Sam metes was a platoon commander in the 4th Platoon of the 38th Tank Company of the 2nd Division, with six tanks in his platoon, and on Thanksgiving Day in 1950, he was leading his platoon toward the Cheongcheon River. A few days ago, the news came that a regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division had been almost completely annihilated by Chinese, and the entire 2nd Division had become very loud, but no matter how many L-19 reconnaissance planes were dispatched, they could not find a trace of the enemy, and the silence and cold on the march were unbearable with fear. MacArth was a good soldier, but at the moment he was spitting out and cursing MacArthur because he hadn't spent a night on the front line, and he was moving a pencil on a map of his office 1,000 kilometers away, and Mace was about to break their legs.
Mays was born before the Great Depression, and soon after his father was unemployed, West Virginians could do nothing but miners, and his father had to wander around with his family, doing the worst job and the least income. It wasn't until 1939 that the 15-year-old Mace saw an advertisement for a recruitment, and without hesitation, he went and became a tank soldier.
As a soldier, Metz was competent, energetic and physical, and he was quick-witted and responsive, and if he wasn't too educated, his superiors promoted him to an officer. During World War II, he took part in the Battle of the Salient (Battle of the Ardennes), where his company was beaten to the point where only two tanks remained and his tanks were destroyed, but he escaped and became an infantryman and took a German prisoner.
[German soldiers in the Battle of the Ardennes]
After the outbreak of the Korean War, Metz fought in the Battle of The East River, in which he was seriously wounded and removed 38 pieces of shrapnel from his body. When he returned from hospital, he was appointed second lieutenant platoon leader. At this moment, eight hours had passed since he had become platoon leader, and he was cautiously marching north with his platoon.
The cold of the "Battle of the Salient" is nothing compared to the cold of North Korea, which is a desperate cold, they know nothing about the road ahead, but they know that tomorrow will be colder than today. There was a small generator in the company that charged the tanks, but its noise was so loud that it was a last resort and everyone was reluctant to use it, especially at night. Metz could only have five tanks launched every hour, and the remaining tank would not turn off because the tracks would freeze to the ground and one would have to be left to propel the other tanks.
Mace was half-convinced by the rumors of Yunshan, he did not believe that tens of thousands of people had disappeared without a trace like a tuyu, and the reconnaissance plane had searched for more than ten days without finding a trace. But he did not dare to be careless, because the 9th Regiment was already far away from the large troops of the 2nd Division, and the tank company was far away from the large units of the 9th Regiment, and every regiment, every battalion, and even between each platoon was separated, and everyone seemed to be fighting alone. What Mace couldn't stand the most was that there was always a feeling of being watched closely and giving himself a hard blow at any time, and this feeling made him creepy.
While passing through a deep valley, a strange music sounds in the mountains. Metz ordered the tanks to turn off their fires in order to hear the strange sound more clearly. Mace recalled: the sound seemed to come from the sky, a desolate serenade, it seemed to be sung to us, but it seemed to laugh at us, the music was creepy, it was the strangest music I had ever heard. It wasn't until a day later, when the volunteers ambushed on both sides of the road attacked, that Mace suddenly realized that the Chinese had used music to issue orders. At the same time, he was even more shocked to realize that he had entered the encirclement a day earlier, and the commander of the Chinese was watching them on the top of the hill, and informed his troops with music that the time for attack had not yet arrived.
No wonder Metz had palpitations that had been being watched all along. Just a day earlier, he had been discussing with Captain Hinton, who had personally promoted himself, that the entire tank company was already in the far east of the Western Front, that to the east was the Taibai Mountains, and that crossing the Taibai Mountains was Almond's 10th Army, and that the two had even discussed whether they could call for help from the 10th Army if they were attacked, but they did not know that the situation of the 10th Army was the same as theirs, and the commander of the First Marine Division, Smith, was devastated by the complete exposure of his left wing.
[American troops captured in the second battle]
On the 25th, the volunteers on the Western Front launched a full-scale offensive, the 38th Tank Company bore the brunt of it, all 22 tanks were annihilated, Captain Hinton was burned by fire, but the good guy survived, and Metz went to the prisoner of war camp. He later recalled: "In fact, Chinese have been patiently waiting for us to enter the encirclement, they know our actions very well, and in less than a month, they drove 180,000 people (referring to the western front) into North Korea to meet us, and their ambush was seamless, and we became the most obvious living targets." In the end, he concluded: "The war with Chinese suffers much more than in Europe." ”