The War Stabilizes, 25 January - 30 June 1951
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After two months of costly attacks, the Chinese army was exhausted. Starting on 25 January 1951, Lieutenant General Matthew Ridgway's Eighth Army, assisted by land and sea-based airpower, pushed northward in a sharp series of carefully-planned offensives. By late April, they had recaptured almost all of South Korea and were digging in along a serpentine front line generally well above the old 38th Parallel border. In mid-May, the enemy pushed back, gaining ground across the peninsula, but at such great expense that UN forces quickly recovered most of what had been lost, and more. Only in the west, where terrain was unsuitable for an advanced front line, were the Communists allowed to retain some formerly South Korean territory.
In April President Harry Truman, his patience at an end with General MacArthur's repeated efforts to advance unacceptable war goals, replaced him with General Ridgeway. Riding out the resulting political tempest, the government adhered to a "limited war" policy, containing the Korean conflict and thereby freeing resources for a rapid defense buildup in other strategic parts of the Globe.
At sea, the navies sharpened the focus of their air and gunfire efforts. With three or four big carriers, a battleship, some cruisers and many destroyers on station, the U.S. Navy undertook long campaigns to deconstruct North Korea's eastern railway system and other elements of its transportation and industrial infrastructure. British and smaller U.S. carriers, plus gunfire ships, worked in the Yellow Sea. Minesweepers maintained firing channels for the gunnery ships, and small combatants of many nations enforced a rigorous blockade of the North Korean coast.
The Air Force concentrated on targets in the western side of Korea, used its B-29s for heavy bombing raids, ably kept the MiG-15 threat safely to the north and provided the great bulk of air transport services. The Air Force and planes from other UN nations joined U.S. Marine aviation in directly supporting troops on the ground. USMC and USAF night fighters struggled to counter the only enemy airplanes that dared to approach the front lines, small propeller-driven "night hecklers" that made very challenging targets.
By late June, the most recent Communist ground offensive had been decisively defeated. North Korea was being steadily punished from air and sea. Since the US and UN had decided not to advance further into the North, and with the enemy clearly unable to push South, there seemed little point in continued hostilities. Armistice feelers received favorable responses, and truce talks were in the offing. Most observers expected an early end to the fighting.
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