Korea -- 50 years ago this week, March 22-28

[Mike Davino <mdavino@yahoo.com>]

Korea -- 50 years ago this week, March 22-28 
Mines, mishaps slow U.N. advance 

by Jim Caldwell 


WASHINGTON (Army News Service, March 6, 2001) -
Assured of good weather, Lt. Gen. Matthew Ridgway,
Eighth Army commander, gave the green light for
Operation Tomahawk 50 years ago this week in Korea. 

Tomahawk, part of Operation Courageous, called for the
18th Airborne Regimental Combat Team to parachute in
and seize landing zones southeast and northeast of
Munsan-ni, a small town near the Imjin River on Route
1. 

Eighth Army intelligence had identified three
divisions of the North Korean People's Army I Corps.
Route 1 was their only escape route if they tried to
run from the U.S. Army. 


March 22, 1951 -- Tomahawk starts off badly on the
ground and in the air. 

A motorized task force that's supposed to link up with
the 187th at the southeast drop zone gets delayed. It
only moves a mile a mile from line Cairo in two hours
because the roads are heavily mined. 

Things haven't gone smoothly for the 187th, either.
Its C-46s and C-119s take off from Taegu airfield at 7
a.m. The lead aircraft carrying the commander of the
1st Battalion and his party has engine trouble. The
pilot returns to Taegu and the party transfers to
another aircraft. 

Meanwhile the aircraft carrying the rest of the 1st
Battalion follows the other planes, and the
paratroopers jump into the northern drop zone with the
rest of the combat team. 

Ridgway shows up in a spotter plane between the
initial drop. He has seen Task Force Growdon stuck at
Sinwon-ni. He confers with the 187th commander. In the
air again just after 10 a.m., Ridgway sees soldiers
jump from a plane at the southeast zone. The 1st
Battalion commander and party are in the right place
but are alone. 

The soldiers in the northern landing zone receive
light resistance, but have to chase away civilians who
try to steal parachutes still on the ground. 

After everything gets sorted out in the crowded
landing zone, units begin carrying out their assigned
tasks. While the rest of the 1st Battalion moves into
Munsan-ni, Company B goes to the rescue of the
battalion command group, and chases an enemy group off
Hill 216 that had been firing into the southern drop
zone. They make it back to the northern at about 5
p.m., when the rest of the 187th has secured all
objectives. 

Jump casualties far outnumber combat casualties for
the first day - 84 to 19 - but the injured soon
returned to duty. The paratroopers kill 136 North
Koreans and capture 149. 

The lead element of the task force gets to Munsan-ni
at about 6:30 p.m., several hours ahead of the rest. 


March 23-24 -- Mines delay U.N. forces all along the
front as the U.S. I Corps begins it advance northward.
On the corps' right, the 25th ID has to deal with
minefields and small groups of well dug-in Chinese
troops throughout March 23 and 24. 

The 3rd ID enters Uijongbu March 23 and finds it
deserted. Again, the roads around the town are heavily
mined and two tanks are put out of action. The 3rd
finds the enemy when they resume the march north on
March 24. They run into heavy fire from the Chinese
dug in Hill 468 three miles northwest of Uijongbu and
Hill 337 a mile northeast of town. 

The enemy is cleared from Hill 337, but after a
daylong battle, they can't be dislodged from Hill 468.


Several North Korean People's Army divisions crossed
the Imjin before Courageous began. The Republic of
Korea 1st Division, moving northwest to make contact
with the Reds, is unhampered by the enemy in its march
to the town. It links up with the 187th during the
morning of March 24. 


March 24-26 -- Gen. Douglas MacArthur causes another
political firestorm when he talks to the press before
leaving Tokyo for his 14th trip to Korea. He offers to
meet with the Chinese military field commander to
negotiate an end to the war. He says that if the
United Nations decides to take the war to China, its
military would soon collapse because of its limited
industrial capability. 

"I stand ready at any time to confer in the field with
the commander-in-chief of the enemy forces in an
earnest effort to find any military means whereby the
realization of the political objectives of the (United
Nations) in Korea ... might be accomplished without
further bloodshed." 

In New York U.N. officials express disappointment with
the remarks, but hope that MacArthur will be more
successful than their attempts to negotiate with
China. 

President Harry Truman is reportedly ready to fire
MacArthur, but the Defense Department talks with the
State Department and gets the president's permission
to release a statement that says MacArthur's mission
is military only. "The political issues, which
MacArthur has stated, are far beyond his
responsibility as a field commander." 

There are reports that the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent
an order to MacArthur telling him to clear all
political statements with them. 

MacArthur's report to the United Nations on March 26
says the "myth of invincibility of communist military
power" has been destroyed. 

About the only official support MacArthur's report
receives is from ROK President Syngman Rhee, who, also
on March 26, says "to talk of stopping short of the
Manchurian border makes no sense." 


March 25-28 -- The U.S. I Corps commander decides to
again use the 187th Airborne in another blocking
force. 

The paratroopers are ordered to move into a blocking
position on high ground along Route 33 behind Hill
468, about 10 miles north of Uijongbu. Once more the
attempt fails. Landslides delay the 187th on hillside
roads and heavy rain, which greatly hampers clearing
the slides. They're still several miles from their
objective on the morning of March 25 when the 3rd ID
begins the attack on Hill 468. They run into plenty of
mines, which disable four tanks, but no Chinese, who
had pulled out overnight. 

The 187th is reassigned to take Hill 228 on March 26,
but, even supported by 3rd ID tanks, the hill isn't
cleared until 9 a.m. March 27. The following day, the
187th chases the Chinese into the heights east of
Route 33, and clears them after another daylong
battle. 

The 3rd and 25th IDs reach line Aspen, their objective
by March 28. The line extends from the 38th Parallel
in the west down below the parallel northeastward
across the U.N. forces to the east coast about eight
miles above the parallel. The other I Corps divisions,
as well as those of IX and X Corps are in place by the
end of the month. 

Ripper is ended without inflicting extremely heavy
casualties on the enemy, although estimates of enemy
losses are high and around 4,800 of them are
prisoners. Ridgway and his intelligence staff fear the
North Koreans and Chinese are massing above the 38th
Parallel for another offensive. 

http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/Mar2001/a20010320koreamar22.html


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