Before the Battle of Chosin Lake, Almond, commander of the U.S. Eastern Front and commander of the 10th Army, gave the volunteers a nickname: the washer. This Southern racist was full of contempt for Chinese, but his subordinates were the opposite, because in the First Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division, the largest number of "China Passes" were concentrated. These people have been in China for nearly 4 years and have a full understanding of the Communist army, and the more they know, the more careful they will be.
Almond (right) and Smith (left)
After the end of the Pacific War, the commander of the US army in China, Wei Demai, decided to pull the side, so he asked the Joint Staff for the strength of 7 divisions, but the Joint Staff could not come up with so many troops, so Nimitz squeezed out a total of 55,000 people from the Third Amphibious Combat Army to Wei Demai. The Third Amphibious Warfare Corps, which had the 1st And 6th Marine Division under its command, landed in Tianjin in September 1945 and remained in China until May 1949.
In the past 4 years, a large number of middle and senior officers in the two marine divisions have become "China Tong", and later in the Battle of Chosin Lake, these people participated. Some of them trained the military for the authorities in China, but most of them became "liberation fighters." On the Chosin Lake battlefield, some people are the students they used to train, and in a way, this battle is "students defeat teachers."
The 1st Marine Division got off at Beiping Station
The top seven commanders of the First Marine Division were, in order, division commander, deputy division chief, chief of staff, G-1 to G-4, and five of the seven had spent time in China: Brigadier General Clegg, chief of staff, Colonel William, G-1 (personnel) director, Lieutenant Colonel Wierweser, G-2 (intelligence) director, And Colonel McCrest, G-4 (logistics) supervisor.
Clegg was given the rank of permanent brigadier general while in China, and the day before the Battle of Chosin Lake, his father suffered a cerebral thrombosis, and Clegg hurried home, thus escaping the disaster. Afterwards, some people said that Clegg slipped away because he knew that Chinese was terrible. Because he was responsible for commanding the 5th and 7th Regiments of the Marine Army in Liutan, which was the main direction of the volunteer army. After he left, the battle in Liutanli was commanded by Lizberg, the commander of the 7th Regiment. Although his rank was higher than that of Lieutenant Colonel Murray, the commander of the 5th Regiment, he had long served on warships and lacked experience in ground combat.
The Sixth Marine Regiment stationed in Shanghai
The First Marine Division later concluded that the departure of Brigadier General Clegg, deputy division commander, was one of the main reasons for the defeat of the First Marine Division. The chief of staff, Colonel William, helped the authorities train the army in Chongqing during World War II, and after World War II, he went to Shanghai to help the authorities train the army. But many of the people he trained became "liberation fighters."
G-1 director Vierweather remained in Shanghai until 1949, leaving the day before the liberation of Shanghai, and he also found a Shanghai wife. G-2 director Holkan attended middle school in Beijing, and his Chinese as fluent as English. After graduating from the Annapolis Naval Academy, he has been engaged in intelligence work, training guerrillas behind enemy lines for the authorities in Chongqing. G-4 director McCrest remained in China until 1949.
Marines stationed in Qingdao are training
In addition to division-level officers, Colonel Puller, the commander of the 1st Marine Regiment, spent 11 years in China, the leader of the 5th Marine Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Murray, stayed in Shanghai for 3 years, and Colonel Lizberg, the commander of the 7th Marine Regiment, delivered supplies to the Marines in China as an officer of the Seventh Fleet. Lieutenant Colonel Harris, the commander of the 3rd Battalion of his regiment, spent 4 years in Shanghai, and during the breakout operation in Hagaru-ri, Harris was wounded and disappeared.
In addition to the First Marine Division, the 7th Infantry Division that participated in the Battle of Chosin Lake also had many "Chinese passes," and the commander of the 7th Division, Major General Ba Dawei, went to Nanjing in 1945 as the head of the advisory group. His aide-de-camp in Nanjing was Lieutenant Colonel Feith, who later took over as the commander of the 31st Regiment and was later killed by the Volunteers.
Lieutenant Colonel Fiss (right) and his predecessor, Colonel McLean, both spent time in China
Throughout the Battle of Chosin Lake, the U.S. army has been transporting supplies to the encircled 1st Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division through the air force, and the commander of the airlift is Major General Turner, who opened up the famous "Hump Route" in China and contributed to China's War of Resistance, but now he is China's enemy.
It can be said that 80% of the enemy officers who fought against the Volunteer Army at Chosin Lake were in China, and Major General Thomas, who replaced Smith as the commander of the First Marine Division, also stayed in China, and the last Marine Corps to withdraw from China was personally commanded by him.
Chinese people were building airports for the Hump route, but Maj. Gen. Turner later became China's enemy
Some people say that the 1st Marine Division was not completely annihilated at Chosin Lake because of their super combat effectiveness, in fact, more importantly, almost all the middle and high-ranking officers had spent time in China, and many of the people who fought with them were their former students and colleagues, so they understood the determination of the Chinese to defend their homeland and their combat effectiveness, and they would be so careful that they would refuse to carry out Almond's order to advance. After the Battle of Chosin Lake, Almond no longer dared to call the volunteers "washers".