Unit Structure
Section: 8–10 men. Commander: Corporal
Platoon: (three sections); 30–35 men. Commander: Lieutenant
Company: (three platoons and company headquarters); 120–150 men. Commander: Major
Battalion: (three or four rifle companies; one headquarters company of administrative, supply and signals units; one support company of machine gun, mortar and anti-tank platoons); 600–700 men. Commander: Lieutenant Colonel
Brigade: (Three battalions, plus supportive units, though 27th Brigade lacked these); 2,500–5,000 men. Commander: Brigadier (In US parlance, Regimental Combat Teams)
Division: Three brigades; 15,000 men. Commander: Major General
Corps: (Two or three divisions); 40,000 + men. Commander: Lieutenant General
Note: The above are based on Korean War strengths. Note also that American units tended to have heavier manpower and firepower allotments than British units.
Acronyms and Terms
2ID – 2nd Infantry Division (US)
ACT – Air Contact Team; a team embedded with infantry who control air strikes by radio
Assault Pioneers – Engineers attached to infantry battalions
AP – Associated Press (US news agency)
APD – Assault Personnel Destroyer. US warships which carried troops on coastal raids
AWOL – Absent without leave
BAR – Browning Automatic Rifle. US light machine gun, fed with a 20-round magazine. Generally considered inferior to the Bren
Bivvy – Short for bivouac. Can refer to a small tent, or simply a basic encampment for the night. Noun or verb
BOAC – British Overseas Airways Corporation; predecessor to British Airways
Bren – Czech-designed light machine gun used by British forces. Popular for its accuracy, reliability and fast barrel-change but had a slow (500 rounds per minute) rate of fire and was fed by a 30-round magazine
‘Brew up’ – Noun or verb, with two distinct meanings, dependent upon context: either making a cup of tea, or blowing up/setting fire to a vehicle/armoured vehicle
‘Burp gun’ – Russian-built Shpagin PPSH 41 submachine gun. Rugged, dependable, and with a 71-round drum magazine, it was a formidable weapon, superior to the scrappy British equivalent, the Sten. Its fast rate of fire gave it a ‘brrrppp’ sound – hence its nickname
CCF – Chinese Communist Forces
CO – Commanding officer of a battalion. Usually a lieutenant colonel
Corpsman – Medic attached to US marines
CP – Command Post
CPV – Chinese People’s Volunteer. In actual fact, not a volunteer, but a regular soldier of the PLA deployed to fight in Korea
CPVA – Chinese People’s Volunteer Army
Dead ground – Military term for a dip in the ground, or ground behind a hill or ridge, which it is impossible to see into
DMZ – De-militarised Zone. The heavily militarised border which divides the Korean peninsula
DPRK – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, i.e. North Korea
FOO – Forward Observation Officer (pronounced ‘Foo’). Artillery officer with forward troops. With a signaller, his job is to call in and to adjust the fire of artillery
‘Fire for Effect’ – Fire control order. Once the enemy’s position and distance is known, and fall of shot or ranging fire (often with smoke shells) has been noted, infantry or artillery fire can cause actual casualties among the enemy
Garand – US service rifle of the Second World War and Korea.
Generally considered better than the Lee Enfield due to its semiautomatic, rather than bolt action, function
GI – ‘General Issue’; slang term for US serviceman
‘Gook’ – Korean War slang for Asian; noun or adjective. Fifty years before Korea, the pejorative ‘goo-goo’ was used to describe the guerilla enemy during the American war against the ‘Moros’ in the Philippines in a brutal campaign that lasted from 1898 to 1902. The word was possibly a derivative of the ‘gobbledy-gook’ American troops thought the natives spoke. It is unclear if ‘gook’ was a carryover from then, or whether it arose in Korea independently of the Philippine experience. If the latter, in origin, it was probably innocent. The Korean word for America/American is ‘Miguk’ and when Koreans saw US soldiers they would have used this word to describe them. Americans overhearing this could have misinterpreted this as ‘Me, gook’ – and so started using it describe Koreans themselves. The term took on a negative tone, becoming a racial pejorative, and was used in Vietnam
IGS – Imperial General Staff
IWM – Imperial War Museum
KIA – Killed in Action
LMG – Light Machine gun. A portable machine gun, crewed by two men, but operable by one. In the British Army, this was the much-loved Bren
LOC – Line of Communication. The road at the rear of a unit’s position
LOE – Limit of Exploitation. The line at which an attacking unit will not advance beyond
LP – Listening Post
LST – Landing Ship Tank; a large landing craft
Mansei – Korean for ‘10,000 years’, or ‘long life’. Same meaning as (and often mistaken for) the Japanese banzai
MARDIV – US Marine Division
MASH – Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
MFC – Mortar Fire Controller; essentially, the same job as an artillery FOO, but for mortars
MIA – Missing in Action
MLR – Main Line of Resistance. The main – rather than the forward or fallback – line of a defensive position
MMG – Medium Machine gun. In the British Army in Korea, this was issued at the battalion level and was the trusty, belt-fed and water-cooled Vickers, a weapon which could fire non-stop for hours
MO – Medical officer; the doctor attached to a battalion
MP – Military policeman, or provost
MSR – Main Supply Route. A road or track used exclusively for military traffic; civilians were not permitted on it ‘Mucker’ – Best friend
NCO – Non Commissioned Officer, such as corporal or sergeant
NKPA – North Korean People’s Army
OC – Officer commanding a company. Usually a major
‘O’ Group – Officers Group or Orders Group; a briefing for a group of officers
OP – Observation post
POW – Prisoner of War
PLA – People’s Liberation Army; i.e. the regular army of communist China
PTI – Physical Training Instructor
PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
RAMC – Royal Army Medical Corps
RAP – Regimental Aid Post. A field dressing station, usually set up at Battalion HQ, to stabilise battle casualties before they can be sent rearward
RAR – Royal Australian Regiment
Recce – British Army shorthand for reconnaissance, pronounced ‘recky’. Noun or verb
ROK – Republic of Korea, i.e. South Korea. Pronounced ‘Rock’. During the Korean War, the acronym also referred to the country’s army and its soldiers (‘ROKs’)
REME – Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
RV – Rendevous
Sangar – A legacy of the British Army’s long service on the Indian subcontinent, ‘sangar’ is a Pushtu word for an embrasure of stones or rocks, raised when it is impossible to dig into ground
Sapper – Military engineer
SBA – Sick Berth Attendant; medics recruited from the Royal Navy and attached to commando units
SBS – Special Boat Squadron. Royal Marine Commando special force
‘Stag’ – Night sentry duty
Start line – The point from which an attack is launched. Ideally, this is reconnoitered and marked, often with tape. In reality, often just a line on the map
Sten – Mass-produced, unreliable and unpopular British SMG
SMG – Submachine gun, such as the British Sten or the Russian ‘burp gun’
‘Stonk’ – British military slang, meaning bombard with mortars or artillery. Noun and verb
UN – United Nations. Although US and ROK troops made up its mains elements, the forces fighting in defence of South Korea were deployed following UN resolutions
UNC – United Nations Command. The American-led multinational force established in response to UN Security Council Resolutions to repel the attack on South Korea and to establish ‘international peace and security in the area’
USMC – United States Marine Corps
WGC – War Graves Commission
WIA – Wounded in Action