Victory for the Bootleggers

G.I.s of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division had an apt nickname for the ROK outfit that relieved them in the line last month: "Van Fleet's Bootleg Division." Bootleg it was, for while Washington had dithered, trying to make up its mind to expand the South Korean army from ten to twelve divisions, doughty General James A. Van Fleet had quietly fleshed out about nine new ROK battalions by rounding up every Korean draftee he could lay his hands on. To blood his raw battalions, Van Fleet fed them one by one into front-line ROK divisions; meanwhile, he levied on HQ companies and quartermasters' depots for equipment and staff officers.

Easy Meat? As soon as Washington made up its mind to authorize the increase, Van Fleet proudly announced: "We will be ready in two days to activate the 12th ROK division." Back from the front line he pulled his nine battalions; fresh from his 45 training schools came officers and NCOs. A month later, the Bootleg Division was on a 150-mile march to the front, under Brigadier General Yoon Chun Keun, 41, graduate of the Manchurian army academy, who was a regimental commander sitting on the 38th parallel the day the North Koreans opened the war.

To the veteran North Koreans dug in opposite, the Bootleg rookies seemed easy meat. Communist patrols probed aggressively; Red broadcasts taunted: "How do you like getting killed while the Americans are safe?"

Last week a Red offensive hit the Bootleggers' lines at midnight. One ROK outpost was overrun; Communist raiders poured into the Bootleg trenches. But the 12th stood fast, keeping a steady fire on the Red infantry, bayoneting those who broke through the barrage. At 1:40 a.m. the Communist attack fell apart; 94 North Koreans lay dead in the snow; hundreds more had been wounded. The Bootleggers' losses: 24 killed.

"These boys' tails are really up," reported Lieut. General Isaac D. White, X Corps commander, next day. Van Fleet was delighted. At a ceremony in Taegu, he celebrated the anniversary of the ROK army, which began seven years ago as a constabulary of 600 men. Full of pep and eleven divisions strong, it is now holding almost 70% of the U.N. line in Korea, doing most of the fighting and taking the brunt of the casualties.

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