PREVIEW: ORDERS, DECORATIONS, MEDALS & MILITARIA 11 OCTOBER

Arguably the most desperate and certainly the bloodiest engagement the British Army faced during the Korean War (1950-53) was the Battle of the Imjin, fought across four days from 22-25 April, 1951 to rebuff the Chinese Spring Offensive.

Now the superb Military Medal group of seven awarded to Sergeant Stanley Robinson, of 4 Platoon, ‘B’ Company, 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, for his heroic part in the battle, will feature in Noonans’ Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria auction on 11 October.

The Korean War erupted as post-Second World War powers vied for influence, resulting in the partition of the country along the 38th Parallel, above which the communist Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) held sway and below which the American-backed Republic of Korea (South Korea) were in control.

The crisis began on 25 June 1950 when the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) invaded the South and the United Nations called for support South Korea. The United States sent in its army, with others following, including Britain.

Initial progress by the North Koreans failed after reinforcements helped the UN and South Korean forces pursue them into the North, capturing Pyongyang on 19 October and heading towards the Chinese border.

By the end of the year a massive Chinese counterattack had forced southern forces back beyond the 38th Parallel, with Seoul being captured. The subsequent southern counteroffensive starting in March 1951, including the recapture of Seoul, culminated in the Battle of Imjin.

The initial objective was to create a buffer zone in front of Seoul, but the Chinese tried to break through again in April.

Along the front line The 29th British Independent Infantry Brigade Group, commanded by Brigadier Tom Brodie (1903-93), included the 1st Battalion The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers; the 1st Battalion The Gloucestershire Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel James Carne (1906-86); and the 1st Battalion The Royal Ulster Rifles and the attached Belgian Battalion.

The 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars formed a tank squadron in support, while the 45th Field Regiment Royal Artillery marshalled 25-pounder guns alongside the 4.2-inch mortars of 170th Independent Mortar Battery.

Situated on hilltops to the south of the Imjin river, the 29th Brigade had been allocated 12 miles of west-east-north front, comprising steep hills intersected by deep valleys. Its battalions had to cover an extended position across the frontline that would have been more suited to a Division – and without the support of heavy artillery. The resulting dispersal of the battalions was too wide for them to support each other in a continuous defensive line, and because this was expected to be no more than a temporary line, they were not dug in with mines or wire for protection.

The Glosters’ position covered a classic invasion route from the north, as Seoul was just thirty miles away to the south. Furthermore, it formed a pivot in the Allied line, which abruptly changed direction from west-east by suddenly running due north.

Facing them along the 40-mile front line were 300,000 Chinese troops under the command of General Peng Dehuai (1898-1974), with three divisions concentrated on Brigadier Brodie’s sector.

Ominously, there was a very wide gap between the Glosters to the west of the Brigade area and the other three battalions who were safeguarding the main north-south highway (Route 11) to the east.
Lt-Col Carne’s main objective was to cover the approaches to the defile and track running south through the hills which offered the fastest way to reach flatter country around Seoul. Ideally Carne wanted to occupy Kamak San, but his manpower was insufficient to do so. He placed ‘A’ Company on Castle Hill, which covered the main crossing point along the Imjin River about 2,000 yards to the north, and ‘B’ Company on its right flank to cover the two-mile gap between the Glosters and the next British battalion. The other companies were in depth or reserve positions.
The entire Chinese 63rd Army (about 27,000 fighters) was tasked to wipe out one British Infantry Brigade. During the morning of Sunday 22 April warnings came of large-scale enemy movement north of the river and the 1st Glosters prepared for battle. Extra ammunition was brought up and distributed.

When Chinese infantry waded across the Imjin on the night of 22 April, they engaged heavily with the left flank the Gloucestershire Regiment and the Northumberland Fusiliers, the two battalions separated by the heights of Kamak San.
Undaunted by heavy losses, the Chinese infiltrated gaps between the various British positions. The Gloster fighting patrols were withdrawn at midnight after running out of ammunition, but ‘B’ Company inflicted crushing casualties on Chinese units as they tried to overrun their slit tranches, suffering no losses themselves. ‘A’ Company, outnumbered by at least six to one, suffered heavy casualties, including its commander, after the Chinese captured an allied bunker on the top of Castle Hill.
Lt-Col Carne was forced to pull back to his depth positions. At 0830 ‘A’ Company, now reduced to only one officer and 53 men, joined him on Gloster Hill, while ‘B’ Company fell back 1,500 yards, to destroy the Chinese troops on top of Hill 314 and occupy it.
To their right, the Glosters could see hundreds of Chinese moving around their flank towards Kamak San but could not call on air support. However, they were able to use artillery and mortars to deny the Chinese a path through the hills from the village of Solma-Ri, and pounded them throughout the day.
With no support or relief available, Lt-Col Carne realised that they would have to fight on until ammunition and supplies ran out, or surrender.
‘B’ Company had retaken the summit of Hill 314 by 1030 hours prepared to defend it as the Chinese 188th and 189th Divisions got ready for a fresh attack. In the fading light hundreds of Chinese could be seen forming up in the valleys and the sound of Chinese bugles was heard through the evening gloom.
The main attack on ‘C’ Company began at 2030 hours with wave after wave of Chinese troops advancing. Despite enormous casualties, the Chinese finally overran two platoons of ‘C’ Company, forcing Lt-Col Carne to further shrink his main position on Gloster Hill.
Ideally ‘B’ Company would have moved across from Hill 314 so that everyone was concentrated on Gloster Hill, but this re-deployment would be suicidal if attempted in darkness. Lt-Col Carne told the “B’ Company Commander to stay put until daylight on 24 April when the move could be covered by friendly fire.
Overnight the Chinese advanced to the lower slopes of Hill 314 and prepared to climb its steep ridges, supported by machine guns and mortars. However, the Glosters’ defensive fire plan, combined with infantry fire, mortars and artillery took a terrible toll of the Chinese troops climbing upwards.
“B’ Company continued throughout the night to hold their now isolated position as wave after wave of enemy infantry were halted in front of the Company positions, especially those of 4 Platoon, which deployed four Bren Light Machine Guns.
Sergeant Robinson, at the heart of the action, had the prime responsibility of keeping all the Brens in action, by controlling the rate and weight of fire, ensuring that empty magazines were correctly reloaded (an incorrectly loaded magazine could cause a jam) and redistributed to the guns. He also had to oversee the prompt replacement of gun-crew casualties.
With two Bren gunners killed early on, Robinson took over and fired one Bren gun himself, while still controlling the others throughout the night.
Protective artillery shells dropped less than 50 yards in front of 4 Platoon’s position, adding to the peril of their exposed position. Despite this Robinson’s little party of Bren gunners inflicted enormous casualties on the enemy.
In The Edge of The Sword, Captain Farrar Hockley, the Glosters’ Adjutant, captured the scene: “The whole Company front is engaged by fire – fire from heavy machine-guns from ranges in excess of two thousand yards... fire from mortars and from light machine-guns at closer ranges. Meanwhile, the enemy assault groups feel their way forward to the very edge of our defences;... For hours this repetition of attack and repulse continues, the night wanes, the day begins to break. Little by little, a terrible fact becomes apparent to the men of the defence. This is not a battle in which courage, tactical and technical superiority will be the means to victory; it is a battle of attrition. Irrespective of the number of casualties they inflict, there is an unending flow of replacements. Moreover, in spite of their tremendous losses, the numerical strength of the enemy is not constant but increasing.”
Shortly after dawn on 24 April the attack intensified against ‘B’ Company, in particular No. 4 Platoon. A burst of small arms fire hit Robinson and his Bren from a flank, striking him in the shoulder and the area of the trigger and butt where his hands were placed one above the other to control his weapon. He was hit again in his leg and thigh. “He nonetheless remains at duty, giving the crew their orders in this new engagement until he loses consciousness,” wrote Farrar-Hockley. By the time he lost consciousness, the wounded Robinson had remained in position for three hours, according to Lt-Col Carne’s commendation.
One by one the strength of 4 Platoon was reduced and the little fighting groups split up.
The new day brought no relief to their desperate plight. Shortly after 0800 Lt-Col Carne ordered ‘B’ Company to try to break contact and rush across the valley to join the rest of his force on Gloster Hill. It was a difficult order to execute. Lieutenant Costello’s 4 Platoon had borne the brunt of the attack on Hill 314 and were still in close physical contact with the enemy.
To reach Gloster Hill, ‘B’ Company would have to break through the ranks of Chinese assault troops in the valley below. Hill 314 had a steep reverse slope which forced the components of ‘B’ Company to evacuate by breaking up further into small parties. When they reached the track far below, they had to run through heavy fire from both flanks. Only a group of 20 men under the ‘B’ Company Commander managed to fight their way through to Lt-Col Carne for the Last Stand on Gloster Hill.
When Robinson regained consciousness, the C.O.’s evacuation order had been received and, as he was still just about able to walk, Robinson painfully picked his way down Hill 314, trying to remain upright on the steep and treacherous rock.
During his descent, Robinson came across Private Lionel Essex, a young regular soldier from 4 Platoon who had been wounded in the head during the bitter night fighting, and immobilised with bullet wounds to both legs, his right leg broken.
Robinson stayed with Essex, dragging him into hiding in time to evade the Chinese who had overrun ‘B’ Company's position. Without food and water, they remained in a perilous position, and so later in the day Robinson went seek help from friendly Korean villagers, but instead ran into Chinese soldiers and was captured. After two nights on the mountainside, Essex crawled down the hill to a village. The locals looked after him and after nearly a month he managed to rejoin the British Brigade, one of only three men to return many days after the battle was long over.
Meanwhile Robinson was marched north, 20-25 miles each night, with little food (soya-bean flour and sorghum) and no medical attention, at least initially. He was not treated any worse than the Chinese treated their own casualties and was eventually operated on by Chinese doctors doing their best in difficult conditions.
Lt-Col Carne held out until 25 April, when after 60 hours of fighting he ordered his men to break out and try to reach U.N. rearguard positions. 80% of the total fighting strength of the Glosters (about 700 all ranks) were taken prisoner; only 11% escaped, 9% had been killed in action. Those 700 warriors are estimated to have inflicted 11,000 casualties on the enemy.
The British resistance was to prove critical to the U.N.’s success in repelling the Chinese Spring Offensive, especially after the 29th British Brigade had inflicted so many casualties on the PLA. With the loss of more than a third of its strength, the 63rd Army retreated.
Robinson was held prisoner in the notorious P.O.W. camps on the Yalu River for the next two years. He still suffered greatly from his wounds, to the extent that he was among the first batch of British prisoners (about 900 had fallen into Communist hands) released from North Korea. On 23 April 1953 Robinson was one of the wounded prisoners exchanged at Panmunjon and was immediately flown to the British general hospital at Kure in Japan for evaluation and treatment before being repatriated.
Medically discharged from the army in September 1953 as a result of his injuries, his war pension certificate noted an enduring 70% disability as a result of ‘gunshot wound left arm and hand - gunshot wound right hand - gunshot wound legs and thighs - malnutrition, privation and dysentery’.
The citation for his D.C.M. was approved by every operational level in Korea until it reached the War Office in London, where only two of the D.C.M. recommendations were authorised, and consequently Robinson’s DCM recommendation was downgraded to the award of an M.M.
Robinson’s Military Medal was gazetted on 8 December 1953, one of six M.M.s awarded to the Glosters for the battle of Imjin River along with two V.C.s, two D.S.O.s and three M.C.s (one to Lieutenant Costello).
“Few individuals could remain as unyielding for so long at their post after sustaining such injuries as Robinson had,” says Noonans’ Medals Auctioneer Oliver Pepys. “His incredible nerve and determination in the face of seemingly unsurmountable odds in battle, as well as his gallantry in rescuing his fellow combatant, and his ensuing capture and suffering, mark Sergeant Robinson out as an exceptional figure in the most desperate action of the Korean War.”
Stanley Robinson died in Chatham on 31 March 1992.

Offered at Noonans with the M.M. group is a collection of four original captioned photographs signed by the recipient, a copy of Robinson’s Certificate of Service and correspondence.

The estimate is £20,000-30,000.

• The photographs, clockwise from bottom right, depict:

– ‘British General Hospital in Kori, Japan. Awaiting flight home, April 53. Also pictured, Private Mercer who lost an eye and leg.’
– ‘My release with the sick and wounded exchange at Panmunjon, April 23rd 1953. Pictured, Brig. Kendrew, American Escort and myself.’
– ‘Home again, my daughter was born whilst I was on the Han River, December 1950.’
– Robinson and his wife outside Buckingham Palace in late 1953.