The assaulting forces had never trained together yet had to deal with possibly mined approaches,
32' tides, mudflats, and a dominating height protecting the rocky landing beaches.
But, Wolmi-do absolutely
had to be taken for the Invasion to succeed.
Brilliantly conceived, Inchon was a
remarkable military accomplishment. The assaulting
forces had never trained together for any combined
operation, let alone one so complex as Inchon. Apart
from the 32' tides and mudflats, we were all very
concerned about the enemy blowing us out of the water
along the approaches before we could even reach the
assault positions. A month later at Wonsan we found
about 3,000 well placed mines. Only 300 mines along the
winding, mud-lined approaches would have been more than
enough to sink our assault ships and block access to
the inner harbor.
Getting into the inner harbor
wasn't enough. The assault beaches were dominated
by the island of Wolmi-Do, which absolutely had to be
taken and held although tidal mud flats would isolate
it from support for long periods each day.
On this day, we succeeded. Wolmi-do,
with its 200-yard "beach" of sand and rocks,
its low-revetment and supporting ridge, had fallen.
Seoul was 25 miles further inland. Ten bloody days of
fighting remained before MacArthur would claim the
capitol as again free. Seoul changed hands two times
again during the next several months, but it is still
free today.
