BATTLE OF KOREA: Again at the Parallel

The Eighth Army pushed slowly and methodically along the roads and over the ridge tops on the way back to the 38th parallel. Lieut. General Matthew Ridgway's men prudently refrained from pursuing the enemy pellmell, painstakingly mopped up his rearguard elements.

The fight for "Tombstone Hill," rising 1,200 feet from a valley on the central front, was typical. A North Korean rearguard clung to its one-man pillboxes studding Tombstone's flank. The fortifications were foxholes, each roofed over by a three-foot layer of logs, stones and earth. Each man inside had plenty of ammo and a two days' bag of rice. U.S. Marine Corsairs blasted Tombstone with rockets, seared it with napalm. Shell bursts enveloped it. G.I.s crawled up, peppering the enemy's pillboxes with small-arms fire. Those who survived held off the U.N. attack for two days, then slipped away under cover of night.

The U.N. offensive took abandoned Chunchon, last important crossroads town on the central front below the 38th parallel. Next day, on the front above Seoul, Uijongbu fell, also without a fight. The enemy seemed to have only one considerable force left in South Korea—perhaps 60,000 strong—guarding the two highways on the west side of the peninsula leading to Pyongyang.

Methodical ground advance would probably not catch this 60,000. On Friday, General Ridgway staged Operation Tomahawk to do the job. A fleet of Flying Boxcars and C-46s dropped some 3,300 paratroopers of the 187th Regimental Combat Team (11th Airborne Division), plus attached Rangers, on the flatlands around Munsan, 22 miles northwest of Seoul and twelve miles below the 38th parallel. Under Brigadier General Frank S. Bowen Jr., it was the second and biggest paradrop of the Korean war; the first took place last October north of Pyongyang (TIME, Oct. 30).

The 187th quickly seized its objective: a clump of hills dominating what was thought to be the escape route for the retreating Reds. "The purpose of this operation is to kill the enemy," reiterated General Ridgway, who followed the paratroopers in a light plane. But Bowen's men found their quarry had slipped out of the trap. Instead of 60,000 Communists, they found less than 20,000. A few hours after the drop, U.N. tank-led task columns from Uijongbu linked up with the chutists. The enemy was still withdrawing; north of the 38th parallel he was either digging in for a stand or marshaling fresh forces for another attack.