The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Morning News, Danville PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
21 December 1952 – 27 December 1952
The Morning News, Danville PA
Yet another Christmas in Korea.
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Russia went before the UN General Assembly in a dramatic post-midnight speech to demand immediate condemnation of what the Communists charged was mass murder of Red prisoners by US troops on Pongam island, Korea. The US delegate followed him and called on the Assembly to “expose this shabby midnight propaganda stunt.” The Russian delegate brought gasps of disbelief from delegates when he charged that in May 1951 the US shipped 1,400 Chinese and North Korean prisoners to the US to serve as “guinea pigs in atom experiments,” that on 10 May 1952 American hangmen gouged out the eyes of 18 prisoners, and that on 30 May 1952 the US burned 800 prisoners alive in flamethrower experiments. The British delegation burst into laughter at these claims, as did the US representatives.
Chinese reds stabbed four times Sunday night and early Monday at a United Nations position on the east slope of battle-scarred Sniper Ridge. Each time South Korean defenders of the central front height threw them back. It was the only action of significance on the 155-mile battlefront, dusted early in the day by falls of powdered snow. Temperatures hovered a few degrees above zero.
US B-29 Superforts bombed two recently developed Communist supply areas on the west coast of North Korea during Sunday night. One was a 20-acre supply target 8 miles southeast of Sinanju, and the other was a 45-acre installation 11 miles southwest of Sukchon. The B-29 crews reported that they sighted Red fighter planes but the fighters failed to attack. American and South Korean fighter bombers pounded red artillery, troop, and supply positions on the eastern front north of the Punchbowl Sunday afternoon. US Sabrejets shot three Communist jets from North Korean skies Monday afternoon but the snowbound front remained in a pre-Christmas quiet. There was no report of daylight fighting Monday after four pre-dawn Red probes against Allied positions on the central and eastern fronts were repulsed. Communist propaganda loudspeakers in the Sniper Ridge sector of the central front blared Christmas carols again on Monday night. Voice messages with the music were garbled and could not be understood. The loudspeakers boasted last week that the Communists would be in Seoul by Christmas.
The Secretary of the Army announced a reduction in service for draftee veterans returning from Korea. He said that effective 1 January enlisted personnel inducted under the Universal Military Training and Service Act who arrived in the United States on rotation would be released if they had completed 20 or more months of active service in their current tour.
The guns in Korea were just a little quieter on Christmas Day and church bells pealed perhaps a little more fervently throughout the world in memory of one who nearly 2,000 troubled years ago preached peace and goodwill to all. In the United States, a retiring president, nearing the end of his task, and in Britain a young queen embarking on her reign gave prayers for a brighter world and a more secure future. In homes throughout many lands whose young were fighting in Korea, these prayers for peace were echoed fervently. There was merrymaking and toasting everywhere in keeping with a year which had enjoyed greater prosperity than any time since World War II. The churches were filled and the poor got baskets of things to eat.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Danville Morning News)