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