The Korean War, 70 Years Ago, The Republican, Kane PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
22 June 1952 – 28 June 1952
The Republican, Kane PA
Northern power plants are targeted.
*****
More than 500 US Air Force, Marine, and Navy planes, teaming up for the biggest air attack of the Korean War, demolished five North Korean power plants on Monday in a 90 minute raid that knocked out 90% of North Korea’s electrical potential. Among the five dams whose powerhouses were plastered by armor piercing bombs and rockets was the Suiho dam, the world’s fourth largest. It was located about 30 miles northeast of Antung on the Yalu river. While the powerhouses were destroyed, the dams themselves were left standing. No Allied planes were lost in the raid; 208 MIG-15 fighters were seen on a nearby airstrip but did not leave the ground. Several days later came the report that British Labor members were asking Commons to overthrow the government of PM Winston Churchill over the American bombing. The ministers felt that the US had deliberately kept them in the dark, and the Yalu attacks would lessen the chances of a truce. The North Koreans accused the US of trying to extend the war “by dangerous steps,” and of committing an atrocity. On Friday it was disclosed that UN war planes had made their third raid in four days on North Korea’s power plants, but this time they shunned controversial installations just south of the Yalu.
The US Eighth Army gave 45,000 soldier and civilian prisoners on Koje Island their first chance to say whether they want to return to the Communist side or stay with the Allies. It was the first admission by the United Nations that more than half of the 80,000 on the island had never been screened. The UN resumed the program after taking a two-month recess to put down a rebellion of diehard Communists on Koje. The UN estimated that only 70,000 of the 169,000 prisoners would want to return to the Red side. The next day Communist negotiators accused the UN of prolonging the war by resuming their screening.
In Osaka, Japan, Communist demonstrators threw acid on an American general and attacked an American housing compound with a Molotov cocktail in disturbances to mark the second anniversary of the Korean war. Japanese police announced 58 persons were arrested in connection with the rioting, and extra guards were stationed near American installations.
Midweek, the chief Allied truce negotiator had Communist delegates stymied for the first time since the long hassle over repatriation of prisoners of war began. He hammered at the embarrassed Reds without letup at an armistice meeting demanding a satisfactory explanation of how they could oppose voluntary repatriation in Korea after Russia had introduced the principle in World War II.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Kane Republican)