The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Daily Republican, Monongahela PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
31 August 1952 – 6 September 1952
The Daily Republican, Monongahela PA
A million men.
*****
A dispatch from the carrier USS Boxer disclosed that Communist ground troops in Korea had shot and killed American airman parachuting from their disabled planes. The dispatch said the Navy had warned its pilots that they may become targets for enemy small fire if they bail out over enemy territory. It advised them to ditch their planes if possible at sea, where they may be picked up more easily by helicopters.
A typhoon nicknamed “Mary” had curbed both ground and air activity in the Korean War. The typhoon lashed 8th Army rear areas with winds up to 60 miles an hour and headed northward toward Communist North Korea. But 50 F-80 Shooting Star jets still roared into northwest Korea and caught the Communists trying feverishly to repair an airfield at Sinanju. They cratered the field with 70 direct hits. Other Shooting Stars knocked out the first Communist tank destroyed since 12 July. They hit it 25 miles southwest of Pyongyang.
On Thursday Fifth Air Force Sabrejets shot down 12 communist MIG-15 jet fighters and damaged three others in air duels over North Korea for one of their biggest scores of the Korean War. One Allied Sabrejet pilot was lost. The pilot messaged he was bailing out because his instruments were out, his plane was damaged, and his fuel was exhausted. The battles took place between the Yalu and Chongehong rivers of Northwest Korea, known to Allied jet pilots as “MIG Alley.” The bag, although one of the highest of the war, was not a record.
The Communists were estimated to have more than a million men in Korea and could launch an offensive anytime they wanted. But General James A. Van Fleet, commander of the 8th Army, said “in every way we are prepared for battle if it’s necessary.” As if to underline his words, Allied war planes and soldiers reported successes in the air and on the ground. In a series of air battles over North Korea, American Sabrejet pilots shot down three Red MIG-15 jets, probably shot down one, and damaged three others. Allied soldiers defending Bunker Hill repulsed an attack by 800 Chinese Communists, killing or wounding 300 enemy soldiers in a 55-minute battle.
The deadlocked Korean truce negotiations would be brought before the United Nations General Assembly in the fall in what constituted a major shift in United States and British policy. Diplomats indicated that the hopeless outlook for the Panmunjom talks, now in their second year, had convinced Washington and London policymakers that the time had come to bring powerful political pressure to bear on Red China and North Korea to persuade them to agree to an armistice.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Monongahela Daily Republican)