U.S. Marine Operations in Korea, 1950-1953, Volume 5 (of 5): Operations in West KoreaUnited States. Marine Corps
History
U.S. Marine Operations in Korea, 1950-1953, Volume 5 (of 5): Operations in West Korea
United States. Marine Corps
Korean War, 1950-1953 -- Campaigns; United States. Marine Corps -- History -- Korean War, 1950-1953
Following a high-level conference it was decided that attacks inside
the bombline would be subjected to FAF coordination and that a minimal
amount of tactical control would be exercised by the corps commander.
Eighth Army gave a big assist to the Navy by moving the bombline to
within 3,000 meters (nearly two miles) of the outpost line. A line was
also drawn approximately 25 miles beyond the bombline, separating the
area of “general support” from “interdiction.” Thereafter, the Cherokee
strikes were effectively conducted against enemy installations outside
the 3,000-meter line but within 20,000 meters of the ground front.
General Clark, CinCUNC, had high praise for the strikes, which the
Seventh Fleet employed until the end of the war.
Surface ships of the fleet were in much the same static warfare
situation as the ground and air components of the United Nations
Command. Aside from the Kojo demonstration in mid-October, the
fleet had little diversification in its daily routine other than
to maintain the siege around Wonsan. This operation had started in
mid-February 1951 and had grown from the original plan to seize certain
strategically-placed islands on both coasts into an attempt to isolate
the entire port and city of Wonsan. Each day Allied minesweepers
cleared the harbor; at night the enemy sampan fleet resowed the fields.
Daily, usually during mine-clearing operations, ships of Task Force
95 fired on batteries in the mountains beyond the city and at other
military targets in and around Wonsan. From time to time heavy units
of the Seventh Fleet bombarded the area to keep the enemy off-balance
and to partially deter the solid buildup of Communist arms and defenses
just north of the 39th Parallel.
_Events on the Diplomatic Front_[306]
[306] Unless otherwise noted, the material in this section is
derived from: 1stMarDiv ComdD, Dec 52; Berger, _Korea
Knot_; Clark, _Danube to Yalu_; Hermes, _Truce Tent_;
Robert Leckie, _Conflict--The History of the Korean
War, 1950–1953_ (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1962),
hereafter Leckie, _Conflict_; Rees, _Korea_.
For many of the UNC military personnel, the stalemated combat situation
in Korea had become a depressing, no-win daily routine by the end of
1952. Back in the States, the Korean War was not only unpopular and
ill-supported, but the slow progress of the conflict had also dulled
public interest. In the course of the Presidential election campaign
the question of Korea had become increasingly a matter of widespread
national concern. Two weeks before election day the Republican
candidate, former General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower,[307] had
vowed to bring the Korean fighting to an end. As a first step toward
accomplishing this he had pledged, if elected, to visit the battlefront.
[307] Eisenhower had resigned his commission, following his
return to the States in April to seek election.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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