Lefter went to the viewing slit and studied the terrain in front of him.
The machine gun nest down by the barbwire looked to be in good condition. He
studied it for several minutes but he couldn’t see any movement there. He got
the field glasses and studied it some more. He still couldn’t tell if the nest
was occupied. Beyond the barbwire, the unused rice paddies showed no activity
even with close inspection through the binoculars. He studied the terrain on
the hills where the outposts were located and saw no movement there either.
Finally, he focused the binoculars on the barren hills where the Chinese MLR
was located and he couldn’t see any movement there. "Where the hell are they?"
thought Lefter.
Then his heart jumped. What was that? Something flashed through the view in
the binoculars. He quit looking through the binoculars just in time to see a
Marine Corsair drop a napalm bomb on the Chinese MLR. Several other Corsairs
followed immediately in single file and dropped napalm. Anti-aircraft shells
started exploding far above the low flying Corsairs and tracer bullets filled
the air around the streaking airplanes.
Lefter went outside the bunker for a better view. He watched in fascination
as the Corsairs dove down one by one and attacked the Chinese MLR. A small
single engine plane called an L-19 circled slowly high above the attacking
Corsairs. The L-19 pilot is telling the Corsair pilots by radio where to
target their next run. It was a strange contrast to see the Corsairs screaming
through the sky while the L-19 spun slowly in its lazy circle. Lefter’s
untimely sense of humor kicked as it occurred to him that, the L-19 is a real
safe plane; "it goes so slow that it can probably just barely kill you." He
briefly wondered why the L-19 wasn’t drawing any anti-aircraft fire but
quickly decided that the Chinese had all they could handle just trying to
defend against the Corsairs. The L-19 was not, in and of itself, doing damage
to the Chinese ground troops.
Although the napalm was being dropped a mile or so north of Lefter’s bunker
it was frightening to watch. Each drop spread a wall of flame that appeared to
be a hundred yards or more in length. It made him shiver and shake his head at
the horrible sights his imagination was picturing in his brain. The soldiers
being hit with the napalm must be screaming while their entire body is afire.
"Holy crap," he said out loud. "Holy crap!"
Now the Corsairs were screaming in single file over the hills and firing
their machine guns. They made several final passes and then flew southeasterly
and crossed the U.S. MLR several hundred yards to the east of Lefter. The L-19
was nowhere in sight. Lefter decided that the L-19 must have retreated south
under the cover of the strafing runs by the Corsairs. Clever tactic he
thought.
Lefter was still standing beside the bunker when he heard the familiar
whistle of incoming artillery. "Oh shit!" he said as he ran back into the
bunker. The round went overhead and landed somewhere on the backside of the
hill. "You dumb shit," he mumbled to himself, "you dilly dallied around out
there until some Chinese spotter called one in on you. You’re lucky a sniper
didn’t pick you off." Then he heard more incoming rounds. The incoming kept
increasing in numbers until the air was filled with those eerie whistling
sounds. Soon the sound of outgoing artillery rounds combined with the whistles
of incoming rounds.
Looking out of the viewing slit, Lefter could see exploding artillery
rounds landing down the slope in front of him. Several rounds landed in the
barbwire line. The explosions left caused gaping holes in the barbwire
entanglements. So far, the machine gun nest was intact. Lefter could hear
other rounds landing behind the bunker area and along the MLR on both sides of
his bunker. A large explosive flash temporarily blinded Lefter. A round had
landed directly in front of the bunker. It briefly blinded Lefter but he heard
the immediate thumps of shrapnel hitting the sandbags along the bunker. He
jumped back and shook his head. As his eyesight came slowly back, he retreated
to the wooden table, sat down and buried his head in his hands. Shaking his
head in his hands he thought of how lucky he was that a piece of the shrapnel
didn’t come through the viewing slit and hit him in the head.
Read more about me and my writings at www.authorsden.com/jcharlescheek
John Cheek, Korean War Veteran