BATTLE OF KOREA: Retreat from Taejon

Taejon, a ramshackle, war-crowded city (normal pop. 37,000), lies amid the hills and paddy fields of southwestern Korea.

Through it runs a double-tracked trunk-line railroad, which twists 125 miles through the mountains to Pusan, the U.S. buildup port in the southeast. Last week the North Korean Reds arrived at the city's outskirts. U.S. troops of the 24th Division were supposed to hold Taejon two days ; they held it for three.

On the morning of the third day, Communist tanks broke through the city's northern defenses. Inside Taejon, North Korean guerrillas who...