In May 1952, Ridgway left the Korean theater and Clarke succeeded him as the third Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations Army. As soon as Clark took office, Van Vleet, commander of the 8th Army, proposed a series of battle plans to him, but Clark refused. He told VanVleet: "I think there is only one way to annihilate the enemy, that is, when the enemy comes out of the position and attacks, he will strike resolutely. Beyond that, we will never attack the enemy first. ”
But VanVleet was a very persistent person, he was not discouraged by Clark's refusal, and then proposed a number of local offensive plans, and finally Clark finally approved VanVleet's "Showdown Operation" plan. In this plan, Van Vliet intended to use two battalions of troops to capture the Shangganling position occupied by our army in 6 days, and it was expected that there would be about 200 casualties. But VanVleet was clearly too arrogant and optimistic, in fact, the Battle of Shangganling lasted for 43 days, and the US-Rok coalition paid the cost of more than 25,000 casualties, but ended in defeat.
In these 43 days of bloody battles, the US army poured more than 1.9 million shells into our positions, and the intensity of fire exceeded the highest level of World War II, and the fierce artillery fire blew Shangganling into a bare hill, and the mountain was cut down by two meters! In total, only 400,000 rounds of artillery fire were fired back by our army, less than a quarter of that of the US army. In addition to the absolute superiority in firepower, the total number of troops invested by the Sino-US and ROK coalition forces in the Battle of Shangganling was as high as more than 60,000 people, more than 10,000 more than our army.
The firepower is fiercer than our army, and the strength of the troops is more than our army, so why did the US army still lose the Battle of Shangganling? The answer is actually 4 words: more steel and less gas. The U.S. military firepower is fierce, but it is afraid of close combat and night combat, and the South Korean army participating in the Battle of Shangganling once pointedly said that the U.S. army "lacks the ability to attack within 50 yards." Compared with the US army, although the weapons of the volunteer army are inferior to those of the opponents, the morale is high, and everyone dares to fight. During the entire Shangganling Campaign, a total of 12,347 combat heroes of the third class and above, represented by the special hero Huang Jiguang, emerged in our army, accounting for 27.5 percent of the total number of the 15th Army, which is unimaginable in the eyes of the US military.
But the Americans did not realize this, in their view, the main reason why they lost the Battle of Shangganling was that the Volunteer Army used the "man-sea tactic", which was first derived from Lloyd. Moses' memoir, At All Costs. During the Battle of Shangganling, Moses was the commander of the 31st Regiment of the 7th Division of the United States, and led his troops to fight against our army many times. Recalling the experience, he wrote: "Our two battalions fought all day with the 135th Regiment of the enemy 45th Division, and their artillery fire was comparable to ours, and the terrain occupied was easy to defend. According to the army's operational doctrine, in order to attack and defeat the enemy, the ratio of strength and artillery should be 3:1 with the enemy, and our strength cannot even be equal to the enemy. According to what I have seen, the enemy is far more numerous than ours, and the enemy and I are at least 4:1"
At that time, the total strength of the US 31st Regiment was 3537 people, and the two battalions were about 2400 people. If the strength of the 135th Regiment is 4 times that of the enemy, it should be 9600 troops. This is the origin of the "man-sea tactics" used by the volunteers in the eyes of the Americans. But in fact, the entire army of the 15th Army is less than 50,000 people, how can a regiment have 9,600 people? Moses' reason for the Americans to lose the Battle of Shangganling is ridiculous! However, some people in China blindly worship the US military and believe that the military history of the US army and the memoirs written by the Americans are true and reliable, so without analysis, they copy Moses' views and believe that the reason why we can win the Battle of Shangganling and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea depends entirely on the "tactics of the sea of people." The concentration of superior forces and the "tactics of the sea of men" are completely two different concepts, not to mention that the volunteer army also has a series of exquisite tactics such as detours, interspersed divisions, and surprise attacks, and turning a blind eye to this is not only their own ignorance, but also disrespect for history.