Iraq still dominates the news. It is worth comparing this involvement with events half a century ago, when British troops were sent to the Far East with the mandate of the UN Security Council.

On June 25, 1950, the North Korean Peoples' Army invaded South Korea. Increasingly strong UN forces under General Douglas MacArthur drove the North Koreans back into their own territory until the alarmed Chinese sent thousands of "volunteers" into Korea.

For twelve months the war swung back and forth until the lines stabilised in mid-1951, close to where the struggle had begun. In the end this war would take over two million lives, military and civilian.

Although the British Army was some 400,000 strong, it was necessary to mobilise several thousand reservists.

These, however, could not be retained indefinitely. Regular recruiting was poor, due to low unemployment at home and dismal rates of pay, and all units arriving in Korea after the spring of 1951 contained a high proportion of conscripts; within weeks, in the words of the CO of the Durham Light Infantry, they became "... imperturbable, mature, self-reliant fighting men, tough, with bags of spiritual strength".

The experience of conscripts in the 1st Battalion the Duke of Wellington's Regiment is typical. The situation in Korea was curiously similar to that in today's Iraq, with America providing the lion's share of troops and material.

British troops found American kit -- especially winter clothing and tentage -- superior to their own, and it was obtainable by a process of simple barter, using NAAFI beer and spirits as powerful currency.

The Dukes first went into a relatively quiet sector of the line, which had remained virtually static for a year.

Armistice talks had been dragging on since mid 1951, but both sides were determined that any truce would find them holding strategically vital ground.

The 1st Commonwealth Division, containing troops from the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India, manned a key part of the UN front, 40 miles north of Seoul.

At its south-western extremity was a series of low hills. On one of these, known as The Hook, the Dukes would win great fame.

Their Chinese opponents were supported by powerful artillery and mortars, and adept in the continual nightly patrolling contest in no-man's land between the lines.

The Chinese made several attempts to seize The Hook. On May 13, 1953, the Dukes took the position over from the Black Watch, which had fought off a determined assault a few days previously.

Work immediately began to repair shattered trenches and collapsed bunkers.

New tunnels were dug to allow unobserved movement in the exposed forward position on The Hook, where the two foremost platoons relied on dense fields of wire and landmines to prevent sudden attack.

Clearly the earlier attack on the Black Watch had been a probe to test the defences, and the Dukes knew they were next in line for this treatment. Centurion tanks of the Royal Tank Regiment were emplaced in close support; working in pairs, using powerful searchlights, their 20-pounder guns firing canister shell, devastating against infantry in the open.

A carefully co-ordinated artillery plan ensured that in the event of The Hook being over-run, every field, medium and heavy gun in the 1st US Corps, of which the Commonwealth Division was part, could be brought to bear on the hilltop. With the expert assistance of the Royal Engineers, the Dukes made good their defence, extending their wire into a dense shield around the hill. A six-day Chinese artillery bombardment, in which 20,000 shells fell on an area no larger than two football pitches, warned of things to come.

On May 18 a Chinese deserter confirmed that an all-out attack was imminent. After one more probe, accompanied by 4,000 rounds of shellfire, it came on the evening of the 28th. The CO of the Dukes, Lieutenant Colonel Bunbury, an experienced officer, was well prepared, and as the Chinese bombardment opened he ordered his reserve platoon forward into deep shelters and tunnels, wisely anticipating that the Chinese would shift their fire on to the reverse slope to catch them in the open.

Shortly before 8pm, Chinese grenadiers and machine gunners rushed headlong through their own artillery barrage and into the Dukes' forward platoon positions, and hand-to-hand fighting broke out. The defenders were forced back into their tunnels, where ferocious close-quarter battles went on until the Chinese blew in the entrances, entombing the defenders alive.

As the Chinese charged over the top of The Hook, Col Bunbury called down his artillery support and the overwhelming fire of several hundred guns and an American rocket battery descended on the swarming enemy infantry. A vigorous counter attack then cleared The Hook.

Mopping up continued through the night as frantic efforts were made to disinter the troops buried in the tunnels. It was nine hours before the last were freed.

Once the garrison had been driven below ground, the enemy's casualties had been from devastating artillery fire, the guns of the Centurion tanks and the wire, mines and booby traps planted by the battalion's assault pioneer platoon before the attack,

An under-strength battalion of young soldiers, superbly led, had repulsed a determined assault by at least two battalions. They lost 20 killed, 86 wounded and 20 missing -- mostly captured when the forward platoons were over-run.

Chinese casualties were an estimated 250 dead and 800 wounded.

It had been one of the last engagements of the war. An armistice was signed on July 27, 1953. Technically the war continues today.

From an article by Michael Hickey published in Country Life. Michael Hickey served in Korea in 1950-52 and again in 1955-56. His book 'The Korean War -- the West Confronts Communism 1950-1953', published by John Murray in 1999, was awarded the Westminster medal of the Royal United Services Institute in 2000. He is president of the Wessex Branch of the British Korean Veterans' Association.