Private Ronald Clyde Gordon - 5/400161

 

Private Ronald Gordon was born in Collie on the day after Anzac Day in 1929 but moved to the Maylands/Bayswater area of Perth prior to 1952.

 It has been difficult to find out much about Gordon’s life before he enlisted in the Korean Special Forces of the Australian Army and subsequently landed in Korea in March 1952.  He is another young West Australian soldier who went to war in a foreign nation and died there, leaving few records that have remained more than 70 years after his death.

Gordon’s Korean War service file has been examined by the National Archives of Australia and a decision was made by them to keep it closed and not available for public access. This means details of his enlistment and subsequent service are not known, except for information that is available at the Australian War Memorial, the United Nations Memorial Cemetery of Korea and newspaper reports and personal notices of his death.  Gordon was married before leaving for Korea.  

Gordon was a member of 1 Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) and lost his life during that Battalion’s first major operation, (Operation Blaze), on 2 July 1952. He had been in Korea less than four months.

Operation Blaze was a daytime raid on Hill 227, to overrun the Chinese army’s garrison there and to hopefully capture Prisoners of War to extract information from them about the enemy’s plans.[1] The assaulting troops wore American body armour and took the garrison, holding it for about 90 minutes before being ordered to retreat due to heavy fire by the enemy. 1RAR suffered heavy casualties with three soldiers killed, including Gordon, and 34 wounded in action.

Those killed in action were not part of the assault team, but at company headquarters which was hit by mortar fire. Was Gordon the wireless operator or one of the other two other soldiers killed in the company headquarters?[2]  Another of the wounded soldiers died the next day. Gordon’s burial report states he died from a sudden amputation of his right arm; injuries consistent with being hit by mortar fire.[3]

The 1RAR Unit Diaries for July 1952 state that the observers, (senior army officers who were watching from a safe location), “were impressed with the dash and steadiness of our troops in their first major op,” and although it wasn’t successful in capturing Prisoners of War, “the remaining aims of the op were achieved”. [4]  

Photo of Hill 227 on Jamestown Line July 1952 by Jeffrey Shelton

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C299573

After Gordon’s death, his wife Sylvia, mother Jean and sisters Jeanette and Frances put death notices in the newspaper and remembered his passing again in 1953.[5]   Private Ronald Gordon is remembered on the new Perth Korean War Memorial in Kings Park, not far from where he lived in Maylands.

 

References


[3] GORDON R.C. Burial Report. https://www.unmck.or.kr/

 [4] AWM 85 Australian Army Unit War Diaries Korea. 1 Battalion The Royal Australian Regiment. July 1952. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1370472 

[5] Family Notices (1952, July 8). The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), p. 19. Retrieved January 21, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49040416

 

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