BATTLE OF KOREA: Siege & Race

Kimpo airfield was easier than expected. As the U.S. Marines moved west from Inchon toward Seoul, the only defense of Kimpo (South Korea’s best airfield) was a brave but hopeless charge by several hundred green Communist security troops. The marines waited until the screaming Reds were a few yards away, then mowed them down. Said a sweating U.S. staff sergeant: “It was just plain murder.”

Within hours, a U.S. helicopter landed at Kimpo, carrying high brass, and soon the big airlift transports were coming in (see below), adding more to the 4,000 tons of supplies shoved in by the Navy at Inchon every day.

As the week wore on, the pattern of fighting in Korea changed. The Communists’ defense of Seoul, feeble at first, stiffened sharply as they poured in artillery and reinforcements. The Allied attack on Seoul bogged down into a siege. In the southeast, around the old Pusan perimeter, the Reds fought tenaciously for a few days, then began to pull back, very rapidly in some sectors. Elements of the North Korean 9th Division, which had been engaged in the southeast, surprised the Americans by appearing in the lines around Seoul—another example of the amazing mobility of the Red troops.

Yard by Yard. After the fall of Kimpo, the U.S. and South Korean attackers mounted a two-pronged assault on Seoul, one from the northwest along the north bank of the Han, the other from the southeast through the industrial suburb of Yongdung, south of the river. Before the north prong could get going, a battalion under Lieut. Colonel Robert Taplett—whose outfit had stormed Wolmi Island last fortnight (TIME, Sept. 25)—had to cross the Han. Taplett’s men had brought along amtracs (amphibious tractors), but the first crossing was not easy.

A reconnaissance patrol of doughty swimmers was badly shot up, and before the survivors could report that the Reds were waiting on the other side, the first amtracs had started over and run into savage mortar and machine-gun fire. Although some amtracs turned back, most of Taplett’s force got across, whereupon the defenders faded away. Some were caught; naked North Koreans (see cut) were a common sight in the countryside (the marines strip them as a precaution against hidden weapons).

After a fast advance of five miles along the north bank, the marines came under heavy artillery fire from Reds dug in on high ground. Thereafter their advance was yard by yard. They suffered severely from supply shortages due to the fact that all of their supplies had to be ferried across the river behind them.

The south prong—a regiment under famed Colonel Lewis (“Chesty”) Puller—fought a hand-to-hand battle in Yongdung, where the main Inchon-Seoul road joins the southbound road to Suwon. Scores of bayoneted Reds perished in

Yongdung, but after five days Puller’s men were still mopping up.

The 7th Infantry Division, which had gone ashore hard on the marines’ heels and was now on their right flank, had sent a small armored force slashing southward under Major I. A. Edwards of Tulsa, Okla. to seize Suwon and its airfield, and to block any Reds coming north to Seoul’s defense along that road. Suwon and its airfield were secured. Carrier planes began using the airstrip. The 7th’s task force pushed on south to Osan—along the old road of defeat and retreat that the first U.S. battalions committed in Korea had taken nearly three months before.

Plug Pulled. On Walton Walker’s southeastern front, the enemy fought at first as though they had not heard of the Inchon landings. Trying to break out of the Taegu corner, the 1st Cavalry Division was stalled for six days. At Yongsan, the 2nd Infantry had a tough time even to reach the Naktong, and at several points along the river U.S. assault boats were badly shot up. On the south-coast flank, Negro troops of the 25th Division recaptured formidable “Battle Mountain” for something like the tenth time, and probably the last time in this war.

Finally, however, Walker’s men got four bridgeheads across the Naktong, and all at once someone seemed to have pulled the plug. The rampaging doughfeet outflanked Chinju, reached Hyopchung and Songju, bore down on the important communications hub of Kumchong (see map). The most sensational advances were racked up by the ist Cavalry, which raced 55 miles in three days. After taking Sangju, troops of this crack outfit fanned out north to Hamchang, east to Poun, and south toward

Kumchong, where the 24th Infantry was meeting resistance. On the fourth day the cavalrymen pushed on to Chochiwon and Chongju, bypassing Taejon.

Laundry on Bushes. General Walker insisted there was no general rout, but a fairly orderly retreat with a few rearguards left to fight and die. At some points the North Koreans fought until overrun in their foxholes; at others, they took off so fast that the pursuers found Red laundry still hanging on bushes.

Where the Reds were forced to pull back in daylight, Allied airplanes took their toll, and some roads were littered with enemy dead, smashed oxcarts and other debris of war.

North Korean divisions were disappearing from view in the southeast. Before they could reach Seoul, the X Corps’ Major General Edward Almond redoubled his efforts to take the city. Colonel Puller’s regiment crossed the Han from Yongdung and the 7th Infantry made another crossing farther upstream. In a hail of enemy small-arms fire that blew periscopes and wireless antennae from Pershing tanks, the marines blasted slowly through the main thoroughfares of Seoul, rooting out enemy nests one by one and occupying some of the sandbagged buildings themselves. In the heart of the city, they reached Duksoo Palace in which Korea’s kings once lived. After South Mountain, dominating the city, had been stormed and a Red armored counterattack smashed, MacArthur considered that the city was “tactically secured,” although street fighting still continued. MacArthur was pleased that the victory had been won with a minimum of air and artillery damage to Seoul.