U.N. COMMANDER ON SCENE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26221, 19 September 1950, Page 7

U.N. COMMANDER ON SCENE

MARINES’ ADVANCE ON AIRPORT TOKYO, Sept It. General MacArthur visited the front line five miles from the Kimpo airport, near Seoul, yesterday. “That’s a good sight for my old eyes,* he said as he looked down on the bodies of four Communist soldiers. They were part of a scene of sickening carnage where the Marines, only' three hours before, had trapped a North Korean force of tanks and infantry pushing down the Seoul-Inchon road. Six blackened tanks lay burning and scores more bodies lay in the fields at the side of the road.

General MacArthur was told how the Marines advancing on the Kimpo airport were meeting little resistance, but those who branched right up the main Seoul road were meeting a stiffening opposition. The Marines in this sector had already knocked out four tanks, bringing the day’s total to at least 10. “How did they get them? Bazookas?” General MacArthur asked, and heard- the reply “Yes,” with satisfaction. The 70-year-old General clambered over one burnt-out tank to inspect the calibre of the cannon and a gaping hole in the side. “For a Russian tank I would say that it was in first-class condition,” he commented. For half an hour he stood watching the Marines advancing up the broad green valley leading to the Kimpo airport. The Marine commander. Lieu-tenant-Colonel Ray Murray, pointed • out Kimpo to General MacArthur as Corsairs and British Seaflres dived and strafed the ridges flanking the American advance.

He went up a road crammed with American guns, vehicles and men rolling into the offensive. A litter of jeeps and five naked Communist prisoners, hands on head and large tickets tied to their arms, filed to the rear under South Korean guards. On inspecting 600 Communist prisoners behind barbed wire. General MacArthur ordered: “Treat them humanely but work them hard.”