"Quite a Tragedy"

In a massive drive across the Imjin River, near Uijongbu, the Chinese managed to isolate the 1st Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment.* For three days, their comrades tried in vain to relieve the Gloucesters. With most of their ammunition gone, the Gloucesters' commanding officer ordered his men to break out any way they could. Maurice ("Mike") Harvey, a slim, spectacled young captain, was one of the few who made it.

Harvey decided the best way back was forward. He led the remnants of his company to the north and straight into enemy territory, hoping to swing around behind the Chinese. At first, the plan seemed to work; Harvey and his men met only two Chinese. "They were dumfounded," said Harvey. "My chaps shot them from the hip." But after they had turned south, when Captain Harvey led his men into a narrow valley, Chinese on the crests poured mortar and machine-gun fire on the Gloucesters. "It was a case of running, one group firing while the others crossed that spot, then running while the others fired. It was really hell there, I can tell you. Chaps were falling all around, marking the route like a bloody paper-chase. But the chaps were magnificent. No panicking. Magnificent."

At the valley's exit stood a line of American tanks which opened fire on the Gloucesters, mistaking them for Reds. An American liaison plane, which had been following their escape, saved the Gloucesters. Said Harvey: "The plane went down and sort of waggled his wings at the tanks --sort of a signal I guess--and they lifted their fire on to the Chinese machine guns. An American lieutenant said we'd have to make a run for it, so we climbed on the tanks and away we went, hell for leather, right through the Chinese.

"It was quite a tragedy. When we got back to Brigade Headquarters the chaps were almost in tears and I could have cried myself. Forty was all that got back."

* Gloucesters have been in such spots before; they have the exclusive privilege of wearing a Sphinx badge to commemorate their bold back-to-back fight against the French in Alexandria in 1801. In a dense mist, the French broke through and attacked the Gloucesters from the rear as well as the front. Undismayed, the Gloucesters' rear rank about-faced and fought on.

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