the 8th army was commanded by walton walker. walton walker was a corps commander in patton's army. he's a really experienced combat soldier and a very fine officer. macarthur however came up with a concept to crush the north koreans. his idea was that walker in the pusan perimeter would launch an attack out meanwhile he would launch an amphibious landing at inchon the port area for seoul. the object was to seize seoul and cutoff the north koreans. the problem was multiple. inchon has between 29 and 35 -- 36 foot tide differentials. so, you know -- higher than this ceiling at high tide, below our floor at low tide. that's a huge tidal difference and that makes a dramatic difference when you're trying to land. secondly, you've got mud flats at low tide that extent 6,000 yards. 6,000 yards. so they're going to have -- that's four miles and of course landing craft and ships and tanks are going to get stuck in the mud so you're not going to be able to land at low tide. there are numerous islands en route that you'll have to occupy. as you advance, the waterways are really rough in the w

walker was killed in a jeep accident and he was replaced by an absolutely extraordinary soldier named matthew ridgway. ridgway had been an airborne commander in world war ie and had a great reputation as a soldier and everyone admired him and so having ridgway there was a real asset. you can see how close we actually got. there were troops who made it to the yalu river. the yalu river is the boundary between north korea and the people's republic of china. so we advanced way in. those troops, the people at the chosin reservoir and that was simmons in the company dog company six and they were at the chosin reservoir and one of the horrific experiences in american military history. so you see how far north they advance, but when the chinese came they came in with such staggering numbers that we simply couldn't hold them back. eventually, ridgway was able to call a halt and launch a counterattack -- oops. i keep going the wrong way. >> and pushed back across the 38th parallel and what ridgway did was pretty interesting and first of all, he integrated fire power. you cannot compensate for

they were systematic as they fell back and then an unfortunate accident occurred, walton walker was killed in a jeep accident and he was replaced by an absolutely extraordinary soldier named matthew ridgeway. ridgeway had been an airborne division commander in world war ii, he had a great reputation as a soldier. everyone admired him so having ridgeway there was a real asset. you can see how close we actually got. there were troops who made it to the yalu river. it's the boundary between north korea and the peoples republic of china. so we advanced way in. those troops the people at the chosen reservoir, that was general simmons in his book dog company six. they were chosen reservoir. really one of the most horrific experiences in american military history. so you see how far north they advanced but when the chinese came, they came in with such staggering numbers that we simply couldn't hold them back. eventually ridgeway was able to call a halt and launch a counter attack -- oops. keep going the wrong way. and push back across the 38th parallel. what ridgeway did was really interesting. f