All language subtitles for Combat Ships - S03E03 - The Battle of Inchon WEBDL-1080p x265 EAC3 5.1 [EN] [EN] MrPanda_track3_[eng]

[narrator] This time
on Combat Ships.

One of the riskiest amphibious
assaults in history,

in one of the most treacherous
harbors in the world.

You have to go in at high tide

and if you don't win
before the next low tide,

-you're in big trouble.
-[dramatic music]

[narrator] Using the most
powerful ships ever built.

[Meghan] The 16-inch guns
aboard the Missouri

can hurtle two
types of projectiles

more than 23 nautical miles.

The large ones weigh
in at 2,700 pounds,

which is like hurling
a Volkswagen Beetle

through the air.

[narrator] The
Battle of Incheon,

the world's last great
amphibious assault.

[atmospheric music]

Combat ships, fast, effective.

His orders were to find the
British and to pick a fight.

[narrator] Going right to
the heart of the battle.

The Marines have always
thought of themselves

as the spear point of the
United States military power.

Their whole doctrine of combat
was to go fast, hit hard,

get it over with in a hurry.

[narrator] Combat ships
have changed the world.

[Mary] She gained her freedom,

now she's going down
a river with an army.

She was like, "We're
about to show you

what we're working with!"

[narrator] Thanks to clever
design, raw firepower,

and the heroism
of their crews.

The rule of thumb on a

frigate is you can lose two
spaces and stay afloat,

but if you lose a third,

you go to Davy Jones's
locker in a hurry.

-[dramatic music]
-[explosions]

[atmospheric music]

[narrator] In June 1950,

communist North Korea launched
an attack on the south.

[explosions]

They captured South
Korea's capital, Seoul,

and cornered thousands of US,
UN, and South Korean troops

in the south at Pusan.

[Vincent] It's not a very
large area

and you don't have any
room to mass reserves,

you don't have any room
for counter attacks,

you don't have any
room to maneuver.

[narrator] The retreating
US troops were trapped.

[Charles] I remember we got the
order to hold at all cost.

We fall back no
further, this is it,

you stay here, you
defend, or you die,

but we're not
falling back anymore.

And that was one of the most
scary moments I think I had

in South Korea.

[Jongwoo] It was a living hell.

They thought that
they are dying there,

they thought that they are
losing the war completely.

So you can say
that it was a kind of

Korean version of Dunkirk

during the WWII, to
the United States Army.

It was clear that North Korea's
initial plan was working.

So, by late August,

vast majority of
the Korean peninsula

was occupied by
North Korean forces.

[narrator] The North Korean
army appeared invincible.

The United States faced
humiliating defeat.

After WWII, Korea
had been divided

into the American-backed
south,

under the leadership
of Syngman Rhee

and the Soviet-backed
communist North Korea,

led by Kim Il Sung.

[Cheehyung] North Korea,
at this time,

was a highly ambitious country

led by a charismatic, very
capable leader, Kim Il-sung.

And his immediate mission

was to reunify the peninsula
under the socialist government

and he sought the support
of the Soviet Union,

and the young country,
People's Republic of China.

And, by early 1950,

he was ready to
take over South Korea.

[narrator] Kim Il Sung

intended to destroy the rival
government in the south.

He didn't believe the US would
come to the aid of its ally.

[Cheehyung] At this time,

there was no significant
US military presence

in South Korea.

South Korea's military itself

was much less
developed and prepared.

[narrator] President Truman
called on the UN

to resist the invasion.

He feared the spread of
communism in the Far East.

He persuaded an
international UN force,

under the authority
of the United States,

to defend South Korea.

For the first time,
the United Nations

was going to war.

They began with a
massive naval blockade

of North Korea's ports.

[Vincent] With aerial resources
providing patrol,

with destroyers and other
warships available offshore

to inspect traffic,

you can ensure that the enemy

is not putting any
goods into those ports,

which forces them to
move everything overland,

which makes fighting all
that much more difficult.

[narrator] Today, one
of the blockade ships

is moored in London, the
mighty cruiser HMS Belfast.

[mid tempo rock music]

HMS Belfast, at the
time of the Korean War,

was still really
quite a new warship,

with many of the
high-end capabilities.

So, while not
perhaps quite as new

as some of those that
had been just launched

in the last years of
the Second World War,

it was still quite an
effective fighting platform.

[narrator] Ron Yardley was
one of the ship's crew.

[Ron] When we sailed
from Chatham

I knew that I wasn't going
to see my mother again,

God-willing, for
another two years.

It was such a big adventure,

such a big adventure not
knowing what the end was

when we got to Korea.

You had a lot of apprehension

and I don't deny the
fact that you got scared.

[narrator] HMS Belfast
patrolled the Korean coast,

sailing over 80,000
miles in the combat zone.

UN ships were
controlling the seas.

But the thousands of troops
they had hastily deployed

were still trapped in
Pusan and facing disaster.

[atmospheric music]

The commander-in-chief
of the UN forces

was General Douglas MacArthur.

He was America's
most famous general.

[Craig] He was
a brilliant soldier.

The problem with
Douglas MacArthur

is he knew it

and he tended to
surround himself

with yes men and sycophants.

He tended to believe
his own press

and many found him
absolutely intolerable.

He was also someone who
thought an all-out war

was the only way to solving
a military conflict.

[narrator] MacArthur
devised a plan

to break out of
the Pusan perimeter

and drive the North Koreans
back over the 38th Parallel.

It would require hundreds
of men and ships.

MacArthur's plan
had to succeed,

or the men in Pusan
faced capture or death.

[Craig] It was clear
to everyone,

not only the Americans
and the South Koreans,

but to the North
Koreans as well,

that the way out of this

was not just simply to fight
forward

out of that enclave,

but to conduct an
amphibious end-run.

The question was how
big of an end-run?

[narrator] To rescue the
trapped men at Pusan,

General MacArthur proposed
an amphibious landing

involving over 260 ships,

at a place called Incheon.

Incheon was the port for Seoul

and 110 miles
behind enemy lines.

The landing would disrupt
North Korean supplies

and open a war on two fronts.

The odds were stacked
against MacArthur's plan.

After WW2, the US military
had made massive cuts.

Some believed the Marines
and the Navy were irrelevant

in an age when an atomic bomb

could end a war
with a single blast.

But most serious of all,

was that Incheon Harbor
was no easy target.

It is at the end of
a treacherous passage

known as Flying Fish Channel,

a narrow, winding entrance

that could quickly become
a trap.

[Jongwoo] The Bay of Incheon
is known for

the largest tidal difference,

high tide and low tide

and the difference on
average was 8.2 meters,

in worst cases, 11 meters.

[narrator] It is one of the
fastest-shifting tidal basins

in the world

and when the tide goes out,
vast mudflats are exposed.

[Craig] If you get in there
and have to get out,

and the tide goes
down, you can't,

so you better get it
right the first time.

You have to go in at high tide

and if you don't win
before the next low tide,

you're in big trouble.

[narrator] The fear was
that the invasion forces

would be stuck in the
mud, sitting ducks.

Because of that,
the North Koreans

thought nobody's going to be
mad enough to attack here,

but General MacArthur was.

[narrator] MacArthur
was unmoved.

He felt his record in
WWII spoke for itself.

MacArthur has a reputation

for coming up with a
strategy of leapfrogging.

In other words, he advanced
up the coast of New Guinea,

for example, by a series of
amphibious landings

that did not take on
the enemy strong points,

but landed behind the
enemy strong points

and basically used
amphibious warfare

as a form of maneuver warfare.

Although I am no
fan of MacArthur,

it was one of the things

that he was able to
do quite successfully.

[narrator] On August 23rd
at a conference in Tokyo

of top U.S. military leaders,

MacArthur spoke about the
troops trapped at Pusan.

[Douglas] Are you content

to let our troops stay
in that bloody perimeter

like beef cattle in
the slaughterhouse?

Who will take
the responsibility

for such a tragedy?

Certainly, I will not.

[narrator] MacArthur's plan,
codenamed Operation Chromite,

would be the largest naval
operation since WWII.

General MacArthur's
controversial plan

for an amphibious rescue
mission

behind enemy lines at
the port of Incheon,

called for a multi-national
fleet of over 260 vessels.

Just like D-Day
six years before,

such a large fleet would not
have the element of surprise,

the enemy would be
waiting for them.

So, MacArthur staged
an elaborate deception

to make the North Koreans
believe that Kunsan,

100 miles to the
south, was the target.

[Vincent] It was a much more
practical place to land,

you could come ashore
in the mass landing

like we're accustomed to
thinking of all

the lines of landing craft,

you know, landing on the beach.

[narrator] American
and British ships

bombarded Kunsan.

Planes from carriers
hit railroads

and bridges north
to Pyongyang.

The North Koreans fell for it.

Kim Il Sung deployed
forces to protect Kunsan.

In General MacArthur's
real invasion plan,

75,000 US troops
would land at Incheon.

They would come ashore
on three beaches.

First, the Marines
would seize Wolmi-do,

codenamed Green Beach,

a fortified island

that controlled the
entrance to the harbor,

where North Korean artillery

and marine regiments
were dug in,

armed with Soviet-made
coastal artillery.

[mid tempo music]

Then, 12 hours later,
at the next high tide,

US Marines would seize
Red Beach

right in the heart
of the city.

Blue Beach, to the east,
would be the final landing.

Incheon would then have to
be taken, street by street.

Once the beaches
and city fell,

the three forces would then
make a combined

attack on Seoul.

Aerial reconnaissance

revealed a network of
fortifications across Incheon.

Many were unmanned,

but MacArthur believed
that the North Koreans

would rush troops from
Seoul to defend the harbor,

so the invaders would have
to establish beachheads fast.

The UN Forces lacked intel
about Incheon's tides,

mudflats, and defenses.

Operation Chromite
would fail without it.

In early September,
a reconnaissance team

landed secretly near Incheon

and set up a base on an
island in the harbor.

In charge was 39 year-old US
Navy lieutenant, Eugene Clark.

He's been involved
in covert operations

in the Second World War

and he's clearly
academically gifted.

He has learnt
Japanese and Chinese

during the Second World War

and clearly was in
just the right place

to help out at the
Incheon Operation.

[narrator] Clark and a team
of South Korean officers

recruited a network of
locals to spy for them.

[atmospheric music]

[Duncan] He relays back a vast
array of information

about troop dispositions,
numbers of troops,

what the beaches are like.

He goes wading through
the mud on one night

to try and work out how bad it
is, and the answer was very.

[narrator] Clark and
his men seized a sampan

as a makeshift combat ship

and equipped it
with a machine gun.

They began secret missions
to scout Incheon Harbor.

The North Koreans
became suspicious

and sent out their own sampans

to find out what was going on.

So they get in their boats
and there is a battle at sea

and Clark very successfully

shoots up the North Korean
improvised gunboats,

and then he and his
men proceed to shoot up

and sink many of the
troop-carrying sampans,

and the North Koreans
give up for the day.

[narrator] Their cover blown,

Clark and his men
hunkered down

and waited for the
invasion fleet.

The key vessels in that fleet
were 85 massive landing craft,

known as Landing
Ship Tank or LSTs.

No LSTs from Korea survive,
but this veteran of D-Day

is identical to those
deployed at Incheon.

Moored at Evansville,
Indiana, this is LST-325.

[dramatic music]

The heart of the LST is its
264-foot-long tank deck.

The ship was designed
around its cargo.

[Chris] Built to carry
20 Sherman tanks,

that's what it's built around.

Tanks are in there
three abreast,

about seven rows out,

so they designed this
ship basically

around that load there.

The LST can deliver
a whole lot of stuff.

20 tanks, 30 trucks,
and 200 troops,

pick it up in one country,
go across the ocean,

and land on the beach and
deliver all of that stuff

without the use of
port facilities.

That's what was
revolutionary about it.

[narrator] LSTs were designed

for Allied amphibious
landings in WWII.

The ship is an unsung hero.

[Craig] It's shaped like
a big bathtub

with cupboard
doors in the front,

so it doesn't look like
much, but by golly,

were they absolutely essential,

not only to the Second World
War, but at Incheon as well.

[narrator] It took
a particular skill

to be a skipper of the
flat-bottomed vessels.

[Chris] It was a whole new
learning curve,

because, for the first time
in the history of the world,

a ship was built where
the captain's paid

to take it up on the beach.

Usually, that's
not a good thing.

[narrator] By 1944,
LSTs were so essential

that D-Day was delayed until
enough LSTs were available.

[Chris] This ship held up
the largest armada

in the history of the world,

that's how important
the LST was.

Prime Minister Churchill
of Great Britain,

he said if he had to pick
one thing that won that war,

it would be the LST.

[narrator] The man
responsible for the LST

was a naval designer
named John Niedermair.

He applied submarine
technology to the LST.

A sub is equipped
with ballast tanks.

When the tanks are filled
with seawater, the sub sinks,

when they are
emptied, it surfaces.

The LST also needs
to rise and fall,

increasing or decreasing

the amount of the
hull under the water.

For stability on the ocean,

it takes in seawater using
10 huge ballast tanks

below the cargo deck,
holding over 180,000 gallons.

Before hitting the beach,

the LST pumps out
the ballast tanks,

lifting more of the
hull above the surface.

Pumping water in and out
just like a submarine

is what we're doing on an LST.

[narrator] Despite
the ballast system,

it was a rough ride
on the way to Incheon.

They're flat bottomed and we
were riding through a storm

and those things,
it's just like that.

And we put cables to
hold those big guns down,

'cause they're heavy

and it even snapped a
couple of those cables,

and there's not much
you can do about that.

[narrator] The LST wasn't
designed for the open ocean,

it was designed for the land.

Although the bottom
of the hull is flat

it's lower at the
stern than at the bow,

a difference of about 8 feet,

the average gradient of
beaches around the world.

For centuries, warships
have had watertight bows

that cut through the sea,

but the LST has a giant hole.

It works, but barely.

[Chris] The bow doors are there
to break the water,

but the bow ramp has a
rubber gasket around it,

makes it virtually watertight,

I say virtually,
nothing's 100%.

The ramp is what
makes it watertight

and the bow doors, there's
actually a pool of water

between the ramp.

It's even been used
for bathing

or something else on an LST.

[narrator] When
LSTs first arrived,

many naval officers
predicted most would be sunk,

because, with a top
speed of just 12 knots,

they were vulnerable
to air attack.

The LST was mockingly
called Large Slow Target,

so crews were given the
tools to defend themselves.

[Chris] On an LST, you have six
40 mm Swedish Bofors,

these are anti-aircraft guns,

which can be used to
shoot at anything.

But they're full
automatic guns,

which would reach up about
12,000 foot, full automatic,

that's your main defense
against enemy aircraft.

[narrator] The most
numerous weapons

were 20 mm Oerlikon
automatic cannons,

fed by 60-round
drum magazines,

manned by a team of five.

The LST crews hoped that if
the tide went out at Incheon,

stranding them on the
treacherous mudflats

in range of North Korean guns,

they would have the
firepower to survive.

On the morning of
September 13th,

two days before
the Korean D-Day,

the pre-invasion bombardment
of Incheon began.

[tense music]

British and American
destroyers and cruisers

opened fire on the fortified
island of Wolmi-do,

where North Korean artillery
guarded the harbor.

[Vincent] When we started
bombarding Incheon

two days before the landing,

that's when the Koreans
said, "Oh, my God,

this is where they're coming,
this is gonna be the site."

[narrator] The following day,

US Marine and British
Fleet Air Arm pilots

joined in the attack.

Then D-Day dawned,
September 15th, 1950.

[tense music]

US Navy spy Eugene Clark

broke into the lighthouse at
the entrance to the harbor

and turned on the light.

[Duncan]
With the lighthouse on,

the invasion force
can fix its position

all the way through the very
difficult navigational waters,

to the point where they can
anchor and start the assault.

[narrator] General MacArthur
watched from

the USS Mount McKinley,

as the Marines clambered
into their landing craft

and headed for Green Beach.

[explosions]

At 6:33, the 3rd Battalion
stormed the beach,

keen to show that
in a nuclear age

it was still the
Marines who won wars.

[Craig] The Marines have always
thought of themselves

as the spear point of
United States military power.

They took the hardest jobs,

they took the
biggest casualties,

their whole doctrine of combat
was to go fast, hit hard,

accept the casualties,
get it over with in a hurry.

[narrator] That doctrine
paid off at Incheon.

Following the first wave
of Marines onto Wolmi-Do,

LSTs brought in
tanks and supplies.

-[atmospheric music]
-[guns firing]

The Marines advanced
rapidly and, by 6:55,

the stars and stripes
flew over the island.

General MacArthur
sent a signal,

"The Navy and Marines have
never shone more brightly

than this morning."

Only 17 men had been killed.

But the tide was
rapidly falling,

exposing the infamous
Incheon mudflats.

The landings on
Red and Blue Beaches

were impossible for
another 12 hours.

The invasion fleet
waited offshore.

Shelling had knocked out

the defenders'
Soviet-made artillery,

but some North Korean
infantry remained.

Until the tide came back in,

the Marines on Wolmi-do
were their only target.

[Jongwoo] Once you are
stuck there,

you cannot maneuver
around, right?

And you become an easy
target of your enemy.

And you're not going to
have any other assistance

or new arrival of the
soldiers until 12 hours later,

that's why it's
very difficult.

[Dwight] That was a bad night.

We were getting resistance.

When the infantry goes through
they get what they get,

they leave those
that are in bunkers

or those with their head
out, they're still there.

[narrator] To help protect
his force at Incheon,

MacArthur continued
to apply pressure

elsewhere on the
Korean peninsula.

A veteran of WWII was
playing a vital role,

bombarding the key
port of Samchok

as a diversionary tactic .

[mid tempo rock music]

The USS Missouri.

[explosions]

The Missouri was legendary,

the last battleship built
by the United States.

She was launched in 1944

at the New York Navy Yard,
at a cost of $92,000,000.

In the Pacific, she supported
the landings at Iwo Jima

and bombarded Okinawa,

where the Missouri
was attacked

by multiple kamikazes.

On September 2nd, 1945,

the Japanese
surrender ceremony

marking the end of the
war was held on her decks,

overseen by General
Douglas MacArthur.

[Douglas] Let us pray

that peace be now
restored to the world

and that God will
preserve it always.

[narrator] The Missouri,
nicknamed Mighty Mo,

was built for long
missions at sea.

[Meghan] She carries over 2.5
million gallons of fuel

and she burns 108 gallons per
mile,

not miles per gallon,
gallons per mile.

And, in fact, she can pretty
much circumnavigate the globe

on one tank of gas if
she ever needed to.

[narrator] The Missouri
had the only active

16-inch guns in the fleet,

and it was these
mighty weapons

General MacArthur
wanted to bring

into the Incheon landings.

He wanted the North Koreans

to think that the
port of Samchok

was another possible
invasion spot,

and that the Missouri
was softening the port

in advance of
a full-on attack.

To be on top of their
game, on September 4th,

on their way to
the conflict zone,

the crew of the
Missouri were filmed

carrying out intense
gunnery practice.

[Meghan] The 16-inch guns
aboard the Missouri

can hurtle two
types of projectiles

more than 23 nautical miles.

The large ones weigh
in at 2,700 pounds,

which is like hurling
a Volkswagen Beetle

through the air.

These rounds can travel
that full distance

in about 91 seconds,

because they travel
faster than Mach 2.5,

which means you can't
shoot them down.

[narrator] Almost
100 men were needed

to load and fire the three
guns in a 16-inch turret.

This compartment here is
the turret officer's booth.

From this space, the 16-inch
guns can be locally controlled

and locally fired,

but right behind this
bulkhead and these doors

are the gun pits where you
actually load the guns,

where the propellant,
the bags of powder,

those huge 2,700-pound rounds

come up from the
depths of the ship,

are loaded into the
back of the breach,

and are eventually shot
off the side of the ship.

A good gun crew can fire two
rounds per minute per barrel,

which means,
if you do the math,

with nine gun barrels firing
one round every 30 seconds,

the crew is able to stack
more than 27 rounds in the air

before the first one
ever lands,

because they travel at
Mach 2.5.

-[explosions]
-[mid tempo rock music]

[narrator] On September 15th,

after an 11,000-mile
dash across the Pacific,

the Missouri arrived
off the port of Samchok

and began its
diversionary bombardment.

Her rounds had a
devastating effect,

able to punch through
16 inches of solid steel

and 30 feet of concrete.

That extreme firepower

was hazardous for
the Missouri's crew.

[Meghan] Sailors have reported,

even standing at a
safe distance,

having their glasses
ripped off their face

and, in one instance,

the Missouri actually
had a door

removed from the bulkhead

from the force of the blast.

[narrator] After pounding
Samchok for two days,

the Missouri sailed west
towards Incheon at top speed

to support the landings.

Her crew was uncertain
what they'd find there.

At Incheon on September 15th,
the first day of the invasion,

the tide was slowly
creeping back in.

The Marines that came
ashore on Green Beach

still held Wolmi-do.

Now, two waves of US
and South Korean Marines

were out at sea poised to
attack the next targets,

Red and Blue Beaches,

where North Korean infantry
defended the harbor

and the roads to Seoul.

The timing of the attack
on Red and Blue beaches

was crucial.

Assault waves of Higgins Boats

would hit the beach at
two-minute intervals.

This part of the operation

had to be completed
within an hour,

to get out of the way of
the next wave of LSTs.

The Higgins boat had
a proven track record.

[Vincent] You have size, you
have speed, you have utility,

these are all things
that contribute

to the success of any
sort of weapon system.

And the Higgins boat
is a weapon system,

it delivers a weapon, which
is the men that it carries.

[narrator] Traveling in the
landing craft with the troops

was veteran "New York
Herald-Tribune" journalist

Marguerite Higgins,

who'd covered the early
days of the conflict.

MacArthur had banned female
reporters from the frontline,

he said there were
no latrines for them

and his men's language
was too crude.

But Marguerite convinced
him to let her go,

saying that she'd
walked out of Seoul

at the start of the war
and wanted to walk back in.

She wrote later on the
day of the invasion.

[Marguerite] I heard
the authoritative rattle

of machine guns.

Somehow the enemy had
survived the terrible pounding

they'd been getting.

The Reds had sighted us
and their aim was excellent,

we all hunched
deep into the boat.

[narrator] Red Beach would
be the toughest to crack.

No one had ever dared land in
the middle of a city before.

It was guarded by a
10 foot high sea wall.

The men would have to go
over the top WWI-style,

right into the sights of
the North Korean defenders.

[Arthur] We had to
make some ladders

and we said
"What are these for?"

And they were 15-foot ladders,

they'd got lumber
from somewhere.

And they said we're going
in where you can't land,

because the tide goes
out for six miles.

Growing up in California

I seen the tide go
out maybe five feet!

We put the ladder up and
then we made the landing.

In my mind, I never
thought of danger.

The North Koreans thought
nobody would be crazy enough

to land in a city of
half a million people,

over a sea wall, with a
30 foot tide up and down,

and so we had two
hours of daylight

to secure our part of
the town that night.

[narrator] As the
Americans came ashore,

North Korean troops on
Cemetery Hill,

above Red Beach,

opened fire on the LSTs.

[Chris] When you're on a beach,

you're pretty much
a stationary target.

So obviously your guns
are manned at all times

and yeah, I would say it takes
a certain kind of bravery

to do that.

The damage to LSTs at Incheon

was basically from machine
gun fire and mortars.

[narrator] Undeterred, the
LSTs unloaded their supplies

and waited for
the morning tide.

At the same time as the
Marines landed on Red Beach,

25 waves of landing craft

headed for Blue Beach
to the east.

[Duncan] Blue Beach
is a harder beach

to attack geographically,

but the real problem
is all of the smoke

and dust from the
naval bombardment

and the fires in Incheon,

which is drifting out,
not just across the beach,

but over the seaward
approaches to the beach

and into this murk has
to go the assault waves

in their landing craft.

They don't just get
intermingled, they get lost

and they arrive
higgledy-piggledy

on the beach.

[narrator] Some troops
landed an hour late

and two miles off target,

but the ship and
aerial bombardment

had almost completely wiped
out the North Korean defenses.

Eventually, the Marines took

the high ground
above Red Beach

and linked up with the
Marines from Green Beach.

Together, they mopped up
North Korean resistance

in the city.

They could now prepare to
push forward through Incheon

and attack Seoul.

Incheon was beyond the range

of US Air Force bases
in Japan,

so carriers provided
constant support

as they dug in on the beaches.

Although, by 1950, the world
was entering the jet age,

jet aircraft weren't ready for
short carrier flight decks.

It was two high-performance
propeller aircraft

that carried out over
300 attacks on Incheon

on the day of the invasion,

the Corsair and the Skyraider.

[mid tempo rock music]

[Karl] It could deploy
a similar bomb load

to a WWII B-17 bomber,

it had all kinds of hard points

for a wide variety of
ordnance, bombs, rockets

and it had heavy cannon,
20 mm cannon armament,

so it was formidable even
if it got bounced by jets,

as had happened in
both Korea and Vietnam

where the Skyraider
came out the victor.

[narrator] By 1950,

the Corsair was too slow
for air-to-air combat

but was a superb ground
support aircraft,

as it had been in
the Pacific War.

It could carry a significant
amount of ordnance,

a variety of bombs,
and rocket power.

-[tense music]
-[plane engine roaring]

[narrator] Corsairs were
able to stay airborne

longer than jets, which
burned fuel at a high rate.

[Karl] It was also good
for interdiction,

such as shooting up railways
or dropping bridges and such,

because of its load capacity.

So the Corsair still
had enough power

to be able to do the job

from a variety
of platforms in Korea,

not only flying from
short deck carriers

and big deck carriers,

but also from rough fields

the Marines were operating
ashore, in Korea as well.

[narrator] Both
Corsairs and Skyraiders

dropped napalm at Incheon.

It was a new weapon, first
used in Normandy in 1944.

[Jongwoo] Napalm was new to
North Korean army.

I don't think they never
experienced anything like that,

so everything just burned down.

[Karl] They took this
new-founded product

called plastics

and they found that if
you mix it with fuel,

it kind of blends in with it,

but it acts as a
thickening agent.

You then had a fluid gel
that was highly ignitable

and it was almost
impossible to extinguish.

-[atmospheric music]
-[plane engines roaring]

[narrator] Napalm was later
used extensively in Vietnam.

Because of its
devastating effects,

it is now banned
by the US Military.

Thanks to Corsair and
Skyraider airstrikes,

shore bombardments, and
the skill of the Marines,

Incheon's Red and Blue Beaches

were secure by late
evening on the 15th.

Journalist Marguerite
Higgins wrote.

[Marguerite] The sun began
to set as we lay there.

The yellow glow that it cast
over the green clad marines

produced a technicolor
splendor.

The strange sunset,

combined with the crimson
haze of the flaming docks,

was so spectacular

that a movie audience would
have thought it overdone.

[narrator] The
Marines ashore dug in

and waited for the North
Korean counterattack.

By the end of the first
day of the invasion,

two regiments of Marines had

successfully landed
at Incheon.

There had been only 20 deaths
and fewer than 200 casualties,

and no sign of North
Korean reinforcements.

Now the troops needed to
move inland towards Seoul.

For that, they needed
big gun support.

On September 19th,
Mighty Mo, the USS Missouri,

arrived at Incheon.

[Meghan] Having a battleship

supporting any sort
of troops on the shore

is a huge morale boost.

16-inch guns are a
terrifying weapon

and multiple Marines
and other soldiers

who have been stationed,

have always described that
absolute sense of buoyancy

that they get,

knowing that there's a
battleship just offshore,

protecting them and
providing gunfire support.

[narrator] As the
troops pushed on,

the Missouri bombarded
bridges, train lines,

and enemy positions
ahead of them.

American Generals called her

the best infantry weapon
the Army ever had.

Along the East Coast of Korea,

the British cruiser,
HMS Belfast,

also blasted enemy positions.

[Nigel] Over the course
of the Korean War,

the two and a half years
that it was deployed,

it fired over 8,000 shells,

most of which were
done by 6-inch guns.

And, in fact, the 6-inch gun

fired more shells
during the Korean War

than they did throughout the
whole of the Second World War.

[Ron] The feeling was is that
when we were firing our guns,

we were doing the job that
we were sent there to do.

[narrator] The
landings at Incheon

made an immediate
difference to those men

cornered at Pusan.

[David] I do remember vividly

when they said we
made an invasion

and the war's gonna
be changed now.

We left the perimeter,

broke through the very
little resistance,

and we had the North
Korean Army on the run

and they were surrendering by
the thousands and thousands.

[narrator] The battle
to retake Seoul

would be slow and bloody.

For 10 days, Marines
who landed at Incheon

fought street to street in
the South Korean capital.

But with a steady stream of
men and material

coming ashore,
the outcome was inevitable.

Incheon was an
absolutely decisive event

in the first part
of the Korean War.

It caused Seoul to be
taken within a week or two

and it cut the North Korean
forces off from their supplies

from the north.

The only thing the North
Koreans could do

after Incheon was retreat.

[narrator] Seoul was captured,

but General MacArthur
wasn't satisfied.

He ordered UN troops to
cross the 38th parallel

and enter North Korea,

provoking the Chinese Army

to attack on October 25th.

The conflict was
escalating rapidly.

President Truman
became increasingly irritated

with his maverick general.

MacArthur had engineered an
amphibious miracle at Incheon,

but he was out of control.

Truman relieved
him of his command.

Neither Truman, nor the UN,

nor the North Koreans
and their Chinese allies,

had an appetite
for all-out war.

Peace negotiations began
in the summer of 1951.

The Korean War has
many tragic elements,

the millions of civilians
that were killed,

all the men and
women of the military

that gave their
lives on the field.

But one of the more difficult
elements of this war,

was the fact that the
negotiations to stop the war

lasted for two years.

[narrator] About
40,000 Americans

lost their lives in Korea,

about 500,000 North Korean
and Chinese soldiers died.

Civilians paid
the highest price,

it's believed between three
and 4,000,000 were killed.

The armistice was finally
signed in July 1953,

but it brought no resolution.

It was a ceasefire,
not a peace agreement.

[Cheehyung] The historical
impact of the Korean War

is lasting to this day.

The two countries
remain divided,

North Korea and South Korea,

and of course since
the Korean War,

the US Military has not
left the southern portion,

South Korea,

and even to this day,

has around
30,000 military personnel

across the South
Korean territory.

It is still an unfinished war.