On December 6, 1950, the 116th Division of the 39th Army of the Volunteer Army took the lead in attacking Pyongyang, and when the American army fled in a hurry, it piled up the supplies that could not be transported and set fire to the south bank of the Datong River. Jiang Daoyun, a soldier of the 2nd Battalion of the 346th Regiment, smelled a smell of burnt meat in the air, and he immediately realized that there might be canned food in the fire. The crowd rushed up, risking burns to rescue supplies from the fire, and after counting, only 2 battalions rescued more than 300 boxes of canned beef, pork and lunch meat. The harvest of the whole 116 was even more abundant, and in the following week, the entire 116 Division almost had meat for three meals a day, so that many people had protein poisoning.
[THE SPAM lunch meat that makes the US army sick to the stomach is a rare delicacy of the volunteer army]
Among the supplies captured by the volunteers, in addition to weapons and equipment, the favorite is a variety of canned food. Veterans all recalled that although the US military did not fight well, the logistics were indeed first-class. Among the various items that can be eaten into the mouth, in addition to the can, which has long been known, there are also some things that have only been heard of before but have not been seen, such as small packets of sugar, egg powder, coffee, cola, ice cream, etc.
Compared with the volunteer army eating fried noodles in the snow, the US army ate too luxuriously, the second battle coincided with the Thanksgiving Day in the West, the US First Marine Division also ate turkey in the icy Chosin Lake, but the soldiers complained that the turkey was cold, the lunch meat was disgusting, the bean taste was too bad, and the volunteer army in order to ambush in the ice and snow, could not make a fire to cook, could only nibble potatoes that were harder than stones.
[Marines eating turkey]
So, when the 116th Division captured so many cans, the whole unit was overjoyed and improved the food. In addition to nutritional products such as egg powder to be left to the sick and the wounded, canned meat is enough for a period of time, and meat is eaten for three meals a day. However, after eating well, the 116th Division suddenly increased the number of sick numbers. Specific manifestations are dizziness, sweating, abdominal pain, bloating, general weakness, and even coma.
At first, some people thought that the US military had poisoned the food left behind, but the sealed cans had not been unsealed and had not passed the shelf life. After careful examination, the military doctor found that it was not the US military that was poisoned, but because the volunteer army was malnourished for a long time, mainly vegetarian, and suddenly ate too much meat and caused symptoms of protein poisoning.
【Volunteer Soldier Eating Snow】
Long-term hunger, vegetarian people gastrointestinal digestion and absorption and metabolic function are relatively weak, when a large number of protein accumulation in the digestive tract, will be abnormal fermentation in the digestive tract and produce a large amount of ammonia, the increase of blood ammonia, it is easy to make people dizzy, fatigue phenomenon. Proteins that cannot be digested and absorbed will also produce toxins such as hydroxyl, phenol, and indole, which are more harmful to the human body, and even cause people to be comatose.
This is a poignant story, in the first five battles, the logistics and transportation lines of the Volunteer Army were seriously damaged by the Us army, a large number of materials could not be transported, and they had to be fed by the enemy, but they did not expect to eat too well and react to physical discomfort. In addition to this, there are many poignant stories.
[Coke drunk by the US troops on the front line was also taken as medicine to the rear hospital after being captured]
Among the captured cans, in addition to meat, there were vegetables and fruits, and it was through the cans that the warriors from the north tasted pineapple for the first time. Many soldiers also wondered: In addition to meat, do vegetables and fruits have any value in canning? In their simple conception, canned food is the tallest food, and food that can be made into canned food is the most valuable food, but vegetables show that they do not have this value.
There was also the captured coffee, which the volunteers did not recognize, but did not understand the meaning of its existence. Originally, there was no oil and water in the stomach, and after drinking it, I felt even hungrier. And for air defense, many times the troops do not dare to make a fire to cook, where is the boiling water to brew coffee? Some people directly grab a handful of snow and throw it into the jar, after the snow melts, the coffee becomes mushy, grab a handful and eat it in the stomach like a fire, but it is very refreshing, walking for more than a dozen miles in one breath without getting sleepy, only when it is time to march, no one does this. Most of the time its use is to mix with snow into black mud and put it on the side of the road as a road sign.
[The "army pot" that people in a certain country talk about was the swill water that the US military did not want at the earliest]
In the Battle of Chosin Lake, the soldiers found a bag made of plastic bags in the captured items of the First Marine Division, which contained a bread, a can, a pack of cigarettes, a folding can knife and a roll of paper, and the soldiers gave it a name called, and the soldiers of the 9th Corps commented: American soldiers are rich, and there is a special, but once the is gone, it immediately loses its combat effectiveness.
In this extremely difficult situation, the volunteer soldiers still maintained a high morale and optimistic spirit, and they also made up a slip of the tongue: American guns, American guns, American clothes, American hats, plus canned food and bread, enough to eat and drink before going into battle, beating the Yankees out of their bodies and out of the blue.