Combat· Korean War
Operation WAKE-UP
Operation WAKE-UP was a raid mounted late in 1952 with the aim of taking prisoners and gathering intelligence on the Chinese defenses opposite the Marine line, one of the planned, limited-objective operations that punctuated the static fighting along the Jamestown Line.
Unlike the later raids designed primarily to kill the enemy and wreck his fortifications, WAKE-UP was conceived as an intelligence operation, a deliberate thrust into the enemy positions to seize captives who could be interrogated and to learn what could be seen of the Chinese works at close hand. It belonged to the constant, probing pressure both sides maintained across no-man's-land, where patrols and raids went out to test defenses, snatch prisoners, and keep the enemy off balance even during lulls in the larger battles. WAKE-UP served as a forerunner to the more destructive set-piece raids that followed, part of the evolving Marine practice of the outpost war.
Record no. 890