Kimpo airfield was easier than expected. As the U.S. Marines moved west from Inchon toward Seoul, the only defense of Kimpo (South Korea's best airfield) was a brave but hopeless charge by several hundred green Communist security troops. The marines waited until the screaming Reds were a few yards away, then mowed them down. Said a sweating U.S. staff sergeant: "It was just plain murder."
Within hours, a U.S. helicopter landed at Kimpo, carrying high brass, and soon the big airlift transports were coming in (see below), adding more to the 4,000 tons of supplies shoved in by the Navy at Inchon every day.
As the week wore on, the pattern of fighting in Korea changed. The Communists' defense of Seoul, feeble at first, stiffened sharply as they poured in artillery and reinforcements. The Allied attack on Seoul bogged down into a siege. In the southeast, around the old Pusan perimeter, the Reds fought tenaciously for a few days, then began to pull back, very rapidly in some sectors. Elements of the North Korean 9th Division, which had been engaged in the southeast, surprised the Americans by appearing in the lines around Seoul—another example of the amazing mobility of the Red troops.
Yard by Yard. After the fall of Kimpo, the U.S. and South Korean attackers mounted a two-pronged assault on Seoul, one from the northwest along the north bank of the Han, the other from the southeast through the industrial suburb of Yongdung, south of the river. Before the north prong could get going, a battalion under Lieut. Colonel Robert Taplett—whose outfit had stormed Wolmi Island last fortnight (TIME, Sept. 25)—had to cross the Han. Taplett's men had brought along amtracs (amphibious tractors), but the first crossing was not easy.
A reconnaissance patrol of doughty swimmers was badly shot up, and before the survivors could report that the Reds were waiting on the other side, the first amtracs had started over and run into savage mortar and machine-gun fire. Although some amtracs turned back, most of Taplett's force got across, whereupon the defenders faded away. Some were caught; naked North Koreans (see cut) were a common sight in the countryside (the marines strip them as a precaution against hidden weapons).
After a fast advance of five miles along the north bank, the marines came under heavy artillery fire from Reds dug in on high ground. Thereafter their advance was yard by yard. They suffered severely from supply shortages due to the fact that all of their supplies had to be ferried across the river behind them.
The south prong—a regiment under famed Colonel Lewis ("Chesty") Puller—fought a hand-to-hand battle in Yongdung, where the main Inchon-Seoul road joins the southbound road to Suwon. Scores of bayoneted Reds perished in
Yongdung, but after five days Puller's men were still mopping up.