Word: damming
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...advancing Reds had closed the floodgates of the huge Hwachon Dam just above the 38th parallel. Result: the level of the Pukhan River, which is fed by the Hwachon Reservoir, fell sharply, depriving retreating U.N. troops of a valuable defensive barrier. Last week the U.S. Army asked the U.S. Navy to do something about...
From the deck of the carrier Princeton, cruising in the Sea of Japan, rose a flight of Douglas Skyraiders. When they got to the dam and tried to blow it up, they found that their bombs were as futile as BB guns against the concrete structure-900 ft. long, 275 ft. high, 20 ft. thick...
Next morning eight torpedo-bearing Skyraiders came in to the dam on a wide arc, flying low between the mountains, ready for a quick run and a sharp pullout. The first two planes dropped their torpedoes in close parallel, blowing out completely a central floodgate. Four other Skyraiders dropped torpedoes; one of them tore a ten-foot hole in a second floodgate. Water poured out of the dam; minutes later, the Pukhan began to rise. From the U.S. Army to the U.S. Navy-which had never before used torpedoes on inland targets-went an enthusiastic "Well done...
...Reds attacked in the area of the Hwachon Reservoir dam (taken by U.S. troops without a fight last week before the Red drive began) and at other points farther west. On a 15-mile front, they pushed across the Imjin River, wading the waist-high water. In the extreme west, U.N. forces pulled back twelve miles to help hold the Imjin bridgehead in check. In the first twelve hours the Communist attack spread across 50 miles of front, in 24 hours across 100 miles...
...wait for the mechanics to arrive. One company cast off in plywood boats, paddled by hand. Some of the boats were smashed by mortar fire. Finally the Chinese launched a full-scale counterattack. The Americans threw it back, then withdrew. By that time the battle for the dam had become academic. The Chinese had already wasted much of the reservoir water; if they had been able to blow the dam (they may have lacked know-how or explosives), they would almost certainly have done so earlier...