Limited Objective

After two weeks of aggressive patrolling and probing attacks, the U.N. units below Seoul jumped off last week in a much stronger and broader drive, officially labeled a "limited objective attack."

A naval diversion was staged at Inchon, where the U.S. cruiser St. Paul and two destroyers pumped shells ashore. A few South Korean marines steamed boldly into Inchon harbor in an 80-ft. gunboat, tied up at a dock, skirmished ashore for four hours, killed 40 Chinese and sailed away with two prisoners. This week, the battleship Missouri and other vessels, including carriers, heavily bombarded the town of Kansong on the east coast.

On the first day of the west-sector attack, as the U.N. forces rolled across a scorched and blasted strip of no man's land, enemy resistance was negligible, except at Kumyangjang, where 474 were killed by air strikes and Turks (see The Allies). Later, Chinese resistance stiffened. At week's end, when an armored U.S. task force had slashed within eleven miles of Seoul, the Chinese were counterattacking in battalion strength. They were also using land mines and ambushes.

Perplexity was still visible in Tokyo and Washington over Chinese intentions and capabilities. Until they became clearer, Allied attacks, whether large or small, would not be aimed at winning territory but at hurting and discouraging the enemy. At the top level, this was called a war of maneuver. A G.I. from Alabama, who found himself slogging north through Suwon for the third time, put it differently. "I feel like a yo-yo," he said.

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