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