Tigers Tail: The Red Triangle Looms

As the U.S. Second Infantry Division was fighting its way into the pantheon of American military history the South Korean VI Corps grimly held in the Uijongbu Corridor to the east, while the South Korean I Corps did the same in the Munson Corridor to the west.

The the west he brunt of the first day's effort fell to the ROK 1st Infantry division which by nightfall was fought out by successive waves of North Korean armor. Though exhausted the division fell back in good order and passed the defense of the Munson Corridor to the ROK 25th Infantry Division. Fearing another nuclear strike commanders here deployed their battalions in open formation. Thought partially protected from a nuclear blast, the dispersed formation was less able to absorb the blows form the North Koreans. Several North Korean formations, some battalion sized slipped through the 25th Infantry Division's lines and engaged the ROK 9th Infantry Division. With rear area formations now under attack, South Korean commanders believed the communists had achieved a mass breakthrough and ordered the I Corps to retreat to the South Bank of the Han River. This left the ROK 25th Division in lurch and began a saga of fighting retreat rivaling that of the U.S. X Corps at Chosin during the last war.

In the Uijongbu Corridor the VI Corps of three infantry divisions was steadily pushed south by concerted North Korean pressure. It seemed that despite the massive losses inflicted by American and South Korean air power, the communists just kept coming. By the end of the second day the ROK 6th Infantry division was pushed off to the east, while the 3rd and 8th Infantry Divisions struggled to keep their formations coherent as they pulled back south through the corridor. Both divisions regrouped along the ridge just north of Seoul and running west to Uijongbu, which was now occupied by the Capitol Infantry, or Tiger Division. The 17th Infantry Division came up form Seoul and occupied a hill to the Southwest of Uijongbu, thus protecting the capitol but leaving open Uijongbu's left flank.

By dawn of the third day the battle map showed a giant, red inverse triangle bracketed by the Han River in the west, with its point bearing down on Seoul. While the government there evacuated to Daejon 75 miles to the south, the President remained in Seoul where he was in constant contact with the Trump administration.

Even as American B-1 and B-2 Bombers hammered North Korean logistics, and wave after wave of Tomahawk missile swarmed over the DMZ the South Korean President demanded, 'Where are your troops! Where are your troops!'

'Those decisions are being made,' President Trump replied.
'We are dying,' replied the South Korean President. 'Must I ask the Japanese for help?'
'What is it you would like me to do?' President Trump asked.
'Mr. President, my Minister of Defense has prepared a list of twenty five targets he believes suitable for nuclear attack...'

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