The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Morning News, Danville PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
15 June 1952 – 21 June 1952
The Morning News, Danville PA
A tossup.
*****
Field Marshal Lord Alexander said the chances of Korean armistice talks to succeed were a tossup but added that he did not believe World War III was imminent. “I wouldn’t bet one way or another. It’s a tossup as far as I can see. I honestly do not know whether the Communists are sincere.” He also said he did not think it would be wise to appoint a British delegate to the armistice talks. although “I think the people in Britain would be pleased if they had a representative.” Appointment of a British representative at this time might give the Communists the false impression that the Allies were changing tactics to yield in the deadlocked talks, he explained. On Tuesday Allied negotiators jolted the Communists for a second time with a forced three-day recess in the Korean armistice talks. The Allies informed the Reds that they would not return to the Panmunjom talks until Saturday. It was an antidote to days of renewed Communist propaganda pitched to the refrain of Allied mistreatment of prisoners of war.
A famous airman, reported to have turned down a $500,000 offer to star in a movie depicting how he destroyed 31 Nazi planes in World War II, returned home to California Tuesday with a brand-new chapter as a jet ace in the Korean War. An enthusiastic welcome was held for Colonel Francis S. Gabresky, of Oil City, PA. On hand was the girl who waited for him while he was a war prisoner of the Nazis. Over Korea he was credited with shooting down 6½ MIG-15s. The half is because he and another flyer were jointly credited with shooting down one MIG. Despite his combat activity, he had spare time to look after and finance the needs of 300 Korean orphans.
Withering Allied firepower blasted attacking Chinese Reds off western front hillsides four times in Tuesday’s predawn darkness. An Allied officer said bodies of the Reds were “still piled up” at the foot of the Allied-held heights. He could give no estimates of Communist casualties. It was the sixth straight day of the bloodiest fighting since New Year’s. Artillery shells screamed through the night as both sides opened up with their big guns. Allied officers said UN troops hurled 6,000 rounds of mortar and artillery fire at the Communists in the latest 24-hour period, while American planes roared overhead in support. By nightfall, the action had quieted, with the Chinese making no move and the shelling staying light. The next day it was disclosed that the Chinese Communists had whipped six tanks and nearly 750 troops into fresh assault positions on the east-central Korean front, but had made no effort to renew their prolong nightly attacks on the western front.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Danville Morning News)