The mission assigned the 3d Battalion,
1st Marines, was to advance along the axis of Ma Po
Boulevard to seize Duksoo Palace, taking the railroad
station en route. "To give you an analogy: this
was rather like crossing the Anacostia River and moving
up Pennsylvania Avenue to capture the Captitol, taking
Union Station along the way. And we had to do this in
one day." General Almond wanted the city secured
by 26 September.
Ma Po Boulevard was a wide avenue, a
solidly built up street, mostly two and three story
structures of stucco or masonry construction, and
occasional more impressive buildings. The street itself
was interrupted by repeated echelons of barricades.
These barricades were mostly large rice straw bags
filled with earth. You didn't blow up these
barricades or push them aside, they were much too heavy
and inert. Those that were defended had long-barreled
Soviet anti-tank guns, heavy water-cooled Maxim machine
guns, and very long anti-tank rifles. There were also
plenty of small arms fire and sniping from all
sides.
The house-to-house fighting was chiefly
a matter of grenades, M-1 rifles, and BAR automatic
fire, with the occasional support of M-26 Pershing
tanks.