No Settling Down

One day last week, in the western flatlands below Seoul, U.S. tanks found good going on hard-frozen roads. Out of recaptured Osan, two armor-tipped task forces --officially labeled a "reconnaissance in force"--rumbled north at 15 to 20 m.p.h. They caught most of the Chinese garrison in Suwon warming themselves in houses. The first shot was fired by an 18-year-old pfc. who spotted a Red scampering across a field, dropped him with one rifle bullet.

The Chinese ran for safety through Suwon's streets and across the rooftops while the Americans mowed them down. Airplanes cut down hundreds more north of the city. One of the task-force commanders gloated: "The enemy was caught with their pants down. We had not a single casualty. That's the way we like to fight a war."

Next day there was a thaw, gooey mud and another sharp fight for ancient, ruined Suwon. After a go-minute battle, the Chinese were driven out and the town pronounced "secure." Suwon itself was not an important objective; the Americans just wanted to deny it to the enemy as a staging base.

Out of the Horseshoe. The same was true of Wonju, in the frigid uplands of central Korea. For 16 days, the U.S. 2nd Division (in which a French and a Dutch battalion had been incorporated) had held a horseshoe salient just south of the town, from which the allied force could rake it with artillery. Early last week, Eighth Army Headquarters announced that the salient was being given up in order to shorten and straighten the allied line. The withdrawal was carried out under artillery and air protection which prevented enemy interference.

But the Americans did not settle down on the new line. They pushed another reconnaissance in force--three armored patrols--north to disturb the Reds in Wonju if any were there. The town was unoccupied except for a few dispirited civilians wandering among the ruins. Later a North Korean assault from three sides drove the G.I.s out. Once more, at week's end, they went in for a quick look and then retired.

Trappers Trapped. Three North Korean divisions -- the 2nd, 9th and 31st --had moved around the right flank of the Wonju salient and were trying desperately last week to encircle the 2nd Division. Yongwol, a tungsten-mining town on the headwaters of the Han, changed hands even oftener than Wonju, and was razed by allied planes dropping napalm. R.O.K. units reported themselves "locked in combat" with the North Koreans, and 10,000 U.S. troops rushed to the scene. Finally, instead of trapping the Americans, the North Koreans were trapped themselves. Allied infantry, tanks, artillery and planes began chopping them down at the rate of about 1,000 a day.

No Sleeping. The 2nd Division was singled out for handsome praise last week by General Ridgway, the Eighth Army commander. No doubt this, and the toll of enemy casualties, comforted the G.I.s--if anything could comfort them in the dreadful mountain winter. In a grim dispatch describing their ordeals in the "awful, bitter, uncompromising, relentless cold," Scripps-Howard Reporter Jim Lucas quoted a mortar platoon lieutenant addressing a handful of green replacements:

"You men probably have been wondering why we forgot to give you sleeping bags. O.K., I'll tell you. You don't sleep at night up here. Get that? You'll have no sleeping bags. We got them, but we shipped them back. Those things are death traps. Zip yourself up in one and what happens? Some Chink slips in and slits your throat while you're trying to uncorset yourself.

"Don't get me wrong," the lieutenant continued. "Don't get scared, damn it. Scared men are dead men. You got a good chance of getting out of here alive. Keep your eyes open and most of you will get out in one piece. Only remember this. No sleeping!"

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