Evening star., 1951-01-14
Korea Seen as Proving Ground
For Allied Victories Elsewhere

M k10OVIICIC
Of future Allied armies. Korea
may yet prove to be the training
ground which opened the way tc
future victories.
For in Korea, the American
Army learned for the first time
what it means to fight an enemy
using massed manpower. And the
Army, Marines, Air Force and
Navy developed a teamwork with
lessons learned in combat.
Only little more than six
months ago, the first American
troops were rushed into Korea.
They were green troops. They were
soft from occupation duties in
Japan. They were youths who had
joined the Army little expecting
they ever would be called on to
fight.
In platoon and company and
battalion strength they went up
against a tough, disciplined, we'll
trained army of North Koreans
who had learned to fight in China
and Manchuria and Russia.
Trained Under Enemy Guns.
In their first battles, some of
these green youths broke and ran.
They fled when their bazooka
shells bounced off the Russian
made tanks like baseballs. They
fled when the enemy threw over
powering numbers of troops at
them.
But did this prove they were
towards or that they were less
brave than their brothers who had
fought in World War II?
OF course not. It only proved
that they were not properly armed
at the time. that they were not
properly trained. and that they
were members of an army pitifully
weak in striking power.
These same youths who ran in
the early days of the war came
back to fight again. They got their
training literally under the enemy
guns-in the only way you can
become battle-experienced. They
became tough. skilled fighters who
performed startling feats of hero
ism. Today. in defeat, there is no
despair among them.
Those of us in Korea reporting
the war watched this army grow
from a green, amateurish army
into a team of professionals. In
the game of survival, it doesn't
take long for a man to learn the
tricks of the trade.
Reds Skilled at Infiltration.
Man-for-man. the North Korean
and Chinese soldier is no match
for a well-trained American SOL
dier. The American is better
equipped and can use his weapons
to better advantage with a few
exceptions.
But the American still can learn
a great deal from the Asiatic SOL
dier-and that is the old-style
frontier warfare which once was
the strength of American pioneers.
The Reds are more skilled in in
filtration-slipping behind the en-
emy lines to shoot up communica-
tions. command posts, artillery po-
SitionS and rear echelon units.
They are trained to operate in
small groups to perform missions
behind the enemy lines and to live
for days without contact with their
units.
This is the style of fighting
which the Americans have for
gotten over the years. Our tactics
have become formalized and set
into a fixed pattern based on the
European military tactics.
So far as I know, we do not
send raiding parties behind the
Red lines in the way the enemy
operates.
1t isn't that the American SOL
dier will not go through enemy
lines. He simply does not have
the training for such warfare. He
can and will do it if he's taught.
Reds Depend on Mortars.
Consistently, the Reds are more
skilled in the use of mortars. They
depend more on mortars than ar
tillery. They always precede their
attacks with a mortar barrage.
The Communists also are better
at night fighting. This again is
a matter of training.
The familiar Red tactics are to
hide during the day-attack under
cover of darkness. In this way
they conceal themselves from our
Air Force and make it difficult
for air observers to spot their
concentration points. And they
are masters at camouflage.
The mountains of Korea are
ideal for hiding whole divisions
under cover of scrub pines and
underbursh. Unless a pilot can
fly at tree-top level-it is impos-
sible to spot the hiding enemy
troops.
But the Reds will not always
be so fortunate in having such
ideal cover as the Korean noun
tains. In more open terrain it
would be impossible to conceal
large concentrations of troops.
They would be vulnerable.
Must Out Produce Reds.
There is no ready answer to why
air power is not more effective.
The air strikes undoubtedly are
taking heavy toll of the enemy.
But there is considerable doubt
that the Air Force has lived up
to its claims of enemy killed.
The Korean war has proved
,I4xe aor, MT