Another Inchon?

Through monsoon rains, mud-spattered G.I.s of the U.S. I Corps--together with Greeks, Turks, Filipinos and Siamese--pressed slowly forward, yard by weary yard, ridge by bloody ridge. Their goal: the Communists' "iron triangle," the central defense bastion bounded by Chorwon, Kumhwa and Pyonggang (see map).

The Chinese Reds had several good reasons for making a maximum effort to save the triangle. It would have been an excellent staging base for another Red offensive --if they could have organized and resupplied quickly enough to launch one (they still had plenty of their greatest resource, manpower). It is a level area, surrounded by uplands, from which U.S. tanks would wreak havoc once they got there. The Chorwon-Kumhwa highway, at the triangle's base, is the best lateral road in the sector. Finally, the bastion contains huge stores of arms and other supplies, the bulk of which the Reds could not move rapidly because of transport shortages and U.N. air assaults.

Sweaty Ordeal. Early last week, the Reds defended the approaches to their triangle with impressive tenacity. Many were holed up in bunkers, dugouts and other strong points, some of them roofed with eight or ten feet of logs and earth, which had been built by the North Koreans before they invaded last summer. When allied air and artillery failed to blast out the Chinese, the U.N. footsloggers went in with grenades, flamethrowers and bayonets. The Reds laid down some of their heaviest artillery barrages of the war, with captured U.S. 155s or Russian-made 150s.

The allies went back to the old Ridgway meat-grinder tactics, mopping up as they advanced. They took two peaks, 3,500 and 2,700 feet high, from which they could all but look down the throats of the Reds in the bastion. On days when rain stopped and the hot June sun was out, the hill-climbing was a sweaty ordeal.

Cracked Bastion. The bristling triangle seemed ripe for heavy air attacks, and Ridgway's flyers launched them. In the first raid B-29s dropped 640 quarter-ton fragmentation bombs, followed up with two more raids in which the Superforts were helped by B-26s and carrier planes. The I Corps, commanded by Lieut. General Frank ("Shrimp") Milburn, added to the air smashes by doggedly pressing forward with artillery, armor and infantry.

The Reds cracked. They began to pull out, leaving rearguards to screen the retreat. The allies shelled Chorwon, Kumhwa and the highway between. This week they triumphantly entered the two evacuated towns; it seemed certain that the whole area would shortly be won.

It was another severe setback for Communism in Korea, which some Eighth Army officers--with exaggerated optimism--compared to the North Korean reverse at Inchon. Many of the Reds fleeing north were seen heading for Kumsong, and it seemed possible that they might try another stand on the Kumsong-Pyonggang line--which would not be so favorable for defense as the iron triangle had been.

In ten days--from June 1 to June 11--the Reds by U.N. estimate had lost 40,000 more soldiers killed, wounded and captured.

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