thedrifter
09-02-02, 07:40 PM
Subject: Korea -- 50 years ago this week, Aug. 29 - Sept. 4
Peking radio denounces U.S. actions in Korea
by Jim Caldwell
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Aug. 27, 2002) -- China continued to
denounce U.S. actions in Korea via the airwaves, 50 years ago this week.
Aug. 29 - Sept. 4, 1952 -- The communist truce negotiators send notes on
Aug. 30 and Sept. 1 to the U.N. truce team denouncing injuries inflicted to
rioting Red prisoners of war by their guards on Koje-do. Truce talks remain
in recess, but the two negotiating team leaders -- Maj. Gen. William K.
Harrison for the U.N. and Lt. Gen. Nam Ill for the Reds -- meet for 30
minutes Sept. 4.
Rain still limits ground fighting and hampers air mission, but on Aug. 29
the U.S. Air Force leads the heaviest raid to date against military targets
in Pyongyang. Air Force, Navy, Marines, South African, Australian and South
Korean crews fly 1,403 sorties against factories, supply depots and barracks
in the city. They drop about 600 tons of bombs, 4,000 gallons of napalm and
use 52,000 machine gun rounds on targets.
On Sept. 1 U.S. carriers Boxer, Princeton and Essex send 164 aircraft
against an oil refinery at Aoji below Siberia and an iron mine at nearby
Musan. U.N. aircraft hit air bases at Sinanju in northwestern Korea and
Sinchang in the northeast on Sept. 2. On Sept. 4 the Changjin hydroelectric
plant is bombed again.
Peking radio denounces the air attacks against Korea as "murdering peaceful
residents" on Sept. 1. The announcer boasts that from June 26, 1952 to June
15, 1962 communist fighter pilots and antiaircraft weapons shot down or
damaged 5,922 U.N. planes.
An Eighth Army spokesman giving updates on the POWs on Koje Island on Aug.
29 and Sept. 1. He reports that 41 more violent prisoners on Koje were
slightly injured in assaults on U.N. guards.
Maj. Gen. Haydon L. Boatner, who restored order to the Koje-do prison camp
by putting POWs in more-manageable 500-man compounds, turns over command of
the camp to Col C.V. Caldwell Aug. 31.
Then on Sept. 1, Gen. Mark Clark, U.N. supreme commander, presents Boatner
with his second Distinguished Service Medal before he departs Japan for the
United States. The French award him the Croix de Guerre and Legion of Honor
for his actions as deputy commander of the 2nd Infantry Division during the
fights for Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge earlier this year.
Peking radio on Sept. 3 demanded that Boatner, who is now back in the
United States, be tried as a "war criminal" for "massacres of POWs."
Aug. 29 - Sept. 1 -- Events occur in Europe among members of the World War
II Allied Control Council. The council consists of representatives from the
United States, USSR, Britain and France.
Meeting in Vienna on Aug. 29, they strike down an Austrian law allowing
Nazis who had land they stole from Jews seized by the government could sue
to have the property returned to them.
Army Sgt. William G. Pennell, Turon, Kan., and his wife are beaten and
injured by a crowd Aug. 29 when Pennell tried to drive his car down a narrow
street filled with theater goers in Salzburg, Vienna. There is high
anti-American feeling in Salzburg because the Army has located tank proving
grounds in the middle of the city against the wishes of the city council.
West Berlin police clash with communists attempting to demonstrate around
the city Aug. 29. It's the first time in several weeks the Reds have
attempted demonstrations in the West.
On Sept. 1 the Western allies turn over to the West Germany government the
responsibility for enforcing most travel controls in effect during the
occupation. This includes a travel ban on about 12,000 Hitlerites and other
"undesirables."
Aug. 30 -- Air Force Secretary Thomas K. Finletter tells the Air Force
Association Convention 30 that Russia has added "quite a few" of its new
twinjet light bombers to its Far Eastern air force. The suspicion is that
the light bombers may be used against frontline U.N. troops. He says the
Chinese have about 2,100 planes, 1,300 of them jets, and nearly all are
Russian-built.
Aug. 31 -- Chinese radio claims that countries attending the "Asian and
Pacific Peace Conference" in Peking in late September will discuss ways to
"settle peacefully the Korean question on a fair and reasonable basis."
Sept. 2 -- A Soviet armed forces "Red Star" article claims that the "threat
of widening American aggression in Asia and the Pacific" has increased and
the United States is trying to build an "international Asiatic army" with
Japan and other nations.
Sept. 3 -- The Defense Department releases the number of casualties
suffered in American units in Korea through Aug. 29. The total is 116,655.
This includes 20,506 battle deaths, 1,613 known prisoners and 9,441 missing.
The Associated Press reported on Aug. 30 that the 17-nation U.N. force had
suffered 384,421, which includes 262,421 wounded and killed. The American
armed forces, in Korea since the very beginning, account for the most troops
from any single nation. Therefore they have suffered the most casualties of
all the countries. Great Britain is second in overall losses with 3,250.
Among them are 513 dead.
Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and Chinese President Mao Tse-tung send each
other congratulatory messages Sept. 3 commemorating the 1950 Chinese-Soviet
defense treaty's "guarantee" against "aggression" by Japan or any other
country with ties to Japan.
(Editor's note: Jim Caldwell writes for the TRADOC News Service.)
Peking radio denounces U.S. actions in Korea
by Jim Caldwell
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Aug. 27, 2002) -- China continued to
denounce U.S. actions in Korea via the airwaves, 50 years ago this week.
Aug. 29 - Sept. 4, 1952 -- The communist truce negotiators send notes on
Aug. 30 and Sept. 1 to the U.N. truce team denouncing injuries inflicted to
rioting Red prisoners of war by their guards on Koje-do. Truce talks remain
in recess, but the two negotiating team leaders -- Maj. Gen. William K.
Harrison for the U.N. and Lt. Gen. Nam Ill for the Reds -- meet for 30
minutes Sept. 4.
Rain still limits ground fighting and hampers air mission, but on Aug. 29
the U.S. Air Force leads the heaviest raid to date against military targets
in Pyongyang. Air Force, Navy, Marines, South African, Australian and South
Korean crews fly 1,403 sorties against factories, supply depots and barracks
in the city. They drop about 600 tons of bombs, 4,000 gallons of napalm and
use 52,000 machine gun rounds on targets.
On Sept. 1 U.S. carriers Boxer, Princeton and Essex send 164 aircraft
against an oil refinery at Aoji below Siberia and an iron mine at nearby
Musan. U.N. aircraft hit air bases at Sinanju in northwestern Korea and
Sinchang in the northeast on Sept. 2. On Sept. 4 the Changjin hydroelectric
plant is bombed again.
Peking radio denounces the air attacks against Korea as "murdering peaceful
residents" on Sept. 1. The announcer boasts that from June 26, 1952 to June
15, 1962 communist fighter pilots and antiaircraft weapons shot down or
damaged 5,922 U.N. planes.
An Eighth Army spokesman giving updates on the POWs on Koje Island on Aug.
29 and Sept. 1. He reports that 41 more violent prisoners on Koje were
slightly injured in assaults on U.N. guards.
Maj. Gen. Haydon L. Boatner, who restored order to the Koje-do prison camp
by putting POWs in more-manageable 500-man compounds, turns over command of
the camp to Col C.V. Caldwell Aug. 31.
Then on Sept. 1, Gen. Mark Clark, U.N. supreme commander, presents Boatner
with his second Distinguished Service Medal before he departs Japan for the
United States. The French award him the Croix de Guerre and Legion of Honor
for his actions as deputy commander of the 2nd Infantry Division during the
fights for Bloody Ridge and Heartbreak Ridge earlier this year.
Peking radio on Sept. 3 demanded that Boatner, who is now back in the
United States, be tried as a "war criminal" for "massacres of POWs."
Aug. 29 - Sept. 1 -- Events occur in Europe among members of the World War
II Allied Control Council. The council consists of representatives from the
United States, USSR, Britain and France.
Meeting in Vienna on Aug. 29, they strike down an Austrian law allowing
Nazis who had land they stole from Jews seized by the government could sue
to have the property returned to them.
Army Sgt. William G. Pennell, Turon, Kan., and his wife are beaten and
injured by a crowd Aug. 29 when Pennell tried to drive his car down a narrow
street filled with theater goers in Salzburg, Vienna. There is high
anti-American feeling in Salzburg because the Army has located tank proving
grounds in the middle of the city against the wishes of the city council.
West Berlin police clash with communists attempting to demonstrate around
the city Aug. 29. It's the first time in several weeks the Reds have
attempted demonstrations in the West.
On Sept. 1 the Western allies turn over to the West Germany government the
responsibility for enforcing most travel controls in effect during the
occupation. This includes a travel ban on about 12,000 Hitlerites and other
"undesirables."
Aug. 30 -- Air Force Secretary Thomas K. Finletter tells the Air Force
Association Convention 30 that Russia has added "quite a few" of its new
twinjet light bombers to its Far Eastern air force. The suspicion is that
the light bombers may be used against frontline U.N. troops. He says the
Chinese have about 2,100 planes, 1,300 of them jets, and nearly all are
Russian-built.
Aug. 31 -- Chinese radio claims that countries attending the "Asian and
Pacific Peace Conference" in Peking in late September will discuss ways to
"settle peacefully the Korean question on a fair and reasonable basis."
Sept. 2 -- A Soviet armed forces "Red Star" article claims that the "threat
of widening American aggression in Asia and the Pacific" has increased and
the United States is trying to build an "international Asiatic army" with
Japan and other nations.
Sept. 3 -- The Defense Department releases the number of casualties
suffered in American units in Korea through Aug. 29. The total is 116,655.
This includes 20,506 battle deaths, 1,613 known prisoners and 9,441 missing.
The Associated Press reported on Aug. 30 that the 17-nation U.N. force had
suffered 384,421, which includes 262,421 wounded and killed. The American
armed forces, in Korea since the very beginning, account for the most troops
from any single nation. Therefore they have suffered the most casualties of
all the countries. Great Britain is second in overall losses with 3,250.
Among them are 513 dead.
Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and Chinese President Mao Tse-tung send each
other congratulatory messages Sept. 3 commemorating the 1950 Chinese-Soviet
defense treaty's "guarantee" against "aggression" by Japan or any other
country with ties to Japan.
(Editor's note: Jim Caldwell writes for the TRADOC News Service.)