Digital tour project brings to life Britain's heroic stand in the Korean War

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Digital tour project brings to life Britain's heroic stand in the Korean War

Published: 25 Jul. 2025, 16:34 Updated: 27 Jul. 2025, 16:16

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

A video from “Stand in the Bootprints of Heroes,” a newly launched self-guided QR-code tour at the site of the Battle of the Imjin River, plays during a press event at the British Embassy in Jung District, central Seoul, on July 25. [YONHAP]

Over 70 years after the sounds of exploding mortars ceased in the Imjin River valley north of Seoul, the hills that saw some of the fiercest fighting by British soldiers after World War II are alive once again — not with gunfire, but with narration, music and digital storytelling.

A new initiative from the British Korean War Memorial Committee (BKWMC), a Seoul-based nonprofit, is transforming this landscape, scarred by the 1950-53 Korean War, into a battlefield you can walk — or drive through — with a smartphone in hand.

This week, the committee launched “Stand in the Bootprints of Heroes,” a self-guided QR-code tour, in partnership with the city of Paju, Gyeonggi. The immersive experience leads visitors to 11 key points across the site where the Battle of the Imjin River raged in April 1951, placing them — virtually — in the boots of British soldiers who faced off Chinese forces during one of the war’s fiercest offensives.

At each marker, visitors can scan QR codes to unlock a total of 19 videos that weave together archival photos, music, maps and narrated accounts of a battle that remains little known in Britain despite its historic scale.

English-language narration is accompanied by Korean subtitles, making the content accessible to local and international audiences alike.

“South Korea and the United Kingdom are united by many ties — political, commercial and cultural — but towering over all is the Korean War,” British Ambassador Colin Crooks said at the tour’s launch event on Friday morning. “This innovative project shines light on a key British episode in that war, and is accessible, free of charge, to anyone with an internet connection.”

The Korean War is often referred to as “The Forgotten War,” overshadowed by the global scale of World War II and the televised drama of Vietnam. But for the dwindling number of British veterans who fought at Imjin, and for British expatriates working to preserve their legacy, forgetting is not an option.

“Our not-for-profit organization focuses on ‘Remembering the Forgotten,’” said British Defense Attaché Cdre. Andy Lamb, who serves as the president of the BKWMC. “The last survivors are now in their twilight years, but this kind of ‘edutainment’ project will keep their memories alive and help with educating future generations.”

The battle, fought by the British Army’s 29th Infantry Brigade — including a Belgian contingent — against China’s 63rd Army, is best known for the final stand of the 1st Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, also known as the “Glorious Glosters.”

Isolated and outgunned, the Glosters held off the Chinese advance for three days in brutal combat. More than 1,000 British troops were killed, wounded or captured — making it the costliest engagement for British forces since 1945.

Andrew Salmon, co-chair of the British Korean War Memorial Committee, explains the Battle of the Imjin River during a press event at the British Embassy in Seoul on July 25 to mark the launch of the ″Stand in the Bootprints of Heroes″ self-guided tour. Salmon is also the narrator in the tour's videos. [YONHAP]

“Other British battlefields like Hastings, Waterloo and Normandy are well known and heavily memorialized,” said Andrew Salmon, the project’s narrator and co-chair of the BKWMC. “But Imjin is overlooked. This project helps redress that oversight.”

The videos are also available online via the BKWMC’s YouTube channel, but the committee said they truly come alive at the sites where the fighting took place — nondescript hills and quiet crossroads that, as the videos reveal, were once scenes of extraordinary courage and catastrophe.

The Imjin QR tour is the second major project for the BKWMC, following the installation of bilingual interpretive panels at Paju’s Gloster Hill Memorial Park last year. The volunteer-run organization is backed by sponsors including BAE Systems, Dulwich College Seoul, Leonardo and YBM.

Daniel Fertig, the BKWMC’s chairman and a Seoul-based partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the group is already eyeing future projects.

“We are living in an era in which digital technologies are accessible to all and are economical to deploy in a low-impact manner,” he said. “This project was a lot of work, but I am very proud that our entirely voluntary organization pulled this off.”

Among the potential next steps: a museum, a permanent public artwork, or expanded content for sites like Goyang, where British forces in January 1951 protected retreating refugees from advancing Chinese troops — another little-known story with epic human stakes.

“The Gloster Hill Memorial Park is sacred ground for the British expatriate community,” said Salmon. “Paju is an excellent custodian and partner. It makes sense to keep growing interest in this site.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]