A Notification on the Combat Characteristics of the South Korean Army [l]
(October 30, 1950)

To the Ninth Army Corps, the Nineteenth Army Corps, and to be notified to all Central Bureaus, Sub-Bureaus, and all Military Regions:

According to a report from the Volunteer Army Headquarters on October 29th: "In several days of fighting between our 40th Army and the South Korean forces at Wenjing, the enemy's combat characteristics have been identified as follows: 1. The enemy's combat effectiveness is weak. When charging or counterattacking, they must rely on fire support and fear close combat (fear bayonets and hand grenades). 2. Their offensive spirit is poor. They use small units (one squad to at most one platoon) to launch attacks on us; if the attack fails, they retreat and defend. As soon as we organize our firepower and launch a charge, they flee. 3. Their artillery fire is intense, but their rifle marksmanship is poor. Whenever they advance or retreat, they require covering fire from intense barrages. They attack by day and pull back by night, sleeping in vehicles. 4. For positions they have lost, they immediately use aerial reconnaissance and ground artillery to indicate targets, then strafe and bomb with three to four aircraft. 5. Their fortifications are simple in construction and they lack tools. Artillery positions are mostly on open ground or roads; their equipment is ponderously heavy and cannot be brought up mountains. 6. After dawn each day, one to four aircraft circle at low altitude within a radius of several dozen li around enemy encampments, conducting reconnaissance and strafing. 7. Special agent activities are active; many agents are disguised as refugees, carrying military maps, short-barreled guns, hand grenades, etc. They engage in sniping in our encampment areas, burn ammunition, vehicles, and villages, and communicate with the air force (using white handkerchiefs, etc.). 8. Dealing with enemy tanks is not difficult. The enemy division's 15th Regiment originally had five tanks attached; four of them have been destroyed by us," etc. To note, in several small-scale battles over recent days, approximately one division of the South Korean reactionary forces has already been annihilated. The gradual annihilation of enemy forces continues, and there is full confidence in annihilating the various enemy units.

A Notification on the Combat Characteristics of the South Korean Army

The Military Commission
October 30th

--- Notes

(1) This was a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the People's Revolutionary Military Commission of the Central People's Government to the Ninth and Nineteenth Army Corps of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army.
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