Violent Fight Rages in Central Area as Three U.N. Divisions Open Attack
Reds Recapture Critical Point At Heartbreak
The Florence Morning News, Florence, S.C., Saturday October 13, 1951.
U. S. EIGHTH ARMY HEADQUARTERS, KOREA, Saturday Oct. 13, 1951, - (AP) - Three Allied Divisions jumped off today in an attack on the Central Front and violent fighting erupted across most of the Korean battle line.
As the Allies surged forward in the center, the Communists struck back in the East.
An Eighth Army communiqué announced that a Communist platoon had recaptured a dominant peak on Heartbreak Ridge; scene of more than a month of bloody conflict.
An Eighth Army briefing officer said only that the entire strategic hill mass could not be considered “secure,” and that savage fighting raged all night on a lower slope of the ridge.
On the Western front, possibly 1,000 Chinese Reds, in a three-pronged attack, overran -- with many U.S. casualties -- a weakened Battalion of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment northwest of Yonchon. Yonchon is about 35 miles north of Seoul.
The attack in the Center was along a front at least 14-miles wide the officer said.
This attack was described as a “limited objective attack” in an area generally south of the enemy city of Kumsong.
In this same general area, South Korean troops northwest of Hwachon struck Chinese positions and in a series of raging attacks drove the Reds off five hills almost as fast as they could run.
The situation on Heartbreak Ridge in the East was not clear. Before the briefing a communiqué had reported an Allied setback.
“In the area north of Yangau (?) United Nations forces occupied but did not secure a dominant hill on Heartbreak Ridge,” headquarters reported, “and were forced to withdraw after a counter-attack by a reinforced Communist platoon.”
The month-long fight for the ridge controlling a nearby Red assembly area last night had appeared to be in the mop-up stage.
But the Reds still clawed for a finger hold on the vital saddle-type terrain, fighting battle-weary American and French troops.
Dirty, unshaven soldiers, trudging down from the slopes, voiced bitter admiration for the tenacity of the North Koreans who fell in hand-to-hand combat.
The Red counterattack apparently rolled up the northern slope of the peak, for some of the troops had been reported holding out there Friday.
At nightfall about 20 of the diehard Communists still tenaciously defended the northern slope of the last peak which lies about 25 miles north of Parallel 38 and 30 miles inland from the Sea of Japan. Allied tanks nosed up the winding valleys on each side of the ridge, shot up Communist positions, and returned to the main line at dusk. South Korean troops seized two hills to the west, but lost one in a Chinese counterattack.
While the fighting raged on, prospects of resuming truce talks were dashed by sudden Red accusations that U. S. planes Friday afternoon strafed the Kaesong and Panmunjom neutrality areas. The talks have been suspended since Aug. 23.
American and Communist swept-wing jet fighters tangled over northwest Korea Friday in two battles involving a total of 175 planes. One Red jet was shot down and six damaged at a cost of one damaged Allied jet, Far East Air Force reported.
In one fight over MIG alley, 31 U. S. Sabres fought 80 Red MIG 15’s. All the damage to both sides occurred in this action, ranging from 34,000 down to 6,000 feet. Lt Joseph R. Ellis, Seafort, Del., was credited with shooting down one MIG in flames. Six MIG’s and a Sabre were damaged.
In the other battle over Kund, 33 U.S. Thunderjets fought 20 MIGs for 10 minutes without damage to either side, FEAF said.
The Air Force said it brought the War’s total score to 83 Red Jets destroyed, 20 probably destroyed, and 201 damaged.