The glittering banquet hall of a deluxe hotel in Seoul was packed with 268 Commonwealth veterans of the 1950-1953 war, attending a dinner held by the South Korean government in their honour. Robin was speaking for the veterans of the Royal Ulster Rifles. It was a fitting end to the trip of a lifetime for him. Not only was that Monday his 87th birthday, but he and another RUR veteran, ex-Rifleman Henry O’Kane, had earlier that day separately visited the regiment’s two key battlefields of the Korean War.
Although those two actions remain to this day the two bloodiest battles fought by British soldiers since 1945, the RUR — today, the Royal Irish Regiment — has received little recognition. The Korean War — where more British soldiers died than in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Falklands combined — is generally not well known to the British public, and we hope to rectify that situation in Ulster with our exhibition.
As part of Britain’s 29th Brigade, 1st Battalion RUR landed in South Korea in November 1950. American-led UN forces had defeated Kim Il-sung’s North Korean army, which had invaded South Korea in June, and the RUR were expecting to spend the winter mopping up guerilla holdouts. Instead they would be pitched into severe battles as China stormed into the war.
New Year 1951 found the RUR deployed north-east of Seoul as 267,000 enemy troops moved into South Korea.The UN line broke and the RUR was engulfed. Robin led the lead company down-valley after nightfall, but behind him US aircraft mistakenly dropped flares. By their light, Chinese spotting the RUR pullback, charged down among the Riflemen. The battle became a melee. The RUR lost 157 men and the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars lost six tanks.
“Next morning we had a parade,” said Robin, who, in the lead company, missed the disaster. “Only then did we realise what had happened the previous night.” The Chaegunghyon battle would become known, with grim irony, as “Happy Valley”.
Meanwhile, China was massing 300,000 troops for the greatest onslaught of the war; their key breakthrough point was the Imjin River. After dark on April 22 the Chinese charged en masse. “I could not see the enemy, just their tracers as they fired,” said Henry (80). “You had to keep firing.” Other units were overrun, but the RUR held their positions until morning when the entire UN line started to retreat. Seeing their prey escape, the Chinese surged down the hillsides into the British lines. For the RUR, it was “Happy Valley” all over again.
But their stand had bought critical hours for South Korean refugees to escape, saving countless lives.