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

Korean War Weekly Front Pages

29 July – 4 August 1951

The News-Herald, Franklin-Oil City PA 

Peace talks were at a stalemate.

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The US Eighth Army was maintaining constant vigilance during cease-fire talks to safeguard against a Communist ambush. The commanding general, James Van Fleet, said, “We are sure of the good faith under which the UN delegates are operating and we hope for the same from the Communists. However, in spite of our hopes, every man must be alert at all times.”

Allied warplanes attacked the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on Monday, and a Red broadcast said the “city people’s committee building” – apparently the city hall – was demolished. Jet fighter bomber planes started fires so large that it was impossible to estimate damage. Three Allied planes were lost, including two F-4U Corsairs that collided in bad visibility. The North Korean radio complained that the Americans attacked the city “when cease-fire talks are being conducted.” While the Allied planes were striking, UN ground forces won a major victory on the east-central front by capturing the last of a series of hills dominating that entire area. The combined air and ground attacks were made as UN and Communist negotiators in Kaesong agreed that the war would continue until a cease-fire is signed.

Nineteen C-119 flying boxcars dropped 70 tons of emergency supplies to UN forces fighting in mountains on the central front. It was the first such drop to frontline units since 17 June, and indicated stiff fighting by a possibly beleaguered Allied force. The drop zone was on a mountainside, and the first attempt was unsuccessful due to weather. Intense Communist ground fire damaged one aircraft and forced the flight to veer off until the enemy guns were silenced by UN ground troops. No casualties were reported. Late in the week 53 American B-26 light bombers smashed again at the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. They destroyed huge supply dumps and left the city wreathed in flames.

UN fighting men stormed and captured the “million dollar mountain” on the central Korean front Friday in the face of Communist machine gun, mortar and artillery fire. The Allied infantrymen captured the hill, which got its name from the enormous amount of firepower that was poured into it before the assault, at midday. For two days before the final attack, air and artillery bombardments had been hurled at the hill. An Allied spokesman said, “The operation was a complete success. We inflicted heavy losses on the Reds.”

Cease-fire negotiations appeared stalled over a Communist demand that the Allies give up 2,125 square miles of North Korea and fall back across the 38th Parallel. UN and Communist delegations ended their 14th and longest single session in Kaesong Monday and agreed only on two points. First, that they meet again the next day, and second, that the fighting should go on while they talk. The next day brought no new developments, for the fifth straight day. The sticking point was the armistice buffer zone along the Parallel. The Allies again called for a cease-fire along the present fighting front, at some places 30 miles north of the demarcation line. The South Korean foreign minister was shopping a compromise that would create a broader buffer zone than that proposed, which would include the fighting line, but by midweek the Chinese commander in Korea stated that the cease-fire talks would collapse if the United Nations “deliberately offer impossible demands and stick to them,” while the US Secretary of State said that the UN simply could not accept a truce line on the 38th Parallel. At the end of the week, General Ridgway, supreme United Nations commander, called his high staff advisers into urgent conference in Tokyo, and it was believed the Korean cease-fire negotiations in Kaesong may have reached a crisis point. The deadlock over the fixing of a truce line in Korea had entered its 10th day.

The Army estimated enemy casualties in Korea from the beginning of the war through 23 July 1951 at 1,228,854. This is an increase of 7,420 for the four-day period from 20 July through 23 July.

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