Thoughts on War Service and Return to Korea

The weather was good and both the Queen and the Duke, escorted by the British Ambassador, shook hands with all present, together with a few brief words. The Ambassador, Stephen Brown, even explained to the Queen, when she reached us, that “we were both Gunners.”  During the State Visit, he was knighted by Her Majesty and is now known as Sir Stephen Brown KCVO. He was a very friendly man, and his wife charming and good fun to talk with!

Returning to our scheduled tour, we visited an area that has been well documented with tales, both of courage and great suffering. From the top of “Glosters Hill”, now well south of the DMZ, we looked down to the Imjin Gang (River), where thousands of Chinese troops overran the position early in the war. (I have a good friend living nearby my home who was one of the “Glosters” who was force marched to a prison camp near to the Yalu River where he spent over 2 years, before coming home on the same ship as I did!)

This was not the first time I had visited “Glosters Hill” as we had surveyed it for an AP location, also surrounding hills for the microphones, as a big Chinese offensive was broadly expected early in the spring of 1953. This area was the nearest defensible line south of our current one and was termed the Kansas Line.