| Korea - 1953 Back to home page |
Page 5 |
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| Another view looking North up Happy Valley. The hills on the left were the left flank of the MLR, the hill at the end of the valley was the Northern MLR. The Chinese had the higher hills beyond. What looks like snow on the hills is the result of constant artillery hits that stripped off the vegetation and most of the top soil leaving pulverized granite. Behind the Chinese held hill, you can see the dissipating smoke and dust from a recent air strike. |
Looking out through the machine gun aperture of a bunker on the MLR. This bunker covered the field of fire looking North into the Ch'orwon Valley. The chicken wire over the aperture was used to hold camouflage and also acted as a barrier for hand grenades that might be thrown into the bunker during an assault. |
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Another view out the bunker's aperture shows the left flank of the MLR facing out into the Ch'orwon Valley looking North. In the center of the picture in the distance is Jackson Heights. The road running at the base of the hill in the foreground was the supply route for the Company defending the left flank. |
This is what's left of a little farming village in Happy Valley. Each day I would walk through these ruins as I made my tour of the valley's MLR and its fortifications. Mixed in with the building's ruins were the remains of a family's life including a little child's rubber shoe, pretty pottery, pots, pans, and the other common utensils of daily living. You can see the MLR at the end of the valley with the Chinese hills showing above the MLR. |
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| Walking along the base of the left-flank hills, North from the village in the previous photo, this picture was taken from the valley floor looking up at the fortified hills. A 50 caliber machine gun was emplaced here zeroed in on a Chinese forward observer's viewing port in a bunker in the hillside. Any one passing by would press the single shot firing lever and send a random round through the Chinese' viewing port. | An air strike on the Chinese MLR. Note the sand bagged latrine at bottom center of this photo. There was a pretty bad story told about the results of a direct hit by a mortar round on an unprotected latrine. | |
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All photos ©Copyright Freeman Bradford. All rights reserved |
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