Allied Forces Push Deep Into Red Korea
The Florence Morning News, Florence, S.C., Sunday, October 14, 1951.
U.S. EIGHTH ARMY HEADQUARTERS, Korea, Sunday, Oct. 14 --- (AP) --- Allied Forces rammed nearly two miles deeper into Red Korea Saturday in the fiercest fighting since last spring. Most of the action was reported on a 22-mile stretch of the central front – a section of rolling hills checkered with rice Paddies – which once was the Communist “”Iron Triangle” buildup area.
The U. S. 24th Division and the Republic of Korea (ROK) Second and Sixth Divisions punched out the longest gains on the approaches to Kumsong, 30 air miles north of Parallel 38.
Seventeen hills in the area were selected, the biggest some 2,000 feet high.
On the eastern front, American and attached French troops of the U. S. 2nd Division still were rubbing out Red bunkers on the northern slope of Heartbreak Ridge – an operation described as among the bitterest mopping-up of the war.
On the western front, U. S. 1st Cavalry troops moved unopposed onto a ridgeline northwest of Yonchon, a ruined village 8 miles north of Parallel 38. The easy advance followed a costly setback. The first battalion of the division’s 7th Regiment was badly cut up by a counter-attacking Chinese Friday. Survivors were rescued by the 8th Cavalry Regiment.
The Allied stabs on the central front dominated the war scene Saturday, however. Front-line officers expressed belief that the assaults so far had hit only outlying defenses manned by second-rate Chinese troops.
Most of the resistance came from Red artillery behind the bunkered hills. One officer called it was [sic] the worst shelling since the war broke out June 25, 1950, with the Korean Red invasion of the republic.
The 24th Division – the first American outfit to resist the invasion – moved ahead despite the barrage.
AP Photographer Bob Schulz reported the Reds seemed to be poorly trained and of low morale. He reported that all wore the traditional quilted Chinese winter jackets.
That appeared to indicate that the Reds were fitting their troops for a continuing struggle in the event that nothing comes of the armistice negotiations. Liaison officers had another meeting scheduled at Panmunjom to try to arrange a resumption of the truce talks.