The Korean War, 70 Years Ago

4 February – 10 February 1951

The Press, Pittsburgh, PA

The Allies enter Seoul.

*****

At the start of the week a regimental task force struck five miles northward past thousands of enemy dead in a new offensive that threatened to outflank the Communist defense lines southeast of Seoul. At the opposite end of the 45-mile line, a UN offensive beat off three heavy counterattacks and paused for the night near Anyang, the last major town before Seoul, 8-1/2 miles away. The Allies were now massed within 10 miles of the ruined capital as the Chinese were suffering “incredible” casualties all along the line.

Indications were that the Chinese were building up for a Spring offensive. Thrown back by the UN surprise offensive, their ranks riddled by disease, bombs and artillery, the Reds apparently had given up any idea of winning the war quickly. But they had not given up on the idea of winning. They had enough to drive the Allies back if they were willing to use it. And apparently they were, even if it bankrupted them militarily. One line officer said “This is one Chinese New Year’s these guys won’t forget. They’re taking terrific losses. They clobbered up on Christmas Eve and we are returning it with interest now.” Red casualties in some battles were a hundred times those of the Allies.

On Monday, six powerful Allied tank attack columns spread death and destruction among the Communists along a blazing 80-mile front. At one point they struck within 6-1/2 miles of Seoul, within sight of the city. The shattering display of Allied armored might was described as the greatest tank concentration so far in the war. The furious Allied assaults were designed to keep the mauled Communists punch-drunk and prevent a Chinese New Year counter-offensive. The next day, two American tank columns sprang a trap on thousands of entrenched Reds seven miles south of Seoul and were reported killing them “wholesale.”

The UN “meat grinder” in two weeks had chopped up a Red force of 100,000 men and smashed the threat of a Communist offensive south of the Han River. The rest of the original force of Reds was caught between the advancing UN forces and the rapidly thawing river, which skirts the southern edge of Seoul. These remnants faced the choice of annihilation or rapid retreat as Allied artillery shells screamed into Seoul for the first time since the Chinese Communists had driven UN forces from the city. On Friday, tank-led American troops smashed into the Han River southeast of Seoul and began closing a pincers around 20,000 Communists caught in a 30-square-mile pocket below the river. Other powerful Allied forces in the mountains six miles south of the river began plunging downhill, rolling up the Reds in a climactic phase of the five-day-old offensive.

At week’s end, the Allies scored their greatest series of conquests in the war. In a massive air, land and sea offensive they seized Inchon, Kimpo Airfield and the Seoul suburb of Youngdungpo, and sent troops into the battered capital itself. The Reds had put up little resistance, but snipers appeared later to harass the UN troops and considerable enemy activity was spotted late in the day on battle-scarred South Mountain, in Seoul. In some places the Allied advance was slowed by enemy minefields which had been sown skillfully along the path of the UN mechanized advance.

A noted war correspondent said that the only chance to win the Korean War was to bomb Red China. “Bombing two or three of China’s big industrial centers would make a big difference,” he declared. “Air power is our trump card.”

The House Labor Committee chair urged a draft of railroad workers in the name of national defense to halt a crippling wildcat strike. He told the House that ammunition may run short in Korea because of the spreading rail tie-up. “Are we going to rise to the occasion?” he asked. On Thursday the Army gave striking railroaders the choice of getting back to work – at a pay increase – or of losing their jobs. President Truman accused the strikers of running out like a bunch of Russians on a settlement agreement. In other draft news, Selective Service had prepared an order canceling draft deferments of childless husbands and men with only one dependent. The effect would be to allow draft boards to induct an estimated 170,000 men now deferred for dependency.

Some GIs from Pennsylvania’s famed 28th Division were headed for overseas duty. The 28th had just finished its 14 weeks of basic training; all training divisions were required to provide some men for replacement purposes when basic training was completed.

(Photo courtesy newspapers.com, Pittsburgh Press)