The Marines of Autumn: A Novel of the Korean War by James Brady

Author:James Brady [Brady, James]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780312280819
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2007-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Fleet’s battalion was up in the hills, three rifle companies scattered over three hills, linked only by radio and company runners and by sound-powered phone where they’d been able to lay wire. Now, as the morning filled, the casualty and ammo reports began to come in. One of his companies had lost forty men, fifteen of them dead or missing, the others wounded. Another had gotten off light. Eight men were dead, three missing, a dozen wounded in the third. By noon Colonel Fleet was off himself on foot, chugging uphill, wanting to visit with each of the three companies before dark fell, when the Chinese, it was assumed by everyone, would come again. The early snow flurries had ended, and in the brilliant blue sky you could see the vapor trails of the bombers high up heading farther north to bomb Chinese supply routes, the Yalu bridges. The tactical air support, carrier planes, and land-based fighters flying out of Kimpo and the other South Korean fields came in low over and over again, occasionally dropping napalm on a ridgeline or squeezing off machine-gun and cannon fire at likely targets.

“They can’t see a frigging thing, Captain,” Izzo remarked idly. “They’re just firing for show.”

They probably were. But it was good to know they were there. And if it was simply show, it would still have an effort on the Chinese in the hills waiting for night. Verity had been strafed on the ’Canal by Japanese Zeros and had not enjoyed the experience. If only they could get close air support during snowfall or by night.

When the Chinese would come again.

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