The 38th Army led by Liang Xingchu was criticized by Zhisi for failing to complete its mission in the first battle, and Liang Xingchu was scolded by Peng Dehuai:
"I see what kind of tiger general, it is the rat general!"
However, Liang Xingchu was not really a rat general, and then he led the 38th Army to play the name of the Banzai Army in the second battle, and walker, the commander of the Eighth Army who fought with the Volunteer Army on the Western Front, changed from a "tiger general" to a "rat general" in the European battlefield, until he died, and did not turn things around.
Walton Walker
Who is Walker?
Walton Walker was born in Texas in 1889. Texas, the second largest state in the United States, after Alaska, because of historical reasons, most of the people here are Latinos, some immigrate from Mexico, most of them are illegal immigrants, and some immigrate from Brazil, so they have developed a tough folk style.
Western cowboys
This upbringing also developed his tough personality, which was an absolute plus as a soldier, as evidenced by Walker's military career.
Determined to become a soldier, Walker entered the Virginia Military Association in 1907, graduated from the Cradle of American Generals, West Point In 1912 and was appointed second lieutenant of infantry, thus beginning his career as a horseman.
Walker's first entry into the war was the U.S. invasion of Mexico. In April 1914, under the pretext that its sailors were detained, the United States sent warships to invade Mexican waters and occupy the city of Veracruz, but this illegal invasion did not last long, and the invading American troops returned in November due to the strong counterattack of the revolutionary peasant army.
How long has the United States, the outbreak of the First World War, as a big deal to see the hilarity, but also want to take advantage of the fire and robbery, naturally sent troops to participate in the war.
World War I broke out
In April 1918, Walker arrived in France with the 13th Machine Gun Battalion of the Fifth Army Division.
In June of the same year, Walker was temporarily promoted to major and became a machine gun company commander, and in the same year he took part in the Battle of Saint-Miyère and the Battle of Meuse-Argonne, in which the brave Walker led the troops to fight hard and because of the achievements he established, Walker made his debut.
After World War I, Walker returned to the United States and began a 10-year career of study and coaching. He studied at the Silburg Artillery School, the Benningborg Advanced Course, the Staff Officer and the Command College. Of course, the study was not continuous, and Walker also taught at West Point and the Virginia Coast Artillery School.
Until 1930, he was stationed with the Fifteenth Infantry Regiment in Tianjin, China, where American troops had been stationed for eighteen years, and walker spent three years here to get a piece of the devastated old China, where Marshall, a prominent figure in the American military, was his regimental commander. These three years are a precursor to a heavier catastrophe for China, with warlords fighting and the Japanese already on the move.
U.S. troops stationed in Tianjin during the Republic of China
I don't know how much Walker knew about China in the past three years, but at least he didn't expect to meet in North Korea later.
After returning home, Walker continued to precipitate, and by the time he entered the European theater of World War II, Walker was already a major general in the army, commanding an armored army.
In 1944, Walker brought troops into Europe, and in the European theater, Walker reached the peak of his military career.
In February 1944 Walker was ordered to lead troops to England, and in July of the same year, as a subordinate unit of Patton's Third Army, it landed in France.
Brad Pitt played the movie Fury in World War II U.S. Tanks
Walker made a name for itself in the march across central France, and the Twentieth Army was known as the Phantom Army for its speed of advance. Whether it was the great counterattack against Germany in the northern Ardennes, or the breakthrough of the Siegfried Line, as well as the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp and the crossing of the Danube, Walker showed ferocity and fierceness.
Walker's superior, General George Patton, was very fond of him, calling him "my best bastard boy" in rude terms. George Patton, brave and tenacious, decisive command, full of offensive spirit, good at giving full play to the advantages of armored troops to implement rapid mobility and long-distance attacks, was called "bloody veteran" by his subordinates, and could be praised by Patton, which shows how powerful Walker was at that time.
George Barton
As an armored tactician, Walker gained the reputation of "offensive authority" in the European battlefield and was known as the "tiger dog". I just didn't think that the offensive authority during World War II was about to become a retreat authority in the Korean battlefield.
After World War II, Walker returned to the United States as commander of the Fifth Army, and in 1948, with a paper order, Walker went to Japan and became the supreme commander of the Eighth Army in Japan.
The Eighth Army, the main force in the decline of the operation, just did not think that the Japanese Emperor announced the unconditional surrender, originally planned to occupy Japan by force, now turned into a peaceful takeover.
On August 28, 1945, the first U.S. Marines landed at Yokosuka, followed by 150,000 U.S. troops who occupied all of Japan and began to occupy Japan under the name of allied occupying forces. From August 30 to September 6, MacArthur's 460,000 U.S. troops were stationed in Japan, controlling major cities and strategic points.
Since then, this force has changed. American soldiers, who had been struggling in World War II, fell in Japan. "Friends come with good wine, jackals come with shotguns", the American soldiers at this time can not be said to be Friends of Japan, nor can they be said to be Jackals, but at this time, the American soldiers in Japan may be the most comfortable day of their military careers.
Without him, maids, nightclubs, Japanese women in arms, that's enough. The United States already possesses the world's unique atomic bomb, at this time, there is no formation of the "Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons", the UNITED STATES military circles, the government in the eyes of nuclear weapons is the ultimate way for the United States to dominate the world; and in the eyes of these veterans of World War II, more or less have a false sense of security brought by the atomic bomb, do not have to go to the battlefield to fight, many people lost in the lights of Japan, lost in the gentleness of Japanese women.
U.S. troops and Japanese women
As the military and political leader on the other side of the ocean, it is impossible not to know, so Walker also came to Japan for one purpose, to boost morale and enhance combat effectiveness!
It's just that Walker's two years of time seems to have gained little, after all, "from frugality to luxury, from luxury to frugality"! It would have been fine if it hadn't been for the black swan of the Korean War, but on June 25, 1950, gunfire on the Korean Peninsula on the other side of Japan broke all that.
In 3 days, the Korean Peninsula was about to become a people's army, and the US government headed by Truman could not watch the strength of the Soviet Union in East Asia. Truman has not yet figured out the position of the Soviet Union in the Korean War, but for the long-term interests of the United States, it is necessary to send troops!
Walker thus took the Eighth Army into Korea, there was no way, although the military strength of the US military was already unprecedentedly strong at that time, but it was unrealistic to increase the number of troops from all over korea in a short period of time, and when the reinforcements arrived, there would be no South Korea or anything, and the only thing that could be used was the US troops stationed in Japan, after all, the water could not quench the thirst of the near.
In this way, Walker went to Korea with the Eighth Army, although there were veterans, but they did not know why they were fighting for the interests of the United States for many years, and many of them did not have a high will to fight; there were new soldiers, who had not participated in real wars.
In the early stages, Walker stubbornly resisted the North Korean People's Army near Busan, but before the Inchon landing, the Eighth Army and the North Korean People's Army were not outstanding.
The Incheon landing changed all that! Not only did china have no choice but to send troops to meet the situation on the Korean battlefield; the success of the Inchon landing made MacArthur even more arrogant, which is the masterpiece of his military career.
On October 19, the Chinese Volunteer Army went to Korea, and on October 25, the first battle began!
Korean
The result is self-evident, because the main body of the operation was the South Korean army, plus the battle was an encounter, the first battle ended with the victory of the Volunteer Army and North Korea, during which the 39th Army severely damaged the US First Cavalry Division, in two days and three nights of bloody fighting, the 39th Army of the Volunteer Army severely damaged the US 1st Cavalry Division, killing, wounding and capturing more than 2,000 enemy troops, including more than 1,800 US troops, shooting down 1 plane, capturing 4 aircraft, destroying and capturing 28 tanks, more than 170 cars, and 119 artillery pieces of various kinds.
The result was not bad, but the arrogant MacArthur made a fatal mistake. He thought that the volunteer army was only a volunteer army, that is, a scattered soldier wandering, but what he did not know was that these scattered soldiers also had commanders, the commander was the deputy commander of the Eighth Route Army period, and the commander of the Northwest Field Army in the Liberation War, Peng Dehuai, had a strong personality, superb command art, and was good at fighting hard battles.
For the so-called Christmas offensive, MacArthur's platooning was entirely a bandit style of play, without echelon configuration and flanking protection, although Walker emphasized this to MacArthur during the battle, MacArthur was not moved. This so-called Asia-connected understanding of the Chinese military is still stuck in the old China, which was weak.
Peng Dehuai put a big pocket for the Eighth Army on the Western Front, waiting for the Eighth Army! In this way, the Eighth Army entered the pocket that Peng Dehuai had arranged.
Schematic of the second battle
On 25 November, the Volunteers launched a counterattack on the Western Front, and the first wave of attacks crushed the Korean Second Army in the center line, exposing the American flanks on the eastern and western fronts, and retreating.
In the process, they encountered stubborn resistance from the volunteer army, and at Sansholi and Songkufeng, the volunteers inflicted heavy losses on the American troops equipped with superior firepower, and the US Second Division, the Twenty-fifth Division, and the US First Cavalry Division were all severely damaged.
Beginning on December 1, the entire Eighth Army was desperate to escape along the coastal road along the Suchuan line, and the speed of escape was staggering.
Everyone in the U.S. army summed up the experience of preparing to flee, and some people ran when they found that the dog's tail on the hillside had moved, and there was a possibility of an ambush; some people heard the volunteers' military trumpets and whistles and fled; and some people fled when they heard the volunteers' food.
After all, they were all scared, and in the dark night, they were called up by the volunteers from time to time to fight, not to mention the war, and ordinary people were often woken up at night, which was also nervous.
As the saying goes, the army was defeated like a mountain, and on December 5, the capital of occupied North Korea could not be saved, and Walker decided to continue to retreat south with the Eighth Army, and after more than half a month of retreating south, the Eighth Army actually retreated hundreds of kilometers!
On December 23, 1950, a day of great significance in the Korean War, the initial negotiations between China and the United States ended in failure, and a battle was about to begin.
By this time the Eighth Army had withdrawn near Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and on this day Walker was trying to establish a new defensive line near the 38th Parallel. 25th Infantry Division, his son Sam. Walker was there, and for his meritorious service he had received a medal, and he wanted to personally present the award to his son.
Walker rode in a jeep to the garrison of the 25th Infantry Division, while a large number of South Korean troops were retreating, driving so fast that even Ridgway, who later took over, was surprised. Walker's jeep was hit by a South Korean army car, and when Walker was taken to the field hospital, he was no longer saved!
Walton Walker's Tomb
Time also, fate also? The proud son of the European battlefield died in the Korean battlefield, never had the opportunity to wash away the shame, and his son never had the opportunity to wear the medal issued by his father!