On the night of November 27, 1950, the 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army launched an attack on the Americans at Liutanli and Xinxingli on the Eastern Front, and the Battle of Chosin Lake in the second campaign was fought. Curiously, the attack on Hagaru-ri, which was the command of the U.S. First Marine Division, did not start at the same time. There was no first time to destroy the enemy command organs, giving the US troops sufficient time to react, and the most important thing is that there is an airstrip here, and the last American troops who escaped basically flew from here.
【Volunteers advancing in the snow and wind】
It was impossible for the commanders of the volunteer army who had experienced hundreds of battles not to know the importance of Hagaru-ri, and they made corresponding arrangements before the war, attacking the 58th Division of the 20th Army in Hagaru-ri, with no reserves. There are more than 3,900 US troops in Hagaru-ri, but the personnel are very mixed, in addition to the headquarters of the First Marine Division here, the command organ of the US 10th Army has also sent a part here, in addition to the army, navy, puppet army and other departments of personnel, as many as 59 unit names.
Of the more than 3,900 people, the real combat troops are only two companies of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Marine Regiment, one company of the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Regiment of the 7th Marine Regiment, and two companies of the 11th Regiment of Artillery, totaling more than 600 people. If it can launch an attack on Xiayuli at the first time and catch the enemy by surprise, I believe that the 58th Division will soon end the battle, but unfortunately history cannot assume that the real 58th Division did not all arrive at the battlefield on the night of the 27th.
【Manga "Chosin Lake"】
The Battle of Chosin Lake was originally scheduled to be fought on November 25, but because of the difficulty of the road, most troops were unable to reach their predetermined positions at the allotted time and had to postpone it for two days. The situation encountered by the 58th Division was particularly serious, because the snow closed the mountain and the troops were blocked at Dongbai Mountain.
Dongbai Mountain is high and densely forested, with snow at the waist, and there is not even a road. But on the map of Zhang Yixiang, the commander of the 20th Army, there is a small road here that can quickly cross the Dongbai Mountain to reach Hagaru-ri. It's just that this map was drawn by the Japanese in the 14th year of Taisho (1926), and twenty-five years have passed, and Zhang Yixiang has no bottom in mind whether there has been a change in the field, so he sent scouts to the field to reconnoiter.
【The Feet of a Volunteer Soldier】
The scouts did not find the path in DongbaiShan, and later met an old hunter who said that the Japanese had indeed built such a road in the past, and he had walked it. In New Delhi, more than a dozen kilometers from the East White Mountains, there were also scouts who confirmed the existence of this road from the local population, so the 58th Division made a plan without seeing the road on the ground: over the East White Mountain and straight into the lower Kisumari.
However, when I arrived at the field, I realized that the East White Mountain could not be crossed at all. Division Commander Huang Chaotian suddenly became agitated, and if he could not rush to the lower corner on time, he was afraid that he would have to enforce discipline on the battlefield. He could only order the 2nd Battalion of the 172nd Regiment, led by Chief of Staff Liu Xiwen, to take a light detour around Dongbai Mountain and go straight to Xiajieyuli. He crossed the Chosin River with a large army to his destination.
【The US military is carrying the bodies of personnel on the side】
It was not until the morning of the 28th that the 2nd Battalion of the 172nd Regiment arrived at Dongqiu, the commanding heights of Hagaru-ri. When the battle of Liutanli began on the evening of the 27th, Smith predicted that Hagaru-ri would be attacked, and he ordered his troops to prepare for the construction of the ring fortifications on the basis of Pershing tanks, M19 twin anti-aircraft guns, and M16 quadruple anti-aircraft machine guns. Since the enemy had been prepared, the suddenness of the attack was no longer there.
The 173rd and 172nd Regiments could only attack in broad daylight from the east and west to the lower corners, and with heavy American artillery fire and air support, the 172nd Regiment briefly broke through the American defensive positions. The U.S. military knew that this battle was the key to their survival, and mobilized logistics, engineers and even civilians to fight together. By the 29th, the 58th Division was exhausted, while the Americans were constantly replenishing personnel and supplies through the airfield, and the 58th Division had lost the opportunity to encircle and annihilate the enemy in Shimogaru-ri.
【The U.S. military drops supplies by air】
The U.S. troops who had retreated from several directions finally poured into Hagaru-ri in full swing, and as many as 4,500 wounded were evacuated from the airstrip, and the First Marine Division ran away! This battle ended up leaving many regrets.