Korea - 50 years ago this week, Jan. 24-30

[Brooke Rowe <global-national-security@pacbell.net>]

Korea - 50 years ago this week, Jan. 24-30

(EXCERPT) `Operation Ratkiller' wipes out 8,000 bandits, by Jim
Caldwell

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Jan. 22, 2002) - As peace talks focused
again on prisoners of war 50 years ago in Korea, the ROK Army
announced results of "Operation Ratkiller," a campaign to eliminate
guerrillas and bandits in the Chiri-san mountains.

Jan. 24-30, 1952 -- At Panmunjom, the talks are going nowhere on the
truce commission. The communists are more determined to talk about the
prisoner exchange, and are trying to turn the issue into propaganda
charges. They charge the U.N. with switching the category of 37,000
South Koreans captured by U.N. forces from military to civilian.
Pyongyang radio reads a list of civilians from U.N. countries they
hold on Jan. 25. However, they do not mention the 26 Catholic and
Protestant missionaries believed to be in captivity. The reds are
still opposed to giving prisoners the option of whether they want to
return to North Korea or China. A sizable group of communist prisoners
want to stay in South Korea. Maj. Gen. Howard M. Turner suggests on
Jan. 25 that since they can't make progress on rules during the truce
that a subcommittee take up the issue. The subcommittee began
reviewing points on which they have agreed and disagreed Jan. 29. The
reds offer to let the U.N. rotate 5,000 troops a month; before this
they would not agree to any rotation of forces. The U.N. wants the
number raised to 75,000, but if R&R leaves to Japan aren't counted as
rotations, then the number can be 40,000 troops monthly. The Chinese
say Jan. 29 that they don't want to be included as a partner in the
truce settlement with the North Koreans. U.N. staff officers on the
subcommittee conjecture that the Chinese might want to wait until some
future date and pull their troops out of the north, turning it into a
propaganda event. The next day they change their minds. On Jan. 30
Brig. Gen. William P. Nuckols, U.N. truce talk information officer,
figures "the Chinese are on the fence over whether they want to pose
as a purely voluntary force in Korea." The ROK Army announces the
results of Operation Ratkiller to date on Jan. 28. Ratkiller is an
effort to wipe out guerrillas and bandits in the Chiri-san mountains.
Gen. James Van Fleet, Eighth Army commander, was fed up with the
nuisance and potential threat from the guerrillas. However, he viewed
it as an ROK problem and the government should take care of it. Lt.
Gen. Paik Sun Yup led the Capital Division, the 8th Division, police
and security forces to wipe out the guerrilla and bandit hiding
places. They have killed 8,000 guerrillas and bandits. The Capital
Division will continue mop-up operations, while the 8th Division will
return to the front in early February. Gen. Matthew Ridgway, U.N.
supreme commander, began lobbying the Joint Chiefs of Staff to provide
more Air Force and Navy air and air defense assets to meet the
communist airpower. His efforts begin to pay off in January 1952, but
far below the levels he wanted. He had requested eight wings of F-86
Supersabres to at least match the communists in fighter-interceptor
strength. He currently has a wing and a half of the Supersabres. The
Joint Strategic Plans Committee told him he could not have that. Only
13 F-86s are produced each month in the United States. Canada produces
20 a month earmarked for NATO. A marine jet squadron intended for
western Pacific duty in January is transferred to the Far East Air
Force. The carrier Philippine Seas is also diverted from Pacific duty
to Korea. Two carriers scheduled for mothballs are retained on active
duty to permit the carrier to remain with the Far East Command and
bring Ridgway's full-time carrier strength to two. Ridgway is informed
that a squadron of F-94 fighter jets will be transferred to the Far
East Air Force in February. The Air Force has been granted permission
to buy 60 F-86s from Canada at the rate of 10 a month. They will be
added to U.S. production and will provide two full wings by June,
along with a 50 percent reserve. Army Chief of Staff J. Lawton Collins
tells Ridgway that he will not receive any more air defense batteries
beyond those already earmarked for him. Collins said the world
situation and commitments to Europe required other existing batteries
be deployed elsewhere. Ridgway is still waiting for the fifth air
defense battery promised to his command. Four of them were delivered
in November.

Jan. 29 -- Edith Rosengrant, widowed mother of Pfc. Dick Rosengrant,
who won the Medal of Honor posthumously for actions in Korea, returns
the medal to President Truman "as not being fit from you."

Jan. 30 -- The Defense Department reports American casualties in Korea
are 105,001, including 18,117 dead. (Editor's note: Jim Caldwell
writes for the TRADOC News Service.)

http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/Jan2002/a20020122koreajan24.html

---------------------------
   Brooke Rowe
   Associate Librarian
   The American War Library
   http://www.americanwarlibrary.com