BATTLE OF KOREA: Ready & Waiting

When the armies of the U.N. and the Communists were settled down in the limited Korean lull last fall, U.S. General James A. Van Fleet was worried about stagnation's effect on his Eighth Army. "A 'sitdown' army is subject to collapse at the first sign of an enemy effort," he said then. "An army that stops to tie its shoestrings seldom regains the initiative."

Last week, six months of lull later, General Van Fleet gave a fresh report on the conditions of his forces. The Eighth Army today, said he, is stronger in every way than at any time during the last 21 months. "The United Nations forces," he added, "now are in a position where nothing the enemy can bring into Korea can seriously hurt us."

Yet the end of the month will find scarcely a rifleman still facing the enemy who was in the lines before peace talks began last July 10. Under its troop rotation plan, the U.S. has sent back to the States more than 200,000 veterans since the start of the Korean war, 160,000 of them since July. Among the departed are most of the battlewise battalion and regimental commanders.

Hard-driving General Van Fleet and his staff have conducted a steady campaign against military stagnation. Said a general just back from Korea: "Limited and local actions are often more instructive than swift engagements over extended terrain. The Eighth Army has had time to study its mistakes, whereas troops in rolling actions are often so busy advancing or retreating that they have no time to reflect on their freshest experiences. The Eighth Army's patrolling is better, its defensive positions more effectively prepared, its fire patterns better laid. In the rear area, communications, maintenance and supply are better organized than those of World War II armies."

Against this optimism is the fact that U.N. forces have remained at "static" strength (about 450,000 troops), while the Communists have gradually built up overwhelming numerical superiority (about 900,000 troops), steadily swelled their air force (to at least 1,200 planes) and brought up mountains of equipment and supplies during the relative hiatus. If they chose to launch a spring offensive, Van Fleet conceded, they could hit the U.N. far harder than before. "But the chances that it will come are quite small."

After the mildest winter in years, the sun was shining and frost was fast disappearing. G.I.s, on the slopes of fortified hills, watched the valley's floors for signs that the earth is firm enough to bear a major offensive's weight.