The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Morning Call, Allentown PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
22 April – 28 April 1951
The Morning Call, Allentown PA
The Chinese counterattack, and Seoul is threatened yet again.
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Allied troops and tanks rolled the main line northward up to five miles along a 30-mile front in the mountainous center of Red Korea, but reinforced Chinese fought the Allies almost to a standstill before strategic and heavily-defended Chorwon, a five-highway and rail hub. The front extended from the vicinity of Yonchon eastward to Hwachon at the west end of the big reservoir there. Yonchin is six miles north of the 38th Parallel; Hwachon is seven.
On Sunday, the long-awaited Chinese Red offensive smashed into the UN line across a wide front, and pressed on. Chinese attacking from the northwest drove over the Imjin river on a 15-mile front. A field dispatch reported they were heavily engaged with Allied forces at daybreak Monday. One sector of the Allied front was cracked in the first onslaught. The gap – on the central front northwest of Hwachon dam – appeared to be plugged by midnight. The big counteroffensive followed intensive Red artillery and mortar barrages on the western and central fronts Sunday.
By Tuesday, hordes of Chinese, possibly numbering 700,000, had torn a huge hole in UN lines and plunged south of the 38th Parallel. A Chinese division with cavalry mounted on Mongolian ponies was reported in the forefront of the massive drive. Another Red force crossed into South Korea in the west, headed toward Uijongbu on the way to Seoul. But the big smash was aimed at the mountainous middle. There a Chinese Red division supported by mounted cavalry scored a breakthrough and drove on toward Chunchon, eight miles south of the 38th. Withdrawals ranging up to 15 miles were forced on UN troops on all fronts despite the all-out support of Allied artillery and planes.
Reinforced Allied troops were able to dig in and slow the big Chinese breakthrough force in central Korea. The Allied supreme commander warned, however, that the biggest Communist blow was still to come, although the five-day old offensive had apparently run out of steam. Fresh UN infantrymen helped to hold a new line four miles north of the lateral Chunchon-Seoul road, as reported by the US 8th Army. The first objective of the four-day old Red counteroffensive apparently was to cut that road and then swing in behind Allied forces in the west. Toward the east, though, the Allies withdrew from the Hwachon reservoir and the town, having been caught in a dangerous salient. The Reds, now only 20 miles from Seoul, had paid a terrible price so far for the counteroffensive. They had lost 7,095 killed and wounded by ground action alone and 1,000 or more cut down by Allied planes, boosting the Communist casualties well past 25,000 since the offensive started.
By the end of the week, Red Chinese attack waves swept to within 11 miles of Seoul and to the outskirts of Uijongbu, but the Allied field commander said they would be stopped north of the Han river. The Reds had 400,000 men in the west threatening the capital of South Korea, although Seoul was without military value. The months of Korean warfare had demonstrated that the city was almost impossible to defend. The Allies were now withdrawing all along the muddy Korean battlefield before waves of Chinese who had cut the Seoul-Chunchon highway. Thousands of civilians were streaming south out of Seoul while Allied artillery within the city hammered away at the onrushing Reds.
Republicans cried that the Truman administration was trying to discredit General MacArthur, as the historic spilt over far east policy headed toward a congressional hearing. Backers of the deposed commander reacted angrily after reading a Washington dispatch in the New York Times that dealt with President Truman’s conference the past October on Wake Island. It was said that MacArthur was extremely confident of victory, apologized for his embarrassing statements over Formosa, and predicted the Chinese Communists would not enter the conflict. The Pentagon was expected to give investigating senators a look at just about anything they want to see in their study of the far east policy split that brought about MacArthur’s dismissal. A Republican senator introduced a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to allow the people to vote a sitting president out of office, and Senate Republicans called for an all-out investigation of foreign and military policies linked with the ouster of General MacArthur.
Meanwhile, millions from Chicago were expected to turn out to show that MacArthur hadn’t started fading away in their minds. The city was planning for possibly the greatest demonstration in its history to welcome the five-star general on his visit. On Friday he told a cheering crowd estimated at 50,000 at Soldier Field that he would continue to fight for “a positive and realistic policy” in the far east. He also said that the tragedy was that since the Chinese Reds had joined the fighting our policy had been in a “vacuum.” He termed the current situation “completely unrealistic,” and acknowledged to cries of “No!” from the crowd that his public life was now closed. On Saturday the act was repeated in Milwaukee, with a roaring six-hour homecoming celebration.
Senator Eugene McCarthy of Wisconsin charged that the British government was actively helping the Chinese Communists while British sons were dying in Korea. He told the Senate that one out of ten ships going into Communist ports with war materials were flying the British flag. He said that the Labor government of Prime Minister Attlee did not represent the British people any more than “[Secretary of State] Acheson’s crowd” did the American people.
President Truman warned anew that Communist rulers may cause the war in Korea to spread. If they do, he said, they must face “the awful responsibility for what may follow.” Republican Senator Taft of Ohio urged that the US not try “to end this war by appeasement of the Chinese Communists,” and not be deterred “by any possibility the Russians may come in.”
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Allentown Morning Call)