This week is Remembrance Sunday and a Swindon business will be paying a special tribute to a group of heroes who died 5,000 miles from home in their fight for freedom.

Almost 70 years ago young men from Swindon and Cheltenham joined the army with the Gloucestershire Regiment which was soon to become known as the Glorious Glosters for the bravery of its soldiers in the Korean war.

And now a Korean company with branches in Swindon, Kia Motors, is part of the Fish Brothers group, a family firm and which has been around a little longer than the conflict.

The war came about in 1945 when Korea, which had previously been part of the Japanese empire, was divided into the communist North and Western-backed South in 1945.

An uneasy peace endured until June 1950 when the Soviet-equipped army of Kim Il-sung flooded across the 38th Parallel. Then the war broke out and the British Army was to lose more men than in the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts combined.

In 1951 at the height of the war, it was Hill 235, a vantage point overlooking crossings on the Imjin River when South Korean and American forces fighting under the UN flag with the Glosters at the vanguard of the action.

That piece of high ground would soon earn a new name, Gloster Hill, as the scene of the most desperate action fought by the British Army since the Second World War.

In the face of massed human-wave attacks by Chinese communist troops in the face of overwhelming odds the Glosters repulsed successive assaults by a force seven times bigger for three days.

The soldiers fought until their ammunition ran out with a third of the battalion were killed or wounded. More than 1,000 died and more than 500 survivors spent the next two years in prison camps.

Two officers of the regiment received the Victoria Cross for their parts in the battle, while a third was awarded the George Cross.

The Korean conflict has always been known as the Forgotten War although the few of the soldiers who survive now will be remembering on the coming Remembrance Sunday.

Military historians believe that had Gloster Hill not been held for three days, the Chinese would have been able to recapture Seoul and turn the course of the war decisively in their favour.

Imjin River was the bloodiest British battle of the Korean War and while not many people in the UK know about it, it is not forgotten by the Korean people especially those who live in the village where there is a memorial to the proud regiment.

Talks between the two sides dragged on until the armistice was signed in July 1953 and a peace has never been signed with North Korea regarded as the pariah of the region.

A still grateful Korean public remembers the sacrifice of the British soldiers which helped the Republic of Korea build a prosperous democratic country in two generations.

The flags of the United Nations, South Korea and the United Kingdom fluttered in the breeze during the April service on St George’s Day and wreaths are laid at the memorial carved into the bottom of the hill.

Kia might be seen on the sponsorship boards of the Australian tennis open and other sporting events. But they have been contributors to the Korean Veterans Association which helped to bring former soldiers back to their battlefield to remember their comrades who didn’t make the journey home.

They also help with education scholarships for young Koreans whose home is where the battle took place.

Fish Brothers opened their Kia showroom in 2004, and are now the largest Kia dealer in Wiltshire. And they will be opening a new showroom in Swindon on Monday, December 4.