Darkmoon: Eighth Army Special Operations in the Korean War

Darkmoon: Eighth Army Special Operations in the Korean War, by Ed Evanhoe. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996. ($25.95)

Ed Evanhoe's Darkmoon covers special operations during the Korean War from a broad historical perspective. Evanhoe was driven to write this history after reading British veteran Ellery Anderson's "colorful" Banner Over Pusan. Evanhoe's response was to correct the record.

Evanhoe served in special operations during the war, and continued conducting covert missions in Asia till his retirement from the U.S. Army in 1965. Fluent in both Korean and Japanese, Evanhoe currently serves as Far East editor of Behind the Lines magazine.

The June 1950 North Korean invasion of South Korea was a complete surprise to U.S. intelligence services. The first six months of fighting focused on pushing the enemy north and stabilizing a defensive line. Once this was achieved the U.S. Army began focusing on less traditional military operations, in particular covert action.

In January 1951, the Eighth Army received the first report that "several thousand volunteer irregulars" were still fighting in Hwanghoe-do province. Additional inquiries revealed pockets of anti-communist partisans behind enemy lines.

U.S. special operations teams quickly began discussing the potential uses of these forces. Several offshore islands were transformed into training and operations bases. One of the most famous was Paengnyong-do, located near the thirty-eighth parallel. Two types of partisan operations were organized: offshore and airborne.

Offshore partisans were based on islands near the coast of North Korea. Known as Donkey units, these groups used fishing boats for sabotage and reconnaissance missions deep into North Korea. Their missions were highly successful.

Airborne operations, despite their romantic glamour, were often disastrous. Teams parachuted deep into enemy territory only to disappear. The U.S. Army based the headquarters at the South Korean Ministry of Fisheries in Pusan, using the cover name "Eighth Army Liaison Office for Oceanic Research."

The reason airborne units may have failed is that in March 1951 counterintelligence teams discovered a North Korean spy ring in Pusan. Interrogation revealed the Eighth Army's aerial delivery detachment had been penetrated.

One of the most impressive operations officers was Guerrilla Operations Commander Lt. Colonel Jay Vanderpool. Vanderpool's expertise was learned the hard way when he infiltrated into the Philippines during World War II. Vanderpool breathed life into Korean partisan operations by applying lessons learned from his own experiences.

Despite the serious side of operations, Vanderpool had a sense of humor. One outlandish operation involved dressing up a partisan unit in old Nazi SS uniforms. While inspecting a Seoul supply room Vanderpool discovered Nazi storm trooper uniforms, complete with helmets, boots, and racks of "Schmeisser" submachine guns. This bizarre find gave Vanderpool the idea to "blow the communists minds."

Vanderpool parachuted a Korean team dressed in full SS Nazi attire from a C-46 a few miles east of Haeju, North Korea. The team captured "twelve very confused prisoners." A few hours later the team linked up with a partisan unit and exfiltrated out. Ten days later the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations formally complained to a mystified West German Ambassador over the use of German forces in Korea.

The cloak-and-dagger aspects of the Korean War have influenced Korea to this day. South Korea's intelligence apparatus is one of the best in the world. North Korea's consistent, and often bizarre, attempts to destabilize the south using special operations are chilling evidence. Evanhoe's Dark Moon gives the reader a perspective on the Korean War few have attempted before.

Reviewed by Wendell L. Minnick

Copyright Dr. George Kourvetaris Summer 1999
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