Word: fleetness
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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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...
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...
...most significant-and dangerous-fact of all is that 80% of all U.S. merchant ships were built during World War II, hence are becoming obsolescent in a block. As a result, the U.S. merchant fleet, less than adequate in peacetime, would be shockingly short of what the nation would need in wartime...
Died. Johan Nygaardsvold, 72, Norway's Premier in exile during World War II; in Trondheim. Scorning demands of unconditional surrender when the Germans invaded his country in 1940, he turned 80% of the Norwegian fleet over to the Allies, organized last-ditch resistance until, barely escaping Germans and Quislings, he fled to England...