Heroes of the Korean War: Lieutenant Colonel James P. Carne
Basic Information
- Name: James P. Carne
- Rank: Lieutenant Colonel
- Born: April 11, 1906
- Battlefield: Battle of the Imjim River
- Date: 22-25 April, 1951
Introduction
In November of 1951 the Chinese military entered the Korean War and launched a massive invasion of the Korean peninsula in support of their communist ally North Korea. The overwhelming numbers of Chinese forces initially had a shocking effect on the US military and its United Nations allies. The Chinese military won victory after victory against the retreating coalition forces and eventually captured the then mostly destroyed South Korean capitol city of Seoul.
It wasn’t until February of 1951 that the 23rd US Infantry Regiment led by Colonel Paul Freeman and augmented by the French Battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Monclar, were able for the first time to stop the Chinese advance after the 23rd Infantry’s heroic stand at the Battle of Chipyong-ni. In April of 1951 the United States military and its United Nations allies had begun to consolidate their gains against the Chinese Communist Forces by establishing a front line near the 38th parallel that had served as the pre-war border between the two Koreas. One of the United Nations forces manning this new front was the British 29th Brigade Combat Team commanded by Brigadier General Tom Brodie. The Brigade was composed of three British Battalions, the Gloucestershire Regiment, the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, and the Royal Ulster Rifles. Additionally the brigade was augmented with one Belgian battalion.
UN frontline prior to the Battle of the Imjim.
The 29th Brigade was tasked to man a frontline along the Imjim River that stretched for 12 miles. Due to the length of the frontline and the number of soldiers available, General Brodie could not deploy his force in one consistent front against the enemy; he instead deployed each battalion to hold a strategic piece of ground opposite of the Chinese force, but this left gaps in between the battalions for the Chinese exploit. On the farthest left flank of the brigade near the village of Jokseong was the Gloucestershire Battalion commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James Carne.
The 45 year old, tall, and pipe smoking LTC Carne had served with the Gloucestershire Regiment for 26 years before finding himself in command of the unit he had long been part of, now in the far distant hills of Korea. He lived and breathed the Gloucestershire Regiment, which was credited with being the most decorated regiment in the entire British military with campaign streamers from other far off distant places such as Waterloo, Quebec, and Gallipoli. April 23rd was the British holiday of St. George Day and LTC Carne had an elaborate celebration planned to honor the British patron saint. Unfortunately the British celebration would never materialize due to roughly 30,000 Chinese party crashers that day.
Tea time for the soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment.
The Chinese Spring Offensive
On April 21, 1951 the Chinese launched what has now become known as the Chinese Spring Offensive. This massive offensive operation launched by the Chinese had the overall objective of recapturing the South Korean capitol city of Seoul. The Chinese believed that if they recaptured the city it would break the will of the United States and its allies to continue fighting what was quickly becoming an unpopular war. Capturing Seoul would put them in a position of strength during ceasefire negotiations that were sure to follow such a military success.
The offensive was launched all along the frontlines but the two most important objectives that the Chinese needed to achieve in order to march on Seoul would be to capture the Kapyong Valley to the north east of Seoul and to secure a river crossing across the Imjim River to the north. It was here along the Imjim River that LTC Carne and his men of the Gloucestershire regiment would go on to fight a battle that would make the veterans of Rourke’s Drift proud, against the vastly superior Chinese forces that would ultimately live forever in the anals of British military history.
The Battle of the Imjim Begins
The modern day Imjim River Valley as seen from he summit of Kamaksan mountain.
The Battle of the Imjim officially began on April 22, 1951 when the Chinese 34th and 29th Divisions assaulted the US 3rd Infantry Division located to the east of the British 29th Brigade. The 29th Brigade would not be assaulted until midnight on April 22nd. On that night the Chinese 187th Division exploited gaps on each side of the Belgian battalion to surround them and completely cut them off from the rest of the brigade. The assault against the 29th Brigade continued to expand throughout the day and by the night of April 23rd the entire British frontline, including the Gloucestershire Regiment, were in full contact with the enemy.
The Gloucestershire Regiment initially enjoyed much success in rappelling Chinese attempts to ford the Imjim River at the one known crossing point. However, the Chinese discovered a crossing point to the northwest of the regiment that previous reconnaissance by the British had failed to reveal. The Chinese quickly took advantage of the undefended crossing point and poured troops across the river.
View from Kamaksan mountain of the Imjim River where the Chinese would have crossed north of Joeksong.
The troops of the Chinese 187th Division that had crossed the river were soon scaling the spurs of the hills being held by A Company soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment. Throughout the night and into the early morning hours the A Company soldiers held off the massive Chinese assault but they eventually had to withdraw from their position overlooking the river and back to a supplementary position on Hill 235 to the south. In the typical understated British way the company’s radio man radioed LTC Carne to inform him their position was overrun by declaring, “We are overrun. We’ve had it. Cheerio.”
D Company located on Hill 182 held against the Chinese assault, but with the withdrawal of A Company to their western flank D Company was also forced to withdraw towards Hill 235 as well so they would not be surrounded by the advancing Chinese. Their withdrawal was protected by heavy artillery and mortar fire as the British soldiers moved to Hill 235. The heavy artillery had stopped the Chinese momentum for the time being as they sought shelter from the incoming rounds. This allowed the Gloucestershire Regiment to consolidate a front line with two companies holding Hill 235 and the other two companies holding a ridgeline based around Hill 314 just to the east.
Throughout the rest of the day on April 23rd the Gloucestershire Regiment held their positions against the Chinese probing attacks. However, the Chinese had not committed themselves to a full scale assault on the regiment because they were waiting for soldiers from the Chinese 192nd, 187th, and 188th Divisions to cross the Imjim River. The single British Regiment of 750 soldiers now found themselves opposed by three Chinese divisions numbering roughly 30,000 soldiers. With such a disparity in numbers the outcome of this impending final battle was never in doubt, it was only a matter of how long the men of LTC James Carne’s Gloucestershire Regiment were going to make the Chinese earn every piece of ground they tried to take.
That night thousands of Chinese soldiers charged at the waiting guns of the Gloucestershire Regiment. Casualties were heavy on both sides with the Chinese taking the vast majority of the casualties. As the fighting continued through the night the soldiers began to run low on supplies and ammo. If they were not resupplied soon, they would be over run. LTC Carne had to organize a party of soldiers to assault into the Chinese lines to recover supplies from his regimental headquarters that had been over run by the Chinese earlier on the 23rd. The raiding party was able to successfully break through the Chinese lines and recover some supplies. The supplies ended up being enough to get them through the night.
The Fight for Hill 235
The morning of April 24, 1951, Lieutenant Colonel James Carne found his men of the British Gloucestershire Regiment in dire straits. They had survived a brutal night of fighting against the Chinese hordes and now found themselves with very few supplies left especially ammunition. They had one hope and that was an aerial resupply. LTC Carne organized by radio a mission by the US Air Force to resupply the regiment. At 0700 that morning the US Air Force tried to parachute in resupplies to the Gloucesters. However, as was often the case during the Korean War most of the supplies landed within the Chinese lines with little of it landing on Hill 235 for the Gloucesters. With a little luck the British likely hoped they had enough supplies to last them to the next morning; if they lived long enough to see it.
Soldiers from the Gloucestershire Regime battle Chinese troops during the Korean War.
During the day of April 24th, the Chinese continued to launch their assault on the British lines. The Chinese were unsure of the exact British positions and thus their human wave assaults were initially ineffective as the British riflemen carved up the Chinese that were advancing towards the British front lines. However, once the Chinese were able to accurately assess how the British defensive positions were deployed they quickly launched a massive attack on the C Company position near the road that ran in between the British regiment. The Chinese penetrated into the C Company frontlines and LTC Carne ordered C Company to withdraw from their positions on the east side of the road and consolidate into a final defensive perimeter on Hill 235. The withdrawal of C Company to Hill 235 across the road caused B Company to sit on top of a hill that was quickly surrounded by the Chinese after the pullout of C Company.
Literally with a sea of angry Chinese infantrymen surrounding them B Company continued to hold off the furious Chinese assaults on their hill. With little success from their full scale assault on all sides, the Chinese changed their tactics and decided to focus their assault on one location on the north of the hill. By focusing their forces on one location the Chinese through their human wave assaults were able to break through B Company’s perimeter. With their perimeter broken B Company had no choice but to try to make a run for Hill 235 where the rest of the regiment was located. LTC Carne ordered all the fire power he had available to lay covering fire with the mortars from his attached C Troop, 170th Independent Mortar Battery. Though the mortar battery provided plenty of suppressive indirect fire against the Chinese the withdrawal of B Company ended up being a disaster. Out of an entire company of about 150 men only 20 made the sprinting retreat to Hill 235 to rejoin the rest of the regiment. The rest of the men were either killed or captured by the Chinese.
Despite the Chinese success in removing the British from around Hill 314 they still needed to get them dislodged from Hill 235 before they could advance their main columns up the narrow valley towards Seoul. The stingy British defense had already cost the Chinese two days of time off of their scheduled offensive plan, thus they were eager to keep the momentum of the operation moving before the allies had a chance to regroup.
Even if the British wanted to retreat from the hill they had no choice due to the fact they were completely surrounded. Attempts were however being made to breach the Chinese lines and exfiltrate the regiment. Throughout the day of April 24th a platoon of British tanks and soldiers from the Philippine 10th Battalion Combat Team tried to breakthrough the valley where the Gloucestershire Regiment was located from the south.
The peak in the background is Kamaksan and the road leading towards it is the route the Filipino rescue team would have followed.
However, every time they tried to breakthrough they were held off by the Chinese troops that had completely surrounded Hill 235. The combined Filipino/British assault had actually come within two kilometers of Hill 235 but were unable to breakthrough the Chinese lines due to the steep terrain. Due to this, General Brodie ordered the Filipinos and the British armor platoon to pull back and hold a blocking position to the south of the valley and then requested help relieving the surrounded Gloucesters from the US 3rd Infantry Division. The 3rd Infantry Division Commander Major General Soule sent the 65th Infantry Regiment to aid in the offensive operation to relieve the Gloucesters.
However, the regiment would not be ready to execute the attack until 0630 on April 25th. General Brodie was confident that the soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment would be able to hold that long. However, this assumption was based off the ability of the Gloucesters to hold off the Chinese attacks during the day. The Chinese were in fact waiting until night fall on the 24th to launch a full scale attack to wipe out the British regiment. What the Gloucesters thought was a full scale Chinese assault already during the day was in fact only probing actions with no intent to over run the British positions; they would wait until night fall to do that.
Joeksong area as viewed from the slopes of Kamaksan mountain.
As soon as night fell the Chinese horns and bugles sounded and ferocious human wave attacks unlike the British had ever seen before fell upon Hill 235. LTC Carne personally led multiple counterattacks against the Chinese every time they overran a portion of the hilltop forcing the Chinese attackers back off the hill. The Chinese bodies continued to pile up next to the bones and skulls of prior dead soldiers that appeared all over Korea’s hill sides with the on set of spring and the melting of the winter snows.
Amazingly the Gloucestershire Regiment survived to see the sun rise on April 25th. However, there was only 350 men out of the 700 strong regiment left that could hold and fire a rifle, plus they now had no food, medicine, and very little ammo left. The bad news for the Gloucesters would only continue that morning as the attack to relieve the regiment by the 65th Infantry was cancelled because the regiment was redeployed to fill a whole in the defensive line elsewhere that the Chinese had penetrated through. Instead of an entire US infantry regiment trying to rescue the Gloucesters, the task fell on one company of American tanks from the 65th Infantry Regiment.
Modern Day Hill 235 outside Joeksong, South Korea
Due to the steep terrain and narrow road of the valley leading to the Gloucesters, only one platoon of American tanks were sent into the valley to try and break through the Chinese lines. How anyone thought that one platoon of American tanks could accomplish what a British tank company and entire battalion of Filipino infantrymen could not do is anyone’s guess. Predictably the tank platoon’s assault up the valley failed once they made heavy contact with the enemy. The tank platoon put up a furious fight, but were forced to withdraw when they ran out of ammunition and the Chinese infantry began to flank their column.
With the failure of the tank platoon’s attempt to penetrate the Chinese lines a battalion of Korean soldiers from the ROK 1st Division tried to breakthrough the Chinese lines that morning as well from the west. At 0900 on April 25th the ROK soldiers found themselves in heavy contact with the Chinese forces in their attempt to relieve the Gloucesters. At about the same time LTC Carne received his last orders from General Brodie before his radio batteries went dead and the final order was for his unit to conduct a fighting withdrawal from their position.
Preparing for the Escape
LTC Carne and his officers were left that morning to figure out how they were going to make an escape from the sea of Chinese soldiers that surrounded the British island on Hill 235. To make matters worse, LTC Carne did not know exactly where the units tasked to try to breakthrough the Chinese lines were located since the batteries in his radio went out. He decided that trying to make a break from Hill 235 using a saddle of land to his southwest to link up with soldiers of the 1st ROK Division that was located somewhere to their southwest was the regiment’s best chance.
However, the D Company commander CPT Mike G. Harvey felt that the Chinese would expect the Gloucesters to try and use the saddle as an escape route and may have set a trap there for them. He felt the best way to breakthrough the Chinese would be to do what they would never expect, assault down the steepest portion of Hill 235 to the north and keep moving north away from the Chinese front lines. Once away from the frontlines the soldiers would then try to infiltrate to the west toward the 1st ROK Division.
Since no one could agree on one course of action it was agreed upon that all the soldiers of the regiment besides D Company would make a break towards the southwest while the 100 men from D Company would try to penetrate the Chinese lines to the north. LTC Carne decided to stay on Hill 235 with the 50 wounded men on the hill. With that decision the regimental chaplain, the sergeant major, surgeon, and medics agreed to stay with LTC Carne as well and surrender to the Chinese.
Before surrendering the battalion chaplain had this to say to the remaining men of the Gloucestershire Regiment in memory of their fallen comrades, “They will remember for a little while in England. The soldier does have his day. I want to remind you this afternoon that it is not enough to remember now. We’ve got to show what we think of their sacrifice in the way we conduct ourselves in the days ahead.”
The Escape
With the decisions made and final farewells given, the remaining soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment made their break towards friendly lines, but not before the pipe smoking LTC Carne could hit up CPT Harvey one last time for some smoking tobacco. The soldiers that decided to try and run across the southwest saddle towards the 1st ROK Division were met with heavy machine gun fire from the Chinese the minute they exposed themselves on the saddle. Completely surrounded and being fired at from above the soldiers laid down their weapons and surrendered to the Chinese. Some other soldiers would leave the column to try and escape on their own but they to would eventually be rounded up and captured.
View of the valley leading to Joeksong from Kamaksan Mountain.
The column led by CPT Harvey would prove to be more successful. CPT Harvey’s hunch was correct about penetrating the Chinese lines to the north because they ran into only two Chinese infantrymen and quickly killed them. They moved about a mile north before changing direction and heading west. An American plane had spotted the British soldiers and began relaying signals to them where the the 1st ROK Division was located. The column began moving southwest towards a valley that would lead them to friendly lines.
They moved about one mile through the valley when they began to be engaged by Chinese machine gunners on the hills above them. The Gloucesters took cover in a ditch then ran through the valley and then began to make a desperate sprint through the gauntlet of fire towards friendly lines. Gloucesters were being shot on the left and right during this last desperate attempt to free themselves from the Chinese assault.
Gloucestershire Regiment escape routes on April 25, 1951.
CPT Harvey and the remaining men that made it to the end of the valley saw a platoon of American tanks in the clearing ahead that were supporting the ROK 1st Division. The British soldiers attempted to sprint towards the tanks, but the tanks opened fire on them mistaking them for Chinese since they were covered in mud and were not wearing their customary British berets. Six British soldiers were killed in the friendly fire incident before the spotter plane dropped a note down towards the American tanks letting them know they were British. By this time Chinese infantrymen were screaming down the hillsides and bayoneting British soldiers who had long since run out of ammunition.
By the time the American tanks and ROK infantrymen could rescue CPT Harvey’s column at around 1400 hours on the 25th, only CPT Harvey, three officers, and thirty-six men for a total of 40 soldiers out of the 100 who had began the D Company escape attempt had made it out alive. Sadly beside the D Company soldiers few others escaped the envelopment, the rest were either dead or captured including their commander LTC Carne who had volunteered to stay behind to care for the dying and wounded.
Final roll call of the Gloucestershire Regiment following the Battle of the Imjim.
Only 67 men had escaped with 59 men dieing that day on the mountain. In all 526 men had been captured out of a regiment of 700 men. Of the captured men 180 of them were wound and 34 of them would die in captivity. LTC Carne’s men would be held in Chinese re-education camps for the rest of the war while he instead was held in solitary confinement during his entire time in captivity. After the war was over and the British POWs were returned LTC James Carne would receive the Victoria Cross, the highest military honor in the British Empire for his actions during the Battle of the Imjim as well as honourably surviving captivity for so many months.
The Return Home
Upon his return to Britain LTC Carne told British intelligence that during his time in solitary confinement that the communist had experimented on him with drugs. He feared the drugs may have been introduced into him in order to turn him into a communist sleeper agent. This story by LTC Carne would go on to live in the popular imagination with the release of the Manchurian Candidate years later based off his story.
James P. Carne in 1953 after his release.
Also back in the Britain, the loss of the Gloucestershire battalion made huge headlines and the commander of allied forces in Korea, General Matthew Ridgeway ordered an investigation into how the regiment was lost. The investigation concluded that everyone had done what they thought was reasonably possible to relieve the Gloucestershire Regiment and that the strength of the Chinese attack was what was overall responsible for the regiment’s loss.
Privately General Ridgeway blamed the 29th Brigade Commander General Brodie for the loss of the regiment because he had never made it clear to US forces how desperate the situation was for the Gloucestershire Regiment and did not adequately use the Filipino infantry battalion and the supporting British tanks to relieve the regiment. Brodie took 50% responsibility for the loss and believed that the 3rd Infantry Commander General Soule should have shown more initiative in learning the true state of the Gloucesters himself and sending a larger rescue force. Nevertheless it is clear the Gloustershire Regiment should have never been lost on the hill that day.
I think a strong case can be made that LTC Carne should share in some of the blame himself considering how he allowed the regiment to be enveloped instead of falling back sooner. The Gloucestershire Regiment and the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry regiment commanded by LTC J.R. Stone during the Battle of Kapyong faced exactly the same conditions as the Gloucesters and yet the results were vastly different. The Canadians stopped the Chinese at a loss of only 10 people while the British stopped the Chinese at the cost of the entire Gloucestershire Regiment. The Gloucesters fought very valantly, but I think it is pretty clear that if their commanders made some slightly different decisions the regiment could have been saved. I think another strong case can be made that the Gloucestershire Regiment became something of legendary proportions simply to cover up the bad decisions that led to the regiment’s destruction in the first place. Despite this LTC Carne’s brave actions under fire as well as the heroic conduct of himself while imprisoned still makes him a hero of the Korean War.
However, the loss of the regiment was not for nothing, it is estimated that the Chinese battle against the British Brigade had cost the Chinese 11,000 casualties with the stubborn defense of Hill 235 by the Gloucesters costing the Chinese something even more precious than their manpower, time. The time bought by the Gloucesters was used to fortify the allied frontlines which made any further Chinese attempts to advance on Seoul from the north across the Imjim River, impossible. Seoul had been saved by the successful defense of the Imjim River and the Kapyong Valley plus the Chinese had been dealt a great defeat with the number of Chinese soldiers killed across the allied frontlines during the First Chinese Spring Offensive.
The Chinese would never truly recover from this defeat as the allies would eventually push the Chinese back across the Imjim River which after their failed second spring offensive two weeks later caused the communists to initiate ceasefire negotiations. The ceasefire negotiations caused the war to turn into a hill top war for the next two years until a final ceasefire had been declared. Without the brave sacrifice paid in blood by the men of the Gloucestershire Regiment the ceasefire may have come much sooner with the communist controlling Seoul and in a position of strength to dictate the terms of the ceasefire. As history turned out the position of strength the allies ended up negotiating from during the ceasefire negotiations was in large part due to the incredible stand for four days by the men of the Gloucestershire Regiment.
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