Operation Smack

Operations in which large numbers of men may lose their lives ought not to be described by code words which imply a boastful and overconfident sentiment, such as "Triumphant," or, conversely, which are calculated to invest the plan with an air of despondency, such as "Woebetide" . . . They ought not to be .. . . frivolous . . . After all, the world is wide, and intelligent thought will readily supply . . . well-sounding names which do not suggest the character of an operation or disparage it in any way and do not enable some widow or mother to say that her son was killed in an operation called "Bunnyhug" or "Ballyhoo."

--Winston Churchill, 1943

Nobody, apparently, remembered Churchill's sage advice as the operational order was drawn for a routine, company-size raid by the U.S. 7th Division on the Korean front near Chorwon. The focus of attack was a knob called Spud Hill, in the T-Bone mountain area. Air and artillery were to plaster the enemy position, then tank-supported infantry was to move up, grab prisoners, finish destroying Communist bunkers and tunnels. Code word: Operation Smack.

The 7th's diligent press officer invited correspondents to watch the raid as it was unleashed last week. At a forward observation post, where visiting brass was also on hand, the newsmen received printed timetables for the operation. The paper work was standard except for a fancy cover, decked with a two-color reproduction of the division's insigne. Inside, newsmen spotted the word "scenario."

A couple of correspondents were green hands at the front. They saw the Communists hold fast to Spud Hill despite terrific bombardment, the 7th's men repulsed, the stretcher-bearers bringing down the casualties (three killed, 61 wounded, of whom many were stunned or scratched and returned to duty the next day). Their report home made Operation Smack seem like a staged show, bloody and purposeless. In Washington, Michigan's Republican Congressman Clare Hoffman, never one to shun a headline, sounded off loudly. The Army, he trumpeted, must explain "whether these invited guests were witnessing a spectacle similar to that where gladiators performed for the entertainment of invited guests in the time of the Roman emperors."

The demagoguery quickly fizzled out. More seasoned correspondents cabled that Operation Smack had been carefully planned and valuable. It would have been carried out if there had been no visitors. Responsible Congressmen, after inquiry at the Pentagon, agreed that the operation, despite its unfortunate code name, was in no sense a publicity stunt. Military commanders in Korea were aghast over the furor. General Joseph Lawton Collins, Army Chief of Staff, back in Washington after a trip to the Far East, blamed bad reporting, defended Operation Smack as "sound and legitimate." There would be, he said, "many more like it." It'was a safe bet that next time someone would remember what Churchill said about Bunnyhug.

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