History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
The Fourth Field Army is the main force with the strongest troops, the most advanced weapons, and the strongest combat effectiveness among the four major field armies of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. This army started in the northeast and swept through most of China, from the icy northeast to the steaming Hainan Island.
In the Fourth Field Army, there were still 3 divisions composed of pure korean fighters.
As early as the 1860s, a large number of North Koreans fled to the northeast and became so-called "naturalized people". After Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, a large number of Koreans followed the Japanese into China to settle down. After the September 18 Incident, the Japanese authorities forced the Koreans to migrate to the northeast. By the end of World War II, the number of ethnic Koreans in the northeast had reached 2.17 million.
After Japan's surrender, about 1 million Koreans returned to their homeland. But in the northeast, more than 1 million North Koreans still settle here. Many North Koreans have long seen themselves as Chinese.
Out of the need to resist Japan and liberate Northeast China, our army paid great attention to absorbing and training Korean cadres as early as 1931. Whether in the Anti-Japanese League, the Eighth Route Army, or the New Fourth Army, a large number of Ethnic Koreans participated. For example, Li Hongguang, chief of staff of the 1st Army of the Anti-Japanese Coalition, is a Korean.
In Yan'an, Wu Ting and Cho Yifeng were elected senators of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, and Lin Hyo-san, secretary of the Korean Independence League, served as senators of the Provisional Senate of the Jin-Hebei Luyu Border Region. After the restoration of the northeast, a large number of Korean cadres were sent to the local area, mobilized the Korean people, and formed a number of Korean detachments.
During the Liberation War, these units, which were composed solely of ethnic Koreans, gradually formed three Korean divisions, namely the 156th, 164th, and 166th Divisions. In the war, 3 Korean troops were able to fight in the usual battles and repeatedly built miracles. Among them, the 156th Division has the strongest combat effectiveness and the most battle achievements, with more than 2,000 people making great contributions and more than 100 people who have won the title of "Combat Heroes".
Before the outbreak of the Korean War, Kim Il Sung went to Beijing to seek the support of Chairman Mao and China. Out of the need for internationalism, Chairman Mao gladly promised, and he later said to Kim Il Sung's envoy, Kim Il-sung:
"Chinese there are three Korean divisions in the People's Liberation Army, two of which are stationed in Shenyang and Changchun, and China will be ready to hand over these two divisions with all equipment to the North Korean government." If the Korean comrades do not need these two divisions now, then we can be responsible for training and supporting these troops. Another division was fighting south of the Yangtze River and would not be able to be repatriated until the end of the operation. ”
First, on May 17, 1949, the 164th Division and the 166th Division returned to Korea and were reorganized into the 5th and 6th Divisions of the Korean People's Army, respectively. With these two militaries capable of fighting, North Korea's military strength has far surpassed that of South Korea. After all, the South Korean army is mainly composed of Japanese colonial puppet armies, which are simply vulnerable.
On April 8, 1950, the 156th Division, which had completed its combat mission, was also transferred back to Korea from Gangnam and reorganized into the 4th Division of the Korean People's Army. On June 10, more than 3,200 ethnic Korean troops under the Railway Corps of the Central Military Commission returned to Korea as a provisional independent regiment. On August 1, more than 3,100 ethnic Korean officers and men of the Northeast Military Region returned to Korea and were reorganized into the 10th Division.
In this way, the number of officers and men from the Four Fields of the Korean People's Army has reached as many as 50,000. At that time, all the troops of North Korea attacking South Korea were only 80,000 people. It can be said that the early results of the Dprk were completely played by the warriors of the Hundred Battles from the Four Wilds.
After the outbreak of the Korean War, three Korean divisions played a vital role on the battlefield. Under their attack, the Korean army was simply vulnerable and was beaten to scatter and flee. In a very short time, Korea liberated Seoul, and the 4th Infantry Division, which had built up its outstanding merits in the battle to occupy Seoul, was named "Seoul Fourth Division" by Kim Il Sung.
In just a dozen days, the Korean People's Army has occupied most of the Korean Peninsula and liberated 92 per cent of the territory. The ROK and UN forces were crushed to death in Busan and could be driven to sea at any time.
Even more commendable is the fact that the Korean Division also annihilated almost an entire American division, the Twenty-fourth Division (according to the U.S. Army, the regular strength of the Twenty-fourth Division is 18,000 people). ）。 And this is a rare fiasco in the history of american warfare.
At first, in the eyes of the arrogant MacArthur, the nascent Korean People's Army was not at all worried. As long as the US military, which has experienced hundreds of battles, intervenes, they will inevitably flee into the wilderness. As a result, MacArthur sent the U.S. Twenty-fourth Division, stationed in Kumamoto, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, to South Korea to try to thwart the Korean People's Army offensive.
In World War II, the Twenty-fourth Division was also a tried and tested veteran unit, and it was an elite division with many achievements in the Pacific War. During the Landings in Leyte Gulf, this force made a great contribution. After the war, the unit was stationed in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Kyushu.
Accompanied by a gentle Japanese girl, the once brave American soldier gradually lost himself and was jokingly called "tatami master" by the Japanese media. However, the US military is the US military after all, and even the degenerate US military is a force to be reckoned with.
On July 2, 1950, the 1st Battalion of the Twenty-fourth Division arrived ashore on Mount Busan, South Korea, as a vanguard force (commonly known as Task Force Smith). Both President Truman and MacArthur believed that the contingent would "wipe out the villagers of the Korean People's Army with lightning speed."
The commander of the Twenty-fourth Division, William Fisher Dean, also did not believe that the Korean People's Army could play against him, and in an interview with South Korean reporters, Dean contemptuously referred to the Korean People's Army as a "peasant army" and jokingly said: "I would love to try Pyongyang cold noodles." ”
On July 5, the Korean People's Army and the US "Smith Task Force" had their first encounter at Jumy ridge, and the Korean People's Army launched an unstoppable offensive against the Smith Task Force under the cover of T-34 tanks. In the short confrontation, the arrogant Smith Task Force collapsed at a touch, and the American soldiers were killed on the spot, killing 161 people, and most of the casualties at once, including howitzers, heavy mortars and other heavy weapons were discarded.
In this way, the first confrontation between the US military and the Korean People's Army ended in a fiasco. Subsequent follow-up units of the Twenty-fourth Division attempted to slow the Korean People's Army southward, but to no avail. However, the doom of the Americans is not over. On 9 July, the Korean People's Army defeated the Twenty-first Regiment of the Twenty-fourth Division. On July 13, the KPA forcibly crossed the Jinjiang River and crushed the 19th Regiment of the 24th Division. Half of the 3,400 American soldiers who took part in the battle were killed in an instant, including a regimental commander and two battalion commanders.
The commander of the Twenty-fourth Division, General Dean, could not help but be anxious when he saw that his own troops had been defeated. So he had to lead the remnants back to the strategic place of Daejeon, and prepare to trap the beast.
But on July 19, the former general of Siye, Fang Hushan, led the 6th Division of the Korean People's Army to launch a general attack on Dean and launched a war of annihilation against the remaining Twenty-fourth Division. Fang Hushan flexibly used The "three-three system" of The Four Wilds and tactics such as roundabout interspersing to defeat the US army.
The U.S. Twenty-fourth Division began to abandon organized resistance. Due to communication problems, General Dean could not find any troops, and in the end he had to lead the divisional personnel to take the road and flee.
On July 21, Dean and his division retreated on foot to the junction of the Yuquan-Jinshan Highway, where they were once again trapped in an ambush circle by the North Korean army. Major General Dean saw that the situation was not good, and quickly hid in a village in Daejeon. Who knew that the T-34 tanks of the 6th Division of the Korean People's Army followed and killed 150 American soldiers with machine guns.
In desperation, Major General Dean had to personally go into battle, carrying a rocket launcher and destroying the T-34. Even so, however, the fate of the Twenty-fourth Division had been predestined, and their organization had been completely broken.
In desperation, Dean and a small number of people fled to the mountain forest, and while climbing the mountain beam, Dean fell into the valley and lost consciousness. When Dean woke up, the valley was empty, and he was cold and hungry, so he had to find some rats, snakes, and wild fruits to fill his hunger.
Major General Dean roamed the barren mountains of North Korea for 36 days and was captured by North Korean guerrillas on 25 August as he climbed near Jin-gun in North Jeolla Province. Dean, who had originally weighed 170 pounds, weighed only 70 pounds when he was captured.
I don't know if it was intentional, the North Korean officer later arranged for Dean to eat several meals of Pyongyang cold noodles, so that he could "feast", and Major General Dean, who had been hungry for many days, instantly dried several bowls of Korean cold noodles. Major General Dean was also the most senior U.S. general captured in the Korean War.
The Twenty-fourth Division fought in the Korean War for 18 months, suffering 10,358 casualties, plus being captured and missing, losing a total of 11,860 men. These losses were largely early losses, and the deaths, wounds, and captures of senior officers were largely concentrated in the weeks leading up to the U.S. war in the Korean War.
Although the Korean Division of the Korean People's Army achieved brilliant results, MacArthur's Landing at Inchon wiped out their achievements.
After the end of the Korean War, according to incomplete statistics, 30% of the 50,000 Korean officers and soldiers who returned to Korea died in battle, 20% were captured, the remaining 30% settled in Korea after entering other Korean troops, and another 20% returned to China to settle in China from the end of the Korean War to 1957.
Although these units were all second-line units upgraded by the Siye Independent Division, they were quite brave and tenacious in the Korean War, good at defending and attacking, and made immortal achievements. What Lao Hei needed to explain to his friends was that the ranks of the Four Fields Unit were divided into the following: the main force (each column), the second-line unit (each independent division); and the third-line unit (the direct subordinate unit of the military sub-district of each military region). Shino has a troop upgrade mechanism, as the experience combat value increases, each unit will be upgraded and reorganized into the main force, which is different from other field armies.
Although the three Korean divisions ultimately failed to help Korea unify the country, the bravery and good fighting they showed did not disgrace the Fourth Field Army or the Chinese People's Liberation Army!