[404] The 1st Marine Division is coming

In the lighthouse on Yao Island, the Thompson waterproof gun reflected the moonlight, and it was simply glowing black.

For Captain Eugene Clark, even though he has carried out many secret missions, his nerves have always been big, but now it is a torture to stay up like this and keep the clock second by second. He envisioned the worst, constantly deduced the failures he might face, and was mentally prepared to face any eventuality.

Because he knew too much, he had to carry a suicide grenade to his waist in case he had to deal with it when he had to.

Finally, the zero o'clock on August 14 came, and Clark, who had not slept well for more than half a month and was full of fatigue and excitement at the moment, used the kerosene lighter in his hand to tremble and light up the eight-tailed lighthouse.

On the lighthouse, the reflector of the battery, which had been reconnected by Clark, rotated unhurriedly, slowly dancing the bright pillar of light in the night sky outside the port of Incheon. This light, for a ship at sea, can be clearly seen even from a distance of 40 kilometers. Not to mention planes that fly at night.

Seeing the rekindling of the lighthouse on Hachio Island, the KPA in Incheon Port suddenly became agitated, and after the early warning telegram was issued, Deputy Commander Choi Yongjian of the KPA understood that the US troops were coming.

Two days ago, the U.S. military dispatched F4U Corsair fighter jets and used 64 150-pound napalm bombs totaling 9,500 pounds to blow up Wolmido Island, which Captain Clark had reported in a telegram as having a defensive liliang existence, into a sea of fire.

This operation had in fact reminded the KPA that the intelligence of the Chinese comrades was completely correct and that the enemy had already begun to carry out air operations on Inchon in accordance with the landing procedures.

Regarding the situation beyond his control, Deputy Commander Cui Yongjian could only silently pray that the defenders on Wolmei Island could inflict as many casualties on the U.S. troops as possible.

The task force led by the U.S. Seventh Fleet, which had been waiting anxiously on the Yellow Sea outside Incheon, saw the lighthouse lit up and immediately corrected its course and plunged straight into Incheon Port.

In the first wave of 19 warships, four cruisers and six destroyers advanced into the Exocet Channel in a battle line, destroying all visible buildings on the shore that might conceal the army, while extending the artillery bombardment, pouring shells onto the road connecting Inchon in the distance, in an attempt to cut off all communication between Incheon and the outside world.

On the Task Force flagship "Mount McKinley," MacArthur pointed to the lighthouse lit on the distant island of Eight Tails, and proudly told the reporters and generals accompanying him, "That's a welcome gift for us."

Suddenly, as soon as Wolmi Island lit up, an artillery piece began to resist, this was the KPA that survived the U.S. air raid, and according to the order, they were asked to continue to hold Wolmi.

The U.S. military did not feel the slightest discomfort with this kind of firefly light, and as the 19 warships of the naval artillery fire support group led by Rear Admiral Higgins opened fierce fire, in 45 minutes, the U.S. military consumed 2,845 shells on Wolmian Island, following the napalm of the Navy's carrier-based aircraft, and plowed Wolmio Island again. After 2,845 shells, there was no trace of the sturdy concrete bunkers built during the Japanese occupation on Wolmi Island, and there were deep craters everywhere, and the low-level mud that had not seen sunlight for thousands of years was turned out, and the smell of gunpowder smoke and the smell of new soil was everywhere.

However, the KPA fortress artillery fire never ended under the US naval guns, and several concealed Haode 120mm howitzers on Wolmi Island were pushed out of the anti-artillery holes by the defenders, and sporadic shelling rang out from time to time. As a result, Admiral James, the temporary commander of the task force, ordered the transfer of three rocket launchers to strike at Wolmi.

The rocket strikes of the three rocket launchers continued until dawn, and a full 1,000 rounds of 125mm rockets were evenly scattered on Wolmidao within an hour, and the air on the island was almost drained in an instant.

The saturation of artillery fire continued until dawn, and Wolmi Island, an artillery fortress outside the port of Incheon, was now unrecognizable. A pilot who was once responsible for the air raid on Wolmidao recalled that when he came back in the early morning, there was no trace of green on the originally green island. Margaret, a reporter for the International Herald Tribune in New York, said that when she passed by Yuemi Island with her warship in the early morning, "it was as if it had just been looted by a forest fire."

By this point, the defenders of the artillery fortress on Wolmido Island had been almost completely wiped out, and the world's largest U.S. Navy had demonstrated its unrivaled dominance on the edge of the sea, proving with artillery fire that everything bordering the ocean was under his unrivaled naval firepower.

With the first rays of dawn in the morning, the US landing ships sailed in and began to land.

Hundreds of F4U Corsair fighter-attack planes that took off from the aircraft carriers USS Boxer, Valley Fuge, and Sisli under the 77th Eastern Aircraft Carrier Task Force also began to carry out ground attacks on the entire port of Incheon under the brighter and brighter morning light.

After the U.S. fire support fleet had destroyed almost half of the loaded shells and ravaged Incheon, the KPA never returned fire. U.S. destroyers began to withdraw from Exocet Channel.

Although the KPA had sunk two old merchant ships in the Exocet Passage before, the water level rose sharply at high tide, and the soft mud in the channel was too deep, and the tonnage of the wreck was too small, so it did not pose a threat to the passage of US warships.

The U.S. military also found some mines on the near-shore soil above the Exocet Channel, which was a desperate effort by the KPA, and with the ability of the KPA, it was simply unable to complete the deep-water mine operation, and all the mines that had been dropped before were sent to the mudflats by the current.

After the destroyers withdrew from the channel, 232 landing ships of various types took advantage of the high tide to send the soldiers of the US-South Korean coalition to the beachhead in waves.

The 10th Army of the US Army, composed of the 1st Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division, plus the newly reorganized 17th South Korean Infantry Regiment and 4 Marine Corps battalions, with a total strength of 75,000 troops, began to force the landing under the cover of all-round artillery fire from the Navy and Air Force.

After the amphibious landing of the US military on Okinawa on Easter Day on April 1, 1945, the first large-scale landing operation of the US military after World War II officially began.

As the dock landing ships continued to dock, nine M-26 "Pershing" tanks from the 1st Tank Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division rumbled and took the lead in breaking into Incheon as the vanguard, and 1,800 infantry of the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment followed the tanks and began the battle to occupy Incheon.

The landing battle lasted from early morning to dark, and 12 hours later, the American army captured Incheon.

After occupying Incheon, the U.S. troops went straight to Seoul along the Gyeongin Highway without stopping.

Cui Yongjian, deputy commander of the People's Army, ordered that the Jingren Highway Blockade Battle officially began.

In the face of the mobile attack of the US army, a tank company of the People's Army, six T34 tanks and an infantry company of 250 people, were ordered to attack, and the first battle of the blocking battle was started.

First of all, the Super Bazooka of the 2nd Marine Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division was powerful, destroying a T34 70 meters away, and then the American recoilless guns also fired, and the mortars were also whistling, after that, 9 M26 Pershing tanks burst up, and the light and heavy machine guns of the whole battalion accompanied the tank assault strafing.

Five minutes later, the battle ended, and the combined firepower of the US army completely destroyed all six T34s of the KPA, killing 200 KPA, and achieving a complete victory, with only one person from the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division of the US Marine Division wounded.

This is the combat strength of the 1st Marine Division, the most powerful permanent mobile liliang of the U.S. Army, an army group ready to rush to any battlefield.

Will the volunteers who are about to come to help challenge such an opponent?

Or, will such a corps be able to break through Deputy Commander Cui Yongjian's layer-by-layer blocking positions later?

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Heartfelt thanks to HZwangj, Zizhu for the reward!

Ask for a 4-month pass. Xiexie everyone.