Red Defenders of Kumsong Driven Off Hill by Allies
The Florence Morning News, Florence, S.C., Saturday October 20, 1951.
SEOUL, KOREA, Saturday, Oct. 20, 1951, - (AP) – Allied forces today threw defenders of Kumsong off a hill on the Central Korean Front. The Communists had taken it during the night in a counterattack supported by a mortar barrage.
Infantrymen were within two miles of the former Red bastion some 30 miles north of Parallel 38. The Red hub is under heavy Allied artillery fire.
Chinese attacked desperately twice last night, a pooled dispatch from the Central Front said. One gained ground but the Chinese were unable to hold it. Further east the battalion size Communist counterattack was repulsed.
United Nations infantrymen moved ahead another 300 yards in the early morning hours.
In the West, where Red resistance had collapsed temporarily northwest of Yonchon Thursday, Chinese infantrymen fought off an Allied attack with rifle fire and hand grenades.
A late dispatch from the Western front said the Allied attack for two hills was stalled northwest of Yonchon. A front line briefing officer said there was no overnight action and the two hills were still in Communist hands.
Fifth Air Force fighters and bombers raked over 1,000 Communist supply vehicles during the night in clear weather.
Elsewhere along the front, small arms and mortar fire engagements split the night, but generally both sides clung to the same positions they have held the last few days.
There were no more late reports Friday night from the Eastern Costal sector, where a Red battalion was hurled back during the day from its position 15 miles north of 38th Parallel.
While the fighting raged, Allied and Communist “liaison” officers continued efforts to resume cease-fire negotiations at Panmunjom. Agreement Friday on the size of security zones around Communist truce headquarters at Kaesong and the Allied camp at Munsan left only two minor points to be settled in the preliminaries to the actual cease-fire negotiations.
On the Kumsong front, Associated Press Correspondent Sam Summerlin quoted an Allied artillery officer as saying 1,000 rounds of ammunition fell in the Red-held road hub.
Communist mortar and machine gun fire failed to slow the Allied attack, which has been inching forward in this sector for seven days.
There was “surprisingly light resistance” southwest of Kumsong where Allies seized two hills, a briefing officer said.
On the southeast sector of the Allied front below Kumsong, tanks, planes and infantry failed to dislodge Chinese troops holding a high ridge in the valley leading toward the Communist city.