This section will deal with the 3 days of bombardment from my perspective.

At the time of this event I was a 3rd class torpedoman, my battle station during an at-sea battle was manning the torpedo director controls on the bridge or in the case of a submarine contact I was stationed on the starboard depth charge racks.(The photo here is my starboard K-guns)

Since this was action inside a harbor my men and I dis-armed all of the depth charges in case we were sunk inside the harbor( Depth charges explode according to the depth they are set for,therefore they have to be disarmed ). This left us with-out a battle station and we were assigned to the torpedo deck.Later we manned a 20mm gun on the stern, but had to secure it due to the concussion from the stern 5" gun mount.

Inchon harbor has one of the deepest running tides in the world,therfore we could only stay inside at our assigned stations in the harbor during rising and falling tides and then had to leave and return on the next tide.

On the first day inside, my ship, the Henderson, was assigned to stay on the outer edge of the harbour and blow up mines.The USS Colllet sustained direct hits from shore batteries with 3 casualties on the first day and was unable to go back in on the second day so we took her position. The five destroyers bombarded the town for hours until we had to leave because of the tide.The concussion from our 5" guns was so great that it shredded the heavy canvas covering our stern depth charge racks.It even tore away a 1/4 " steel plating section on the 20 milimeter gun tub.

Early on the morning of the 15th. of September our ships again entered the channel and dropped anchor at approximately 4:30 a.m.,we opened fire on selected targets at 5:54 a.m..At about 6:30 a.m. we ceased fire and the first of the amphibiouis landings started.At a little after 7:00 a.m.our troops reported that Wolmi-do island was secure.I will never forget that landing .I watched the assault troops landing with binoculars and I remember the image of those young men going ashore. Within hours after the successful landing,as the tide ran out the water was a long way behind the beached landing craft. I remember thinking, that if the North Koreans could have launched a counter attack our forces would have been stranded there.

On D-day as we steamed into the harbour,there were 3 rocket ships, a British cruiser and three of our cruisers,and the six destroyers.Also there were our aircraft,from the carriers at sea, making bombing and strafing attacks.After the sucessful landing of the marines and soldiers, we started getting some fire from the enemy shore batteries and all the ships in the harbor returned fire,rapid fire.With our 5" guns and the cruisers 8" guns,it was a sight that you could not believe. Within minutes it looked like a heavy fog at moved in and you could not see the shore.The rocket ship firing barrages of rockets was something you never forget.Needless to say that took care of the enemy fire.

The rest of the day was spent providing fire support for our troops ashore.At times we were firing our 5" guns at targets on the other side of a hill behind Inchon.At one point the USS Rochester and HMS Jamaica were attacked by enemy aircraft.

At about 8:30 p.m., we stood down from battle stations,we had been at battle stations since 3:40 a.m..We had eaten nothing but sandwichs and hot coffee all day.It had been a day that I will remember all my life.

On either the next day or the day after,The Captain gave us a Holiday routine,we stood regular watch duty and the cooks prepared us a dinner consisting of turkey and all the trimmings.I could not help wondering what our assault forces ashore were eating.



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