November 27, 1950 was the most tragic day in the history of the Volunteer Army, and on this day the Battle of Chosin Lake was officially launched. The Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army, under the command of commander Song Shilun (the founding general), engaged in a life-and-death contest with the elite troops of the American army. In this great battle, our army fought against the enemy in the sweltering cold for nearly a month. The result of the battle was that our army severely damaged the elite First Marine Division of the US Army, completely annihilated the US Polar Bear Regiment, and recovered a vast area in the eastern part north of the 38th Line, which can be said to be a very important battle.
However, the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army also suffered heavy casualties, according to relevant data: 19,202 combat casualties, 28,954 frostbite, more than 4,000 people froze to death, and the total number of casualties reached more than 52,000. At that time, the Ninth Corps had a total of three corps and 12 divisions, about 150,000, and the battle lost nearly one-third, which can be said to be a heavy loss.
The Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army was the Ninth Corps of Sanye, which was a strong force in East China, and it continuously defeated many elite units of the National Army on the battlefield of East China, including many National Troops with American weapons and equipment, and the casualties at that time were not so large. However, in the Battle of Chosin Lake, the Ninth Corps can be said to have suffered heavy losses, of course, we can see that 32,954 people were frozen to death and frostbite, and these non-combat attritions accounted for more than 63%.
That is to say, the severe cold at that time made the non-combat attrition quite serious, in fact, this can also be understood, how to say it? The Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army, the elite unit of Sanye, was renamed the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army in November 1950, and was originally the Ninth Corps of the Mino Army, which was the elite unit under Su Yu, and this unit was the main force in the attack on Taiwan, and their main task at that time was to prepare for the recovery of Taiwan.
Shortly after the end of the first battle on the Korean battlefield, MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the United Nations Army, adjusted his military deployment and gathered heavy troops, advancing side by side with east and west, preparing to meet the division at the Yalu River.
However, the defensive task of the Eastern Front fell to the 42nd Army, but the enemies on the Eastern Front were the US Tenth Army and the South Korean First Army, with more than 100,000 people, especially the First Marine Division and the Seventh Infantry Division under the command of the US Tenth Army were elite, and the 42nd Army could not resist this enemy alone.
Under such circumstances, the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army, urgently entering the DPRK to fight, in fact, there was a reason for choosing the Ninth Corps, which was a unit that was good at fighting hard battles, at that time the Ninth Corps had 3 corps under its jurisdiction, and the 20th Army was formerly known as the Huaye First Column, which was reorganized by the Red Army that was a guerrilla in eastern Fujian, and was good at penetrating in depth. The 26th Army was reorganized from the Luzhong Military Region, which was good at defense, and the 27th Army was composed of Jiaodong disciples and was good at attacking strong points. The intention of the great man to transfer this corps into Korea was obvious.
In order to make the Ninth Corps play a better role, the great man specially called Peng Dehuai on November 5, 1950:
The Jiangjie and Changjin sides should determine that the Song Corps should take full responsibility, with the policy of luring the enemy to go deep into search for opportunities to annihilate the enemy. Thereafter, the corps will be under your direct command, and we will not control it remotely. One of the nine corps should go straight to the river boundary and go to Chosin as quickly as possible.
It can be seen that at that time, the Ninth Corps had a heavy task, and the great man used a quick trip to Chosin, which left the Ninth Corps with insufficient time to prepare, and the Song Shilun who received the order did not delay, directly ordering the 89th Division of the 20th Army to enter the DPRK as the vanguard unit, and in the Battle of Chosin Lake, of the 12 divisions of the Ninth Corps, only the 89th Division had the least number of frostbite and frostbite. Let's move on to the bottom line.
At that time, after receiving the order, more than 10,000 officers and men of the whole division directly divided into 5 trains from Yanzhou, Shandong, to the northeast, due to the tight time, the pre-war mobilization orders were carried out on the train, after several days and nights to reach the northeast, and then this unit drove into Korea, in the Battle of Chosin Lake, the overall losses of the Ninth Corps were quite serious, especially the non-combat personnel who were frostbitten and frostbitten were reduced, and they were even more severe.
However, the 89th Division, the vanguard, had more than 400 frostbitten wounds overall, and although this number seemed to us to be quite a lot, the other fraternal units suffered much fewer casualties than this. It is said that they belong to the Ninth Corps, and the 89th Division is still the vanguard of the 9th Corps, so why are they so few frostbitten? In fact, thanks to one person, it is precisely because of this person's existence that the entire 89th Division in the Chosin Lake Battle, frostbite frostbite death, the number of people greatly reduced.
He was Wang Zhi, who was the political commissar of the 89th Division at the time!
General Wang Zhi joined the Red Army in 1932 and has since contributed his life to the revolutionary cause, participating in the anti-encirclement and suppression of the Soviet union during the agrarian revolution, and later staying in the south for three years to persist in guerrilla warfare. When the all-out War of Resistance broke out and the guerrillas in the south were reorganized into the New Fourth Army, Wang Zhi served in the New Fourth Army.
During the Liberation War, Wang Zhi successively served as deputy political commissar of the 66th Division of the East China Field Army, the political commissar of the 35th Brigade of the 12th Column, and the political commissar of the 89th Division of the 30th Army.
In the Battle of Chosin Lake, the officers and men of the 89th Division were rather confused in their thinking against the well-equipped US troops in the cold and freezing weather, and as the political commissar of the 89th Division, he personally went to the front line to command and stabilize the thinking of the commanders and fighters, fought tenaciously with the enemy, and finally annihilated most of the US army's battalion and successfully completed their first battle into the DPRK.
At that time, although the 89th Division was also facing severe cold weather, but the part had less frostbite, which was related to Wang Zhi's foresight, when the 89th Division reached Shenyang, Wang Zhi saw the single clothes on the soldiers and applied to his superiors to let them stay for one more day, during this day, with the full help of He Jinnian, deputy commander of the Northeast Military Region, they let the troops change into cotton coats and coats in the alpine areas, but the cotton pants were insufficient, and the cotton hats and cotton gloves were lacking more.
How to do this, the mask and means of these things are very important to the soldiers, without these cold things, the combat effectiveness of the soldiers is greatly reduced, and even threatens the safety of life, at this time Wang Zhi thought of a way, he directly mobilized the soldiers to take out the cotton in the quilt to make ear protection, gloves, hats, masks and other protective equipment, so although the 89th Division also lacks cold clothing, but their antifreeze measures are still relatively adequate.
After entering the Korean War, the 267th Regiment under the jurisdiction of the 89th Division captured 3,000 military blankets of the enemy in the blockade battles of Liutanli and Xinxingli, and these military blankets were obviously unrealistic if they were distributed to the whole division.
However, as soon as he proposed it, he was directly opposed by some comrades, and the traditional seizures of our army had to be handed over to the public, and from the time of the founding of our army, they had been strictly enforced. In particular, some logistics comrades think that it is a waste to wrap their hands and feet. But Wang Zhi insisted on his opinion and was supported by the division commander.
Therefore, Wang Zhi personally ordered that all these military blankets be distributed to the troops, cut into small pieces and distributed to every commander and fighter, used to wrap their hands and feet, these blankets were used to protect the whole division from cold, but it was still possible to cut them into small pieces to wrap their hands and feet.
These small blankets were distributed to each soldier, which played a positive role in protecting their hands and feet, also preserved the combat effectiveness of the 89th Division, and also played an indirect role in their successful completion of the task at Chosin Lake, and in the entire Battle of Chosin Lake, the number of frostbite of the 89th Division was only 400, far lower than other divisions, and Wang Zhi and the measures of the 89th Division were also strongly praised by the corps leaders.
After the battle, he was appointed director of the political department of the 26th Army, which was an affirmation of his improvisation in the Battle of Chosin Lake, which enabled the troops to achieve major victories, and also affirmed the military merits of the entire 89th Division. After returning to China, Wang Zhi served as deputy political commissar and director of the political department of the 31st Army, and in 1955, he was awarded the rank of major general.
In the Battle of Chosin Lake, although our troops suffered from the extreme cold, none of them retreated, they used their flesh and blood to fight against the cold, against the American troops armed to the teeth, they could retreat, but they could not retreat, because behind them was the motherland, in a line from "Chosin Lake":
"We are fighting this war so that the next generation will not fight"
Volunteer martyrs through the ages!