The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Press, Pittsburgh PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
22 March 1953 – 28 March 1953
The Press, Pittsburgh PA
Will the peace talks finally resume?
*****
It was reported on Sunday that American troops, in a 10½ hour fight, had cleaned out a group of Chinese Communists trapped in caves on the western front while to the west a savage Chinese attack was thrown back with heavy enemy losses. An American patrol had cornered a band of Chinese in caves along the base of Warsaw Hill, near the Hook, at 10 PM Saturday. Both groups opened fire with small arms but an hour later contact was lost with the US patrol. A driving rainstorm stalled an American counterattack on Old Baldy, leaving the biggest Communist offensive force in five months in control of a third of the mountain. Earlier, 7th Division troops were reported inching ahead in the savage battle to oust the Chinese from the vital height guarding the Chorwon-Yonchon invasion gateway to Seoul. Chinese commanders had hurled more than 3,500 men into the battle. Big guns from both sides were locked in a tremendous artillery duel, sending already very heavy casualties figures higher. The battle was expected to last three or four more days.
Later in the week, more than 1,000 Chinese Communists slammed into four United Nations hills on the western front after forcing American and Colombian troops off Old Baldy. The Reds, attacking under cover of heavy artillery and mortar fire, sent a full battalion of more than 800 men against Bunker Hill while some 200 charged nearby posts. Allied troops reported standing fast on Bunker Hill but the Chinese swept into Allied trenches and at least one of the outpost battles. The new “human wave” attacks began about 30 miles west of Old Baldy where Allied troops were hit by the 3,500-man Chinese attack Monday night. This week’s series of attacks was the largest of the year. The next day American Marines attacking through a murderous hail of Chinese artillery and mortar shells recaptured blood-soaked Vegas Hill and almost completely restored the western defense line guarding Seoul. The Leathernecks crashed back onto Vegas after a savage eight-hour fight up its rocky slopes. Chinese still held the nearby outpost of Reno.
American Sabrejets destroyed five Communist MIG-15s and damaged seven more for the biggest toll of enemy jets since 14 January. Two new double aces, pilots who have shot down 10 MIGs, were crowned in the blazing aerial duels over MIG Alley. The Navy sent 175 carrier planes deep into Northeast Korea, in the heaviest assault in six months against the Chongjin area, only 30 miles south of the Manchurian border.
Plans for a mass revolt by Communist prisoners of war on Cheju Island had been thwarted, it was learned. Alert work by American guards led to the discovery of the plot. A roving guard patrol seized a signal code box in a surprise raid on the compound kitchen. The next evening the Americans intercepted light signals telling other prison compounds that the code had been captured. The Communist prisoners hastily put together a new code – too hastily, as it was easily cracked. And the Reds apparently figured it was, for they changed it again. This continued for several days. The Reds experimented frantically with new codes in their signal light conversations. The Americans worked just as hard to fathom the codes. Eventually the revolt was broken by the roundup of 39 nondescript prisoners of war from the compound.
At the end of the week, the Communists suddenly agreed to exchange sick and wounded war prisoners with the United Nations and proposed the immediate resumption of truce talks. The Communists said agreement on exchange of sick and wounded men should lead to settlement of the entire prisoners of war issue, “thereby achieving an armistice in Korea.” General Mark Clark, UN commander-in-chief, said the UN would be ready to exchange sick and wounded prisoners “in a matter of days” if the enemy offer proved sincere.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Pittsburgh Press)