BATTLE OF KOREA: Definitely Saved

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Northwest of Waegwan, meanwhile, Allied intelligence had reported four to six North Korean divisions building up west of the Naktong. Despite saturation bombing of the area by B-29s (see The Air War), the enemy divisions mounted a massive (30,000 men) and skillful attack from a jump-off point northeast of the target area and smashed due south, capturing Kunwi and Kumhwa, and pushing back the South Korean ist and 6th Divisions. But the courageous South Koreans managed to regroup. They were reinforced by the 27th ("Wolfhound") Regiment of the U.S. 25th Division, which was hurried to the scene all the way from the south coast. The 27th is commanded by 38-year-old Colonel John ("Mike") Michaelis of Lancaster, Pa., who has made a brilliant record in the Korean war and whose outfit is being used by General Walton Walker as a roving troubleshooter. After a heavy artillery and air bombardment had rocked the Reds, Michaelis' men and the South Koreans, spearheaded by Pershing tanks, recaptured Kumhwa and drove on toward Kunwi. Thus was exorcised what Eighth Army headquarters called the "gravest threat" to the Allied beachhead in Korea.

Second Threat. There were other danger spots along the front. The week's fiercest battle developed near Changnyong, where the Communists put their whole 4th Division across the Naktong River. Early last week Major General John Church's war-weary 24th Infantry Division had attacked the Red bulge, but in the face of withering enemy artillery fire the 24th recoiled. To bolster them General Walton Walker pulled the U.S. 1st Marine Brigade back from its precarious advanced position near Chinju on the southern front (where their chief objective of breaking up the Reds' south-coast drive toward Pusan had been accomplished) and threw them into battle alongside General Church's infantrymen at Changnyong.

After the Marines arrived, the U.S. attack got going again. In the bloody battle for their first ridge (see box), the Marines suffered casualties which made their ordeal of the previous week seem a picnic by contrast. But the Marines won the ridge, and after that the enemy broke under ferocious air strafing. The first powerful push of the infantry task force under General Church carried three miles and almost cut the Red bridgehead in two. Great swarms of Reds began trying to get back across the river by any possible means: on rafts, over the girders of demolished bridges, by wading, by swimming. The angry U.S. planes followed them; the invaders died by hundreds in the green water and on gleaming sand spits. At least 1,500 enemy dead were counted and 800 prisoners were taken. General MacArthur announced that the Changnyong bridgehead was completely liquidated except for a few pockets which were being easily mopped up.

Said General Walker: "Taegu has been definitely saved."