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Posted on 10/19/2003 11:59:58 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Sukch'on and Sunch'on When Eighth Army crossed the 38th Parallel and drove on P'yongyang, General MacArthur held the 187th Airborne Regiment, commanded by Col. Frank S. Bowen, Jr., in GHQ reserve at Kimpo Airfield near Seoul. He planned to employ the airborne troops in a drop north of P'yongyang in an attempt to cut off North Korean officials and enemy troops, and to rescue American prisoners of war who it was assumed would be evacuated northward when the fall of the North Korean capital seemed imminent.  After changing the date a time or two, General MacArthur set the airdrop for the morning of 20 October. There were to be two drop zones 30 air miles north of P'yongyang, the principal one at Sukch'on and the other at Sunch'on. Two highways run north from P'yongyang like the sides of a narrow capital letter V, each roughly paralleling a rail line. The main highway from P'yongyang to the Yalu River and the Manchurian border at Sinuiju forms the left-hand side of the V. Sukch'on on this highway is situated in a wide valley surrounded by low hills, about 35 road miles north of P'yongyang. The right-hand road passes through rougher terrain to reach Sunch'on on the Taedong River, 17 air miles east of Sukch'on.  The airborne regiment turned out in a heavy rain for reveille at 0230 in the after-midnight darkness of 20 October. The men ate breakfast and then went to the airfield where they waited in the downpour for the weather to improve. Shortly before noon the sky began to clear. The regiment loaded into 113 planes, C-119's and C-47's of the 314th and 21st Troop Carrier Squadrons based in Japan. The planes were crowded-a typical C-119 carried 46 men in 2 sticks of 23 men each, 15 monorail bundles, and 4 door bundles. Each man had a main parachute, a .45-caliber pistol, and a carbine or M1 rifle.  The first aircraft, carrying Colonel Bowen, was airborne at noon. When all the planes had assembled over the Han River estuary, they turned north along the west coast of Korea. This flight carried about 2,800 men. Recent intelligence had informed the airborne force that a trainload of American prisoners, traveling only at night and then slowly, was on its way north from P'yongyang. Colonel Bowen's men hoped to intercept this train and rescue the prisoners.  As the troop carriers approached the drop zone, fighter planes preceded them rocketing and strafing the ground. At approximately 1400 the first troops began dropping from the lead planes over Sukch'on. There was no enemy antiaircraft fire and only occasional sniper fire came into the drop zone. This first drop put Colonel Bowen and 1,470 men of the 1st Battalion, regimental Headquarters and Headquarters Company, and supporting engineer, medical, and service troops on the ground in Drop Zone William, southeast of Sukch'on. Twenty-five men were injured in this jump. One group landed a mile and a half east of the drop zone and lost one man killed in his parachute by attacking enemy soldiers. Seventy-four tons of equipment were dropped with the men. After the troop drop came that of the heavy equipment-equipment organic to an airborne infantry regiment, including jeeps, 90-mm. towed antitank guns, 105-mm. howitzers, and a mobile radio transmission set equivalent in weight to a 2 1/2-ton truck. Seven 105-mm. howitzers of the 674th Field Artillery Battalion and 1,125 rounds of ammunition were in the drop. Six of the howitzers were recovered in usable condition.  About 90 percent of the shells were undamaged and none exploded. This was the first time heavy equipment had been dropped in combat, and it was the first time C-119'S had been used in a combat parachute operation. The 1st Battalion, against only light resistance, seized Hill 97 east of Sukch'on, where Colonel Bowen established his command post, and Hill 104 north of the town, cleared the town of Sukch'on itself, and set up a roadblock north of it. In the meantime, the 3d Battalion had jumped in the same zone, turned south, taken up defensive positions on low hills two miles south of the town, and established roadblocks across the highway and railroad at that point. It seized its objectives by 1700, killing five enemy soldiers and capturing forty-two others without loss to itself.  In the second jump area the 2d Battalion at 1420 began parachuting onto Drop Zone Easy, two miles southwest of Sunch'on. Twenty men were injured in this jump. The battalion secured its objective by night against virtually no resistance. Two companies established roadblocks south and west of Sunch'on. A third advanced to the town and established contact there with elements of the ROK 6th Division which had reached Sunch'on from the southeast in its push toward the Ch'ongch'on River. During this and succeeding days, a total of approximately 4,000 troops and more than 600 tons of equipment and supplies were dropped at Sukch'on and Sunch'on. Included in the equipment were 12 105-mm. howitzers, 39 jeeps, 38 1/4-ton trailers, 4 90-mm. antiaircraft guns, 4 3/4-ton trucks, and 584 tons of ammunition, gasoline, water, rations, and other supplies. On the morning after the airdrop, the 1st Battalion, 187th Airborne Regiment gained the dominant terrain it needed directly north of Sukch'on to carry out its mission of blocking the main highway running north. Strong enemy rear guard forces held the next line of hills northward. That afternoon elements of the 1st Battalion established contact with the 2d Battalion at Sunch'on.  General MacArthur, accompanied by Generals Stratemeyer, Wright, and Whitney, had flown from Japan to watch the airdrop. After seeing the parachute troops land and assemble successfully, he flew to P'yongyang. There he commented to reporters that the airborne landing seemed to have been a complete surprise to the enemy. He estimated that 30,000 North Korean troops, perhaps half of those remaining in North Korea, were caught in the trap between the 187th Airborne Regiment on the north and the 1st Cavalry and ROK 1st Divisions at P'yongyang on the south, and that they would be destroyed or captured. He termed the airdrop an "expert performance" and said, "This closes the trap on the enemy." The next day in Tokyo MacArthur predicted that "the war is very definitely coming to an end shortly." General MacArthur's optimism was not supported by the events of succeeding days. The airborne troops had not cut off any sizable part of the North Korean forces. The main body of the enemy had already withdrawn north of Sukch'on and Sunch'on and were either north of the Ch'ongch'on River or in the act of crossing it. No important North Korean Army or government officials were cut off and killed or captured. Civilians in P'yongyang said that the principal North Korean government officials had left P'yongyang on 12 October for Manp'ojin on the Yalu. The best information indicated, however, that the North Korean Government had moved to Kanggye in the mountains twenty air miles southeast of Manp'ojin. Most of the American and South Korean prisoners had been successfully removed into the remote part of North Korea.
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Therefore, it's obvious why this place is always a mess. In that case I wouldn't have it any other way. :)
Another reason I always appreciate the flowers.
It was also politically correct because we had the UN's permission to defend ourselves. :)
The french and British guaranteed that if Poland was attacked they would help. Since france had a common border with Germany there was no excuse except for lack of resolve in not coming to Poland's aid. When the Soviets stabbed Poland in the back and attacked from the East, Poland was doomed. She could not fight Germany and Russia alone. Before the attack france kept hoping Poland would give in to German demands and made sure Poland would do nothing to "provoke" the Germans. That was one of the reasons for Polish unpreparedness. france was hoping that Poland would be another Czechoslovakia and avoid having to fight. Poland resistance to Hitler's demands put france into the position of having to declare war. But it was a declaration in name only. They did nothing until Germany attacked the West in 1940.
May they rest in peace.
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