New Push

In the clear weather that followed the first thaws, U.N. armies last week took the offensive again. This time, instead of holding their line south of the Han River, they crossed it. After a 50,000-round artillery preparation, 25th Division infantrymen slammed across the river at two points 15 miles east of Seoul. Taking the Reds by surprise, the 25th overran its first day's objectives in a few hours. Early this week the expanding bridgehead threatened to cut enemy communication lines between Seoul and the Chinese behind-lines supply base at Chunchon.

In the center of the line, U.S. Marines, ist Cavalrymen and British Commonwealth infantrymen tightened a semicircle around the key Chinese supply base of Hongchon. This week, a British tank spearhead was only five miles away.

The Reds had to make a costly and precipitate general withdrawal. On Wednesday, they lost an estimated 11,000 casualties. All week long, U.N. troops picked up weapons, ammunition and even some scarce food supplies which the enemy had left on the battlefield. Only on the far eastern end of the front did the Communists counterattack.

Hard-pressed by the U.N. ground and air attacks, the enemy was having trouble in another quarter. Last week, for the first time, General MacArthur's communique mentioned the damage done to the Communist supply system by the "increasing activity of R.O.K. guerrillas and U.N. sympathizers behind the Communist lines."

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