“Look at the Inchon Landing.”
I think people these days forget the *extreme* difficulty of merely navigating to the port of Inchon. Vast mud flats at low tide, and a serpentine channel to allow passage—at high tide? Not exactly.
“The tidal range near Inchon is one of the greatest in the world, varying from an average spring tide range of 27.1 feet to an occasional maximum of 33 feet.”
“The extensive mud flats in the harbor area necessitated a tidal height of 23 feet for landing craft, and 29 feet for LSTs. Only from 15 to 18 September were these conditions provided by spring tides, and the next opportunity would not come until the middle of October.” (Marine Corps Gazette)
Much later, in the 1980s, I was on a deep-draft ship that made a port call in Inchon. Some of the officers on the bridge had their hair turn white over night—and that’s with nobody shooting at us. Toughest sea and anchor detail I ever saw.
I hadn’t realized that navigating Inchon is so difficult. I have heard it’s real tough, but hadn’t realized how tough.
Nice to have a pithy comment from a Navy man to clear my thinking. A tough Sea and Anchor Detail indeed. Old Navy fellow myself.
My thought is how easy it would be to run up on those mud flats and be stuck until, well, the possibilities are obvious, eh?