Return to the Imjin, 1 RUR - Korea.

'ULSTER XING'

The United Nations advance during May had taken the force almost back to the line of the River Imjin. On 28 May, 29 Brigade had moved forward to take over from the 1st (US) Cavalry Division in the same hills where the Battle of the Imjin had been fought in April. The following afternoon, the Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion The Royal Ulster Rifles, Lieutenant Colonel R J H Carson, and his Orders Group went forward to the head of the valley where the Greek Battalion had just occupied the heights against only moderate resistance and was patrolling forward to the Imjin itself.

The Battalion moved at 0815 hours on 30 May, following a winding track strewn with the debris of the previous month’s battle, to relieve the Greek Battalion. Soon after 1200 hours the relief was completed and the Rifles began to settle in. The situation was very different from that in April. The sector of the river line previously held by 29 Brigade was now held by the two British Brigades, with 29 Brigade on the left across the entrance to the old ‘Gloster Valley’, and on the right, 28 British Commonwealth Brigade blocking the valley held in April by the Royal Ulster Rifles and the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.

The United Nations's objectives were limited to securing and defending the southern bank of the Imjin before any further advance. The orders were quite specific; a strong defensive line, Line KANSAS, was to be constructed along the hills overlooking the river and for the first time in Korea, the Battalion began in earnest to lay mines, put up barbed wire and dig bunkers to withstand artillery fire. Enemy activity at the time was minimal.