The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Plain Speaker, Hazelton, PA
Slogging northward.
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Doughboys of the US Seventh Division knifed ahead on Monday on the right flank of the 8th Army offensive in central Korea to a point six miles north of Pangnim. A patrol of the crack division met rifle and anti-tank fire, but air observers reported the Reds were withdrawing. The 2nd Division, slogging north through the mud-bound mountains on the left flank of the 7th, reached a point 18 miles north of their jumping off place when Operation Killer began last Wednesday. The Red pullback from a threatened UN trap was so rapid that it was called a “virtual rout.” An estimated 14,000 Korean Reds escaped as a giant Allied pincers bogged down in deep mud left by heavy rains and an early thaw. They continued to flee northward – in groups of 100 to 1,000 – pounded by US fighter-bombers.
The main Korean defensive lines were cracked on the east-central battlefield Tuesday by a drive spearheaded by the US 1st Marine Division, and five Communist counterattacks were smashed. The Reds were being chased into an uncharted mountain wilderness. A regimental commander declared, “We’re going in after them, and we’re going to sweep them out of the hills and the valleys and the caves.” The terrain was so rough that supplies were being carried on backs, across ridges so sharp that the men were literally having to crawl up them. The Seventh punched six miles north, to within 31 miles of the 38th parallel, the furthest northern penetration by American forces since the big retreat. The patrol reported the Reds were disorganized and moving in all directions. Other division elements pushed westward and linked up with the US Second Division on a vital highway to Hoengsong, 28 miles to the west. The city, 50 air miles east of Seoul, was regarded as the keystone of Red defenses along the winding 60-mile central front.
On Thursday, American marines wielding bayonets in hillside dugouts won two key heights from the Chinese Reds near Hoengsong. Other marines fought slowly up nearby hills in a renewed drive on the heart of a 40,000-man Communist force in central Korea. In the air, in the first jet fight since early February, four US F-80 Shooting Stars damaged three Russian MIG jets near the Manchurian border. No F-80s were damaged. Other Allied aircraft shot up enemy troops, buildings and gun positions, killing of wounding 170 Reds. Near Seoul, American troops invaded Sand Island in the Han River, but withdrew after a five-hour fight, They had landed in assault boats on a mission to clear the way for tank crossings.
Late in the week, after a two-day battle on dominating ridges nearly, US marines swept through abandoned Hoengsong and stabbed deeper into the heart of Red defenses. But Communist resistance was stiffening all along the Allied line, and on the east-central front 60 Korean Reds wearing South Korean uniforms knifed inside American positions and fought the doughboys hand-to-hand. There were also signs the Reds were pouring in reinforcements to stop the Allied drive north and northwest of Hoengsong.
Stalin’s recent interview with the Soviet paper Pravda was interpreted as public rejection of a Chinese Communist plea to withdraw from the Korean War. It was believed that Mao Tze-Tung had gone to Moscow and had protested against Red China’s heavy losses in Korea. He was believed to have asked the Soviets for a way to end the drain on Peiping [Beijing].
General Omar Bradley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, disclosed that about a quarter million Americans were fighting in the Korean campaign. He was testifying to the House Armed Services Committee, which was considering a bill to lower the draft age to 18-1/2 and set up machinery for universal military service as part of a long range program. He said that world conditions, which caused the joint chiefs to recommend a partial mobilization of 3.5 million men, may persist for 15 or 20 years.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Hazelton Plain Speaker)