With the expansion inland from the Inchon beaches and the breakout from the Pusan Perimeter in late September 1950, the North Korean People’s Army was broken.
Kim Il Sung’s ruined regiments, after three months of non-stop fighting and thousands of sorties from Allied airpower, had been reduced from 220,000 troops to around 70,000 effectives, and were outnumbered by UN ground forces by more than 2:1 by this point in the war, with the latter growing stronger every day.
Members of the 5th Marine Regt. are welcomed by a greeting party of South Koreans as they move to the front lines near the Han River to engage in action against the North Korean forces, in an offensive launched by U.S. troops in that area. 18 September 1950. Photographer: Sgt. Herbert Nutter. SC 348694
Cpl. Ulysess J. Breaux of Breaux Bridge, La.; Cpl. Roy L. Guice of Rioneer, La.; and Pvt. David L. Cordova of Los Angeles, Calif., zeroed in their .30 caliber water-cooled machine gun on the line 23 miles southwest of Inchon, Korea. 19 September 1950. Photographer: Cpl. Alex Klein. SC 348698
ROK Marines move toward the Han River from the Kimpo air strip aboard DUKWs of the 1st Marine Div., in an offensive launched by UN forces against the North Korean enemy forces in that area. 20 September 1950. SC 348704
The 24th Infantry Division of the Eighth Army enters Taejon on 28 September 1950, returning to the scene of their earlier battles. National Archives Identifier 348337951
The next two months saw a steady advance while the North Koreans retreated, with Seoul liberated on 26 September and the ROK Army crossing the 38th Parallel into their northern neighbor’s territory on 1 October, with British and American forces following a week later.
What they encountered was the remnants of a smashed Communist fighting force, and often vehicles never seen up close by Western eyes of the era, outside of May Day parades.
While the North Korean force had invaded as an armored fist with a spearhead of 150 Soviet-made T-34-85s, it left the South largely on foot.
The captured equipment was a boon to Western intelligence, which, familiar with the T-34-76 from 1945 link-ups in the ETO and captured German intelligence files, was eager to examine some newer models and how they fared against NATO weapon systems.
A Soviet-built T-34/85 tank was knocked out during the Battle of Taejon, and later recovered by the same unit, a testament to the stand of Maj. Gen. William F. Dean, commanding the U.S. 24th Infantry Division.
Result of a napalm bomb on an enemy T-34 tank guarding the main road to Waegwan, Korea. 20 September 1950. Photographer: Cpl. George J. Myers. SC 348914
Men of the 5th RCT pose on a Russian-made SU-76 (self-propelled gun) with the back section of the turret blown off, captured from North Koreans in the Waegwan area, Korea. 20 September 1950. Photographer: Cpl. George J. Myers. SC 348915
T-34 tank destroyed by 5th Marines on the road to Kimpo Airfield, 17 September 1950. From the Oliver P. Smith Collection (COLL/213), Marine Corps Archives & Special Collections
A wrecked T-34 tank on a collapsed bridge span somewhere near Suwon or Osan, September 1950
Soviet-built T-34-85 tank captured by the U.S. Army’s 27th Infantry Regiment “Wolfhounds” (25th ID) from North Korean forces, September 1950.
Further, the advancing troops came across the “ghost bridges” used by the Norks to create nearly bomb-proof submerged crossings over rivers, which were thrown up after UN airstrikes and retreating U.S. engineers had dropped the peacetime bridges. A classic Soviet Red Army technique, especially when operating in an area with questionable air superiority, the tactic still worked.
They were almost impossible to spot from the air when not in active use and harder to knock out.
2.5-ton trucks cross a river by an underwater bridge, eight miles northwest of Taegu, Korea, on their way to the front line during the Korean War, September 16, 1950. Underwater bridges are a useful way of avoiding being spotted from the air.
M-26 tanks of the 6th Tank Bn.., 24th Inf. Div. crossing the Kumho River on an underwater crossing, consisting of rocks and sandbags reinforcing the riverbed as the 24th Inf. Div. advances against the North Korean forces along the Naktong River. 18 September 1950. Photographer: Pfc. Lonnie Butler SC 348668
M-26 tanks of the 6th Tank Bn.., 24th Inf. Div. crossing the Kumho River on an underwater crossing, consisting of rocks and sandbags reinforcing the riverbed as the 24th Inf. Div. advances against the North Korean forces along the Naktong River. 18 September 1950. Photographer: Pfc. Lonnie Butler SC 348669
The advance would continue, with the U.S. Eighth Army moving up the east coast of the Korean peninsula from Pusan while the Marines and the 7th Infantry would leapfrog up the west coast, the two forces bisected by the 300-mile-long Taebaek Mountain range, into which many of the remaining North Korean formations withdrew.
By 18 October, ROK forces captured Hamnung and Hugnam, while the North Korean capital of Pyongyang was captured by Eighth Army on the 19th.
However, by 25 October, with some forward elements in sight of the Yalu River, the lines solidified and, in a few days, the “Victory” and “Home by Christmas” talk would be dashed as the conflict became an entirely different war.
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