Retaking Seoul KW (id:#63652)

(Critical Hit Annual #4 ID: KOR #3)   [next]   [previous]

Seoul, South Korea 1950-09-26 (9 others)

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Overview:

The Marines entered Seoul shortly after 7:00 am on September 25 to find it heavily fortified. Buildings were heavily defended by machine guns and snipers, and on Ma Po Boulevard, the main road through the city, the KPA had established a series of 8-foot-high barricades of burlap bags, typically filled with either sand or rice. Located about 200-300 yards apart, each major intersection of the city featured such a barricade, the approaches to which were laced with mines, and which were usually defended by a 45mm anti-tank gun and machine guns. Each had to be eliminated one at a time, and it took the Marines, on average, 45–60 minutes to clear each position. Casualties mounted as the Americans engaged in heated house-to-house fighting. Anxious to pronounce the conquest of Seoul on MacArthur's insistence by the third-month anniversary of the war, Major General Almond declared the city liberated on September 25, although Marines were still engaged in house-to-house combat (gunfire and artillery could still be heard in the northern suburbs). Effective resistance would cease by September 27.

Defender: NKPA (25th Brigade)  

Errata (source)