RETREAT TOWARDS SEOUL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27567, 8 December 1950, Page 7

RETREAT TOWARDS SEOUL

Allied Stand At Parallel Not Yet Certain

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright Rec. 0.40 a.m. SEOUL, Dec. 7. ' The American Eighth Army in South-west Korea is retreating towards Seoul, the South Korean capital, behind temporary defensive positions thrown up across the main highways from Pyongyang. It is still not known whether the battered Allies will try to make a stand north of the 38th parallel—or anywhere. Communist armies advancing southward from Pyongyang appeared today to be attempting to envelop the Eighth Army in a pincer movement. Large Communist troop concentrations were reported moving southward in the Koksan area 50 miles south-east of Pyongyang.

This threat to the right flank of the United Nations line was accompanied by a new drive from the north-west. Pilots reported that a “ fleet ” of barges and sailing boats carrying troops was crossing the Taedong estuary from Chinnampo. 30 miles southwest of Pyongyang. Mustang pilots swooped low over the Communist boats and showered them with flaming napalm setting eight boats ablaze. The remaining 30 are reported to have made the two-mile crossing unscathed. The estuary crossing now places the Communist force 25 miles north-west of Sariwon, the main road and rail centre of the new United Nations defence line in northwest Korea. If further landings are made in sufficient strength the Communists will be able to menace both flanks of the Eight Army’s line. Ward Price, the Daily Mail correspondent. reports that Wonsan on the east coast was abandoned yesterday by United Nations troops who were evacuated by sea. The Eighth Army reported today for the fourth successive day that it had had no ground contact with the Communists. American patrols said they had not found the enemy front lines in spite of probes up to four miles. Some observers believe the Communists are concentrating- on building up tneir Hank and frontal forces before opening a new offensive to drive the Eighth Army completely out of North Korea. The Eighth Army is today holding a new defence line between Pyongyang and Seoul, but military sources privately admitted that it may be pulled back to just below the thirty-eighth parallel—where there is a good defensive position on thelmjin River—if the Chinese developed their offensive General MacArthur’s intelligence chief. Major general Willoughby, said last week that prisoners’ reports indicated that the Chinese may intend to stop at the parallel, leaving the rebuilt North Korean army to carry the fight over to the south. Military sources agree that the United Nations could not hold the thirty-eighth parallel as a line across the peninsula. If the United Nations attempt to hold Korea south of the thirtyeighth parallel against a potential force

of 850,000 Chinese, of whom more than 250,000 are estimated to be already in Korea, General MacArthilr could set 200,000 troops against them, including South Koreans. British commandoes, American Ist Division marines, and 7th Division infantrymen early today reached the Communist beleaguered town of Kotori, south of the Chosin reservoir, after a perilous 25-hour dash. They had travelled along 10 miles of Chinese-infested road from the Chosin reservoir town of Hagaru to achieve the dramatic break out from week-old encirclement. North Korean guerrillas in the thirty-eighth parallel area renewed their activities today with a series of raids on United Nations troop convoys. An Eighth Army spokesman said they were definitely guerrillas. The main Communist Army advancing southward was “ nowhere near the thirtyeighth parallel." South Korea today asked the United States for arms for 1,000,000 men, which it said it would equip to fight the Communists. The request was made directly to President Truman by Dr John M. Chang, the South Korean Premier, who is at present Ambassador in Washington, who told the President: “ Korea will never appease or compromise with the aggressor.” He urged the United Nations to “ maintain a firm stand in the Korean crisis ” South Korean civil police shot without trial 56 political prisoners alongside the Sariwon Railway Station yesterday. United States military police found 17 not then dead and an American doctor gave first aid where they lay. The Americans then loaded them on to an open motor lorry and brought them alongside the train of freight cars waiting to leave for the south. South Korean police dragged the wounded men into an open freight car loaded them into an open freight car which was already crowded with other civilian prisoners—men. women and children—and a police guard. One who was dead was pulled from the lorry and thrown alongside the railway line. A Reuter message from Ankara says the Turkish Brigade of 5000 men in Korea has lost 10 per cent, dead, injured or missing, according to a Turkish Defence Ministry communique.