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