The assaulting forces had never trained together yet had to deal with possibly mined approaches, 32' tides, mudflats, and a dominating height protecting the rocky landing beaches.
But, Wolmi-do absolutely had to be taken for the Invasion to succeed.
Brilliantly conceived, Inchon was a remarkable military accomplishment. The assaulting forces had never trained together for any combined operation, let alone one so complex as Inchon. Apart from the 32' tides and mudflats, we were all very concerned about the enemy blowing us out of the water along the approaches before we could even reach the assault positions. A month later at Wonsan we found about 3,000 well placed mines. Only 300 mines along the winding, mud-lined approaches would have been more than enough to sink our assault ships and block access to the inner harbor.
Getting into the inner harbor wasn't enough. The assault beaches were dominated by the island of Wolmi-Do, which absolutely had to be taken and held although tidal mud flats would isolate it from support for long periods each day.
On this day, we succeeded. Wolmi-do, with its 200-yard "beach" of sand and rocks, its low-revetment and supporting ridge, had fallen. Seoul was 25 miles further inland. Ten bloody days of fighting remained before MacArthur would claim the capitol as again free. Seoul changed hands two times again during the next several months, but it is still free today.
