On January 25, 1953, the 2nd Battalion of the 31st Regiment of the 7th Division of the US Army, under the command of Van Vleet, launched an attack on the nameless heights of the Dingzi Mountain garrisoned by the Volunteer Army, which was not a simple military operation for Van Vleet, which was related to the face and future of his professional soldiers. There was only one platoon of volunteers on the high ground, and after 4 days of indiscriminate bombardment, he believed that there were no living people on the position, and he was determined to win this battle.
【US artillery bombards volunteer positions】
The Battle of Shangganling, which ended more than two months ago, was not only a military defeat for Van Vleet, but also a political defeat. From the moment he took on this task, he was no longer human inside and out. In 1952, the election year of the United States, Truman, who was seeking re-election, and his rival Eisenhower were fiercely contested, and whether to end the Korean War was an important public opinion position for both sides.
Eisenhower believed that the Korean War was protracted, the US military was hugely depleted and suffered heavy casualties, and the domestic anti-war cries were high, and it was time to end the Korean War. But Truman had no choice but to authorize the U.S. military to intervene in the Korean War, and could only continue to support the war to the end. But then a victory is urgently needed to footnote the correctness of its own policies, and in this case, the Korean battlefield, which has not had a large-scale battle for more than a year, is once again clamoring.
Originally, Van Vleet did not intend to fight a big fight, the plan to attack the Five Holy Mountains, he only planned to spend 5 days and 200 casualties. Once the Five Holy Mountains are occupied, the U.S. armored forces in the plains more than 200 kilometers behind can drive straight in, and the volunteers will have no danger to defend. Unfortunately, Van Vleet misestimated the opponent, and the Shangganling battlefield finally became a "meat grinder", and the US army spent 43 days and suffered more than 25,000 casualties, but finally returned home.
Van Vleet offended both sides with the defeat of Shangganling, and Truman, who was in desperate need of a victory, hated him, and Eisenhower, as a classmate, was equally angry with him. But does Van Vleet have a choice? Can the commander-in-chief of the three armies let himself launch an attack and not listen? At the end of 1952, Eisenhower, who had already won the general election, came to the front line to inspect, and the whole time he gave a cold face to his classmate Van Vleet, who felt that he was not a person inside and outside, and his military career was probably coming to an end.
[Eisenhower inspected the front line and ignored Van Vleet (second from left)]
The coalition commander, Clarke, was sympathetic and understanding of this, a disciple of Van Vleet (two levels lower), who believed that the situation was not too bad to be irredeemable, and that it only took a victory and hype to salvage the impact. Van Vleet agreed to his advice, but he also learned the lesson of Shangganling, that is, he must do a good job of pre-war reconnaissance, and persimmons should pick up soft pinches.
After some provocation, Van Vleet chose T-Shaped Mountain (known to the U.S. military as T-Shaped Mountain). Located 13 kilometers west of Cheorwon, T-shaped mt. Shiroyama and Mt. Shiba is chosen for three reasons. First, it is small, although Shangganling is small, it still has 3.7 square kilometers, while the T-shaped mountain position is only 300 square meters, which is almost only one-tenth of the 10,000th of Shangganling. Second, there are few people, because the position is small, there is only one platoon of volunteer troops stationed there, and more cannot be put down at all, and the 1st platoon of the 1st Battalion, 1st Battalion, 1st Company, 201st Regiment, 67th Division, 23rd Army, garrisoned volunteers has only been defended for less than ten days, and has not yet fought with the US army, and does not know the depth of the US army; third, this place is not a place where the volunteer army is desperately fighting, and in case the war situation is unfavorable, the volunteer army is likely to abandon T-Shaped Mountain.
[On the area, the size of the T-shaped mountain position is only one-tenth of the ten thousandth of Shangganling]
Clarke in order to support the senior is really heartbreaking, he invited 12 reporters from 9 domestic media, let them appear on the spot, only wait for General Van Vliet to win, he will publicize his deeds, let his superiors and classmates know that the defeat of the Battle of Shangganling is not because Van Vleet is incompetent, but the opponent is too strong.
The day of the attack was chosen on January 25, because the next day was the day Eisenhower announced his inauguration, and Van Vleet intended to give him a victory as a congratulatory gift, even if the war was to end, it would have to end it decently, wouldn't it? Beginning on 20 January, the U.S. army continued to shell the T-Shaped Hill positions with the intention of destroying the Volunteer defenses.
At 8 a.m. on the morning of the 25th, the 58th Fighter-Bomber Wing dispatched 88 sorties of aircraft to bomb T-Shaped Mountain for up to 3 hours, dropping a total of 200,000 pounds of bombs and 8 boxes of napalm. At 11:00, 126 artillery pieces from 7 artillery battalions began to bombard the volunteer positions, during which time bombers came to bomb another round. The reporters were stunned, and the fabled amount of Van Vliet's ammunition was terrifying.
An hour after the shelling, the 2nd Battalion E Company, under the cover of 33 tanks, launched an attack on the Volunteer positions. However, the plot once again deviates from Van Vliet's script: as Company E approaches the top of the mountain, pieces of grenades fly down, and the volunteers on the top of the hill are not destroyed in the indiscriminate bombardment. Instead, E Company was caught off guard, and the first attack was frustrated. Battalion Commander Philip did not care, and he organized his forces to start a second round of attack.
The battle continued until 17:00 p.m., Philip's eyes were red, the 2nd Battalion E Company had already suffered more than half of the casualties, he replaced the 1st Battalion A Company, and then simply went up the whole battalion together to launch a sea of people. Even so, the position remained firmly in the hands of the volunteers. At about 18:00, it was already dark, and fearing that the volunteers would counterattack, Van Vleet announced that it would stop the attack and retreat. Again, this line of action has been completely defeated.
On the 25th of the offensive alone, the bombers dropped 230,000 pounds and consumed nearly 170,000 rounds of shells. A small position only one-tenth the size of Shangganling suffered more than half of the shells on the first day of Shangganling, and the final result was that the American army suffered more than 150 casualties, of which 77 were killed, while the volunteers were only 3 killed and 8 wounded.
【Van Fleet (first from left)】
The reporters are gone, let us come all the way to see you lose the battle? The media violently criticized Van Vleet, "What is the value of the experiment of letting American youth die in vain?" "It's not a fight, it's a gladiator show for VIPs to watch!" "It's a hopeless war," "It's time to end the Korean War." ”......
How could Clark and Van Vleet not have imagined that this would be the result, said good soft persimmons? What about the good gifts? The world had changed completely, and Van Vleet felt exhausted. Five days later, Van Vleet was "retired" and ended his military career. An excellent general who rose to prominence in World War II ended in disgrace after being hit by the Volunteers.