The Fifth Campaign -- Part 1 The enemy forces thrust northward on a massive scale in mid-February after they failed to lure our troops to the Rakdong River area. Our forces fought the enemy bitterly while retreating from one position to another. The enemy forces pushed to the 38th Parallel in around 40 days. Then in a counter-attack on the western front, our troops almost pushed the enemy back to Seoul. This was the first phase of the Fifth Campaign. But the enemy did not give up Seoul this time. Many echelons of enemy troops were deployed outside the city, and the enemy did not beat a retreat after reaching the 38th Parallel son the eastern front.

In a concerted drive, the Chinese People's Army and a part of the Korean People's Army pushed back the enemy troops on the eastern front. But one of our armies advanced too far (almost to the 37th Parallel) during the drive. It became confronted with supply problems and had great difficulties in getting food. The men were exhausted when they came back to our positions. Because of oversight in its arrangement for a shift of position, a division of the 60th Army was attacked by aircraft and encircled by mechanized units while on the march. It lost a total of 3,000 men. That was the second phase of the Fifth Campaign. The losses in this campaign were the highest suffered by our forces in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.

Chairman Mao sent a telegram instructing us to not try to annihilate large bodies of American troops at a time, but to decimate them piece-meal. This is an excellent method, but a transitional period was needed for our men to build strong fortifications, without which it would be impossible to carry out this approach. The enemy forces had become quite exhausted in over two months of intense fighting from the beginning of the Fourth Campaign to the end of the Fifth Campaign.