channel a vast stream of men into the battle for the city to the north. As the air coordinator brought his rockets and bombs crashing down into the headquarters building, Barrow called for pin-point heavy mortar barrages upon the buildings where the greatest numbers of North Koreans were being seen. Other planes dived in low delivering hurtling tanks of fire-jelly, which skidded then flowered into bursting blossoms of oily flames. As the fires spread through the buildings, the Marines saw first dozens, then hundreds, then literally thousands of enemy soldiers running down the narrow twisting lanes between the buildings. The machine-gunners rushed their weapons out upon the open edge of the ridge and swept the alleys and streets with heavy fire. Great columns of flames and smoke billowed skyward. Soon the entire district was a furnace. Artillery barrages began falling with the mortars, while ever more planes swooped down at called intervals. It became very clear that the district ahead was doomed. Probably no one will ever know, for sure, just how many Communist soldiers perished in that fire. The area was hit by everything in the book for eighteen hours. Shortly after dawn the next morning, when the shelling stopped and the only noise from the ruins was the crackle of flames and the crash of a falling wall, the Marines, in full strength, advanced through the twisted, tangled jungles of those torn streets with their smoldering pillboxes. And not a shot was fired when they moved into the center of worst destruction, the area that had been the core of the enemy's garrison. They then moved on to attack the railroad station, the Reds' next point of resistance—and their next objective. Street fighting was a new experience for the Marines slipping along the building fronts while moving in upon the station. During World War I their battles had been deep in France's Argonne Forest and Belleau Woods. During World War II their fighting had taken place on the beaches and in the dank jungles of the Pacific. Street fighting was something new—but they quickly adjusted themselves to its peculiarities . . . and carried the attack closer, and yet 이것이 전쟁이다! Ⅴ. The City l 129
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