The Korean War, 80 Years Ago, The Plain Speaker, Hazelton, PA
Korean War Weekly Front Pages
6 July 1952 – 12 July 1952
The Plain Speaker, Hazelton PA
“Today is just another day.”
*****
A large Allied raiding party, supported by tanks and flame throwers, was beaten back on Monday by Chinese entrenched in log pillboxes two miles east of the Panmunjom truce talks site. The UN infantrymen jumped off against three Red outposts at 10:00 the previous night under a brilliant moonlit sky. The raiders were pinned down by Communist mortar shells and grenades. Two squads clawed to the top of the Chinese hill outpost but their flame throwers and rockets failed to dislodge the Reds. The Reds had fired 11,821 rounds of artillery and mortar shells across the front on Sunday. That was about three times the number in the preceding 24 hours.
On Tuesday it was reported that fourteen Communist tanks – the heaviest concentration of Red armor in a month – had supported a probing attack by a Chinese company the previous evening against UN positions on the Korean central front. About 200 Chinese were thrown back in the one-hour fight which included hand-to-hand combat. Allied troops counted 39 Reds killed. On the next day UN troops drove on North Korean Communists entrenched on a ridge at the eastern end of the Korean battle line but lost a key hill to counter-attacking Reds in the center.
UN and Communist negotiators held their fourth consecutive secret meeting on Monday. UN spokesmen said proceedings were on a “business like basis.” A single issue – exchange of prisoners of war – blocked an armistice. The next day the chief Red arms negotiator protested that the UN Command killed two Communist prisoners of war and wounded eight on Koje Island last week. The protest coincided with an official UN announcement that two North Korean POWs were killed and nine wounded on the prison camp islands in a series of isolated incidents. Thursday marked the beginning of the second year of peace negotiations as the UN and Communists met in secret for 26 minutes. There was no announcement on whether progress had been made toward solving the prisoner exchange deadlock. “Today is just another day,” said the UN spokesman. On the same day unrest hit the stockade at Nonsan with Red prisoners injured as they fought each other with clubs. A platoon of American guards restored order without firing a shot or using tear gas.
At week’s end, at least 650 warplanes from five Allied nations rubbled the North Korean capital and smashed two other North Korean industrial centers in one of the most devastating raids of the war. UN pilots reported that they had destroyed or damaged the Communists’ army communication headquarters, three munition factories, and numerous other factories and supply and troop centers in Pyongyang. The Red capital was left in flames and rubble. American, British, Australian, South African, and South Korean planes also smashed Hwangju and Sariwon in western Korea, 25 or so miles from Pyongyang. They were important rail centers on the line between the capital and the battlefront. For weeks, Allied pilots had been dropping leaflets warning on the impending raids. The next day the bombing of the capital was taken over by B-29 Superfortresses. North Korean radio said the attacks had left 2000 dead, 4000 injured, and 250 missing.
(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Hazelton Plain Speaker)