He finished his drink. Looking around he decided to turn in. He would need his sleep to be ready for the activities tomorrow. Kim had just walked back into his office when the sirens began to wail across the city. Three men rushed in grabbing Kim and running him out the door and into an elevator. The men dropped eight floors below the ground and opened into a stark concrete bunker. He was ushered into a small room with a cot. There he sat, not knowing what had happened or what was about to.
At the airfield near Changch'an-ni, alarms began sounding after the first of the missiles crossed over the field and disbursed its cluster munitions along half the runways. They went off in intense pops, cracking open the concrete and making gouges up to a foot deep. A second missile finished the job while others were targeted on the hangars and fuel storage facilities. The submunitions also found aircraft neatly arrayed in long lines along the side of the runway. Most of these went up in their own balls of fire. Base personnel were quick in their response, but by the time they arrived the damage was done. Aircraft were burning and the runways were unusable. To make matters worse, ground penetration munitions had found at least two of the underground fuel tanks. In those cases, the ground itself seemed to burn.
Thanks to the work of the B-1 teams that ferreted out the radar installations, over 90 percent of the radars inside North Korea were knocked out. In Pyongyang, missiles streaked down the street beside the Grand People’s Study House and Kim Il Sung Square. Again, the submunitions peppered the immaculately clean square while others slammed into government buildings and the statue to Kim Il Sung.
The naval detachment assigned to Inchon was enjoying a quiet evening until the sound of jet engines began to fill the night sky. One by one the Tomahawks came in, knocking out the radars and missile emplacements surrounding the harbor. Then, in one gigantic explosion, it seemed the entire harbor erupted as a signal triggered the detonator on every mine in the harbor. In a panic, all the sailors tried to get to the one patrol boat they had. The boat had only just begun getting underway when a hail of shells came down around them. It was high tide and steaming into the harbor came six destroyers, their guns blazing. The ships lined up and began steaming back and forth picking targets of opportunity and relaying information back to another ship.
USS Salem was standing just outside the harbor entrance. She elevated her 8-inch guns and joined in with the destroyers, hitting targets farther inland. Troops scrambled here and there, trying to get organized, but as they went to from one position to another they found it had already been destroyed either by gunfire or some kind of sabotage. Everything seemed to be exploding. The fuel farms and the coal yard began to burn. The passage into the inner harbor suddenly exploded leaving debris clogging the narrow entrance. The refineries further inland were next adding to the destruction. Slowly and methodically the horrified North Koreans watched as their world exploded and burned around them. Frantically a call went out for help. The allies were invading Inchon once again, and they would need a division of men to stop it.
The time ticked down until 2100 hours. A “go” signal flashed on the satellite screen in Strike and Hammond turned to his Weapons Officer. “Batteries released,” he said. The launch button was pressed and six Tomahawk cruise missiles lit up the night sky around the ship as they left their launchers and streaked into the sky towards targets far inside South Korea. As that happened, deep in Main Battery Plot the Gunnery Officer began the sequence pulling the warning triggers and then the firing key. Once pulled, nothing on earth could stop what was going to happen.
The big 16” guns let out a tremendous roar, followed by similar salvos from the Wisconsin and Missouri. Once the rounds were fired, the air ejectors began blowing any residuals from the breech and the guns lowered again to the loading position. The breeches were opened and the process of loading began once again. Within sixty seconds the guns fired again.
In his forward position, Hufham heard the sound of tearing linen as the huge projectiles streaked overhead and struck the ground behind the enemy lines. The earth shook beneath the men and the explosions echoed through the city streets. More projectiles poured overhead and once again the ground shook as the rounds came down in the middle of the cache of tanks being readied for a final assault. Using his night vision goggles, Hufham began seeing North Korean soldiers run back and forth, not knowing what was happening.
Then the battleship fire eased closer by 100 yards. The buildings all along the North Korean lines began coming apart as the heavy shells detonated deep inside them, blasting them from the inside out. The North Korean soldiers began to panic.
After fifteen minutes of bombardment, the shells began landing deeper into enemy-held territory. That was the signal for the armor to advance. The tanks emerged from behind the buildings and moved directly into the Korean lines. The second elements were the Bradleys moving through the cross streets and mopping up what resistance there was. The First Cav was in its element, and they were moving through the area like a comb through thin hair. Infantry units followed the others and spread out to find what was left.
Aboard the Iowa, Hammond watched the satellite screen as well as the infrared images from the RPV. When clusters of men or equipment were found, the guns were retargeted to clear it out. Within an hour the enemy had been pushed back five miles.
The same story was happening in Ulsan on the east coast and Gunsan on the west. The battleships had rushed in once the car carriers had landed and poured their fire into pre-marked positions that had been provided by SEAL teams.
In Ulsan, the army compound in the city was wiped out along with all their transportation. The First Marine Division was on the road and moving rapidly out of the big gun’s range. Additional cruise ships had landed the final troops and they were deploying like a large fan from Ulsan across the peninsula.
At Gunsan the North Korean garrison surrendered on the pier. The British commander quickly took advantage of the unopposed invasion and set off in his tanks, followed by the tanks and men of the Big Red One. The First Infantry Division had taken part in every major action since the First World War. Everyone from the top general to the lowest cook was on point and ready to roll. When the call went out, the men poured off the ships, ready for anything. Most were a little disappointed to find no opposition.
The ships were quickly unloaded and the troops pulled out heading east. With no organized opposition, the Massachusetts and the New Jersey held fire until called for. It didn’t take long. The main stockpile of tanks and fuel was found seven miles inland. The ships began firing into the compound as the troops came within three miles. By the time the first tanks arrived the entire compound was burning. To help out, the New Jersey began targeting communication lines the SEAL teams had pinpointed. Major roads were left open unless the RPV found a convoy, then it too was dispatched. Soon more transports arrived to set up the port and land the last of the troops. The Massachusetts broke off and began making her way up the coast looking for targets of opportunity. Her RPV was invaluable for spotting enemy troops, tanks, and other equipment.
In Pusan the troops began receiving heavy fire from North Korean artillery a little over 20 miles from the coast. Ground troops began calling out for gunfire support as the artillery began drawing blood. Unfortunately the American artillery was positioned in another area. Hammond saw the situation but the artillery was outside the range of the guns from where they were outside the harbor. “Get me the Navigator,” he said into the bitch box in Strike.