Tough

In a paddy field in Korea last week, a squad of G.I.s fresh from San Francisco got their first look at a dead North Korean Communist soldier and his battle equipment. It was not an impressive sight. The enemy's uniform was a shapeless affair of sleazy green cloth, with string pockets crudely sewed onto it to hold camouflage of leaves or branches. At his side lay a 7.62-mm. Russian rifle, roughly similar to the U.S. Springfield; he had a Russian potato-masher hand grenade stuck in his belt; his conical Russian helmet lay in the ditch beside his rifle. The dead man's pack contained a glob of soggy rice, freshly cooked and wrapped in a dirty blue cloth, a shovel, a tin cup and a spoon; he had no first-aid kit, no ammunition belt (he carried his bullets loose in his pocket), and no canteen. His shoes were Korean-made rubber sneakers.

By U.S. standards, this was pretty shoddy equipment, but not even the G.I.s fresh from home were deceived; they were well aware that the Korean Communists had already proved themselves a skillful, relentless and resourceful foe. Said a high-ranking U.S. military commander last week: "Everybody tends to overestimate an enemy who puts up a fight, but make no mistake about it--these guys are tough; they are just as tough as the Japanese." The officer supplied some specifics. "The Korean Communists," he said, "can start marching at daybreak, march all day and all night, and then attack in the morning. We've seen them run--not dogtrot, but run--up a 1,500-foot hill. Our men just can't do tricks like that."

Oxcarts & Women. The Korean Red army fights and travels light. For basic rations, each soldier gets a packet of rice, seaweed, biscuits, sugar, salt, and two or three cigarettes. The Reds supplement this by foraging. Like the Russian army, they live off the land, transport their supplies on everything from trucks and new Russian jeeps, to oxcarts and bundles carried on the backs of old women.

The men who command the Korean Reds in the field are just as tough as their troops. Many of them have had extensive Communist political indoctrination; and, judged from battle performance, must have had excellent military training. The North Korean soldiers themselves range in age from 16 to 30 or slightly over. They are divided into three distinct classes. The first includes regular army troops who have been training under Russian direction since 1946. These make up the bulk of the crack 1st, 2nd and 3rd Divisions (now northwest of Taegu). Next are troops who had served before with the Chinese Communist armies. They are well-trained and possibly the most hardened troops of the lot. They comprise the bulk of the 4th (now in the southwest near Yongsan), 5th (at Pohang) and 6th (fighting fiercely near Haman) Divisions. The third class of North Korean troops are hastily conscripted reserves, both North and South Koreans.

Last week, despite an estimated 60,000 casualties inflicted by United Nations forces during more than two months of continuous fighting, the Korean Communists were still on the attack (see above). The great lesson of the Korean war was that the Kremlin knew how to train Asians into first-rate fighting men. If the U.S. and its allies did not learn this art (which involved political as well as military indoctrination), there would be many a perilous and bloody year ahead.

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