Korean War: Third Korean Winter 1953 US Army The Big Picture TV-223 (Patreon)

more at http://quickfound.net/

'This issue of THE BIG PICTURE depicts the many aspects of our soldiers' daily living in the Korean war zone during the winter period 1952-53. Our Signal Corps combat cameramen give BIG PICTURE viewers a vivid and comprehensive account of activities during this period of operations. Included are: Scenes of an American patrol leaving and returning to its unit, religious services at the front, and the heroic efforts of our combat medics and front line soldiers receiving hot rations from mess units located close to the front. Prompting this story of the "Third Korean Winter" was the authorization by the Department of the Army, 15 January 1953, of the ninth Battle Star for the Korean Campaign. This star was authorized for the third Korean winter campaign 1952-53. This issue of THE BIG PICTURE shows the people of America what the soldier has gone through during this particular winter period.'

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

...For the remainder of the war the UN and the PVA/KPA fought but exchanged little territory, as the stalemate held. Large-scale bombing of North Korea continued, and protracted armistice negotiations began on 10 July 1951 at Kaesong, an ancient capital of North Korea located in PVA/KPA held territory. On the Chinese side, Zhou Enlai directed peace talks, and Li Kenong and Qiao Guanghua headed the negotiation team. Combat continued while the belligerents negotiated; the goal of the UN forces was to recapture all of South Korea and to avoid losing territory. The PVA and the KPA attempted similar operations, and later effected military and psychological operations in order to test the UN Command's resolve to continue the war. The two sides constantly traded artillery fire along the front, the American-led forces possessing a large firepower advantage over the Chinese-led forces. For example, in the last three months of 1952 the U.N. fired 3,553,518 field gun shells and 2,569,941 mortar shells, while the communists fired 377,782 field gun shells and 672,194 mortar shells: an overall 5.83:1 ratio in the U.N.'s favor. The communist insurgency, reinvigorated by North Korean support and scattered bands of KPA stragglers, also resurged in the south. In the autumn of 1951 Van Fleet ordered Major General Paik Sun-yup to break the back of guerrilla activity. From December 1951 to March 1952, ROK security forces claimed to have killed 11,090 partisans and sympathizers and captured 9,916 more.

The principal battles of the stalemate include the Battle of Bloody Ridge (18 August–15 September 1951), the Battle of the Punchbowl (31 August-21 September 1951), the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge (13 September–15 October 1951), the Battle of Old Baldy (26 June–4 August 1952), the Battle of White Horse (6–15 October 1952), the Battle of Triangle Hill (14 October–25 November 1952), the Battle of Hill Eerie (21 March–21 June 1952), the sieges of Outpost Harry (10–18 June 1953), the Battle of the Hook (28–29 May 1953), the Battle of Pork Chop Hill (23 March–16 July 1953) and the Battle of Kumsong (13–27 July 1953)...

With peace negotiations ongoing, the Chinese attempted one final offensive in the final weeks of the year to capture territory: on 10 June, 30,000 Chinese troops struck two South Korean and one U.S. divisions on an eight-mile front, and on 13 July, 80,000 Chinese soldiers struck the east-central Kumsong sector, with the brunt of their attack following on four South Korean divisions. In both cases, the Chinese had some success in penetrating South Korean lines, but failed to capitalize, particularly when the U.S. forces present responded with overwhelming firepower. Chinese casualties in their final major offensive of the war (above normal wastage for the front) were about 72,000, including 25,000 killed in action compared to 14,000 for the U.N. (the vast majority of these deaths were South Koreans, though 1,611 were Americans). The communists fired 704,695 field gun shells in June–July compared to 4,711,230 fired by the U.N., a ratio of 6.69:1. June 1953 saw the highest monthly artillery expenditure of the war by both sides...