Wolmi-do
On Sat, 24 May 1997
Bert Kortegaard korteng@rt66.com wrote:
80 Mimbres
Los Alamos, NM 87544
Personally, I would like to see a little more on the Navy, particularly
PHIBPAC.
My ship, the USS Wantuck, APD125, not only took the 5th Marines
into Wolmi Do at Inchon, along with other missions, but also took the
British Royal Marine Commandos in on two raids on the East Coast.
I think these were the same Commandos who got shot to pieces
trying to relieve the 1st, 5th and 7th Marines later in the reservoir
at Hagaru Ri, Yudam Ni, etc.
My ship was an Attack Transport. She was about the size of a Destroyer
Escort mounting a single 5" main battery, with 4 LCVP assault boats; two
on davits on either side, aft. When on missions like the Commando raids,
or as when we carried UDT Team 11 at Wonson to clear mines, the LCVP's
would tow rubber rafts with troops or UDT guys. There were 4 APDs in
service in PHIBPAC at that time.
I would like to find any of the commandos or Marines who we took
into combat, or evacuated when wounded, and/or any of the old Wantuck
crew. I'll buy the beer ....
Update: 8/21/98
In case you're interested, I just put up a web site with a couple of
pics of the Wantuck, including one somebody took of us a couple of hours
after we initiated the ground action there by landing the 5th Marines in
the assault on Wolmi Do.
Wantuck Website
Bert Kortegaard, ET1, USN, 7989466
More History
All the assault beaches were attacked at favorable tides. Although
there were air attacks for about nine days on all communication
roads, railways, etc at Kunson (a diversionary ploy), the only
beach preparations for Inchon were the two day Destroyer, Cruiser
Air bombardment before the assault, and again in the morning
before we went in, along with the awesome LSMRs.
The tides were high enough for our LCVPs to get the troops to
Wolmi-do, and in the afternoon to the seawalls at the other beaches,
where the Marines were able to do their thing. In between the
two assaults the tides were out, and Wolmi-do was surrounded
by a sea of mud.
There really weren't any preparations to do, except search for mines,
and the ROK small craft had tested that.
What you may be thinking of is Palmi-do? That was a joint
CIA-military operation, led by Navy Lt. Clark, an old China
hand, with an army captain and three enlisted men. They landed
on Yonghung-do, a week before the main assault. That's a real
small island at the mouth of the channel, ten miles from Inchon.
They fought off the NK in small boats, killing about 16 of them,
organized the South Koreans to help them, and scouted the tides,
mud-flats, and seawalls. One of the Koreans they recruited even
got on Wolmi-do for a look-see.
The main thing they did, they got an old light-house working on
Palmi-do, and had it going when MacArthur sailed by in the
Mount McKinley. He hadn't a clue that it was operating courtesy
of mission "Trudy Jackson".
The down side, when Clark moved his small unit to Palmi-do, the
NK came back to Yonghung-do, lined up 50 South Koreans who
had helped Clark, and murdered them all. A favorite NK tactic.
My regrets about the KW are that we never rounded up the
guys who did tens of thousands of murders like that, and hanged
them all. !
The specifics on the above come from my notes which I took
while preparing my Korean War site, and the bibliography I
used is listed there. I do have one other reference, which I
never tracked down, and probably you'd need to get it from
some government archive.
Karig, et al: Battle Report, the war in Korea (pp 176-91)
If I get time, I'll track down the references I used for my
notes, and put something in about it on my Inchon page.
That Clark must have been one helluva man, and their
mission deserves to be remembered.
Thanks for reminding me. Hope this helps.
Bert Kortegaard
http://rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/arms.htm
http://www.kmike.com/apd125.htm
Follow up on Marines
comments:
From: WillieOz Email address
Date sent: Sat, 28 Feb 1998
To: korteng@rt66.com
Subject: Wantuck
Hi,
Read your memo about the Wantuck. The marines you mention were the 41st
Commando, RM. They were based with us , NBG-1 ,stationed at Camp
McGill, near Yokosuka, along with UDT-1 who I think went on a few
operations with you fellows
regards,
Bill Osborne, ex rm2,
HQU1, Naval Beach Group One.
Info wanted on ship
On Sat, 3 Jan 1998
William Wantuck Email address wrote:
phone: 713-723-2768
I am William Wantuck, a Navy Vetern who served aboard the USS Montrose
APA 212 during the Korean War, makeing the landings at Inchon.
I have always wanted to know something about the USS Wantuck because the
ship has my last name. I did run across the ship once in Pacific waters
but couldn't get aboard due to limited time.
Please contact me if you have any information on this matter.
William Wantuck, Houston Texas...
More on Wantuck Name
On Mon, 6 Apr 1998
Bert Email address wrote:
Ted,
Here's a copy of my reply to Bill Wantuck who asked on the
Wantuck page about the origin of the ship's name. He replied
to this post saying that Private John Wantuck was a distant
relative of his.
Bert
=======
Hi again, Bill,
The Wantuck was in Tokyo bay at the time of the Jap surrender.
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq69-1.htm
She was converted from the DE692, and apparently had a
reunion I never heard about. Here's the contact person's
phone and address:
http://www.army.mil/VETINFO/Detail.CFM?alumni8__ID=102468
If you are related to one John Joseph Wantuck, a Marine Private
probably killed early in WWII, it appears that the Wantuck was named
after him.
-----------
http://www.marylandsilver.com/books.htm
World War II
American High Speed Transports; APD's
Crosley Class, (TEV) conversion
A study in Blueprints
155 pages. By Duane D. Borchers, Sr.
This is a 11" X 17" soft cover book of plans. It contains 54
blueprints, ship histories and ships history of the Crosley class of
U.S. High Speed Transports. Ships of class: APD
87-139. Index.
Wantuck, John Joseph, Private, pg.10
USS Wantuck (APD-125), pg. 10
You might also check the Dictionary of American Fighting Ships, Navy
Department, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History
Division.
That's about all I'm likely to find out. Good luck with the contacts.
Bert
Photo collection
On Sun, 4 Apr 1999
Mike Byrd Email address wrote:
My name is Mike Byrd. I am the eldest son of two brothers of James
(Jimmie) Lewis Byrd. My dad, 19 at the time, was a signalman and radio
operator on the USS Wantuck during the Inchon invasion.
Unfortunately, my dad was killed in 1958 in an industrial accident here
in Houston. I was 3 at the time and by brother Steve, was 3 months.
Obviously, due to my age, I have very little recollection of my dad but
am very fortunate to have a number of photo's (approximately 50) he
took during his tour aboard the Wantuck.
I am attaching a few of them in this EM. In particular, he took
some specific photo's of crew members and I have their names on the
photographs. I have photo's of Noyer, Carl; Maynard, Mize; Smith,
Calvin, Mitchell, Ken; Stram, Monte; Wallace, George; Crawford, Earl;
Hester, Bill; Murphy, John; Lord, Jim; Oaks, Ernie; Haupt, Ed; Barnes,
Bill; Cordova, Moses; Coffman, Fred; Stevens, Richard; and Kerwin, Chic.
In addition, I have a number of photos with unnamed crew. I also have
a newspaper article from the Houston Chronicle dated 21 Jan 1951, when
my dad and Chief Mitchell were interviewed about their experiences in
Korea. Chief Mitchell had returned to a recruiting post and my father
was home on leave visiting his mother.
I am sure my dad would have been pleased to pass this on to his
shipmates. Also, I would very much appreciate hearing from any of his
shipmates who can tell me anything about my dad.
ARCHIE L BACKLIN's Tour History
On Wed, 25 Mar 1998
"David L. Backlin" Email address wrote:
APD 125
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 13:00:49 -0600 (CST)
I wrote my father the other day to ask about his navy career. Here is
some of what he had to say:
Edrei
From: MR ARCHIE L BACKLIN Email address
After radio school in Madison, WI, I ended up on a mine sweeper in the
Pacific. The USS Inaugural, AM242.
.. the war had ended and there was a bunch of mines around Korea, yes
Korea, that the B29's had dropped to waylay the Japanese shipping.
We helped get them out. Later we, the young crew all replacements by
this time, mothballed the tub in Orange, TX. It was sold later and the
last I saw it it was below the Arch in St. Louis.
... I was in the navy that time for about a year and a half. Got re-
called for Korea and ended up on the USS Wantuck (we called) it
something else. It was the APD125; a converted destroyer escort that had
been modified to carry commando type troops north of the 38th parallel.
We took ROKS (Republic of Korea) troops, British commandos and Navy
Frogmen, I think they call them Seals now, up north at night and they
would sneak in a raise a bit of hell.
My job in this was minor, I was what they referred to as a radio girl;
radio operator. Recieved morse code messages and copied them down with
a typewriter, manual kind in those days; all capitol letters with a
different number row that had a zero with a crossbar thru it.
Most messages were in coded groups of mixed numbers and letters and we
very seldom ever found out what was in them. These messages were broad-
cast 24 hours a day and we copied them all but only'broke' the ones
for us. On rare occasions we got to send a message in morse code.
During "operations" we got a chance to broadcast voice once in awhile. I
spent about a year and a half on the Wantuck also; spent a very short
time on another APD, I think the 124, and was just about ready to go
back from the west coast when I got my second discharge.
Total time about 3 years in the navy with a break for four years of
college.
Green Beach
On Wed, 9 Dec 1998
Gene Schloegel Email address wrote:
I was the medic that served on the USS Wantuck on the mission of both
the green beach landing at wolmi do, (inchon) and the commando raids
listed on your site.
we had to bury a commando (british) at sea who was killed on one of the
raids. the other raid was with the marines. I was in landing boat
for both raids.
the raids were on the dark of the moon, it was so dark that you could
not see your hand in front of your face, the LCVR assult boats were
guided to the beach by use of a radar screen attached to back of the
boats.
There was a house close to the entrance to the rail tunnel which the
commandos took control of. The tunnel was then mined. A train went
through the tunnel just prior to being blowned.
The rail tunnel blew when the commandos were loading back into the boats
to return to the ship. The blast lit the sky and exposed the commandos
to the korea machine guns which open up on the beach area killing a
commando.
The five inch gun from the Wantuck open up and silence the machine guns.
The ship also was the first ship to enter inchon harbor for the landing
at wolmi do green beach. When the war started the Wantuck was in
Hong Kong as station ship to remove the americans if china was to try
to take hong kong.
Hong Kong was the best Liberty Port in World at that time. Most of crew
was not to happy to leave it.
my email is gschloegel @ msn.com
