Cheongju (Korean pronunciation: [tɕʰʌŋ.dʑu], also historically called Chongju) is the capital and largest city of North Chungcheong Province in South Korea.
Cheongju in The Hot War[]
North Korean-held Chongju was the target of a UN drive in April 1951. Although World War III and the ground war in Europe was taking the attention and munitions of most of the players in the Korean War, nonetheless, the U.S. military was able to supply a regiment's worth of Pershing tanks in advance of the attack. The attack began with a three-hour period of artillery shelling. The Pershings went in next, troops on foot behind them. While a couple of tanks were destroyed by Chinese and North Korean troops, the advance was not slowed, and the Communist allies sustained heavy losses.[1]
Despite this initial success, the drive bogged down in the snowfall, and both sides resorted to blaring propaganda at each other over loudspeakers, and taking random shots at one another.[2] The month of May saw the snow melt, and an increase in shelling attacks from the Chinese. It also saw the U.S. had atom bombed Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk, two key Soviet cities on the Trans-Siberian railroad, which did some damage to the Red supply line.[3]
June 1951 saw the Americans still bogged down south of Chongju, with both sides intermittently taking shots at one another.[4] The stalemate finally broke in August, when the Soviet Union dropped an atomic bomb on the U.S. positions, blowing a large hole in the American line. Chinese and North Korean forces immediately poured through that hole drove the entirety of the U.N. forces further south.[5] Chongju itself was not targeted.
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