Heartbreak & Helicopters

The shooting war in Korea grew hotter. Highlights of last week's action:

On the east-central front, north of Yanggu, allied units captured a ridge with a fine view into enemy territory, but were driven off it again by fiercely counterattacking North Koreans. Among U.N. forces it was known last week as "Heartbreak Ridge." Attacking again later, a U.S. battalion lost two-thirds of its strength (about 650 men); only three men reached the top. Soon, the Reds had the ridge again. This week U.S. forces once more attacked. On the eastern front, U.S. Marines pulled off military history's first airborne operation by helicopters. It was necessary to post a battle-ready reconnaissance company on top of a 3,800-ft. peak. The height was not defended by Reds, but if the marines had made the grueling two-day climb on foot, toting their gear, they would have been too bushed to fight off possible counterattacks. Six big Sikorsky HR51 helicopters, hugging the valleys to avoid enemy fire, reached the peak and, one after another, hovered 8 ft. above its top. The first marines scrambled down knotted ropes and quickly cleared landing spaces 25 ft. square. Fifteen more 'copters then disgorged the rest of the company. In all, about 220 men and eight tons of gear were moved. Gloated Major W. P. Mitchell, executive officer of the 'copter squadron: "I think this is just the beginning of this type of warfare . . ."

On the centra! front, armored columns from three U.S. divisions thrust north in the largest armored raid in many months. The raid was christened "Operation Cleaver," but ebullient correspondents were cautioned not to call it an "offensive." Two of the columns got into savage fighting, and one was reported "engaged on all sides" (i.e., surrounded). The Reds, said a U.N. officer, seemed to have antitank guns "in every nook and corner of the valley." The raiders succeeded in wrecking "several" of the enemy's T-34 tanks.

On the same front, Ethiopians acquitted themselves gallantly and well in their first sizable battle, but bemoaned the fact that they took no prisoners. Said Captain Ayalew H. Selassie:* "We do everything we can to capture the Chinamen, but they have been told we eat prisoners, and won't surrender. We are all hunters. We like to take the enemy alive, but it is becoming very difficult in battle." On patrol, added Selassie, it was easier. "We crawl in the brush a leetle, we look a leetle, we wait a leetle, then we crawl a leetle more and pretty soon we have a prisoner."

*No kin to Emperor Haile Selassie I.

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