On this night 70 years ago, some 700 men of the Gloucestershire Regiment and C Troop, 170th Heavy Mortar Battery Royal Artillery, began an epic stand against overwhelming odds on the Imjin River.

The battle was part of the Chinese Spring Offensive, and pitted 27 Chinese battalions against the 4 battalions of the British 29th Brigade - the Glosters, the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, the Royal Ulster Rifles and the Belgian Battalion.

The brigade, supported by the tanks of C Squadron 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars and the artillery of 45 Field Regiment RA, was hard pressed all along the line, and on the afternoon of the 23rd the Glosters' position was surrounded.

"What I must make clear to you is that my command is no longer an effective fighting force. If it is required that we shall stay here, in spite of this, we shall continue to hold."
Lieutenant-Colonel Carne to Brigadier Brodie, afternoon of 24th April

At 06:05 on the 25th April, with Chinese forces infiltrating miles behind the UN lines and UN forces withdrawing to a new defensive line, Carne received permission to withdraw.

63 men made it back to friendly lines.

5 months later the Glosters stood to again on the Imjin River

General James Van Fleet, commander of the US Eighth Army in Korea, described the stand at what became known as Gloster Hill as "the most outstanding example of unit bravery in modern war."

The Gloucestershire Regiment and C Troop, 170th Heavy Mortar Battery RA were awarded the U.S. Presidential Unit Citation, as was the Belgian battalion.

Carne, one of 522 POWs who remained in captivity until the end of the war 2 years later, received one of two Victoria Crosses awarded to the men of the regiment. The other, to Lieutenant Philip Curtis - attached from the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry - was a posthumous award.

After a history that could be traced back 300 years, the Gloucestershire Regiment marched into history itself when it was amalgamated in 1994.

The Gloucestershire Regiment's story, along with those of all soldiers of Gloucestershire, is told in the superb little museum that is the @SoldiersofGlos in the docks at Gloucester, outside which the headline image in this thread was captured.