The Gloucestershire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 until 1994. It traced its origins to Colonel Gibson’s Regiment of Foot, raised in 1694. The regiment was formed by the merger of the 28th Regiment and the 61st Regiment. It achieved fame during the Korean War when the 1st Battalion held out for three nights against overwhelming odds.
About Gloucestershire Regiment in brief
The Gloucestershire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 until 1994. It traced its origins to Colonel Gibson’s Regiment of Foot, raised in 1694. The regiment was formed by the merger of the 28th Regiment and the 61st Regiment. It achieved fame during the Korean War when the 1st Battalion held out for three nights against overwhelming odds during the Battle of the Imjin River. Shortly after celebrating its tercentenary in 1994, the regiment was merged with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment to form the Royal Gloucesterhire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment. The new regiment inherited the back badge, and when it too was merged in 2007, it passed the tradition on to its successor, The Rifles. For the first time the county of Gloucester was associated with the regiment, and it began to recruit from the county in 1782. The 28th and 61st Regiments of Foot were both associated with both county, and both began recruiting from Gloucester in 1780. The Gloucesteringhire Regiment first saw action in 1705 during the War of the Spanish Succession. It fought in two ranks back to back at the Battle Of Alexandria in 1801, and saw its first action during the Second Boer War. Sixteen battalions of the regiment saw active service in France and Flanders, Italy, Gallipoli, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and Salonika, losing a total of 8,100 men killed and winning 72 different battle honours.
Four awards of the Victoria Cross were made to soldiers serving with the Regiment during the First World War. In the latter half of the 20th century, the Regiment was reduced to a single regular battalion and completed tours of duty around the world, including Germany, Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and the Middle East, as well as in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. The 2nd and 5th Battalions both fought in the Battle. of France and, after being lost almost in its entirety during the. Battle of Dunkirk, the re-formed 2nd Battalion landed at Gold Beach on D-Day and fought in. the Allied campaign in North-West Europe. The 1st and 2nd Battalions were amalgamated after the Second World War, leaving the regiment with one regular and one Territorial Army battalion. The 10th Battalion was involved in the defeat of Japanese forces during the Burma Campaign 1944–45. It was described by the commander of the United Nations forces in Korea at the time as ‘the most outstanding example of unit bravery in modern war’ and earned the nickname ‘The Glorious Glosters’ for its actions in the battle. The 3rd and 4th Battalion were disbanded as the war ended, and two of the territorial battalions were re-purposed and ceased to have any affiliation with the. regiment. The 5th and 6th battalions saw active duty under the regiment’s colours during the war.
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This page is based on the article Gloucestershire Regiment published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
