"Majestic and exuberant, across the Yalu River. To safeguard peace and defend the motherland is to protect the homeland. Good sons and daughters of China, united in unity. Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea defeat the wolf of US imperialist ambitions! - "Battle Song of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army"
During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, many volunteer soldiers crossed the Yalu River Bridge and resolutely went to the Korean battlefield to fight the enemy. They believed that It was impossible for China to intervene in the Korean War, after all, the new China had just been established at that time, and there were indeed many problems in the country that needed to be solved urgently. Regrettably, however, the estimates of the United Nations Army command were erroneous.
The Volunteers not only quietly entered Korea, but also inflicted heavy damage on the "United Nations Army" at the beginning of the war. MacArthur, then commander-in-chief of the United Nations Army, took a series of measures to repel the Chinese Volunteers as quickly as possible.
What many people don't know is that after the United States and China intervened in the Korean battlefield, MacArthur proposed to blow up the Yalu River Bridge, but why did Truman order it so many times to stop it?
Yalu River Broken Bridge
On November 8, 1950, the U.S. Air Force for the first time sent more than 100 B-29 bombers to bomb the Yalu River Bridge, which can be called the "logistical lifeblood of the Chinese Volunteer Army", and this bombing caused very serious trauma to the Yalu River Bridge.
A week later, the US Air Force again dispatched dozens of bombers to bomb the Yalu River Bridge for the second time, and it was also in this bombing that three piers near North Korea collapsed, and the bridge was forced to be paralyzed.
At this time, the Volunteer Army was in the middle of the second battle, and after the paralysis of the Yalu River Bridge, the logistics and transportation of the Chinese Volunteer Army were under great pressure, and MacArthur was very happy.
He believed that in this way, the Chinese volunteer army on the frontal battlefield was bound to collapse rapidly because the logistical supply could not keep up. But what MacArthur did not expect was that after the Yalu River Bridge broke, the Chinese volunteers did not give up.
The Yalu River Bridge was blown up
While MacArthur let his guard down. Hong Xuezhi, then commander of the Logistics Department of the Volunteer Army, sent people to urgently repair the Yalu River Bridge, and in order to prevent the US military from bombing the Yalu River Bridge again, Hong Xuezhi also organized soldiers to erect a pontoon bridge on the river.
This left supplies stranded on the river for only a few days, and then they were continuously delivered to the Korean battlefield. When MacArthur learned of this, several bomber units were dispatched.
By February 1951, the Yalu River Bridge had finally become a ruined bridge under the heavy blows of American bombers. After that, the U.S. military launched a dense bombardment of the pontoon bridge erected by the volunteers on the river.
However, no matter how the US Air Force bombed, the pontoon bridge could always be repaired in a very short time, and MacArthur's strategy of trying to defeat the opponent by cutting off the logistical supply of the Chinese volunteer army eventually became a void.
Hong Xuezhi old photo
In fact, before MacArthur first bombed the Yalu River Bridge, Truman, then President of the United States, did not approve of MacArthur's bombing of the bridge. Although from the later confrontation, MacArthur was not the opponent of Mr. Peng.
But as an experienced commander in combat, MacArthur even had the importance of logistical supplies to officers and men on the front lines. Since it was no longer possible to prevent the volunteer army from entering The DPRK, it was necessary to find a way to cut off the opponent's logistical supply line.
To this end, MacArthur submitted a resolution to Truman to bomb the Yalu River Bridge, but to his surprise, Truman did not allow him to bomb the Yalu River Bridge.
Just by this time the Volunteers had achieved obvious operational results, and with the defeat of the U.S. First Marine Division, MacArthur began to explain to the American side over and over again the consequences of not blowing up the bridge.
MacArthur old photo
Although Truman has been biting the "Yalu River Bridge" in the early stage, the performance of the US military after this is really unbearable, plus MacArthur has been soft and hard to soak several times.
In the end, Truman passed MacArthur's battle bill to bomb the Yalu River Bridge. But at the same time, Truman said macArthur must make it clear when arranging the bombing mission that the US Air Force should not bomb air bases in northeast China.
With Truman's approval, MacArthur began arranging for Air Force units to bomb the Yalu River Bridge. I thought that I would be able to win after the explosion, but I did not think that the logistical repair ability of the volunteer army was also very strong.
Even if the bridge was distorted after several bombings, the volunteers were able to repair the bridge in a short time. Finally, MacArthur simply ordered the Yalu River Bridge to be blown up into a ruined bridge.
Old photo of Truman
The reason why Truman did not directly agree to MacArthur's bombing of the bridge was mainly because the matter was very widely involved, and the United States was worried that the scale of the war would increase because of the bombing of the bridge.
Truman is understood to have placed the issue in a State Department meeting after receiving MacArthur's letter of advice. And Acheson made it clear:
Tactically, the bombing was not worth it, because before the war, the United States had reached an agreement with the Western European Union countries that it would not expand the scale of the war. Therefore, it is not advisable to act on the other side of the Yalu River.
And most importantly, behind North Korea and China there is also the Soviet Union, a behemoth, if you rush to the Yalu River Bridge, it is tantamount to giving the Soviet Union an excuse to intervene in the war.
Acheson's old photo
Subsequently, U.S. Secretary of Defense Marshall said that he agreed with Acheson's point of view, Marshall as a political figure known as the "China Pass" in the United States, Truman had great trust in Marshall.
It's worth mentioning here that Marshall, while agreeing with Acheson's point of view, added:
"Unless it is found that the Chinese Communists are massing in Dandong, it would be unwise to bomb the Yalu River Bridge in a hasty manner."
After receiving instructions from the president, the American Federation of Chiefs quickly called MacArthur, asking MacArthur to abandon the idea of bombing the Yalu River Bridge and solemnly reminding MacArthur:
The U.S. Air Force cannot bomb five kilometers from China's northeastern border without the latest directives. MacArthur was very dissatisfied with this, and even went straight to the staff office.
Old photo of Marshall
However, no matter how angry MacArthur was, he himself did not want to cause any serious consequences because of his unauthorized actions, so MacArthur could only temporarily abandon bombing the Yalu River Bridge.
Of course, the reluctant MacArthur would not give up the idea of bombing the Yalu River Bridge completely, and he has been constantly stating the importance of the volunteer army of the Yalu River Bridge since then, and clarifying the many advantages after bombing the bridge.
At the battlefield level, MacArthur's decision was also correct, but at that time, the joint forces of the US military intervened in the Korean War and invaded China's airspace several times, which was unreasonable, and the United States was really worried about the expansion of the war.
At that time, not long after the end of World War II, the countries of the world did not want to intervene in a large-scale war at all, and if the United States did not want to put itself at a disadvantage in public opinion, it had to deal with the problem of the Yalu River Bridge carefully.
Volunteer troops crossing the Yalu River Bridge
Another reason is that MacArthur repeatedly emphasized the importance of the Yalu River Bridge for the Volunteer Army, so in Truman's view:
Since the Yalu River Bridge is so important, the Chinese volunteer army is bound to invest a large number of troops in this vicinity and make a variety of countermeasures to avoid cutting off its own logistics supply lines. In this case, MacArthur's bombing operation was tantamount to doing useless work.
Later, although MacArthur won the opportunity to bomb the Yalu River Bridge, until the end of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the logistical supply line of the Chinese Volunteer Army was still not cut off.
It can be seen that Truman was quite right in his view that "blowing up a bridge will not stop the Chinese army at all." This was the main reason Truman did not approve of MacArthur's bombing of the Yalu River Bridge at that time.
Volunteers are scrambling to repair the Yalu River Bridge
In general, Truman was reluctant to let MacArthur bomb the Yalu River Bridge, first, to stabilize the Western European allies who participated in the war; second, to avoid the expansion of the war, which led to the Soviet Union also involved in the war;
The third reason is because he does not think that a bridge can resist the volunteer army. That's why Truman repeatedly ordered MacArthur not to blow up the Yalu River Bridge, although he didn't succeed in stopping the iron-hearted MacArthur in the end.
Don't blow up the Yalu River Bridge