Video: 'Korean War - PART 19, Hard fighting, 6.25' (UN forces recapture Seoul at 5:27)

(Wednesday, March 14, 1951, 2:40 a.m. Korea Standard Time; during Operation Ripper, part of the Korean War and the Cold War) — United Nations troops reoccupied Seoul today after the South Korean capital was abandoned without a fight by the Chinese and North Korean invaders now in full retreat all along the Korean front.

The city was taken by five patrols of the South Korean Republic’s First Division, the vanguard of which entered Seoul at 2:40 a.m. KST and pushed through to the Capitol building with no fighting reported.

U.S. troops rolled into the city on the heels of the Korean patrols and secured their position.

The recapture of Seoul marked the fourth and final time the capital changed hands since the Korean War began June 25, 1950.