Over the Seawall

By September 1950 the North Korean army had the U.S. and South Korean forces pinned in a corner of the peninsula around Pusan. General Douglas MacArthur meant to land behind it at Inchon, the port of Seoul. On the charts, Inchon was about the worst harbor on the coast for a landing. The Joint Chiefs had doubts. MacArthur went anyway.

1. 23 August · Tokyo

   Inchon will not fail

   The Joint Chiefs send their Army and Navy chiefs to Tokyo to talk MacArthur out of Inchon. At the Dai Ichi building the Navy briefs the tides and the mud. Rear Adm. James Doyle closes with the best he can say: Inchon is not impossible. Then MacArthur speaks. Those in the room remember his last words: “We shall land at Inchon, and I shall crush them.” Five days later the Joint Chiefs send their approval.

2. 1–14 September · Yonghung-do

   Two weeks behind the lines

   Navy Lt. Eugene Clark goes ashore on Yonghung-do, 14 miles off Inchon, with two South Koreans and a grenade to use on himself if he is caught. He turns the island’s teenagers into coastwatchers, captures sampans and sends agents into Inchon. One night he rows to the seawall and wades into the mud up to his waist. His radio reports tell the planners the mud will not hold men or trucks, and which tide tables to trust.

3. 13 September · 13:00

   The sitting ducks

   Six destroyers come up the narrow channel in single file on the flood tide. At 11:45 they spot a string of mines and press on, firing at them as they pass. They anchor less than half a mile off Wolmi-do, the fortified island guarding the harbor, and open fire. North Korean guns hit USS Collett nine times. She keeps shooting. The destroyers put more than 1,000 five-inch shells into the island in an hour, and 1,700 more the next day.

4. 14 September · Midnight

   The light on Palmi-do

   Clark has found that the lighthouse on Palmi-do, the old entrance beacon for the Flying Fish Channel, can still be made to work. Tokyo tells him to light it at midnight. He does. A column of 19 ships led by the destroyer Mansfield snakes up the channel in the dark, and the beacon guides them past one of its worst stretches. Clark earns the Navy Cross.

5. 15 September · 06:33

   Green Beach

   Rocket ships drench Wolmi-do. Seven landing craft put the first wave of the 3d Battalion, 5th Marines onto a strip of beach less than 50 yards wide at 06:33. Ten tanks follow. At 06:55 Sgt. Alvin Smith ties an American flag to a shattered tree on Radio Hill. MacArthur, watching from USS Mount McKinley, says, “That’s it. Let’s get a cup of coffee.” Lt. Col. Robert Taplett soon radios: “Wolmi-do secured.” Not one Marine is killed.

   MacArthur to the fleetThe Navy and Marines have never shone more brightly than this morning.
6. 15 September · Afternoon

   Waiting on the tide

   The tide runs out and the harbor turns to mud. The Marines on Wolmi-do hold alone. After 13:00 the water comes back, and the LSTs and transports start up the channel with it. Landing craft need 25 feet of water to reach the seawall, so H-Hour is set at 17:30, with two hours of daylight left. Some 500 landing craft head in through rain and smoke. One rocket ship fires 2,000 rockets at Red Beach alone.

7. 15 September · 17:31

   Red Beach

   Lt. Edwin Deptula’s platoon hits the seawall at 17:31. The wall still stands four feet above the ramps. Grenades go over, then the ladders go up. Two minutes later Company A reaches the wall and takes fire from bunkers. The second wave brings in 1st Lt. Baldomero Lopez. He knocks out one bunker with a grenade and is hit pulling the pin on another. He smothers the blast to save his men. At 17:55 a flare signals Cemetery Hill is taken.

   

8. 15 September · Blue Beach

   Chesty Puller’s regiment

   Three miles south, Col. Lewis “Chesty” Puller’s 1st Marines ride amphibian tractors 5,500 yards through smoke and mortar fire to Blue Beach. Company I goes over the seawall on aluminum ladders, some of which buckle under the weight. Engineers hang cargo nets for the waves behind. By midnight the division holds every objective set for the day. On Red Beach, all eight LSTs make it in. Planners had counted on six. They sit on the mud all night, unloading.

9. 17–29 September · Seoul

   The capital comes back

   The 5th Marines take Kimpo, the largest airfield in Korea, 50 hours and 35 minutes after H-Hour. Marine fighters fly from it within days. On 20 September the Marines cross the Han River. The Army’s 7th Infantry Division drives on their right. On 27 September the 5th Marines take the government compound and raise the American flag. Two days later MacArthur hands the capital back to President Syngman Rhee and closes the ceremony with the Lord’s Prayer.