BATTLE OF KOREA: Guards Up

On the rain-fogged peaks and in Korea's muddy valleys, the watchful armies prodded and jabbed fitfully at each other. Neither side threw any haymakers, nor did either side drop its guard. A U.N. task force clanked out beyond the front lines and into Pyonggang at the apex of the "Iron Triangle" on the east-central front, found the battered town deserted, drew back again. A British Commonwealth unit, marooned in Red territory north of the Imjin when that river flooded, competently muffled Communist thrusts for five days until bridges were restored for a withdrawal. North of Hwachon, the Communists ended the week with a battalion-sized attack. U.N. airmen, including Australians in Meteor jets, bored through rain to hit Red positions, supply dumps and North Korean highways suddenly busy with increased traffic to and from Communist front lines. They ran into Russian-built MIGs for the first time since late July, but the Red pilots concentrated on the slower F-80s, damaging one, and ducked the whistling F-86s and Meteors. All along the front the fighting men had their eyes on Kaesong—and their fingers on their triggers.