History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
The Battle of Shangganling, I think everyone should be familiar with it, right? Even if you don't know what it is, you should have seen the movie "Shangganling". When I first watched it, I was really shocked by this movie, and I think that to this day, this "Shangganling" is still the best of the anti-US and aid-Korea films, even in many Chinese war movies.
When it comes to the battle of Shangganling, according to the current records, the fierceness of the battle is really rare. How rare is it? Its artillery fire density has exceeded the highest level of World War II. At that time, the hill of our People's Volunteer Army position was cut down by two meters, and the entire highland became a scorched earth. In short, this battle was fought very fiercely by both sides.
Upper Ganling
However, some people asked: Why has this Battle of Shangganling never been mentioned in the history of the US military?
Some people say that it is because the US military fought in this battle rather humiliatingly; of course, some people say that the Battle of Shangganling is the name of our Chinese side, and the name of the US army is "showdown operation." Of course, these two statements are not in conflict and can be explained. Many people say that in this battle, the volunteer army suffered a lot of casualties, in fact, the US army also suffered a lot of casualties.
At that time, the Battle of Shangganling, or the "showdown operation" of the US army, was an active attack carefully planned by the US army. The aim was to break the unfavorable situation of the United Nations forces on the entire Korean front. Although the weapons and equipment of our volunteer army were inferior to those of the US army, fortunately we attacked flexibly, organized a large number of platoons, companies, and battalions to take the initiative to attack, and eliminated the living forces of the UN army, so at that time the UN army was unable to fight back.
U.S. forces attacked Shangganling
Therefore, this "showdown operation" of the US military was actually a limited retaliation for these tactical highland attacks, and incidentally restored the morale of the UN forces.
So why is it that the US military fought this battle so humiliatingly?
It's a shame indeed.
Originally, the US military chose two company-level positions of our army, because these two positions were relatively easy to fight. To this end, their US military staff also said with a strong word that it would not exceed 200 casualties and would be able to take it. But the result was a slap in the face. The U.S. Seventh Division entered the battle on October 14, initially using 2 infantry battalions, but it was completely insufficient, and then 8 infantry battalions were used to fight, but how many casualties were paid? 2000+, far more than the previous estimates of the US military.
Map of the Battle of Shangganling
According to the urine nature of the US army, when the casualties reach a certain proportion, they will consider withdrawing, which is different from our army, as long as there is one more person in our army, it will still hold its position. After the US Seventh Division withdrew from its position, it naturally let its younger brother Han Jun go up.
At that time, South Korea was still dependent on the United States, and even if there was a fire in its heart, it had to go up. On the day that the US army and the ROK army changed their defenses, the volunteer army began to draw two battalions of the Seventh Artillery Division, five companies of the Second Artillery Division, and two companies of field artillery of the 60th Army to reinforce the Shangganling area. The firepower is very strong!
Volunteer army at Shangganling
Anyway, the artillery on both sides basically let go and bombarded the positions, and the han second division filled in the positions one by one, one battalion after another, and according to their own records, more than 6,000 casualties were inflicted in 11 days.
Later, the commander of the United Nations forces, Clarke, wrote in his memoirs:
"We had more than 8,000 casualties, most of them officers and soldiers of the Republic of Korea, which is disproportionately large compared to what we have received. The enemy lost at least half as much as we did, but I don't think the operation was a success. ”
It is really embarrassing, the biggest emotional casualties are not the US military, but the South Korean army.
clarke
Of course, this battle is not recorded in the history of the US military, but it is only a passing mention, after all, it is not good. In their words, the two sides fought for more than 6 weeks, and although the U.S. military controlled part of Shangganling, it lost the entire "Triangle Mountain." Although in the eyes of the American army, their casualties were very large, more than 9,000 casualties, but the volunteers were also many, because they did not lack troops, in order to seize the tactical high ground, they were not afraid of sacrifice. In their opinion, we saved face and they had to stop attacking.
But in fact, the Korean War, as the first hot war in the Cold War period, was of great significance, and it almost laid the foundation for the situation in Northeast Asia for decades in the later period. It was a huge win for us! For the United States, this is a "forgotten war", which may be that the Second World War and the Vietnam War were too cruel and protracted, but made the Korean War sandwiched in the middle seem insignificant.