Ridgway, the most difficult opponent of the Volunteer Army in the Korean battlefield, has brought great difficulties and losses to the Volunteer Army in the past year or so in Korea! If it were not for Eisenhower's presidential campaign and Ridgway's succession to a more strategically positioned Europe, perhaps the course of the Korean battlefield would have been different?
So what's so special about Ridgway?
Biography before World War II
Ridgway was born in 1895 in Fort Monroe, Virginia.
The years 1895 to 1917 are rare.
He graduated from the United States Army Officers School (West Point) in 1917.
From 1918 to 1926 he was an instructor at his alma mater and the Fort Benning Infantry School. He later served in China, Nicaragua, Panama, Bolivia, the Philippines, Brazil and the United States, and attended the Command and Staff School and the Army Military Academy
He graduated from the Army Military Academy in 1937.
In 1939, he served as a staff officer in the Combat Planning Division of the Army Staff.
Ridgway
If you just look at this flow account, you will feel unremarkable, and it is true that the glory of Ridgway's military career finally began with its decay and transformation method.
Decay and the splendor of World War II
In August 1942, Ridgway was promoted to brigadier general, and ridgway was 47 years old, which was far worse than his later leader, MacArthur, who was also the first commander-in-chief of the United Nations army in the Korean Theater, and MacArthur was only 38 years old when he was promoted to brigadier general.
But opportunities are given to those who are prepared, and Ridgway entered the fast lane from the beginning of his appointment as commander of the 82nd Infantry Division.
Transform the Paratroopers
After the war, the development of transport aircraft and parachutes provided the material basis for the establishment of airborne troops. The Soviet Union began trial construction of airborne detachments in 1930 and was expanded into airborne brigades in 1932. Subsequently, Germany, France, Italy and other countries also formed airborne troops. The United States started relatively late, about 10 years later than these European countries, and Ridgway was one of the important figures in the conversion of infantry to airborne troops. This transformation coincided with the large-scale operation of airborne troops in World War II, so Ridgway began the brilliant moment of his military career.
Airborne site
In World War II, airborne troops developed rapidly and were used in combat on a large scale. At the beginning of the war, the Soviet Union had 5 airborne troops and germany had 2 airborne divisions. Later, the Soviet Union developed to 10 airborne troops, Germany developed to 1 airborne army (8 divisions), the United States in World War II invested a lot of airborne troops, before the end of the war, the United States has developed 5 airborne divisions and several independent airborne corps, Ridgway in these airborne corps operations to play an important role.
Landing in Sicily
During the Sicily landings in July 1943, Ridgway commanded the 82nd Division, which had been transformed into airborne troops, to conduct the first large-scale night-time airborne operation in U.S. military history.
The invasion of Sicily was seen as one of the invasions of Italy. It was one of the largest landing operations of World War II. The attack on Sicily served the allied planners' aim of wiping out Axis air and sea power from the island, controlling the Mediterranean, and bringing down Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, a campaign that opened the curtain on the later invasion of Italy.
Sicily landing campaign
Participated in the Normandy landings
In June 1944, he led his troops to participate in the Normandy Landing Campaign, the Normandy Landing, code-named "Operation Overlord", which was a large-scale offensive launched by the Allies on the Western Front in Europe in World War II. Nearly three million Allied soldiers crossed the English Channel to Normandy, France, successfully opening up the second battlefield on the European continent.
The Battle of Normandy, the world's largest maritime landing operation to date, fundamentally changed the strategic posture of World War II and played an important role in hastening the collapse of fascist Germany and the post-war situation in Europe.
Normandy landings
After the Normandy landings, he was promoted to commander of the 18th Airborne Army in August because of his outstanding performance. He also participated in many battles against Germany, and after the war, he served as the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Theater and the representative of the Allied Supreme Commander Eisenhower to the Military Staff Committee of the United Nations Security Council.
In 1948, he was promoted to Commander of the United States Forces in the Caribbean, and in 1949 he became Deputy Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
Korean War
If there was no Eighth Army Walton. Walker's accidental death, perhaps Ridgway should not have the opportunity to get involved in the Korean War in his lifetime, but history is like this, on the third day of Walker's death, Ridgway became the commander of the Eighth Army, thus becoming the most troublesome opponent of the volunteer army in the Korean battlefield, there is no one! Compared with the arrogance and self-sufficiency of his predecessor MacArthur, and the modesty of his successor Clark, Ridgway can be said to have changed the course of history in the Korean Battlefield.
Hemostasis for the Eighth Army
When Ridgway took over, the Eighth Army can be said to have fallen to the bottom, in the first three battles of the first stage, because of the Eighth Army's own reasons and lack of understanding of the volunteer army, three battles and three defeats, retreated from the Yalu River to near the 37th Line, the retreat distance created a record for the Us army, during the recuperation process, Commander Walker was reduced by South Korean vehicles non-combat, morale was low, talking about the color of the volunteer army.
Morale is the fundamental factor in whether the army can have combat effectiveness, and without morale, even if the weapons and equipment are strong, it will not help. In terms of improving morale, Ridgway's approach can be described as immediate.
Ridgway on the front lines
After the first three battles, many division commanders of the Eighth Army believed that the volunteer army was invincible and deliberately delayed Ridgway's combat orders.
The second is to lead by example, personally go to the front line, communicate with soldiers, and at the same time, the two infantry grenades equipped with them also play a good propaganda role.
Of course, this alone is certainly not enough, and it is difficult to turn over without fighting a hard battle. Soon Ridgway launched the fourth phase of the first phase.
The Fourth Campaign
The main offensive side of the fourth campaign became the United Nations Army. Ridgway deployed Operation Butcher and Operation Ripper, and the "United Nations Army" concentrated five sixteen divisions, three brigades, an airborne regiment, and all artillery, tanks, and aviation units in Korea to launch an all-out offensive on a frontal area of two hundred kilometers, taking the lead with the American troops and concentrating in the main direction, the first with the capture of Seoul as the main goal, and the second step toward the 38th Parallel.
Because of the logistical supply and staffing of the Volunteer Army, the Volunteer Army could only rely on field fortifications to carry out defense, although it defended against the attack of the United Nations Army, but the chance of ending the war in the short term was getting smaller and smaller.
Mao Zedong experienced the possibility of prolonging the war in this campaign, and a telegram to Joseph Stalin on 1 March said: "
As can be seen from the recent battles currently being fought on the Korean battlefield, the enemy will not withdraw from Korea unless most of them are destroyed, but it will take time for most of them to be eliminated, so the Korean War has the possibility of prolongation, and I should prepare for at least two years. ”
During the Fourth Campaign, the invincible MacArthur was dismissed,
Ridgway took over as Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations Forces.
Magnetic tactics
Both magnetic tactics and aerial strangulation warfare were Ridgway's "snake strike seven inches" against the volunteers. Although the first three battles were won, the fourth and fifth battles suffered considerable losses due to magnetic tactics and frontal battlefield volunteers.
Ridgway discovered the "worship offensive" of the volunteer army, and found that the volunteer army used to carry out interspersed movements at night, causing chaos behind enemy lines, and could probably penetrate more than 70 miles per night. They carried forward the mechanized superiority of the US army, retreated about 70 miles at night, avoided the battle line being interspersed, and after dawn gave full play to the advantages of air and artillery fire, and then waited for the opportunity to counterattack to the original position.
The success of this tactic lies in the fact that it analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the volunteer army, took advantage of the logistical difficulties of the volunteer army and lacked heavy equipment, and used the rapid mobility of the armored troops to raid important traffic arteries in the theater, control the traffic arteries, cut off the supply and support of the volunteers, quickly coordinate with the airborne troops, and the main forces, and repeatedly engage with the passive volunteers, basically forming a partially surrounded situation.
Fourth tactical diagram
In the process of the retreat of the volunteer army in the later stages of the fifth campaign, the US army used the "magnetic" tactics mentioned above to cause great passivity to the volunteer army, especially the 180th Division of the 60th Army suffered serious losses, and nearly 8,000 people of the whole division were killed or captured, and the losses were almost as large as the Bloody Battle of Kinmen in 1949.
Aerial strangulation
This is Ridgway's shortcomings in the logistics supply of the volunteer army, another very targeted tactic Since mid-August 1951, the "United Nations Army" in the Korean War, using its air superiority, to take advantage of the catastrophic flood disaster in Korea that has not been seen in 40 years, launched a long-term logistical strangulation war against the volunteer army.
The strangulation was divided into three stages, basically investing two-thirds of the troops of nearly 1700 aircraft entering the Korean War.
The early stage, that is, the first stage of the strangulation of the logistics positions, belonged to the wide-net casting stage, which lasted for one month in August 1951, but did not cut off the transport lines of the volunteer army.
The most brutal part of the strangulation war is the second stage. The first phase of strangulation ended in failure, and from September 1951 onwards, the enemy adjusted its plans from large-scale bombing to focusing on bombing the core of the transport line, the Delta region. At this stage, enemy aircraft bombed the 73-square-kilometer delta area in 5 batches of more than 100 aircraft every day, and throughout this stage, more than 30,000 shells were dropped, with an average of more than 400 shells per square kilometer, and the firepower density was the world record at that time!
Volunteer Logistics Transport Line
The third phase is for areas where road repair is difficult in the delta area. In this area, the road was very difficult to repair after it was destroyed, because of the fierceness of the bombing, the Volunteer Army had to arrange for two railway regiments to repair it within a 11-kilometer length, and carry out it with the United Nations army
"Fried → repair→ fried → repair"
Tug-of-war!
The strangulation battle ended in failure, but it brought great difficulties to the logistical support of the Chinese volunteers and front-line operations, and also caused very large casualties!
Since then, the two sides have formed a confrontation near the 38th Line, and have experienced a stalemate for nearly two years!
In May 1952, Ridgway's old leader, Essenhower, who commanded the Normandy landings, returned to the United States to run for president, and was elected, Ridgway went to Europe to succeed Eisenhower as the supreme commander of the armed forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, obviously the strategic position of Europe was more important to the United States than the Korean Peninsula, and Ridgway ended his military career in the Korean War.
epilogue
I don't know, if it is not this change, what the subsequent process will be. But Ridgway was the most formidable opponent the Volunteers had encountered on the Korean battlefield. However, with the master of the move, their own can have a higher improvement, but also Ridgway, improve the combat experience of the volunteer army and large-scale modern army, but also promote the modernization of the Logistics Support of the Chinese Army!