No Fear

All week long, the whereabouts of the bulk of the U.S. Eighth Army, along the Seoul-Taejon axis, was obscured by censorship. For all that news readers in the U.S. knew to the contrary, the Eighth might have been retreating pell- mell toward Taejon. This week news of an allied counterattack in the Osan sector made it clear that the Army was no longer in retreat.

The Chinese had halted, after the fall of Osan, for what Eighth Army spokesmen said was a huge buildup of strength. Also, they seemed to be shifting strength laterally to the east, either to reinforce the hard-pressed North Koreans in the central mountains, or because they were unwilling to make a frontal assault along the Seoul-Taejon road. Since allied rear-guards had lost contact with the Chinese, they were ordered to turn around, push north until they encountered the enemy.

Tank-led infantry teams of the U.S. 3rd Division (evacuated from Hungnam in December) jumped off at 7 a.m., five hours later slogged into Osan without firing a shot, retook two other towns northeast of Osan, and finally, after an advance of twelve miles, ran into Chinese artillery and automatic weapons' fire from high ground positions.

The Eighth Army seemed to have no fear that its supply line to Pusanand its possible line of retreatmight be cut off, especially since U.N. forces in the central mountains were bravely and skillfully holding the Reds back from mountain passes that meant access to the plains north of Pusan. Below Wonju, the U.S. and Division, aided by French and Dutch battalions, held on. In the first counterattack since the fall of Seoul, they fought back briefly into the town, withdrew under small-arms fire.

For the rest of the week the battle below Wonju was a seesaw. Several times Hill 247, a half-mile-long crest two miles south of the town, changed hands. One day, 6,000 screaming North Koreans drove the doughfeet off the hill, set up mortars on it and poured fire on nearby U.S. positions. After artillery and air attacks had silenced the enemy mortars, the Americans retook the hill. They abandoned it again after dark, without a fight.

At week's end, some 30,000 Reds had poured around the right flank of the 2nd Division's horseshoe position, and were setting up roadblocks several miles to the south. The 2nd Division fought back, showing no fear of entrapment.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.