achievement was the effect they had on a war weary nation, hungry for good news, the black sheep provided a steady stream of it. theirs is a war story that deserves to be told. i'm oliver north. good night. tonight on "war stories." >> we were eager for a fight. >> a daring invasion no one naught possible. >> i thought has someone gone crazy. >> next stop, liberate the capital. >> we had to blast them out of there. >> i thought i was going to die. >> it was mcarthur's master. the battle for shoel. that's next on "war stories" from korea.

♪ ♪ there's always a looming threat from the noh. >> a threat not just north korea but the rest of the word. >> you have concerns you think there could be another war? >> the threat of war breaking out in the korean peninsula is very much. >> it is vitally important we have american troops here. this is an obligation between our two countries. >> there was an incredible sacrifice in the korean war. i feel proud serving here knowing i'm part of that. >> an assault, the forcible see a assure of hostile territory from the sea is always a high risk venture. the one here, september 15, 1950 during the korean war remains one of the most daring operations in military history. good evening. i'm oliver north. this is "war stories" coming to you from korea, one of the most

hasso hazardous places on earth to attack from the sea. they said it couldn't be done. the tides from low to high were too extreme, that the sea wall was insurmountable. america had promised to liberate seoul, south korea's capital miles away. douglas mcarthur was determined to make it so. come with "war stories" as we battle into the streets of seoul. >> in europe, no sooner had the fires of world war ii been extinguished, dictators were again on the march. as church hill predicted, country after country in eastern europe fl toommunist take

overs by leader stallion. there was a blockade in berlin. president harry truman ordered an air lift to save the city. it was spreaded all over the globe. 1949, on the other side of the world, a ruthless revolution in china brought him to power. next door in korea, divided like soviet and american zones, royalist young took control. he was the communist leader. >> on june 25 the north korea situation is looking good. >> deeson served as commander in

the war. blocked by the americans in europe, stallion saw north korea as next step in his plan for global contest. he poured guns, tanks, ammunition into the north. lead tong promised a million soldiers. both wanted to leave dry on the battlefield. sung sees the opportunity to unite all korea. >> they had permission to go forward. they had backing. >> 25 june, 1950, 135,000 north korean troops supported by 240 tanks and 180 aircraft invaded south korea. communists had their sghts on seoul, more than 1 million citizens 3 s 30 miles away. >> they made great gains and captured seoul. >> stallion, mal and sung

flushed with success. u.n. voted to defend the south. the soviets wanted to see america tied up in a war. as general douglas mcarthur was named commander of all u.n. forces, the situation in korea was desperate. >> they progressed down to the south rapidly. >> where were you on 25 june, 1950? >> i was in a war in san diego, california. >> pennsylvania native warren widon had one dream, to join the marines. too young to serve in world war ii, by 1950 he was on his way to the battlefield. >> the bartender said you've got to get your you know what to korea. i turned to my buddy and said where's korea? >> i got orders to report to

california. >> new yorker frank farkus high tailed back to southern california to join second battalion first marines. >> we went to training. we knew we were going to korea. >> the next two or three weeks it was sheer -- they raped all marine barracks on the coast from the mississippi on. reservists that had never been to boot camp, never fired a rifle. >> my commanding officer was -- >> now leading frank and the other men of the first marine regimen. >> he gave a speech what we were going to do to north koreans when we got over there. i think the cleanest thing i could say is we were going to castrate them. pretty rough talk. >> as the marines shipped out from the west coast, 6,000 miles

aw away, u.n. forces were holding desperate perimeter around the area. >> who comes up with the plan to run an operation against them? >> a man bigger than life, general mcarthur. >> he comes up with a plan. we are not only going to fight our way out of this perimeter. what we are going to do is a strategic maneuver. we're going around them and cut them off. >> code name operation cromite. to land at the harbor with the highest tides in the world. on the sixth floor of the building, supreme commander of the u.n. forces presented his plan. former secretary of state alexander hague was there.

>> truman dispatched to tell mcarthur he could not have this invasion. >> every barrier possible was against this landing. >> i sat outside the door with a crack just a slight and the first response came saying it was a -- plan. he stood up and said gentlemen i'll land the 15th of september, or you will have a new commander. put his pipe in the ashtray and walked out of the room. they all clapped. >> despite's washington's misgivings, 260 ships carrying 70,000 men including 20,000 from the first marine division steamed forward. lieutenant colonel ray murray commanded the fifth. >> we were scheduled to go 12th

of september. we had six days to plan the operation. >> we never heard the word until the day before when we had the briefing down in the hold. >> something was strange because he said crew get down in the hole. we're going to make ladders. we said what are we going to make ladders for? don't ask questions. >> we were down in the hole, and they were showing us maps of korea and what the situation was and that we were going to make a landing at blue beach at inchon. >> what was your concept of that information? >> who tries to land over a sea wall, tides 30 feet, mud flaps 600 yards wide? i thought has somebody gone crazy? >> it's now do or die. the men of operation cromite are

d-day on the waters of the yellow sea finds young americans readying for a rday with death. >> what's the first thing you see? >> i saw land, like a big bay. >> 15 september, 1950, operation cromite was ready to launch. a 21-year-old have virginia part of the regimen was poised to land at inchon. >> they started in the morning. fifth marines landed in the morning. >> first we had to provide capture. >> this is the island, tiny spit

of rock that controls the entrance to inchon harbor. it had to be taken first before the rest of the landing could come a shore. >> they were to make landing in the morning and hold the island through the cause way. all day until we could come in evening. >> ten hours after the capture, the high tides return. with navy air support, the assault of world war ii was underway. >> the naval gunfire, rockets, rocket ships, the whole coastline was smoke. >> under fire, the remaining elements of murray's fifth marines and the first marine regimen headed to shore. >> we went off transport to the higgins boats. from there, we were sailed to

the shore. >> we got down the nets, got in the boat, and circled seemed like hours. everyone ended up throwing up in the bottom of the boat. everything was sloppy. >> we watch the su's go in for air support. >> when i was on a higgins boat, someone yelled hey farkus. >> the guy took your picture? >> i don't know who it was. i looked to see a who was calling me, and that's when the picture was taken. >> this is like i landed at inchon. >> when you were going on, were naval bombardments going on is this. >> yes. >> what about this ramp? >> when we were going in, this was leaking.

>> how many marines in here? >> a squad, 13. >> you had 13 guys on this, got the engine roaring away. >> yep. >> are you talking to each other? >> no. you're not saying nothing. you're waiting to get in and get out of here. >> were the guys in the boat nervous? >> we were all too young. i was 19 years old. we didn't know what death was or anything like that. we were eager for a fight. >> landing along side the marines were republic. >> they provided clothing, rifles and other things because we were part of the u.n. troops. >> you looked just like u.s. marines? >> private first class san. >> the battleships were firing and planes were bombing. after that we landed. >> now we could see the land ahead of us.

we couldn't figure out why we needed these ladders until we came against the sea wall. we put it right up the side. they came a upside ways. we put ladders up, went over the side, got on land and started running. >> first lieutenant lopez led a rifle platoon. in this photograph he leads men up over the inchon sea wall. a short time later, he was killed in action. he was given awarded the medal of honor. >> how high does the tide go up here? >> translator: it was over eight meters. >> how did you climb up the sea wall? >> translator: like a cat climbing up the wall. >> they came up over the sea wall. it was just getting dusk.

all we could see was fire from the hills. >> we had a sand pile. it was soft. the tide was not high enough actually. we were in waist deep water and mud. >> they were shooting at us. our ships were shooting back at them. a lot of tracers. hectic, chaotic. particularly when you wanted to get off the ship and get in the dirt. >> by evening of the 15th, marines landed and dug in. 20 were killed and 174 wounded. the enemy was taken completely by surprise. mcarthur declared navy and marines have never shown more brightly. >> our orders were set is up for the night, get ready for attack tomorrow morning. >> in case we got hit the next morning, which we did. >> with 30,000 north korean

troops, the seventh division lands to enforce

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of billboard music awards moments simply by using your voice. and thank you so much. the billboard music awards. sunday, may 21st. 8, 7 central. only on abc. mcarthur was right. we had caught them with their socks down. >> operation cromite invasion of inchon. north koreans laying were in shock. it was part of the master plan. >> we thought he was genius to cut them off. it was successful. >> you had a morale boost. there was a lot of belief we can

take this north and do this job. >> as marines move inland, casualties mount. >> what they did was turn around and begin to fight their way back up to protect seoul. you had people coming down from the north and people this seoul. then you had people coming up from the south. >> we had hundreds of thousands of tons of supplies coming in to build force rapidly and sustain which is very important. >> the army came in three or four days later. the 32nd division of the second. >> he served twoears in japan in the infantry landing in inchon, the 32nd tasked to help retake the capital of seoul. >> there's only one road going east. we walked out and were walking to our destination.

>> what happened, the infantry pushed them back quickly towards seoul. the furtherer they went toward seoul, the more they regrouped and got stronger as we moved closer to kempo. >> we had to capture kimpo airfield. the great supply depot previous to the war. >> we needed an airfield. >> we had a fight in that city. the following day we captured the airfield against stiff opposition. >> so in a relatively short period of time, we had planes land on kimpo. when mcarthur came over the first time, he landed on kimpo. >> morning of 7th of september, we were drawing fire from a little town. i walked past a door way, and a north korean jumped out from the door way behind me.

he was armed with what looked like the old springfield boat action rifle. the bullet hit me in the left shoulder rear. the north korean marched forward. i shot him. i got my hand bandaged and put a patch on my shoulder and sent me to the aid station. >> 18th of september, we're on hill 123 and came under a morter attack. we lost about ten guys in our platoon. not killed but wounded. i was one of them. i got shrapnel the knee and shin. >> we were scheduled to be evacuated. instead we rejoined our outfits. >> that's when i got my first purple heart. >> did they have a ceremony? >> no. he walked up and said how you doing? i'm putting a purple heart on

you. he said what outfit are you with? i said battalion first marines. he said come over and join us us. i came back, and we were set up on the river. we saw water, the river. >> we saw this bridge that had been destroyed. >> we had the whole east bank taken care of. >> my organization went across. i thought t i was going to die. >> on september 19, allied troops reached that shore of the han river. on this side, 20,000 north korean troops are prepared to p.