Outnumbered. This is war. War and its masses. War and its men. War and its machines. Together they formed the big picture. Welcome to the big picture. Im captain carl zimmerman. The big picture is a report to you from your army and an army committed by you, the people of the united states, to stop communist aggression wherever it may strike. The big picture during the next 13 weeks will trace the course of events in the Korean Campaign with firsthand reports from combat veterans and film taken by combat camera men of the army signal corp. These are the man who were daily caught on film, the big picture as it happens, where it happens. Today the big picture brings into focus the first 40 days in korea. It is the beginning of the fighting there. When everidge was a heartbreak ridge. Lets go back to june, 1950, when our troops felt the first thrust across the 38th parallel. This starry is best told in the language of the soldier who was there. This story is hard to tell. Painful. Because our outfit in training a few weeks ago, some of the boys who were with us arent around any more. They were good men. Good soldiers. They learned to fight and they had the guts for fighting. When it came, it was like a sock on the back of the head. Korea started rough. The first 40 days were a battle for time with a handful of men against an army. Yes, they were good men. Good soldiers. And no story of the korean war could be told without seeing first how well they fought against great odds. In the beginning there were only a couple of companies from the 24th division. No brass bands at the airport. Two days before some of us had been in cities spending leave time at fuji, Something Like that. We werent scared. We didnt know. We got stuff out of the planes, we moved out. Nobody said this is it. Nobody said you have arrived in korea to beat back five north Korean Community divisions. Somebody did say were here to delay the reds. Okay, lets go. About 10 of us were veterans. Few roads look like france. Somewhere between paris and mets. Mostly the soldiers were young, no battle experience. They smiled a lot. They made a whole lot of us look like good natured yanks, glad to see a new town. Some enlisted to travel, but whoever sees travel posters about korea, relax, come to the land of the morning calm. At first the towns looked like any towns in this part of the world. The south korean troops like any soldiers, they worry about the same things. Get tired, i mean tired. They wanted to ask what was it like up there. What kind of fighting, terrain, tactics, guns . As far as we were concerned those koreans couldnt talk. We were in a completely foreign country with no time to get acquainted. They emptied a town. Hardly a thing left. You couldnt buy anything. Even if you had the time. Which we didnt have. There were two ways of getting to know the terrain, walking over it, and feeling how it was underneath. Underneath it was caked and sticky. The tools of a soldiers trade, a shovel and a gun. We had small stuff with us. Machine guns, mull itsers. It was hard to believe, one, two, three, we were smack in the middle of a war. Guns ready, aim north. Against an enemy that would look exactly like our friends the south koreans. These troops had seen action. They didnt have to speak. Their clothes spoke. Their shoes spoke. Their eyes spoke. We got set. Like i said, whether it came it was fast and it was all around us. They threw everything at us. We answered. We went ahead, it was like dday with no warning. Those kids, they became veterans overnight. Tough, hard, nerving they moved as if theyve been with us all through germany. There were too many North Koreans with too much heavy equipment, especially tanks. What could men with guts do against tanks . The bazooka was defense but there were too many tanks and too few bazookas, day after day it was pull back and fight again. There were too many of them. Didnt know where they come from. Rice paddies would lie quiet. Wed hide in the shadows, trying to look like a hut or a cornfield or a rice patty. Concealment was one of our weapons. There were too many of them. The boys pulled back, tired as dogs. Because whenever they meet the reds head on, they had enough mens to fight us on the front and in our planks too. We knew it was hard to face. We were hurting. Kids would drag back so beat up they couldnt be expected to fight for at least several days. Instead of a week at a rest area, we grabbed an hour anywhere. Took a shower. Sat down. Laid down. Seemed like the greatest pleasure in life was to give the feet a chance to breathe. We fell back to new positions. If you looked around at some of the fox holes you could see a deep respect for those red mortars. Very deep. We were short on men, south koreans carried our ammo. But we didnt know what some of the others were carrying. Turned out that many of the silent refugees filed along the south korean roads were north korean communists in disguise. They would sneak through our lines and fight us from behind. We caught some. But infiltration caused plenty of casualties. We were going to watch the refugees more carefully from now on. This was a big police job in korea. The biggest. The attack was full size and had to be stopped. United states army, a small part of it, was here to help. And men and other uniforms would be fighting with us soon. The whole world is seeing this and knew what the score was. Up near the guns, the score was against the enemy. They were losing points, losing time. There were tough decisions but we had leaders who could make them. General walker and general dean. Yes, our outfits were winning. They were holding back the enemy until help could arrive. We didnt feel it yet, but reinforcements were on the way. It takes time to put a Defense Program into a small country with almost nothing. Not all of the stuff could get there overnight. Even in an age when were used to things traveling 400 or 500 miles an hour. Oh, we needed tanks. And jeeps soon. If some of the boys at the front could have heard the winches grind at the port, that would have been sweet music. And if something, television maybe, could have shown us the soldiers who were going to fight with us soon, maybe it would have been easier. As it was, the outfits in the fox holes needed every half track and howitser and tank to go with it and more. And the men to go with them. Yes, our mission in the lines was delay. Delay the red drive in korea. Delay it so we could get jeeps, delay it so we could get weapons carriers and weapons and more ammo. Get it to us, men and equipment. Wet or dry. Because it was still rough going for us. It would say that way for months, maybe longer. Until enough men would be in korea to strike back. Yes, it was operation delay. Ammo was precious. One Field Artillery battalion against 40 tanks. We would hold them off for a few hours in a blasting frontal attack, reds would envelop us on both flanks. Always trouble up ahead, and trouble on the sides. We drew back some off the river, burned our bridges behind us. People in big cities like pittsburgh are bothered by smoke. No, this smoke was black but it didnt bother us a bit. Smoke could look good, when its where you want it. There were plenty of times when the smoke was too close. Got in your eyes, so you couldnt see anything. You could take a lot. But when your buddies get hit, it hits you inside. Nobody says much, just so down. And so and so is evacuated, hell be okay. Or so and so has been evacuated. Back in the units from the 25th Infantry Division and the First Calvary Division with baggage, all of it first class, urgent. The tanks were light jobs. They sped north where they were most needed. Smaller than the russian monsters but still a wonderful sight. Nothing was too good for a tank in this territory. Boys treated them like babies. They went over them from top to bottom, called them pet names. They cleaned them up better than for inspection. Thats cleaning. Their tanks had heavier armor, and it was to their advantage. But our advantage was some fine sharpshooters. [ sound of gunfire ] they had giants, we had giants. Kaesong was the worst. Maybe youll hear a few other names because it was bad all over but most guys would say tay john. Some places we were just outnumbered. But in tay john we were outnumbered, outgunned, out tanked and outflanked. We pushed out trying to poke a hole in their lines. No go. We tried another direction but at the end of every road leeing out of tay john, there were thousands of north korean troops, plenty of t34 tanks. It got kind of confusing. There was one hot day, 100 degrees, and we just sat. There was place to go. It was war, not the way it is in the movies. We were all tired, including general dean. Flank attacks had cut every escape route. We gassed up, ready for a move. We were sunday to hold this hot town for two days. We held it for three. It was get out or be trapped in tay jong. We got out. We fought our way out. General dean stayed behind and may still be there. It was a bad road out of tay jong. Some guys didnt make it. Tay jong was burning. Dead town. The men who got out were heroes. The men who didnt get out were, they were heroes. There is no better word. By this time the new outfits were in the lines. Fresh, ready to shoot. Everything set just right. Nice to hear the steady trump of your own motors and to hear the holitser slamming them out. Together they were terrific. Our morale went up 5,000 . We had some pressure now. We turned it on and forced a victory. At a time like this, frontline chow tasted better than pheasant under glass. A rally was short. One out mit might do okay for a day, but on that same day five other sections of the frontline could be feeling the enemys hard blows, in developments, infiltrations. Some of our strongest attacks were by patrols, small groups battered by the enemy. Beaten by the mountains. Falling down tired. After climbing over half a dozen mountains, majormoor tired just to look at them. Felt like the bear who went over the mountain and saw another mountain. Getting anywhere in korea was backbreaking work. You did it the korean way, slowly. You were the bulldozer. No pushpull, click click up here to push across a stream in four or five hours. Every rock added up. Even the little ones. You work, two, three days to put an outfit on the other side of a stream. The rainy season and the korean super highways didnt help us get around. Wherever we went, we built our way. There was no good having any drag with the engineers. They had their own troubles. You were the engineers. In this battle you did everything. Build, fight, hold, pull back and destroy. Whenever we were about to leave a place, we planted it, carefully. Tnt, planted it not deep, just deep enough so it would come up the way we wanted it to. The better you plant it, the better it comes up. A second story job. This kind of gardening went on quite frequently. Very relaxing work. We were going to stall them up and down the whole front. And some day there could be a turn about that would pay the North Koreans off for what wed been taking. And then we might have to put back all of these bridges. We slowed them. But can he couldnt stop them. Fighting is fighting. Always rough. And it is rougher when you are forced to pull back. We gave them ground, they gave us time. We used every barrier, every river to make a stand. It was the best way of saving men. [ sound of gunfire ] they beat us back to the knack tong and we got there early enough to make across. The nakh tong was a pretty useful river. No king ever had a moat around his castle so wide and protected. It felt like a new division was in the lines. Plenty of outgoing mail went across the river. If youve seen combat, you know what it is to have a line. A place to fight from. For the first time in this korean business, we had something we could call a line. All during the fighting we had air power. If they had had it, we might have been through. Air power did plenty of damage to everything the enemy had and wanted to bring up. Those guys flew so low they should have had bayonets on their propellers. In a corner of korea, a little bigger than a beach head, we dug in, built a village of fox holes, only here you couldnt dig too deep on account of the rocks. On this beach head, a lot of the boys who flew in at beginning were still around. Still smiling. There is waiting in every war. Time to find out where you were, how you were doing. We faced the enemy. We faced ourselves. Our enemies were fanatics. We were believers, in one faith. That men can live together peacefully, thinking, feeling, worshiping, each in his own way. You cant think about anything for very long. And you were planning new moves, new delay tactics. We pulled down the bridges. We wrecked the roads. The steep hills around us were rugged. We made them more rugged for the enemy. Beyond our fox holes we unwound some vines of our own with thorns. And beyond the tight ring of our perimeter, the enemy closed in, pushing us hard. Threatening the death blow that would throw us back into the sea. How long would we hold . How long . The battle hung in the balance. And then swung to us. A great force reached korea and a new strategy that gave the north korean army a battle from three sides at once. Replacements, new units, lively, ready for business. They stole along the hills, slipped up the ridges, looking for a soft spot in the enemys hard shell. We gave it to them steady, all up and down the line, all at once. It is dusty, smokey. This was what we used to get when we first hit korea. Victory never comes easily. Have to be in a fight to see how tough it is. See how in an attack guys stumble back, needing others to look at them. Always plenty of trouble. It takes men and machines to knock out a strong enemy. And as you go forward, you could expect to lose some of those who start out with you. Some went back, their feet heavy, their steps slow. Kids who became men. Men whose hollow face look showed theyve been in the lines too long. You cant count on a straight road to victory. Sometimes it winds, goes down, goes up. Sometimes youre forced to detour. The new troops walked different. Another outfit. The onceover, they were like the fellas in our outfit when we landed. Same smiling yanks making the best of everything. And a little better than that. We battled for time in korea. And won. We had the right men. Good men. Good soldiers. Those were the first 40 days in korea. We took our losses, regrouped and gained new strength in the pusan perimeter. We held that ground despite many determined efforts to throw us back into the sea. Those North Koreans were yet to feel the strength of the eighth army. An army that proved to be the greatest the world has yet seen. Next week, the big picture will show the turning of the tide, youll see the fight to hold on to that pusan perimeter. You will see how our troops received their support from our carriers. The invasion of waume and the march on seoul and another report from a combat veteran who saw as it happened apart of the big picture. This is captain carl zimmer plan inviting you to be with us then. Tonight on American History tv, beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. A night of programs on espionage. We begin with paul kicks talking about his book the saboteur, the aristocrat which chronicles the world war ii exports. Watch American History tv tonight and over the weekend on cspan3. American history tv on cspan3. Exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up this weekend, 60 years ago four africanamerican students protested segregation at a wool worth lunch counter in greensboro, north carolina, which began the lunch counter sitins in the civil rights movement. On sunday at 9 00 a. M. Eastern, live on American History tv and washington journal, well discuss the sitins and desegregation in the 1960s with tracy parker, author of Department Stores in the black freedom movement. And then at 4 00 on reel america, two films on the civil rights movement, february 1, the story of the greensboro four and American Revolution of 63. And at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on oral histories, an interview with former Bennett College president esther terry and her role in the 1960 lunch counter sitin protest in greensboro. Exploring the american story, watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. Now, a u. S. Army film from september, 1950, when u. S. Led forces in south korea were in retreat. The film shows the arrival of British Forces and the subsequent drive to retake the south korean capital of seoul. This is war. War and its masses. War and its men