Monday, Nov. 17, 1952

Nightmare

Day after day, the pattern of battle repeated itself like a recurrent nightmare. Again & again, the Chinese Reds attacked Sniper Ridge, sometimes forced the South Koreans to give ground, but always in the end were bloodily repulsed. Again & again, the ROKs assaulted Triangle Hill; sometimes they got within 10 yards of the top, but always they were thrown back.

The brave South Koreans were sometimes too proud for their own good. Once, when they were dislodged from the peak of Sniper, their commander failed to report it for fear of losing face. He intended to counterattack the next day, without air and artillery support, and win the position back. If he had tried it, his force would have been slaughtered. But higher echelons discovered the plan in time and gave the ROKs the support they needed.

Finally, with Eighth Army consent, the ROKs gave up trying to win Triangle. The little infantrymen crouched in their bunkers, like dazed men coming out of a bad dream, and the battle was handed over to artillery. Back of the two battered hills, the Communists were believed to have an artillery division in addition to the regular unit artillery--some 200 guns in all. At week's end, the U.N. reported silencing half the enemy guns. The Red artillery fire had slacked off sharply--but that may have been partly due to lack of targets and dwindling ammunition.

The quietest day in nearly a month came to the Sniper-Triangle area. A few U.N. planes strafed Chinese positions back of the front lines. The first snow of the winter came softly down.

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