September 14, 1950: The 'Sitting Ducks' of Flying Fish Channel

Today in 1950 · Thursday, September 14, 1950

Wolmi-do island under U.S. naval bombardment, September 13, 1950 — two days before the Inchon landing

Wolmi-do island under U.S. naval bombardment, September 13, 1950 — two days before the Inchon landing · U.S. Navy photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On this day in 1950, six American destroyers steamed — for the second day in a row — up the narrow, mined waters of Flying Fish Channel toward Inchon harbor, and anchored in plain view of the North Korean shore batteries on Wolmi-do island. Their mission was deliberately suicidal-looking: draw the enemy's fire, so his gun positions would reveal themselves.

The press dubbed the crews of the De Haven, Mansfield, Lyman K. Swenson, Collett, Gurke and Henderson the 'sitting ducks.' The batteries obliged: USS Collett took nine hits. In return, the destroyers poured more than a thousand five-inch rounds into the island, and the cruisers USS Rochester and USS Toledo, with the Royal Navy's HMS Jamaica and HMS Kenya, followed up with eight- and six-inch fire.

By nightfall on September 14, Wolmi-do's guns were located, mapped or wrecked — and the greatest amphibious gamble of the postwar era was twelve hours away. The 'sitting ducks' had bought the landing force its opening. Tomorrow: Inchon.

Also on this day

  • The invasion fleet — some 230 ships of Joint Task Force 7 — completed its approach through the Yellow Sea toward Inchon.
  • Born this day: Paul Kossoff, future guitarist of Free ('All Right Now').

🎵 On the radio that week: America’s No. 1 song was “Goodnight Irene” by Gordon Jenkins and The Weavers (Billboard best sellers) — the Weavers' version with Gordon Jenkins' orchestra sold about two million copies, with 'Tzena, Tzena, Tzena' on the same disc. That sound never really left — we recreate 1950s doo-wop and slow-dance ballads every week: read the stories behind our songs or listen on the lovesong1950s channel.
🎬 At the movies: Late summer's big pictures — “Sunset Boulevard,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Winchester '73” — were still crowding the marquees as the fall season warmed up.
⚾ In sports: The Yankees took two of three at Detroit, 21-year-old rookie Whitey Ford running his record to 7-0 — while Phillies rookie Bubba Church was carried off after a line drive struck his face, deepening Philadelphia's pitching crisis.

Sources: US Navy museum: pre-landing bombardment · USS Collett / DESRON 9 account (PDF) · UN Command: September 1950 key events · Billboard best-seller charts, 1950 (issue scans) · Variety National Boxoffice Survey, 1950 (Lantern scans) · Retrosheet 1950 game logs and box scores. Every fact above is drawn from the records linked here — no dramatization, no invented details.

More from this series: Today in 1950 — the daily archive · every post from September 2026

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