"Successive battles have proved that it is difficult for our army to achieve the goal of annihilation by encircling several divisions of the US army at once, or an entire division, or even a whole regiment... It is advisable not to have too great ambitions in each operation, but to require each army of our army to annihilate one whole battalion, or even two whole battalions, of the American, British, and Turkish armies in one operation. ”
At the beginning of the Korean War, as soon as our volunteer army and the U.S. army came into contact, they realized that these enemies armed to the teeth were not easy to fight. In order to accumulate small victories into big victories and guard against arrogance and impetuosity, Chairman Mao specially sent such a telegram to Peng Dehuai, commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army. From this, we can see Chairman Mao's caution and pragmatism as a military man.
However, in this telegram, the "Turkish army" is deliberately placed in the same important position as the American and British troops, and does this so-called Turkish army deserve Chairman Mao's attention? Not necessarily.
The so-called Turkish army, that is, the famous "Turkish Brigade" at that time. Before the Incheon landings, the United States, in the name of the United Nations under its control, organized a "United Nations Army" of 25,000 people with the participation of 16 countries. Among these 16 countries, Turkey has a relatively large number of troops. In order to gain the acceptance of the Western world, they sent an infantry brigade of 5,000 people to help the United States on the ground.
Turkey has a glorious history. Think of that year, the Ottoman Turkish Empire across Europe, Asia and Africa, dominated the West for 6 centuries, conquered Hungary, hard steel Russia, how a bull word. In the late 19th century, the Ottoman Turkish Empire began to decline, and the territory under its jurisdiction gradually split and formed a new state. Turkey, the main body of the Ottoman Empire, established a republic in 1923. Although the national system has been renewed, it has not regained its former glory. This time to send troops to Korea, there is quite a bit of reminiscence of the past and the present.
On October 17, 1950, a Turkish brigade led by Brigadier General Yazji landed at Busan and immediately became the focus of local news. These Turks have beards, fierce eyes, and are unusually tough and intimidating. In particular, each of their soldiers wore a primitive Turkish machete, which was unique in the era of hot weapons. Brigadier General Yazji was very satisfied with his battle knife and boasted that he wanted to give the enemy a taste of the power of the Turkish machete.
For this unit, the top brass of the United Nations army attaches great importance to it, and lieutenant general Kurt, the commander of the US Ninth Army, has also publicly stated that the Turkish brigade will be a strange soldier. But this strange soldier soon began to "swing itself".
After a period of rest, the Turkish brigade set off in a hurry without the American advisers and liaison officers in place. A few hours later, the U.S. army received news of the Turkish brigade's victory and the annihilation of thousands of volunteers. According to reports, the Turkish brigade encountered the enemy shortly after its departure, and they immediately entered the battle, first bombarding with fire and then fighting white-knife warfare with machetes. After a bloody battle, not only completely annihilated the enemy, but also captured more than 200 people. However, when the Americans verified the results of the battle, they found that the Turkish brigade had attacked a part of the South Korean Sixth Division that had retreated from the direction of Tokugawa! This is really a roommate, and the water washed away the Dragon King Temple. Afterwards, Brigadier General Yazji embarrassed that asians looked similar, and that the South Korean army had not raised the banner at that time, and he could not tell who was who. In the end, this matter did not end, it became a joke.
Jokes are jokes, and the strong combat effectiveness of the Turkish brigade has been generally recognized. In particular, their daring to use machetes to fight with their opponents with white blades is really not what ordinary European and American armies have done. Chairman Mao's attention to them is also reasonable.
But also an expert in white-knife warfare, the Turkish brigade soon encountered an opponent: the real Chinese volunteers!
On November 7, 1950, the second campaign to resist the United States and aid Korea was officially launched. Shortly after the start of the battle, the formation of the U.S. 9th Army was disrupted by the volunteers, and Tokugawa fell. Kurt, who praised the Turkish army, immediately ordered: Let the Turkish brigade seize the Gazhi Ridge!
Gazhi Ridge is a large mountain with dense woods, located between Tokugawa and The terrain is very dangerous. A road winds up the ridge east, passes through a 50-meter-wide pass, and descends the mountain on the west side of the ridge. Local people call this section of the highway "Eighteen Plates", which is the throat road connecting Tokugawa and Gakugawa. The purpose of the Turkish brigade was to defend the road for the American counter-attack on Tokugawa. Judging by the situation at that time, their troops were not very large. According to American five-star general Marshall, it is equivalent to "plugging the mouth of a beer barrel with the cork of an aspirin medicine bottle." However, the officers and men of the Turkish brigade appeared confident and did not consider it to be an uphill battle.
Unfortunately, they were facing the newly captured Tokugawa, the 38th Army, which had just been conquered, and the 38th Army under the supervision of the "Whirlwind General" Han Xianchu! Almost at the same time as the U.S. army planned to counterattack Tokugawa, Han Xianchu also gave orders to Liang Xingchu, the commander of the 38th Army, to attack and advance in the direction of Junyu-ri, and to send a force to penetrate Sansho-ri to prevent the enemy's retreat and reinforcements. The main road to the Three Houses is the Gari Ridge. Therefore, Liang Xingchu sent the 114th Division of the Volunteer Army to advance along the Eighteen pan road to quickly seize the Gari Ridge!
The Turkish brigade was well known and was highly valued by the Volunteers. In order to fight this battle well, many military cadres have done "sinking" treatment: deputy Yang Yonghui sank to the 114th Division to personally command, 114th Division Commander Zhai Zhongyu sank to the command of the 342nd Regiment of the Xiantou Regiment, and Sun Hongdao, commander of the 342nd Regiment, and Wang Pili, political commissar, sank to the command of the 3rd Battalion of the Xiantou Battalion. Officers and men are united from top to bottom and are bound to fight a beautiful battle.
It has to be said that the Turkish soldiers who had cars as a means of transport were indeed very fast, and arrived at The Gazhi Ridge before the volunteers. However, instead of seizing the time to build fortifications, they did not even enter the position, but in groups of three or five roasted fires on the side of the road to keep warm. In their minds, asians were similar, the South Korean army could not help but fight, and the volunteer army was of course the same. Little did they know that disaster was getting closer to them little by little.
Just two kilometers away, the 342nd Regiment of the Volunteer Army had moved to its designated position. Their scouts had already reported the enemy's every move to the regimental commander Sun Hongdao. In order to achieve the suddenness of the battle, all the soldiers of the 7th Company of the 342nd Regiment, 3 Battalion, who fought in the vanguard, took off their shoes and quietly approached barefoot on the ice and snow. 200 meters, 100 meters, 50 meters.... They quietly touched the main peak of The Gari Ridge, and the distance between them and the enemy narrowed little by little, so that even the other party's voice could be heard clearly. Seeing that the time was ripe, the commander gave an order, and the explosions of gunshots and grenades immediately sounded. The Turkish soldiers who were roasting the fire were beaten to the point of dizziness and held their heads.
The Turkish brigade was indeed a well-trained force, and the commanders soon woke up and began to urge the soldiers to counterattack forward. But by this time, the rout was unstoppable, and some of the people who had gathered so hard had just pulled out their machetes when they were already dying under the bayonets of the volunteers. In the white-knife battle, no one can compete with the volunteer army!
The battle lasted only 20 minutes before the Turkish brigade suffered an absolute defeat. Not only were all the positions of The Gazhi ridge lost, but he was also beaten miserably. Throughout the battle, the casualties of the Turkish brigade reached a staggering 3514, of which 741 were killed, 2068 wounded, 163 were missing, and 244 were captured. In addition, there were nearly 300 non-combat attritions. As a watershed, the Turkish forces lost all their fighting enthusiasm and never entered the fight in formation until they withdrew from the Korean Peninsula in 1954. They failed to fulfill their desire to revive the Ottoman Empire and instead became one of the top three casualties in the United Nations army.
The later commander-in-chief of the US army, Ridgway, once lamented, "The Volunteer Army is undoubtedly the strongest infantry in the world, no matter how harsh the environment, they can always complete the task." "This is the killer skill of the volunteer army. It was their barefoot approach to the battlefield while the Turkish soldiers were roasting fire that they ensured such a swift and complete victory in the battle. Courage, tenacity and wisdom are the guarantee that the Volunteers can defeat the Americans. It is the contributions of these martyrs that have given us a peaceful and prosperous life today, and we should always remember them.