After the founding of New China, the largest and most arduous foreign war was the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea that broke out in 1950, which finally brought the US military to a halt at the 38th line and successfully defended China's territorial security.
The results were good, but the sacrifices we made were also enormous, the most poignant of which was the Battle of Chosin Lake.
The Battle of Chosin Lake began on November 27, 1950, and ended on December 24, lasting nearly a month. China's northeast is already extremely cold during this time period, not to mention north-eastern North Korea. The worst part is that the Chosin Lake area has encountered a low temperature that has not been encountered in 50 years, and the lowest drop has dropped to -40 ° C.
What is the concept of minus 40 degrees? In the original words of Liu Boqing, a veteran of the Volunteer Army, it is: How cold is it, you can't believe it, many people's ears are frozen hard, and when they touch the whole thing, they fall off, and they don't know anything about it!
The most lamentable thing is that the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army fighting here is basically southerners, and some soldiers have not even seen snow, and after receiving the order, they have not prepared much to protect themselves from the cold and rushed north. Although they received a small amount of replenishment when the northeast entered Korea, most of the fighters were still under-equipped.
So the Volunteers were not only fighting the U.S. army, but also fighting the bad weather.
For Chosin Lake, Smith, commander of the 1st Marine Division, the ace of the US Army, commented: "This place is not suitable for military operations at all, and even Genghis Khan would not want to conquer it."
So what is the situation of the US military? A coat and duck down bag, a cold hat, coat, woolen socks, leather boots, etc. are plentiful, the tents are cotton, and there is a stove. They were not too happy compared to the volunteers, but the U.S. military was still very complaining about such treatment.
The gap in basic conditions was shocking enough, and the later offensive of the volunteer army made the Americans even more frightened.
After the battle began, the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army quickly interspersed, dividing the US 7th Division and the 1st Marine Division into five parts. The American army began to retreat in panic, but how could the volunteers easily let the enemy go!
In Xingpingli, the volunteers completely annihilated the Ace "Polar Bear Regiment" of the US Army and captured its regimental flag; in Liutan, the 5th regiment and the 7th Regiment of the highly mechanized US 1st Marine Division were blocked layer by layer, and they could only escape an average of 300 meters and 22 kilometers per hour, and they paid more than 1,500 casualties...
Throughout the battle, the American army suffered nearly 14,000 casualties due to the battle.
Behind such brilliant achievements was the heavy efforts of the volunteer army, after the war, the Ninth Corps suffered frostbite and froze to death more than 4,000 people, and the 6th Company of the 177th Regiment of the 59th Division of the 20th Army, the 2nd Company of the 180th Regiment of the 60th Division, and the 5th Company of the 242nd Regiment of the 80th Division of the 27th Army were frozen to death in formation except for one soldier who was left behind and a messenger, and they still maintained a state of readiness to charge after their sacrifice.
This number is sad, this picture makes people can't help but cry, they are all the backbone of the republic!
In the entire 9th Corps, the division with the fewest frostbitten wounds was the 89th Division, and the remaining divisions were more than a thousand people, and the 89th Division was able to do so, thanks to a decision made by the division's political commissar Wang Zhi.
Wang Zhi joined the revolutionary ranks in 1931, and was also an old Red Army, starting from a service soldier and growing into a division-level cadre with more than ten years of birth and death experience.
After the 20th Army received the central transfer order, the 89th Division took the train north as the vanguard unit, and Wang Zhi, as the political commissar of the division, first considered the problem of troop morale. Although the 89th Division had always been fighting guerrillas in the south, the enthusiasm of the troops to participate in the war was still very high, and Wang Zhi was very pleased with this.
After arriving in Jinzhou, the extremely cold weather in the northeast made Wang Zhi instantly increase his vigilance, he found the division commander Yu Guangmao for consultation, and finally specially arranged for the deputy division commander Chen Yucai to be responsible for coordinating the warm clothing.
On the verge of entering Korea, the 89th Division stayed for a day, a day that was very precious. With the help of He Jinnian, deputy commander of the Northeast Military Region, all the 89th Division basically changed into cotton coats and coats, but cotton pants failed to assemble the whole army, and other hand and foot protective equipment was even more lacking.
However, with cotton coats and coats, it was already much better than other brother troops, and Wang Zhi's prejudgment saved the lives of many soldiers later.
On November 23, 1950, before the formal launch of the major offensive, the 20th Army issued an order to the 89th Division, allowing its two regiments to advance to the southeast, and cooperate with the brother troops to encircle and annihilate the enemy in Gutuli and Liutan, and the other regiment was responsible for blocking the attack at Theoshuili and Xiaode Lines.
The 267th Regiment of the 89th Division first encountered the 7th Transport Team of the US 1st Division in the area of Liutanli, and after a battle, the 267th Regiment defeated the enemy and captured more than 3,000 blankets.
These military blankets are only used by the US military to lay the ground, not thick, but they are good things for our army, and how to distribute them has become a problem.
In the "Three Disciplines and Eight Notes", there is a mandatory stipulation that "all captured must be returned to the public", so it is suggested that the military blanket be handed over to the military department, or let the 267 regiment handle it itself.
However, Wang Zhi denied these two practices, believing that the current war was about to begin, and if it was to be handed in, the formalities, handover and other issues would be delayed a lot of time, and the military blanket would be wasted at that time.
Therefore, he immediately ordered that all 3,000 bed military blankets be cut into small squares to wrap the hands and feet of the soldiers, as long as the hands and feet can move, the troops will still have combat effectiveness.
The logistics organs opposed Wang Zhi's approach, and in addition to discipline, they thought it was a pity that such a good military blanket was used to cover hands and feet. In the end, it was Wang Zhili who ruled out the public opinion and "arbitrarily" once.
Soon, all the soldiers of the 89th Division were wrapped in small squares on their hands and feet, and they were very supportive of Wang Zhi's approach.
On November 27, the battle began, the 89th Division's operations were not affected, launched an attack on the enemy, and after a bloody battle, successfully rushed into the enemy command post and captured 7 American troops. Later, he fought fiercely with the enemy for three days and three nights in a cold and freezing environment.
On December 2, the U.S. army began to flee south, because of the battle in the ice and snow, the volunteer army that did not have enough cold supplies had a large number of frostbite and frostbite, and only the 89th Division was the only unit of our army that could form a pursuit.
Wang Zhi personally led the 265th Regiment in pursuit, and they caught up with the four wheels of the American army on two legs, and annihilated the second battalion of the seventh regiment of the US Third Division at 10:00 a.m. on December 3, capturing more than 80 American troops, killing and wounding more than 200 enemy troops, and even shooting down an enemy plane.
To have such a result has a deep relationship with the decision made by Wang Zhili! After the war, song shilun and other corps commanders highly praised Wang Zhi's timely and correct decisions on the management and education of the troops, and Wang Zhi was soon promoted to director of the political department of the 26th Army.
In 1955, Wang Zhi was awarded the rank of major general, and since then he has successively served as the political commissar of the Twenty-eighth Army, the deputy director and deputy political commissar of the Political Department of the Fuzhou Military Region, and has been making contributions to the country and the army.
It is also worth mentioning that his "image" has also been put on the big screen.
In the 1964 release of "Heroes and Children", many people found that Wang Zhi's experience was surprisingly consistent with the 'Director Wang' in the movie, and some people went to interview him, but General Wang was very modest.
General Wang said: In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, I was the only one who was promoted from divisional political commissar to director of the military political department of the Ninth Corps. So many people say that I am the prototype of 'Director Wang', and from experience, the two of us are indeed very similar. But 'Director Wang' should be the overall image of the senior political work cadres of the Volunteer Army. Who is 'Director Wang' is actually not the most important, what is important is that we can remember that period of history from such excellent works as "Heroes and Children", and remember everything that the revolutionary ancestors did for the motherland and the people.
Such revolutionaries really deserve our admiration!
In 2014, General Wang Zhilao died of illness in Fuzhou at the age of 98.
In that cruel war, countless heroes died in foreign countries, and they threw their heads and spilled their blood so that we, the descendants, could live a happy and stable life.
Today we really live this life, and they are the ones we should be most thankful for. Even if we don't know each other, your heroic image will always be in my heart, paying tribute to the most lovely people in the volunteer army!
Transferred from
Hometown dream Chang'an