Evening star., 1953-09-05
q Better 'OIe in an Atomic War
BY EorI n. Voss

EOXHOLE digging for the bliStered
4 CT is not thing of the past. In
fact, foxhole billets will have to be
deeper in the atomic age.
Nor will modern warfare ease all
the other maddening drudgery that
has made service to ones country.
from basic training to final discharge.
such pain in the neck to the average
Gil.
All this bad news has just come to
light in new book, Atomic Weapons
in Land Combat" MILITARY Service
Publishing Co.; S3.95), by Col. G. c.
Reinhardt and 1t. Col. w. r. Kintner.
Not only in the front lines, but also
in the rear echelons and, of course, in
the training areas. life is going to get
worse instead of better for the average
doughboy. AS every basic trainee Of
the last two wars will no doubt admit
there used to be plenty of opportunities
to goof off on those camouflage at.d
concealment exercises.
That was all to the good, from the
CT standpoint. 1t made the hard GI
life little more bearable. But Coils
Reinhardt and Kintner come along
now and say all "luxuries" must go
in the atomic war of the future. The
blast and radiation effects of A-bombs
can be minimized, they report. by just
digging those foxholes three feet deeper
1t hardly need be recalled that the
bottom three feet of the foxhole al
ways come the hardest.
Therell have to be more digging in
of equipment, too. Anything travelling
on natural or synthetic rubber will have
to be dug in to revetment level, be-
cause tires would melt in the radiated
heat from an atomic bomb.
The new premium on camouflage and
concealment derives from the devastat-
ing effectiveness of A-bombs against
troop concentrations. Tactical atomic
weapons no doubt will reduce maSsing
of troops, but it can hardly be expected
to eliminate the practice. Commanders
will have to concentrate enough sol-
diers in one place to stage break
through, for instance. On those oc-
casions. enemy commanders will be
itching to use an A-bomb. The trick
will be to hide the concentration. 1t
therefore follows that more, instead
of fewer. GIs will be skulking through
the woodlands of America with black
ened faces, tree branches sticking out
of their ears, and blotches of yellow.
green and red on their fatigues. train
ing in camouflage and concealment.
Something new and miserable has
been added, as we'll: Austerity. The
authors claim that extra food, clothing
and equipment can't be left lying
around in forward areas any more.
The boarding of supplies for a rainy
day may have been all right in the
pre-atomic age, they say. But such
stocks will be too vulnerable to enemy
A-bombs or capture in the wake of
an A-attack.
If A-war comes, the authors explain,
a new premium will be placed on mo-
bility, both offensive and defensive.
(You get more mobility. of course, by
cutting down on the impedimentD On
the attack, the idea will be to explo the
panic and bewilderment following an
A-blast. The aim will be to get into
enemy territory fast, first with infantry
and then with tanks, before the enemy
can regroup. On defense, mobility
will be important mainly before an
attack. because a target on the move
Is always harder to hit. But even after
an A-bomb has struck, the authors
point out that quick regrouping will be
more important than ever, to resist the
enemy exploitation maneuvers.
Training. first the basic kind, and
then army-scale maneuverS. say the
bad-neWs colonelS, will be more i'm
portant than ever because troop con-
fldence in atomic weapons, their de-
Structive power among the enemy and
the safety with which they can be
handled extensively, will be important
factors in taking advantage of atomic
weapons.
The most significant part of the
Reinhardt- -Kintner book deals with
tactical and strategic use of atom
weapons. The authors main thesis is
that the Army and Navy should share
with the Air Force the use of atomic
weapons. Their argument sounds much
like special pleading for the Army,
which is to be expected from two Army
officers. Here are some of the inter-
esting points they make:
A-bombs can destroy regiments or
battalion groups and even cripple di-
visions when dispersed according to
present pracClcei Cney can throw panic
into enemy troops; they can devastate
enemy reserves as they mass to exploit
an advantage.
Fog, rain and mist can cut down
greatly on the burn effects of A-bombS
Until the bombs become more plentiful,
they probably will be clear-weather
weapon.
Blast and burn are the principal
A-bomb killers. Radiation will not be
much of factor among troops who
survive the actual blast. Combat
troops :. could fight for hours before
they succumb to the effects of this
(radiation sickness" r>..
Division commanders won't have au-
thority to use A-bombs for a while.
Theater commanders will probably
make such decisions. thus putting a
premium on swift intelligence reports
to higher headquarters.
Our tactical A-bombs could probably
stop any old-fashioned Russian assault
on Western Europe, because the SovietS