The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The News-Herald, Franklin and Oil City, PA

Korean War Weekly Front Pages

4 March – 10 March 1951

The News-Herald, Franklin and Oil City, PA

Crossing the Han.

*****

“Yanks Smash Through Enemy Line” was the main headline on Monday. UN troops had broken through a major Communist defensive line in the east-central Korean mountains. Their powerhouse drive had carried them to within 25 miles of the 38th parallel. Massive artillery blows and concentrated air strikes helped the US Seventh Division sweep 6,000 Reds from a 4,000-foot plateau on the front 17 miles east of Hoengsong. On the central front US Marines ran into a Communist line of defense four miles deep in the area north of Hoengsong. Monday’s drive bent the east-central front sharply northward, with South Korean Seventh Division troops slicing north on the right of the US Seventh Division. The next day saw US Second Division infantrymen advancing more than a mile in a blinding Korean snowstorm against Red forces screening a Chinese buildup for a all-out counteroffensive. The commander of UN ground forces in Korea said his forces could handle any Communist action. “We can turn it back – at the moment.” General MacArthur reported that nine to twelve fresh divisions – 100,000 men – from Red China’s long-missing Third Field Army were moving into position behind the central Korean front for what may be an imminent assault.

On Wednesday, American tanks and infantry stormed across the Han river at three points 15 miles east of Seoul under cover of the greatest artillery barrage of the war. Chinese Communist defenders fled under a flaming holocaust of 50,000 shells rained down upon them within two hours and 20 minutes. The drive across the Han spearheaded a general United Nations attack which gained from one to three miles along a 40-mile front. By night the drive had carved out a bridgehead on the northern bank and set the stage for a massive envelopment move against the Communist-held South Korean capital of Seoul. The Reds had lost a record 11,600 men in the first 24 hours of the assault, and a front dispatch reported signs of a general Communist withdrawal behind a screen of rear guards. On the far eastern front, however, Communist forces smashed into South Korean troops on the right flank of the US Second Division. The Reds gained one to three miles, driving the southerners into new defensive positions.

Late in the week, the US Eighth Army began flanking Seoul and surged ahead another mile and a half in its 70-mile-wide Korean offensive. The Americans also now held a solid bridgehead across the Han up to six miles deep. Enemy resistance dwindled on the western half of the offensive front, and it was there that the 8th began flanking the strong Communist defenses. The Reds threw one feeble counterattack against the 25th Division’s western flank, but otherwise resistance was light. The Chinese were abandoning ammunition, machineguns, mortars and even some food stocks in their flight along the western half of the 8th Army’s “killer” offensive. On the eastern half, fighting simmered down after a series of savage battles with fanatical North Koreans.

The US Army asked for 60,000 draftees during May. The number would bring the total inducted since the past September to 590,000. The Navy, Air Force and Marines had not taken any men via the draft during the current emergency.

General MacArthur predicted an inevitable military stalemate in Korea unless he got major reinforcements and more freedom to strike back against the Reds. He said his forces had already blasted any Communist hope for victory in Korea and thereby dampened the enemy’s ardor for other aggression in Asia. But he also said that there were indications that the enemy was attempting to build up from China a new and massive offensive for the spring.

The acting Secretary of Defense said that the US was in constant consultation with its UN allies on the issues limiting the military campaign against Chinese and North Korean forces. Asked about the restrictions against bombing supply bases in China, he said the government was engaged in continually reviewing the Korean situation. He also said that any question about crossing the 38th parallel was academic at that point.

The government ordered a 20% cutback in the use of steel for automobiles and durable goods, effective 1 April. The National Production Authority (NPA) had applied the order to cars, furniture, appliances and other items, but the group mainly affected would be TV and radio set producers.

(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Franklin and Oil City News-Herald)