refused? The Chinese player's problem is tempo: the Glosters must be bypassed or destroyed before the UN line can withdraw intact." }, "images": [ { "file": "File:The British 29th Brigade Sector during the Battle of the Imjin River, 25 April 1951.jpg", "kind": "map", "caption": "The 29th Brigade sector at 09:00 on 25 April 1951: the Glosters cut off on Hill 235 west of Route 5Y, the Fusiliers and Rifles on Route 11, and D Company's escape route. From Mossman, Ebb and Flow (US Army Center of Military History).", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/The_British_29th_Brigade_Sector_during_the_Battle_of_the_Imjin_River%2C_25_April_1951.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/The_British_29th_Brigade_Sector_during_the_Battle_of_the_Imjin_River%2C_25_April_1951.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_British_29th_Brigade_Sector_during_the_Battle_of_the_Imjin_River,_25_April_1951.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Billy C. Mossman, U.S. Army Center of Military History", "credit": "Map from Billy C. Mossman: The United States Army in Korea. Ebb and Flow: November 1950-July 1951. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1990. (published on United States Army Center of Military History Website: http://www.history.army.mil/books/korea/maps/map34_full.jpg )", "width": 727 }, { "file": "File:Gloucestershire Regiment at the Battle of the Imjin River.png", "kind": "map", "caption": "The Gloucestershire Regiment's positions and movements at the Imjin River, 22–25 April 1951.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Gloucestershire_Regiment_at_the_Battle_of_the_Imjin_River.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Gloucestershire_Regiment_at_the_Battle_of_the_Imjin_River.png/960px-Gloucestershire_Regiment_at_the_Battle_of_the_Imjin_River.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gloucestershire_Regiment_at_the_Battle_of_the_Imjin_River.png", "licence": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0", "artist": "Factotem", "credit": "Own work based on the following sources: Base Map: https://history.army.mil/books/korea/maps/map34_full.jpg and available under PD license in Commons at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_British_29th_Brigade_Sector_during_the_Battle_of_the_Imjin_River,_25_April_1951.jpg Additional information: Mossman, Billy C (1990) Ebb and Flow: November 1950 – July 1951, United States Army in the Korean War , Washington, D.C. : Center of Military History, United States Army. Archived from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved on 22 November 2017. ISBN : 978-1-4102-2470-5 . p380 map32 Additional information: Harvey, E.D. (2011) The Imjin Roll , Forces & Corporate Publishing Ltd ISBN : 0-9529597-6-3 . pp103–106 Additional information: Salmon, Andrew (2010) To the Last Round , Aurum Press ISBN : 978-1-84513-533-1 .", "width": 1076 }, { "file": "File:The Chinese Spring Offensive Korea April 1951.jpg", "kind": "map", "caption": "The Chinese Spring Offensive on the western and central fronts, April 1951.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/The_Chinese_Spring_Offensive_Korea_April_1951.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/The_Chinese_Spring_Offensive_Korea_April_1951.jpg/960px-The_Chinese_Spring_Offensive_Korea_April_1951.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Chinese_Spring_Offensive_Korea_April_1951.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Center of Military History Uploaded by Anotherclown at en.wikipedia", "credit": "Mossman, Billy C. (1990) United States Army in the Korean War: Ebb and Flow: November 1950-July 1951 , Washington : Center of Military History ISBN : 9781131511344 . Transferred from en.wikipedia by SreeBot", "width": 4609 }, { "file": "File:Gloster Hill.jpg", "kind": "photo", "caption": "An officer of the Glosters shows a military observer the ground on Hill 235 where the battalion fought, five weeks after the battle.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Gloster_Hill.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Gloster_Hill.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gloster_Hill.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "British official photographer", "credit": "This photograph BF 10280 comes from the collections of the Imperial War Museums .", "width": 909 }, { "file": "File:Disabled Centurion tank at Imjin (AWM HOBJ2237).jpg", "kind": "photo", "caption": "Two Centurion tanks of the 8th Hussars disabled in the Imjin battle, photographed about June 1951.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Disabled_Centurion_tank_at_Imjin_%28AWM_HOBJ2237%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Disabled_Centurion_tank_at_Imjin_%28AWM_HOBJ2237%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Disabled_Centurion_tank_at_Imjin_(AWM_HOBJ2237).jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Phillip Oliver Hobson", "credit": "This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information.", "width": 463 }, { "file": "File:Lieutenant Colonel James Power Carne VC, DSO.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Lieutenant-Colonel James Carne VC DSO, commanding officer of the 1st Glosters, photographed in 1953 after his release from captivity.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Lieutenant_Colonel_James_Power_Carne_VC%2C_DSO.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Lieutenant_Colonel_James_Power_Carne_VC%2C_DSO.jpg/960px-Lieutenant_Colonel_James_Power_Carne_VC%2C_DSO.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lieutenant_Colonel_James_Power_Carne_VC,_DSO.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "British official photographer. Originally uploaded to the English language Wikipedia by PINTofCARLING in December 2007 ( file log ).", "credit": "This photograph KOR 8 comes from the collections of the Imperial War Museums (collection no. 5401-13)", "width": 1300 }, { "file": "File:General Peng Dehuai.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Peng Dehuai, commander of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army in Korea, photographed in 1955.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/General_Peng_Dehuai.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/General_Peng_Dehuai.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:General_Peng_Dehuai.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "​《 新华社 》记者 郑景康", "credit": "http://www.sxfj.gov.cn/news/222248334.html", "width": 365 } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "title": "Battle of the Imjin River (Wikipedia)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Imjin_River", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s2", "title": "Billy C. Mossman, Ebb and Flow, November 1950–July 1951, United States Army in the Korean War (US Army Center of Military History, 1990), chapters 21, 23 and 24 (online copy)", "url": "https://koreanwaronline.com/history/EbbAndFlow/Ch23.htm", "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s3", "title": "Battle of the Imjin River (National Army Museum)", "url": "https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/battle-imjin", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s4", "title": "The Glosters and Korea (Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum)", "url": "https://soldiersofglos.com/korea/", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s5", "title": "Andrew Salmon, 'Recalling a field of honor, bravery and impossible odds', Korea JoongAng Daily, 26 December 2007", "url": "https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/lifestyle/recalling-a-field-of-honor-bravery-and-impossible-odds/11096374", "kind": "article" }, { "id": "s6", "title": "Maj. Alexia Croizer, 'April 1951: Battle of the Imjin River', United Nations Command via DVIDS, 21 April 2026", "url": "https://www.dvidshub.net/news/563182/april-1951-battle-imjin-river", "kind": "article" }, { "id": "s7", "title": "Spink auction lot 25001000093: medals of Pte W. R. P. Seymour, 1st Glosters, with a narrative of the battle", "url": "https://spink.com/lot/25001000093", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s8", "title": "Esther Chung, '[Heroes from afar] Belgians arrived to help the South recapture Seoul', Korea JoongAng Daily, 29 November 2020", "url": "https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/korea/heroes-from-afar-belgians-arrived-to-help-the-south-recapture-seoul/12200080", "kind": "article" } ], "cdb90": [ 634 ], "order": 221, "url": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/imjin-river/", "oob": [], "oob_lwtv": [], "scenarios": [], "orbat": null, "orbat_lwtv": null, "reading": { "prose": [], "history": [], "fiction": [], "poetry": [] }, "reading_lwtv": { "prose": [], "poetry": [] }, "photos": [], "photos_kind": "photographs", "newspapers": null }