Posted on 01/09/2007 11:14:25 AM PST by syriacus
Allies Battling Hard To Slow Red Tide
Retreat route to Pusan is MenacedArtillery Slams Shells at Communists: Fighter-Bombers help.
Tokyo, AP
Allied troops fought desperately today to slow the Communist tide rolling toward the heart of South Korea and menacing the U.S. Eighth army's retreat route to the old Pusan beachhead
Two United Nations battalions attacked a Red Korean force two miles south of battle-wrecked Wonju road hub abandoned Monday to the Reds.
An Allied regiment counterattacked stron communist forces six miles southwest of Wonju.
Allied artillery slammed shells into the Reds and fighter-bombers roared down in close support.
Field dispatches said the fighting still was raging shortly before midnight Tuesday.
The counterattack six miles southwest of Wonju was in the area where the Reds gained a half mile Monday and Allied forces later recovered most of the ground.
Action on the western front south of abandoned Osan was limited to patrols.
But army intelligence reported the Chinese were building up a massive attacking force around Osan. at least two Chinese armies -- possibly 80,000 or more troops -- were spotted in the area.
The Eighth army continued its retreat to the southeast. Vanguards of the fast moving Red forces pressed close on the heels of rearguard troops.
Two patrol fights flared 13 and 14 miles southeast of Osan. These attacks put the Reds only 50 road miles --less by air-- from the Kum river where the U.S. 24th division began its tragic defense of Taejon last July.
The Korean Communists, bulwarked now by hundreds of thousands of Chinese who entered the war when the Allies almost had it won, were retracing their route of summer conquest into South Korea.Communist forces rushed Tuesday into the Osan area, massing for the continuing pursuit of the fleeing Eighth army. The Reds moved artillery southward across the Han river at Seoul.
An Eighth army spokesman said one force estimated at 10,000 troops was spotted near Osan.
If You say so--and You do--how could a frpr be wrong--obvious answer, YOU couldn't be wrong!
Nonetheless they ran Truman's approval ratings down to 24% when he left office. These days S Kirea is our 7th largest trading partner. but that did not happen overnight. It took many years to build their democracy.
For the life of me, I don't understand why we don't have the same policy in place today.
Get out the popcorn so we can all enjoy the show.
I just posted something on a similar thread last night:
In Iwo Jima, for thirty six days straight:
1 American was killed every eight minutes.
1 Americans non-fatal causualty occurred every three minutes.
And that was considered one of the great American military victories of all time.
Interesting. I plugged $75 billion 1951 dollars into the Fed's CPI Calculator and came up a 2006 dollar equivalent of $581 Billion!
Wouldn't it be nice if that were all the Federal budget was today?
LOL. have a lottery to see who gets to man the rifles.
"Full Wartime Censorship Placed on Korean War News [56 years ago, today] "
Good idea for Iraq. That would allow our troops to defeat the enemy instead of dancing with lawyers and losing.
"Full Wartime Censorship Placed on Korean War News [56 years ago, today] "
Good idea for Iraq. That would allow our troops to defeat the enemy instead of dancing with lawyers and losing.
Probably nail a lot of insurgents that way since, by now, most of the stringers reporting for the wire services are probably insurgents by night. Reporting for the AP is just their day-job.
"And another moment to remember a time in our great history when journalists got the smackdown they deserved."
Didn't Truman, as President, once knock a smart alec newsman on his ass?
I was talking with my pops about all this, and this news shutdown by the Eighth Army was due to the Chinese involvement in the war.
My dad said soldiers in the 2nd Division were directed to write home as the news back home was that the entire 2nd Division had been wiped out.
That's very interesting.
My dad said soldiers in the 2nd Division were directed to write home as the news back home was that the entire 2nd Division had been wiped out.
Amazing how quickly bad rumors can spread.
It's wonderful that you get to talk with him about the Korean War. Many of us know very little about it. You must be proud of him.
Thanks for your comments. It is very interesting to talk to pops about his experiences in the war, although it wasn't until very recently that he did talk about the war.
Thinking about the casualties from Korea, and the media's running death count totals from Iraq, it makes me wonder what our country has the stomach for. While I believe the majority of Americans have an understanding of the importance of what we're fighting for in Iraq, the MSM and liberal reporters at all levels are chipping away at that.
About your earlier comments about Truman, I think I do remember hearing a story about him socking a reporter. Couldn't dig anything up on the Internet about that specifically, but found a great Q&A on Trumanlibrary.org with a reporter who covered Truman.
In one exchange, the reporter remembered a comment from labor leader John L. Lewis of Truman being "mean as cat shit."
Something about that description just cracks me up...
It is funny.
The refugees don't complain. They don't whimper. They are too tired for that. Too tired, too stunned and too busy keeping themselves staggering along under the burden of bedding and rice on their backs.As you roll down the withdrawal roads in a jeep, you get a series of flashed pictures of the plight. Your are forced inexorably along by the mass of vehicular movement. You don't stop because that would snarl up the jeep and truck convoys behind you.
It's like being on a train and gazing at tragedy out the window and not being able to get out and talk to the people involved or do anything about it.
We had seen the thousands of refugees leaving Seoul afoot and wondered where they would find places to sleep along the way.
"Now you know where they sleep." a man in our jeep said.
Many slept by the roadside. Their white-clad bodies flashed by in the night. They lay close together for warmth. They just stopped walking and dropped in their tracks when night came on.[snip]
And some kept on walking, shuffling painfully thru the night, handkerchiefs pressed against nose and mouth to sift the choking clouds of dust raised by the traffic.
We passed a dead man lying on the roadway. He was on his side with his legs bent at the knees, as if he had laid down and died of cold or starvation.
The cars of the convoys swerved around the body as they passed.
As our headlights played on the big trucks in front of us, swaying under their load of humanity and baggage like a ship with too much cargo topside, it was hard to see how all the refugees managed to hang on.
The baggage was heaped up sometimes 10 feet higher than the cab top and the men, women, and children riding backwards to shield their faces from the stinging cold wind, covered every inch of the baggage.
The trains were incredible. You had to look back after you had passed to make sure of the sight you had just seen. You couldn't believe that many people could be on them. They were heaped even on the tops of the freight cars and on the flatcars. They covered the engine, stood on the cowcatcher and hung on the sides of the cab.
And once we came upon tragedy compounded. A truck leaded with refugees had lurched and pitched off the side of a culvert. The hood and front wheels had dug into the bed of a shallow stream. The rear of the truck still rested on the covert edge at road level.
The refugees had been hurled into the stream bed. Most of them were soaking wet and were in danger of freezing. It was daylight and the traffic had thinned. We stopped.
The refugees were moaning on the ground. A Korean policeman who had come by on a bicycle was arguing loudly with the truck driver. We promised to notify the next police station to send back help, but we knew that every police station had its hands full.
As we left, the policeman was standing in the road blowing his whistle futilely at other refugee trucks to get help. They passed without even slowing down,.
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