An accident on October 26, 1950, which made Mr. Peng, who was commanding the battlefield on the Western Front, frown, and that night, a transport platoon of the 370th Regiment of the 124th Division of the 42nd Army of the Volunteer Army was ordered to deliver ammunition and dry food to a forward operation, and as a result, it got lost in the dark mountains. As they struggled to discern the direction and turned around, they found that there were several thatched huts in the ravine in front of them, and there was a looming fire inside, and the transport platoon leader had made a fatal mistake at this time:
He simply believed that it must be the place of the ordinary People of Korea, so without judging the enemy or us, he hastily knocked on the door to ask for directions.
Unexpectedly, inside was a whole row of Roon soldiers who were camping, and after a brief shock, a gun battle broke out on both sides, and the 370th Regiment of only 20 people and 5 rifles quickly lost under the crazy shooting of more than 30 M1 rifles and carbines, and most of them were captured except for a few people. The captured more than a dozen volunteer soldiers were quickly sent to the headquarters of the U.S. Tenth Army in Wonsan, and the commander of the army, Major General Almond, was immediately stunned, and while ordering the prisoners of war to be taken to Tokyo, they urgently telegraphed MacArthur: a large-scale Chinese army has been found in the north.
For Shiji, this incident was indeed a small disaster, because although the volunteer army fired the first shot against the US and South Korean troops on October 25, it did not attract enough attention from the enemy, and MacArthur arrogantly believed that China's troops were only "symbolic". The capture of more than a dozen people in the 42nd Army is very likely to expose the information that 250,000 men and horses of the four armies of the Volunteer Army have entered the DPRK, and it is difficult to achieve the suddenness of the follow-up attack on the enemy, and the US and ROK troops may even stop moving north, so it is no wonder that President Peng is worried.
MacArthur was still dazed, because Major General Willoughby, the chief of intelligence at the Far East U.S. General Command (and Allied Forces General Command), finally submitted the report after completing the interrogation:
The number of Chinese troops will not exceed 5,000!
First, MacArthur did not believe that China would send troops for good reason.
Many readers, even historians, feel very incredible about the poor strategic vision and command level displayed by MacArthur in the early days of the war, and even some people say that he "has some kind of disease", which is summed up as arrogance and paranoia, but in fact, he is more or less wronged by this 70-year-old man. On the one hand, the success of the in-Athan landings in September 1950 brought MacArthur's prestige in Western military circles to the peak, and not only did no one dare to question his military authority, but also made himself a mess; on the other hand, MacArthur's judgment was not at all untenable militarily.
That was the timing of the volunteer army's dispatch in October, which was contrary to military common sense in the eyes of the Americans, and the reason why the five-star general of the army refused to believe that the Chinese army would enter the Korean war on a large scale was based on the strategic theory:
The best time for the Chinese army to enter the war is either when the People's Army is about to achieve a comprehensive victory in the "Busan Defensive Circle" or at the node when the People's Army is attacked by the enemy after he implements the Inchon landing.
Because by the end of October 1950, the "United Nations Army" under the command of MacArthur had completely occupied the initiative on the battlefield, the blood of the People's Army had basically dried up, and the main force of the US and Roksar armies was only a few tens of kilometers away from the Yalu River. The chief of intelligence, Major General Willoughby, gave the same conclusion: "
From a tactical point of view, since the victorious U.S. divisions were in full swing, the golden time for intervention appeared to have long since passed, and if China planned to take such an action, it was difficult to imagine postponing it until the remnants of the North Korean army had been exhausted."
It was on the basis of this judgment that, despite the capture of a small number of personnel of the 42nd Army, by November 5, 1950, after the end of the First Battle of the Volunteer Army, MacArthur's brain was still not awake, since the judgment was that the opponent's strength was limited."
It's not an invincible force."
Then the US and Roks were killed by 15,000 people in the first battle is just an "accident", as long as enough strength is invested to relaunch the attack, then the Yalu River is only in the blink of an eye.
Regarding the timing of the volunteer army's entry into the DPRK, readers who understand the process of making up their minds to resist US aggression and aid Korea actually have a number in mind, which involves many factors, including our difficulties in making choices. Although the Chinese and US and ROK armies suffered heavy losses in the first battle, when the main force of the volunteer army was withdrawn after the battle, the US military high-level not only failed to determine the actual strength of the opponent, but became more rampant, and more and more determined that our War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was only "symbolic."
It was precisely because our General Manager Peng made full use of the arrogance and wrong mentality of the enemy that after the victory in the first battle, he deliberately showed weakness and ordered the main force of the volunteer army to retreat slightly, and all of them were hidden and gathered in the mountains on both sides of the road, so as to induce the US and ROK troops to continue blindly going north, and then gather and annihilate them.
II. Overview of the Battlefield Situation Before the Battle of Chosin Lake.
After about half a month of dispatch, the U.S. and RoK ground troops have increased to 330,000 people, and with the strength of the navy and air force exceeding 400,000 troops, MacArthur's self-confidence is extremely explosive, and on November 24, he personally inspected the headquarters of the Eighth Army, announced the launch of the "Christmas Offensive", and boasted to the reporters present:
The strong offensive of our left wing (Walker's Eighth Army) would be unstoppable, any resistance would be weak and hopeless, and our right wing (Almond's Tenth Army) would have a strong naval and air force, and the rendezvous of the left and right flanks on the Yalu River would, in a sense, the end of the war.
Corresponding to the enemy's so-called "Christmas Offensive," the Volunteer Army launched the second campaign to resist the United States and aid Korea, and since the US and ROK armies were "pincer offensives" in which the left and right flanks simultaneously committed crimes in the north, the second campaign was divided into two battlefields, the east and west, and the Chosin Lake Campaign was the eastern part of the second campaign. On the western front, General Peng concentrated the strength of the 38th Army, the 39th Army, the 40th Army, the 42nd Army, the 50th Army, and the 66th Army, a total of more than 230,000 troops from the eighteen divisions of six armies, and gathered covertly in the mountains of the northern part of the peninsula, planning to lure the main force of the US Eighth Army to the front line of Daguandong, Wenjing, and Miaoxiangshan to be surrounded and annihilated.
In the eastern front, General Peng planned to lure the US Tenth Army to the old Jinli and Changjin fronts, and then use the Ninth Corps, three corps, 12 divisions, and 150,000 troops to secretly divide and encircle them and finally eliminate them, so the two battlefields complement each other. As far as military common sense is concerned, if the US Eighth Army on the Western Front goes north alone, its right flank will be completely exposed (the left side is by the sea after all), and MacArthur's basic command ability is still available, so He ordered Almond's Tenth Army to "advance in tandem" with the Eighth Army, and thus protect the flank of the Eighth Army.
On November 25, 1950, the Volunteer Army had already started a battle on the Western Front and began to attack the US Eighth Army. However, because the speed of the Song Shilun Corps was greatly affected by the wind and snow and the severe cold, it did not arrive at the scheduled battlefield on time on this day, at this time most of the 1st Marine Division, the 3rd Infantry Division, and the 7th Infantry Division of the US Tenth Army had already advanced to the Chosin Lake area, not only in danger of rapidly advancing to the river boundary, but also directly threatening the flank of the 42nd Army on the Western Front, so the Ninth Corps of the "Shiji" Diedian must rush to the preset battlefield and immediately launch an attack on the enemy who sneaked to Chosin Lake, so as to avoid the confluence of the enemy on the eastern and western fronts.
The Ninth Corps crossed the river with the 27th Army and the 20th Army as the vanguard, and the 26th Army followed suit, braving the wind and snow to march towards Chosin Lake, and at the same time the corps must also conceal its whereabouts and campaign attempts, otherwise the US army will definitely turn around and flee south once it finds that a large force is coming.
Almond, MacArthur's former chief of staff, can be described as "a blind man riding a blind horse."
The main combat force of the US Tenth Army on the Eastern Front, of course, is the ace unit, the 1st Marine Division, but the contradictions within the US Army are also very complicated, first of all, Commander Almond is an Army general, he commands the 3rd Infantry Division, the 7th Infantry Division or the Rok Army to which the Tenth Army belongs, but the 1st Marine Division, as the "head card" of the Marine Corps, is closer to the Navy in its bones, although it is temporarily assigned to the command of the Tenth Army, the deep-rooted contradictions between the Army and the Navy still exist, to put it bluntly, the 1st Marine Division is not so heedful.
Second, although almond, 58, was a close associate of MacArthur, his rank was only a two-star army major general, while the 57-year-old commander of the 1st Marine Division, Smith, who had served as deputy commander of the Marine Corps, also had the rank of rear admiral, and the rank was basically the same. Finally, it is also important that Almond, who was the minister of personnel of the Far East U.S. Army General Command, was only promoted to chief of staff in 1948, and he was mixed with MacArthur for a long time, with little actual combat experience as a military commander, and was also contaminated with the stink of blind arrogance, and his perception of the battlefield situation was very insensitive.
Major General Almond unconditionally supported MacArthur's judgment that it was impossible for China to send a large number of troops to aid Korea, so it was impossible for a large number of Chinese troops to appear in front of the Tenth Army, so he asked Smith to advance quickly as planned without delay.
Admittedly, the American officers were not all good and fortunate people such as MacArthur and Almond, and Smith was a more sophisticated professional officer, who had been the commander of the Marine Infantry Regiment in the Pacific Theater, and had a very rich combat experience, and he had an instinctive sense of foreboding about the vast plateaus and snow facing the front of the 1st Marine Division. As for The orders of Major General Almond, Smith superficially obeyed but was more resistant in his heart, the main reason was that the enemy situation in the front was unknown, and if the 1st Marine Division blindly advanced, what if it fell into the trap of the Chinese army? Therefore, the actual speed of the 1st Marine Division was as slow as a snail.
The 1st Marine Division departed from HwangnamGang on the east coast of Korea at the end of October, and the order of march was: two battalions of the 5th Marine Regiment, all of the 7th Marine Regiment and two battalions of the 11th Marine Artillery Regiment formed an avant-garde battle group, under the unified command of Colonel Lizberg, the commander of the 7th Marine Regiment, and the division headquarters was followed by the subordinate unit, and the 1st Marine Regiment acted as the rearguard. On November 10, 1950, the vanguard of the 1st Marine Division entered Gutuli through the Shuimen Bridge, which was 15 kilometers away from Hagaru-ri and less than 100 kilometers from Xingnan Port to Gutuli, and the 1st Marine Division climbed for thirteen days in cars and tanks!
This snail-like forward speed was unbearable for Almond, insisting that Smith was deliberately avoiding the battle, so he teased the Marine division commander on the phone: "We still have to attack, we still have to pound the Yalu River, don't let a few Chinese laundrymen block you"! At the same time, MacArthur's latest order was conveyed: Marines, Attack!
Fourth, the 1st Marine Division was driven to The Chosin Lake with trepidation.
I reject the argument that Smith's military prowess is excessively boastful, that he is really not a famous general, that is, a decent military standard, in fact, if the 1st Marine Division moved quickly, it could have rushed to the river before the Ninth Corps arrived (look at the time to see). However, Smith's pre-war judgment was that the far right wing of the Eighth Army on the Western Front was far away in Tokugawa, and there was a distance of nearly a hundred kilometers between it and the Eastern Front, and it was impossible to form an effective synergy with the Tenth Army, which meant that the flank of the 1st Marine Division was completely exposed. The farther the troops advanced, the greater the likelihood that the supply lines and rear roads would be cut off, and the 1st Marine Division would have to advance at a "safe" pace without determining what was really going on the Eastern Front.
For the turtle climbing of the 1st Marine Division, the Almond Army grew into a light fire, and every day the call was urgent, the content was the same: "Forward, fast forward", Smith was overwhelmed, but it was not easy to openly confront, so he wrote to the commander of the Marine Corps, General Kaates, complaining: "I am not sure about the tactical judgment of the Tenth Army, and the reality of their plans, they make plans on one millionth of a map, we carry out our missions on a map of fifty thousandths", Smith vented angrily about his views on the Army generals:
"These guys are either extremely optimistic or extremely pessimistic, there is no intermediate state to speak of"!
After the Battle of Chosin Lake, Smith once let go of an afterthought: "The Chosin Lake area is not suitable for military operations at all, even Genghis Khan would not want to conquer it." So what kind of geographical environment is the Chosin Lake area? Lake Chosin is the largest lake in the northern part of the peninsula, located in the northeast of the Gaima Plateau, formed by the Chosin River originating in Huangcaoling (the dividing line between the East and West Battlefields) between Liutan-ri and Hagaru-ri, and then joins the Yalu River, the plateau climate, narrow mountain roads, is indeed not conducive to the mechanized operations of the US military. But the question is, since it knows the treacherous terrain of Chosin Lake, why can't the 1st Marine Division take a lost chance?
In other words, if Smith commanded boldly enough, he would either lead his troops out of the river quickly to avoid the unfavorable terrain of the Chosin Lake area, or simply lie still and stay still, entrenched in the ancient tuli and near the Watergate Bridge to maintain a free retreat, but under the urging of MacArthur and Almond, the 1st Marine Division not only moved, but also moved forward. By the afternoon of November 26, the vanguard battle group of the 1st Marine Division had reached Liutanli at the northern end of Chosin Lake, and the division headquarters and direct subordinate units had advanced to Hagaru-ri at the southern end, while the rearguard regiment was still stranded in the Gutuli line, only 6 kilometers away from the famous Watergate Bridge, and the entire division's sequence formed a long snake array.
It can be found that Smith has completely put up a posture of retreating when he finds that it is not good, which is a typical first mouse at both ends, where is the style of a famous general? MacArthur was dissatisfied with the wear and tear of the 1st Marine Division, Almond was angry, and even Walker, the commander of the Eighth Army on the Western Front, was also in a hurry, he had flown specifically to the headquarters of the 1st Marine Division to urge, but Smith did not buy it, and his order to the troops was:
Slow down and stop advancing until our troops actually meet.
On the day of November 25, the U.S. Eighth Army on the Western Front, after being violently attacked by six corps of the Volunteer Army, was beaten to the point of being beaten to the point of no return, and in urgent need of the Tenth Army to rush westward with strong troops, the rapid electric snowflakes of the two headquarters in Tokyo and Wonsan still reported to Almond unhurriedly: "In the present circumstances, I think it is unwise to continue the offensive battle, we are now fighting for our survival, and until the situation is clear, it is necessary to take a defensive position in the area where we are located."
Before the large units of the Volunteer Army had been discovered, the 1st Marine Division had already "fought for survival", and this strange theory made MacArthur and Almond's noses turned, and they had to urge the 1st Marine Division to advance rapidly in order to cooperate with the so-called "offensive" of the Eighth Army. By November 26, the U.S. Eighth Army on the Western Front had collapsed completely, and the troops were desperately retreating, but no one had informed Smith of the bad situation on the Western Front, whether it was the General Headquarters in Tokyo, the Tenth Army Headquarters in Wonsan, or the Eighth Army Command in Shin-Anju.
The contradictions within the US military, as well as Smith's self-belief that the service is special and has repeatedly disobeyed, has triggered the dissatisfaction of many superiors, making the US troops on the east and west fronts unable to communicate with each other, and also dooming the 1st Marine Division to be beaten to the point of being bruised and swollen.
The 20th Army also had an accident in which three soldiers were captured.
On the night of November 26, 1950, Colonel Lizberg, commander of the Avant-Garde Battle Group of the 1st Marine Division, reported that his troops had captured three nearly frozen Chinese soldiers near Liutanli, identifying them as the "20th Army", and Smith drew it when he received the call, which was a new military number, indicating that there must be a Large Corps formation of Chinese troops in front. And Colonel Lizberg's next words made Smith's eyes go black:
According to the interrogation confessions, two Chinese troops were about to attack the 1st Marine Division, as well as attacking Hagaru-ri, cutting off the U.S. retreat from the Chosin Lake area.
This incident is mostly recorded in books, and the author is convinced that in the volunteer army in 1950, the "liberation fighters" component accounted for a large proportion, and it was not surprising that a few elements with weak will appeared after being captured. Smith's confession was half-convinced, on the one hand, because of his ominous premonition, preferring to believe, on the other hand, as far as military common sense is concerned, such an accurate large corps combat plan is indeed not something that ordinary soldiers can grasp, even a company commander and battalion commander may not know such a precise campaign-level deployment.
Smith estimates that according to the establishment of the Chinese army, the two armies have at least 80,000 troops, how can such a huge force movement not have a little sign? How many people and horses and vehicles do you have to do that? Just kidding.
After much deliberation, Smith reported to the command and demanded that the 1st Marine Division stop advancing and go further north after ascertaining the situation, only to arrive angrily by helicopter to the commander himself in Shimogaru-ri, and Almond's disobedience to Smith was intolerable. After the two men met, the commander forcefully issued an order to the division commander in person: the 1st Marine Division must advance immediately, and it must also divide its troops into two routes, one way to the north to attack the original target wupingli, and the other way to the west to cooperate with the eighth army, and there is no room for bargaining.
Smith tried to explain to the superior, and found a new military-class opponent, and Almond laughed contemptuously, telling the Rear Admiral that after receiving the report of the 1st Marine Division, a large number of reconnaissance aircraft of the Far East Air Force and Navy had been ordered to fly all the way to the Yalu River crossing, and all the rewards had only one answer:
Indeed, no trace of the approach of the Large Corps was found!
As for the confessions produced by the 7th Marine Regiment, it is completely a bluff trick of the Chinese army, you Smith can not be timid, and the 1st Marine Division, as the ace of the Marine Corps, cannot be timid!
The U.S. Air Force is quite confident in its ability to conduct aerial reconnaissance, and the message they convey to Almond is very similar to Liao Yaoxiang's line in the movie "Armageddon": "Our corps is unimpeded, unimpeded"!
Smith sneered: "In the case of three Chinese divisions that are said to have appeared, in the cold that is difficult to survive, it is not necessary for the main force of the 1st Marine Division to advance rapidly in the direction of Wupingli", and Almond was completely enraged, and directly reported to MacArthur that he threatened to denounce the disobedience of the 1st Marine Division. Smith knew that his arm could not twist his thigh, and if he continued to resist orders, he would have to be "removed from his post and investigated", so he held out three conditions, and said very euphemistically that if Almond could not meet these conditions, the 1st Marine Division would still not be able to attack:
First, the military command has increased the number of powerful troops to comprehensively guard the supply line and ensure the safety and smooth transportation of the rear of the 1st Marine Division.
Second, the military command increased its transportation efforts and stocked the 1st Marine Division with sufficient supplies north of the Watergate Bridge.
Third, immediately build an airstrip in Hagaru to prepare for the evacuation of the wounded and emergency transport.
Almond had no choice but to compromise, and after agreeing, he asked in surprise: "How can there be a wounded person?"? Smith looked at the boss, crying, and he wrote angrily in his diary: "He did not admit that there would be casualties."
It turned out that Smith's caution and caution did indeed save the 1st Marine Division from the possible destruction of the division, and 4,400 wounded were transported from the Lower Osumuri airstrip alone.
Sixth, the concealed advance of the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army is a military miracle.
Although Almond was forced to agree to his conditions and to see the Air Force's reconnaissance report, Smith still felt bottomless, and at dawn on November 27, he personally flew north from Hagaru-ri in a helicopter, along the way he and his staff constantly used telescopes to observe the ground and search for the trail of the volunteers. However, the result was very disappointing to him, the wind roared on the Gaima Plateau below, the wind rolled up the snow powder and confused, he could not see even a figure, let alone the traces of a large army march, Smith also felt that he was a little worried?
Through the most basic military common sense, he judged that the march of tens of thousands of horses and horses of the Chinese army could not be without a trace, and if it was a hidden assembly, the three captured volunteer soldiers were wearing only very thin cotton clothes, such cold protection equipment meant that even if they lay in the snow for an hour, they would be completely frozen, so it was impossible. Thinking again about MacArthur and Almond's strict orders, Smith finally gave the order by radio: the 1st Marine Division's Vanguard Battle Group (5th and 7th Regiments) set off from Liutanli and continued to search and advance.
Smith was wrong, just under the helicopter he was riding, in the thick snow and ice of the mountains, 80,000 soldiers of the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army were quietly lurking and waiting, just waiting for the 1st Marine Division to drill into his pocket!
The forward of the Ninth Corps of the Song Dynasty Wheel crossed the Yalu River on November 7, and in the face of the ravages of Us aircraft and frequent aerial reconnaissance, the troops strictly implemented the order of "night travel and xiao su", advancing at full speed in the dark night, camping in hiding at dawn, enduring hunger and freezing, and marching forward courageously. From the commander of the corps to the commanders, division commanders, and regimental commanders at all levels, they did not know what Smith's full name was, and some people did not even know which workshop MacArthur was in, and there was only one belief in their hearts: to surround the enemy and destroy the enemy. The most valuable thing is that during the 20-day march on the plateau snow, the US warplanes flew countless times without realizing it. so.
Earlier in the morning of November 27, 1950, on the instructions of Commander Smith, Colonel Lizberg, the commander of the 7th Marine Regiment, who temporarily commanded the battle group, issued an order to open the pull: the second battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment was the vanguard, commanded by the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Reus, and set out from Liutanli to the west, followed by the three battalions of the regiment, and the 7th Marine Regiment remained in Liutanli with the main force, establishing a ring defense to consolidate the flanks of the whole division, and when the 5th Regiment explored the road and safety, the 7th Regiment moved out in turn. At 10 a.m., the H Company of the Third Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment successfully occupied the first target: Hill 1403, during which time not a single Chinese soldier was encountered or a single gunshot was heard.
The U.S. Marines were equipped with a full set of cold armor: under the steel helmets were hooded hats, under the weatherproof hiking suits were wool underwear and sweater pants, and there were two or three layers of wool insoles in the combat boots, and even so, they were shivering with cold, and if they knew what the volunteer soldiers were wearing, their jaws would be shocked.
Even so, the rugged mountain road and the bone-chilling cold still made the American soldiers cry bitterly, and by 3 p.m. the entire team of the vanguard battalion was exhausted, And Reus had to order the camp to be camped on the spot, but in fact, the battalion was only a few kilometers away from Liutan, and the field fortifications it built were basically connected with the 7th Marine Regiment in Liutan. At nightfall, just as Lieutenant Colonel Reus was about to drink a glass of wine to keep out the cold, the gunfire in the valley of the willow pond was loud, and what particularly frightened the American officers and men was that it was mixed with the increasingly clear horn sound, and they knew that the most terrible opponent had finally appeared!
On the night of November 27, 1950, after completing the interspersed division of the various units of the 1st Marine Division, the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army launched a fierce attack on the enemy in front of them, and the fierce and great Battle of Chosin Lake began!