Today is September 15, 2025. 75 years ago at 0633 on September 15, 1950, United States Marines of 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division began landing on Wolmi-do, Green Beach, the initial phase of Operation Chromite, the Incheon Landings.
The landings were preceded by both air and sea bombardment of Korean Peoples Army positions on Wolmi-do and in Incheon proper. Those positions had been identified by Navy Lieutenant Eugene Clark and his small Korean team who had scouted the approaches to Incheon, confirmed there were no sea mines in the shipping channel, measured the sea walls at the landing beaches, lit the liughthouse on Palmi-do, and marked positions of defensive bunkers and anti-air cannons and machine guns. Their targeting allowed the landing fleet to approach the beaches relatively unscathed and allowed Naval Aviation to continue targeting newly identified positions as the Marines landed and secured the island.
3/5 Marines quickly secured Radio Hill, the commanding mass above Green Beach, wheeled right along the shore to secure So-Wolmi-do, and blocked the causeway linking Wolmi-do with Incheon proper. By 1200, 3/5 Marines had completed mopping up the communist defenders of Wolmi-do. Then, they waited. The tide had receded, leaving mud-flats surrounding Incheon, preventing the approach of additional forces. Follow-on landings at Red and Blue beach could not proceed until the tide returned. Marine and Navy aircraft bombed and strafed anything that could be considered a target within a 25-mile radius of Incheon. Naval gunfire support hit targets identified by air or ground forces. The pummeling bombardment lit fires in Incheon and smoke spread south driven by the wind.
At 1730, the remainder of 5th Marines began landing at Red Beach, north and east of Wolmi-do, and the 1st Marine Regiment landed at Blue Beach, south and east. The Red Beach landings proceeded nearly on plan, and the landing force linked up with their brothers from 3d Battalion crossing the causeway from Wolmi-do. 5th Marines attacked through stiff resistance to secure Cemetery Hill, their immediate objective, and moved on to attack Observatory Hill and the British Consulate.
Blue Beach did not go as smoothly, as their landing beach was hidden by rain squalls and smoke from fires in Incheon. The first wave, headed for Blue-1 landed on time, but subsequent waves spread out and missed their targets. Still by dark, the 1st Marines were ashore and attacking their objectives.
The 1st Marine Division secured Incheon and were poised to continue attacking toward Kimpo and Seoul by dawn on September 16. The landing plan had been risky, due to the terrain, tidal conditions, and extreme distance from Army forces, but the Naval Task Forces off-shore and overhead, and the Marine Landing Forces had taken that imperfect plan and made it work through determination and skill. Casualties could be considered light, 20 killed, 1 missing, and 174 wounded. Now, far to the south-east, 8th Army was poised to begin their breakout from the Pusan Perimeter.