IV
February – March 1951

The UN forces recoiled in disorder and defended a line well to the south of Seoul. The soldier's morale was low but the new field commander, General Ridgway, managed to advance slowly north in the spring of 1951. They used bombers. The Chinese admitted to losing 390,000 men dead - UN sources put the figure at up to a million Chinese and half a million North Koreans dead.

The Americans drove the Chinese back, but lost 54,000 American soldiers dead doing so.

MacArthur reached the 38th parallel in March 1951.

Then, Chinese launched their spring offensive. The British 29th Brigade narrowly escaped annihilation on the Imjin river as the 27th Commonwealth brigade on the central front beat off savage Chinese attacks. The UN line managed to survive, then moved north again. This time, there was no reckless advance into the north. The line stabilised in the general area of the 38th parallel and the remaining two years of fighting consisted of near-static operations as both sides fought from heavily fortified positions, using artillery, mines and wire to deny the enemy access to strategically important ground.

-Sharmila.