BATTLE OF KOREA: Across the Parallel

An enemy answer to Douglas MacArthur’s call for surrender was quickly spotted by a U.N. plane. Winging far up North Korea, a U.S. 5th Air Force fighter-bomber, on a night intruder mission, saw vehicles rolling down from the Manchurian border. They moved in widely spaced clusters, strung over 100 miles of road. Clearly, with supplies from the Chinese and Russian comrades over the border, the enemy was feverishly building up a defense 80 miles north of the 38th parallel.

By next dawn a big U.N. aerial hunt was underway. Superforts, Shooting Stars and Mustangs scourged the highways coming down from the north to Pyongyang on the west and Wonsan on the east coast of the peninsula. The enemy’s vehicles moved warily by night, were pulled off the roads and skillfully camouflaged during the day. North of Pyongyang, U.N. planes claimed the destruction in one 24-hour period of 85 trucks carrying tanks and artillery. Rockets and napalm bombs hit supply dumps, barracks and training camps in the North Korean defense line.

Toward Pyongyang. On the ground, U.N. divisions regrouped for the imminent push across North Korea. MacArthur blacked out news of the whereabouts of certain U.S. units; everyone guessed that some were being readied for another amphibious flanking assault along the west coast of Korea. Efficient, sharp-spoken Major General Edward M. Almond, as MacArthur’s chief of staff, had planned the Inchon landing and then led the X Corps ashore to capture Seoul. It seemed a likely bet that Ed Almond and his seasoned men would figure in the next big action.

By week’s end the crack U.S. 1st Cavalry Division had crossed the Imjin River, driven back remnants of the enemy’s 9th and 18th Divisions, seized Kaesong, last South Korean city held by the Reds. This week the 1st Cavalry pushed across the parallel in force. They were on the main railway and road to Pyongyang.

On the American right flank, four South Korean divisions were well across the parallel, moving up in a looping front from the center of the peninsula to their farthest penetration on the east coast.

Toward Wonsan. Along the east coast road, where harvest-golden paddy fields came down to the sand dunes off the Sea of Japan, the South Korean 3rd Division this week reached Wonsan, where they encountered their first stiff resistance after a march of 100 miles in seven days from the 38th parallel.

Towns and villages along the route greeted them with evergreen arches of welcome. Old men puffed long pipes and watched. But young men of military age were noticeably absent. They had been drafted by the Communists for a stand at Wonsan and Pyongyang.