E-Paper
HT This Day: March 15, 1951 -- S. Koreans retake Seoul
South Korean soldiers today re-entered Seoul without opposition. It was 89 days since U.N. troops left Seoul.
South Korean soldiers today re-entered Seoul without opposition. It was 89 days since U.N. troops left Seoul.
The U.N. forces also swept into the deserted capital without meeting any resistance. The last Communist rear guards reported to have left the battered capital before dawn as the 8th Army pushed forward unchecked along the whole 150-mile front.
The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division drove within 18 miles of the 38th Parallel to a point north-west of the central front town of Hongehon. All Communist resistance below the Parallel seemed to have melted away.
Chinese and North Korean Communist troops were pulling back so quickly to the 38th Parallel across Central Korea tonight that U.N. patrols could not come up with them. The main Communist force was, however, believed to have retreated completely and in good order. Military observers here discounted any suggestion that the Communists had been routed. The had merely withdrawn to fresh defence lines.
NAVAL ACTIVITY
Information at the H.Q. put the spotlight on naval and air activity. The world’s biggest battleship Mighty Mo - the U.S.A.’s 45.000 ton Missouri- went into action again today after her recent major overhaul in Japan. She hurled 16-inch shells into Chonjin, important rail-road junction only 50 miles south of the Siberian border.
Guns of Allied cruisers, destroyers and frigates pounded for the 26th day the North Koreans’ major port of Wonsan on the east coast. This long siege is preventing the Communists from using Wonsan as a supply base while South Korean marines occupying islands in the harbour have blocked sea traffic to the south.
Allied troops have met opposition at only two points in the last 36 hours along the 120-mile central front. It was believed the resistance came from Communist groups who did not get withdrawal orders because of poor communications.
It was known here that U. N. patrols today probed within 20 miles of the 38th Parallel.
