Up to the Han

As the U.N. forces below Seoul closed in on the Han River, Communist anti-tank guns firing from a hill briefly stalled the advance. A company of G.I.s, led by Captain Lewis Millett of South Dartmouth, Mass., charged the crest with fixed bayonets, spitted 47 Chinese, shot down 50 more as they ran down the north slope. The advance continued.

Allied fire from tanks and artillery reached such a furious volume that some Chinese who surrendered had blood streaming from nose and ears because of concussion. On Hill 431, which had changed hands five times in battles between Turks and Reds, the Chinese finally put up the white flags of surrender.

Loss of Hill 431 seemed to make the enemy's position south of the river untenable. Into Yongdungpo, Seoul's industrial suburb where U.S. marines had such a rough time last September, the dough-feet now walked without opposition. The town was silent and empty. After a while an old man and some boys appeared, clapped their hands, cried: "O.K.! O.K.!"' On stone walls, there were Communist signs: "Mansei, People's Army! Mansei, Kim Il Sung!"

At a road crossing where one road branched off toward Seoul, a fur-hatted old man stood alone. The Communists had gone that way the night before, he said, pointing toward Seoul. Behind him, the street was deserted except for a few twittering women stealing rice from a mud hut.

General Ridgway quickly brought up four divisions to the Han, while a few North Korean rearguards scrambled across the thawing and treacherous ice. While British tanks dueled across the river with Communist self-propelled guns (and with one captured British tank fired by the Reds from a tunnel), two armored U.S. task forces sped northwest and west to take Kimpo Airfield, Korea's biggest, and Inchon, Seoul's port, without a fight. Both were almost total ruins.

Seoul, it seemed, was not to be yielded easily. Two South Korean patrols that crossed the river to reconnoiter were driven back by salvos of mortar and artillery fire. Associated Press Correspondent Stan Swinton, who flew over Seoul in a spotter plane, reported the capital a "hornet's nest" of entrenchments, gun positions and Red defenders.

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