Little Gibraltar

When the truce talks were resumed at Panmunjom in October, the fighting on the battlefront died down, but the lull was only momentary. Since then, small-scale but fierce battles have frequently broken out, and it has been the Reds who have done most of the attacking. Last week the Chinese were at it again.

The sharpest fight of the week was fought for possession of a hill mass near Yonchon, from which the guardian searchlights at Panmunjom could be seen at night. The high ground which a U.S. unit held controlled wide reaches of surrounding lowland, and was essential to any attack along the Yonchon route. By week's end, correspondents were calling it "Little Gibraltar" or "Armistice Ridge." Apparently the Chinese wanted it inside their lines before the negotiators at Panmunjom finished plotting the line of contact.

They stormed Little Gibraltar in a surprise attack and drove the Americans off--temporarily. In the bitter 41-hour fight which ensued, both sides kept throwing in reinforcements until the Chinese had a whole division engaged. The U.S. doughfeet clawed back up the slopes and regained possession. When the fight for Little Gibraltar was all over, some 1,500 Reds were frozen stiff on the wire or sprawled in the snow. U.S. casualties were probably not light.

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