In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the logistics of the volunteer army became an eternal pain in the hearts of many people. Especially in the early stage of the war, due to the blockade of the US army, the front-line soldiers lacked food and clothing, and there were frequent incidents of water and food shortages. In order to reverse this situation, the newly formed railway troops urgently entered the war. It is with their own hands and courage that they have built a steel transportation line that cannot be broken and constantly exploded.
Volunteer railroads and the People's Army rushed to repair the bridge
The first batch of volunteers, a total of 6 corps plus two artillery divisions, originally planned to fight an ambush battle that was stubbornly waiting for the enemy, but unexpectedly fought an encounter. In a hurry, the shortcomings of logistics were immediately exposed. Supplies piled up along the Yalu River, but they could not be transported to the front line. Under the indiscriminate bombardment of the US military, the poor railways in neighboring countries were destroyed. Relying on the road, the 1300 trucks that the volunteers had painstakingly assembled before the war were destroyed in less than 20 days.
By the time of the second campaign, the huge logistical pressure forced the volunteer army to quickly form 4 logistics divisions, with a total of more than 60,000 people. At the same time, a railway division that had just been formed went to the battlefield, and their task was to move mountains and reclaim the sea, build roads and bridges. It is necessary to ensure the smooth flow of the railway with the largest capacity and let all kinds of materials reach the front line as soon as possible.
Us aircraft carrier LEYTE, throughout the war, the U.S. military dispatched 7 aircraft carrier battle groups
However, with the gradual victory of the soldiers on the front line, the front line has become longer and longer, and the logistics have been overwhelmed. Finally, after the volunteers crossed the Han River, the logistics collapsed completely. The caliber of weapons used by the volunteers reached more than 20 kinds, and the transport of ammunition alone was maddening. By the end of the third campaign, the 40th Army had not received a single grain from the rear, but had survived on capture, and one of the battalions had even been out of food for two days.
Under these circumstances, two more newly formed railway divisions went to the battlefield, and when the front line was in full swing, the engineering units of the three railway divisions opened mountains and bridges like crazy, barely maintaining the railway transportation lifeline to the rear.
At the beginning of the war, the weapons of the volunteer army were rudimentary and varied, and the logistical pressure was extremely high
After the end of the five battles, the two sides entered the stage of position warfare, and the volunteer army finally began to replace the weapons made in all countries, and the troops successively changed into Soviet-style weapons. Although the caliber is unified, the transportation pressure has not been reduced at all, but has become greater. Because the volunteer army began to be equipped with heavy weapons. The katyusha with a high rate of fire, the large-caliber howitzer, and the anti-aircraft gun that cannot stop for a moment all need a huge amount of transportation capacity to support.
At this time, the aerial strangulation war launched by Ridgway was the highest density of air strikes since the advent of aircraft. In order to stifle the logistics of the volunteer army, the bombs of the Us army are like no money, and a road that has been blown up will be repeatedly blown up several times or even a dozen times, until it cannot be repaired at all.
U.S. Navy AD3 bombers bombed bridges over the Yalu River in an attempt to completely destroy the volunteer logistics supply lines
The battle of strangulation and the once-in-a-century flood, the logistical support of the front-line volunteers can be called unbearable. The front-line troops ate the last meal and did not eat the next meal, the second-line troops could only drink porridge, the organs could only drink the northwest wind, and they could eat a meal of wild vegetables.
In such a harsh environment, the railway soldiers were not only not defeated, but also created miracles. They built 2,500 kilometers of new roads and expanded 8,100 kilometers. The new railway is 200 kilometers, although the mileage is not long, but this railway has been bombed by the US military more than 14,000 times in 30 months, an average of 15 times a day, but there is no interruption in transportation for a day.
Railroads repair the bridge that was blown up
In order to deal with the bombing of the American army, the railroad soldiers came up with various methods. For example, the Z-beams and rails on the bridge were removed during the day, so that the US military aircraft thought that the bridge had been blown up and ignored it. At night, the railroad men mounted the tracks as fast as they could, and the fully supplied trains roared past, sending supplies to the front.
In order to improve the capacity, the railroad soldiers also invented the method of "one-sided transportation", that is, in a certain period of time, all trains traveled in one direction in one direction. Each train is only 5 minutes apart. The result was 47 trains sent to the front line in one night, 2.5 times more than usual. A wonder of the world.
Railroad soldiers rescue a damaged locomotive
In addition, there are three locomotives pulling a super long train "dragon transportation", in order to prevent the bridge from bearing enough weight, invented the "top ox across the river" transportation method, each of which can be called a brain-opening innovation.
By 1953, the number of railway divisions on the battlefield had reached 10. They also face the test of death. In order to ensure the smooth flow of the Baichuanling Railway Bridge, a company of the First Railway Division braved 26 large bombings by enemy planes, and with 99 casualties, the remaining people still completed the emergency repair task on time.
Special hero Guo Jinsheng, a person dismantled 603 US time bombs
Guo Jinsheng, the special combat hero of the railway soldiers, single-handedly excluded 1129 time bombs dropped by the US military, of which 603 were dismantled, and the explosives pulled out alone weighed 27 tons. It was these brave and fearless railway soldiers who, with their own lives and blood, built a steel lifeline that could not be broken and constantly exploded, and made indelible contributions to the final victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.