It took less than a week to reach Seoul. General Richardson’s troops secured the entrances to the city on the north and eastern sides while General Monahan’s troops secured the south. Admiral Thacke secured the western approaches by blockading Inchon Harbor. A message was sent to the North Korean commander requesting his surrender. The response was an artillery barrage against Richardson’s positions on the eastern edge of the city.
“Well, we gave them a chance,” Richardson said as the artillery rounds fell near one of the main highways leading to the city. “Major, talk to me,” she said.
Major Leptin was an intelligence officer assigned to the command. It was his turn at the morning brief. “Ma’am, it’s obvious the commander didn’t like your message, but he’s being crafty.” He pointed to a detailed map of the city and the surrounding area. “We are seeing him mass his troops to the north of the city. Their focal point is right here near the World Cup Stadium,” he said pointing to a place along the Han River. “We believe they are going to try and make a break up the Han back into North Korea. It would only mean about a twenty-three mile run.”
“Doesn’t the guy realize we own most of that property right now?” she asked.
“We don’t know that he does. Our units haven’t really attacked any of their troops in that vicinity and he may not have that many troops outside Seoul itself. But he definitely knows we took Euijeongbu, Changsudul, and Sinhwa-ri. That pretty much hems him in. Something we have been watching on the satellite is troop emplacements in certain areas of the city. They have selected specific sites to defend that will give us major headaches as we enter. They all involve key junctions and tall buildings allowing them to control large sectors from those points. Several of them involve schools and other public buildings. We have noticed a large number of civilians being rounded up and placed in these buildings. So we should expect they are using them as shields against our troops. In the case of the schools, the children have not been allowed to leave in the past two days.”
“My god!” muttered one of the officers in the room.
“General, this goes along with what we have seen before. The command leadership is fanatical in their beliefs and has no qualms about throwing lives away to achieve their aims. In this case, they plan on making us pay dearly for Seoul, both in lives and in propaganda,” Leptin said closing his brief.
For one of the few times in her life Richardson was furious. How could fellow human beings do things like that? Not only would they throw their lives away, but force her to expend lives under her command as well. Not on my watch, she thought.
The supply officer was about to make his report but she waved him off. “Anything substantial?” she asked him. He shook his head.
“OK then, let’s get some things going. Based on what we see, this is going to be a rough proposition. Obviously the North wants to make us pay and then sneak away up the river. Well, that’s not going to happen. The minute they start moving that direction, I want to cut them off at the knees. From what I see, the only place to ford is near Munsan. The last time I looked we own that property as well. When he gets there, let’s show him what happens when you land on Boardwalk,” she said referring to a popular board game where that was the most expensive property.
“As for the city, I don’t relish going in and I don’t relish starving them out. So let’s think about this a little. You say they are fortifying just key emplacements?” Richardson asked.
“Yes, Ma’am. We have those pinpointed.”
“Then we change our tactics. No planes or artillery since we will kill civilians. But it means we use our infantry as if we are going after insurgents. It’s a police action again. We learned a shit load about that in Iraq. Let’s put it to good use. Lightning raids on the company level. Send in plenty of snipers and just root them out like a bad tooth. At the same time, start moving our heavy stuff along that line with a major stopper at Munsan. No one goes home, gentlemen. No one makes it across that border; not across the bridge and not by swimming the river. How are we going to keep them from the other side of the river along the way?” she asked.
“General, that river is only about 12 miles from Sido Island. It’s deep water. I can ask Admiral Thacke if he could put some of his ships up there. That way he could reach both sides of the river,” said Commander Jacobs, the Navy liaison.
“Good plan. Let me know what he says.” She returned to the others. “I want options to me by 5 pm. When approved, I want people on the road by 6. Let’s get a move on.”
The staff stood up and left the tent. Around headquarters, things really started to move.
It was cold now in Korea. Once the sun went down the temperatures plummeted. Ricks huddled beside one of the trucks sipping some coffee. As a part of the spearhead across the peninsula, they saw their share of action, but it was mostly minor skirmishes since the Air Force had blown most of the North Korean Army into the dark ages. The assignment this evening was something else.
Ricks was nervous. He and his unit were assigned to a Marine command to go in and take a key spot. A young lieutenant briefed everyone in and gave them the bad news. They were going to take out a school house full of children. Their orders were to rout out the North Koreans and try not to let any of the kids get hurt. All intelligence knew was there were over 100 DPRs in there. There was no word on what they might have with them, besides the kids. It was the toughest assignment he’d been given.
Ricks was trying to stay warm when someone walked up next to him.
“Ricks?” the man asked.
Ricks looked up to see Corporal Miller looking down at him. He broke out in a smile and stood up. “Damn, Miller, how’s it going? Don’t tell me you are assigned to this fiasco too.” He said cheerfully as they shook hands.
“Yeah. We’re going in with you to try and pick off a few where we can. Brought my rifle and a couple of pistols,” he said handing one over. “They told me you were coming along and I thought you might like to carry one.”
Ricks took the weapon, a 9mm with a silencer attached. “Damn right. I was wondering how we might get in. We go shooting up things with the M-16s and all hell will break loose. How many of these are we taking?”
“My guys brought ten and I have five guys with me in my squad. We all have the silenced rifles. The Lieutenant said this should be a stealthy mission. You still have night vision?”
“Yep, and a couple sets of batteries. Shall I pick out the guys to use these?” he asked holding up the pistol.
“That would be the plan. I told the Lieutenant you would know who the sharpshooters were. He said to have at it. Why don’t you grab the guys and meet me over by the command tent. I’ll have the weapons and ammo.”
“Good enough,” said Ricks. He went to his squad and grabbed ten of his best people and assembled with Miller by the tent. Miller handed out the pistols and ammunition. As they were doing it, the Lieutenant walked up.
“You’re getting loaded out. That’s good,” said Lieutenant Dickson. “OK, guys, listen up. You all know what’s going to be happening. I need you guys to lead this charge. I am having another group make a diversion on the other side of the building while we go in the back door. All of you have the night vision glasses and the silenced weapons. My goal is to sneak in and get the kids out if we can. Once that’s done we can kill everybody in the place as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “Now I don’t know where the kids are. They could be in classrooms or could be in the gym or something, but we find them and get them out. Use these things to take out anyone who tries to stop us or looks like will try and hurt a kid. Once we get them away we can start making our way through the building and securing it,” he said.