In the Battle of Chosin Lake, the Ninth Corps of our Volunteer Army, at the cost of huge casualties, set a record of completely annihilating a whole regiment of the US army since the "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea", and forced the US army's ace unit, the "US First Marine Division", to experience the "longest retreat" in history.
In addition, through this campaign, our army recovered the vast area in the east north of the "38th Line" in one fell swoop, completely turning the tide of the Korean War.
Strategically as a whole, our volunteer army has undoubtedly won a major victory!
So much so that after the war, Chairman Mao also spoke highly: "The Ninth Corps has accomplished tremendous strategic tasks under extremely difficult conditions. ”
However, some scholars do not think so!
They held that in the entire "Battle of Chosin Lake," the Ninth Corps of our Volunteer Army had a greater advantage in terms of overall posture, terrain, and strength.
However, as a result, our army paid a huge casualty price, and still failed to completely annihilate or even give the US First Marine Division a heavy blow. Therefore, this can not be said to be a victory.
Although the Battle of Chosin Lake thwarted the American offensive on the Eastern Front, it allowed the Encircled First Marine Division to successfully escape. Therefore, the Battle of Chosin Lake cannot be said to be a victory, objectively speaking, it should be that the two sides have fought a "draw".
Of course, if we look only at the number of enemies annihilated, the casualties of the troops, and whether or not to accomplish the predetermined combat objectives of the "first us land division," this really cannot be regarded as a victory.
After all, in this battle, the Ninth Corps of our volunteer army did pay a big price!
According to official data released in 1988, the number of combat casualties of the Ninth Corps of our Volunteer Army was more than 21,000 in the Battle of Chosin Lake, of which 7,034 were killed; more than 30,000 were suffered from frostbite; and the total number of casualties reached more than 52,000.
Of course, this data is not accurate, because the casualty figures of the 26th Army and the 27th Army are based on the casualty figures of the 20th Army.
But we also know that the task of the 20th Army in the Battle of Chosin Lake was to be responsible for interspersing and detouring, and its combat intensity was much higher than that of the 27th Army, which was responsible for the offensive operations, and the 26th Army as a reserve.
That is to say, the overall casualties of the 20th Army should be greater than that of the 26th Army and the 27th Army. Therefore, Chairman Mao's post-war view of "reducing the number of 40,000 people" is more in line with reality.
So, what was the attrition of the First Marine Division, which was the opponent of the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army?
According to the information released by the US military after the war, from October 26 to December 15, the total number of combat casualties of the First Division of the Army was 4418, of which 604 were killed in battle, 114 died of serious injuries, 192 were missing in battle, and 3508 were wounded in battle;
Another 7,313 non-combat attritions, most of them mild frostbite or indigestion, were soon returned. In addition, 8 marines were killed, 4 missing and 3 wounded.
In this campaign, the 1st Marine Division lost more than 11,000 personnel; if you add the US Army 7th Division and the South Korean Army, the total reduction is about 14,000 people.
Therefore, only from the perspective of the number of annihilated enemies and casualty data, the Ninth Corps of our volunteer army really cannot be regarded as a victory!
In addition, judging from whether or not the operational objectives were achieved, the Ninth Corps of our Volunteer Army, while paying a huge casualty price, did not complete the predetermined combat goal of "completely annihilating the US First Marine Division"!
Although our army can say: we have completely annihilated a whole regiment of the US army and won a grand strategic victory.
But the US military can also be said to have created a miracle: the Chinese army of more than 100,000 people surrounded and annihilated more than 20,000 of them, and finally let most of them successfully evacuate, is this not a "miracle"?
Therefore, if we look at the number of enemies annihilated, the casualties of the troops, and the predetermined combat objectives alone, our army really cannot be regarded as a victory.
But what you need to know is that to evaluate the victory or defeat of a battle, in addition to the number of enemies destroyed, casualties, and the degree of completion of the combat objectives, the most important thing is to see whether the battle has reached the strategic objectives of both sides.
Therefore, if we want to solve the problem of whether the Ninth Corps of our volunteer army won the Battle of Chosin Lake or whether it was a so-called "draw" with the other side, we only need to see whether the Ninth Corps has completed our strategic objectives!
First of all, from the strategic tasks achieved by the Ninth Corps!
The "Battle of Chosin Lake," as an important part of the second campaign to resist US aggression and aid Korea, played a crucial role in the entire war situation.
In this campaign, the Ninth Corps fought against the enemy on the eastern front, effectively cooperated with the counterattack of the volunteer army on the cheongcheon River on the western front, and advanced the entire front from northern Korea to the Pyongyang-Wonsan line, turning the tide of the Korean War and making it an "inflection point" in the Korean War.
This may be a bit official and abstract, but we can briefly summarize the war situation at that time:
Since the "Inchon Landing" on September 15, 1950, the U.S. military has been advancing directly on the Yalu River. The U.S.-led "United Nations Army" marched northward, taking most of northern Korea, including Pyongyang, in just one month.
Before our volunteer army officially entered the Korean War, the iron hooves of the "United Nations Army" invasion had already entered the Yalu River on the border between China and The DPRK.
After the first battle, our army drove the enemy from the Yalu River to the south of the Cheongcheon River, smashing in one fell swoop the enemy's vain plan to occupy all of Korea before Thanksgiving and end the Korean War.
Although in the first campaign, our army annihilated more than 10,000 enemy troops, the enemy's combat effectiveness was not greatly affected, so after a little reorganization, it began to gather heavy troops to make a comeback.
According to MacArthur's deployment: the northern offensive was divided into two routes, the eastern front was commanded by Major General Almond and the First Army of South Korea, with a total strength of more than 100,000 troops; on the western front, Lieutenant General Walker commanded the US Eighth Army and the South Korean Second Army, totaling more than 120,000 troops, and attacked north at the same time.
MacArthur vainly attempted to use the US 10th Army on the Eastern Front to launch a roundabout attack on the "Jiangjie" of the Provisional Government of North Korea, in order to cut off the rear line of communication of our army, and then rendezvous with the US Eighth Army on the Western Front, thus forming a siege of the main force of the Volunteer Army on the Western Front.
If this is the case, the main force of our volunteer army is likely to fall into a passive situation, and the consequences are self-evident.
What is even more fatal is that at that time, only two divisions of the Forty-second Army of our Volunteer Army were in charge of the defense of the Eastern Front, with about 30,000 people, which was really pitiful compared with the 100,000 enemy troops armed to the teeth.
After the Ninth Corps entered Korea, it began to attack the "United Nations Army" on the Eastern Front and repelled the US 10th Army in one fell swoop.
Figure | MacArthur
Although the Ninth Corps suffered heavy losses in this battle, it largely guaranteed the security of the supply lines in the rear of the Volunteer Army on the Western Front, and the "United Nations Army" never set foot in the northeast of Korea.
Therefore, to a certain extent, the "Battle of Chosin Lake" permanently expelled the "United Nations Army" led by the United States from the northeast of Korea, opened up the front dilemma in the northeast, and permanently eliminated the enemy's threat to the river boundary of the North Korean Provisional Government.
In addition, the victory at the Battle of Chosin Lake also greatly thwarted MacArthur's attempt to encircle the Chinese and Korean coalition forces from the eastern front, greatly guaranteed the safety of the rear of the volunteer army on the western front, and smashed MacArthur's so-called "Christmas Offensive" in one fell swoop.
Therefore, you see, the Battle of Chosin Lake had a fairly important historical position and role in the entire War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and it was not what some people said -- "The Battle of Chosin Lake was fought in a draw between the enemy and us. ”
More importantly, the victory in the Battle of Chosin Lake also proved that our people's army was able to defeat the well-equipped American army, which also accumulated a lot of valuable experience for many subsequent battles and battles.
For example, under extremely cold conditions, our Ninth Corps completely annihilated the famous "Polar Bear Regiment" of the US Army, that is, the Thirty-first Regiment of the Seventh Infantry Division of the US Army, and captured the regimental flag, which severely damaged the morale of the US Army.
It is worth mentioning that this is also the first time during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea that our army has systematically annihilated combat units at or above the US corps level.
Therefore, judging from the achievement of military strategic tasks, the Ninth Corps of our Volunteer Army is undoubtedly victorious.
If you think it is not enough, then let's analyze it from the perspective of the political and strategic tasks achieved by the Ninth Corps!
In the Battle of Chosin Lake, the US First Marine Division, which claimed to have "undefeated achievements" since its founding, lost tens of thousands of soldiers and experienced "the longest retreat" since its establishment, which brought a considerable blow to the morale of the "United Nations Army" headed by the United States.
Fortunately, the US First Marine Division finally escaped from the encirclement of our army and would not be lost to the end, and if our army's logistics supply could keep up, then this so-called "heroic unit" of the US army would probably have to disappear forever from the US military sequence.
So much so that Newsweek described the battle as "the biggest setback the United States has suffered since Pearl Harbor!" ”
When the news of the U.S. First Marine Division's escape from the battlefield on Korea's Eastern Front reached President Harry Truman's ears, he was "relieved" to say, "This is the best Christmas present I've ever received." ”
The reason why Truman said this is that on the one hand, the First Marine Division was not completely annihilated by the volunteers, and the "face" of the government was saved;
On the other hand, the defeat of the "United Nations Army" on the eastern and western fronts of the Second Campaign made him feel very uneasy, especially the defeat of the First Marine Division in the Battle of Chosin Lake on the Eastern Front. Now that the First Marine Division had finally escaped, it also allowed his long-hanging heart to be temporarily let go.
I have to say that truman's "gratifying" remark is really ironic!
However, for our army, the Battle of Chosin Lake brought out our military and national prestige, and while giving the enemy a great deterrent, it also played out China's status as a great power in the world and won the respect of all countries in the world, especially the countries of the third world.
For example, after the end of the second campaign, when Stalin saw the war report, he shed tears of excitement and said: "It is necessary to quickly complete the order for all the equipment of the 36 infantry divisions of the Chinese comrades by March 1951, and to send 3,000 trucks at once." ”
At that time, the entire Soviet society admired the fact that our volunteer army could defeat the "United Nations Army" with such inferior weapons and equipment.
When the news came that the volunteers had retaken Pyongyang, thousands of delegates from all over the world who attended the meeting applauded and shouted "Long live New China" and "Long live Mao Zedong" while applauding and shouting "Long live New China" and "Long live Mao Zedong."
In addition, after the battle, the Japanese people's impression of the Chinese changed completely, some of the original contemptuous language disappeared overnight, and even the Japanese war criminals detained in the Shenyang War Criminals Management Center began to accept reform sincerely.
Back 50 years ago, the 20,000-strong army of the "Eight-Nation Alliance" defeated the Qing government with a 2 million army, forcing Empress Dowager Cixi to take the Guangxu Emperor to "Hunt Xi'an in the North";
And in just 50 years, just one year after the founding of New China, our people's army was able to take the initiative to meet the battle, kill the people's gates, and defeat the 16-nation coalition army on a foreign battlefield, which is absolutely a great miracle in the history of all mankind.
The Americans themselves were more direct about the battle: "The traditional American ideals and concept of justice have been crushed by the Chinese army." Americans have probably never suffered such severe trauma and frustration. ”
And the arrogant "pipe general" MacArthur, who also changed his perception of China and the Chinese military overnight, said:
"This must be seen from the point of view of a completely new war with a completely new power with great military power in a completely new situation!"
In addition, after the Battle of Chosin Lake, the "United Nations Army" was also forced to start considering ceasefire negotiations, which laid the foundation for the victory of the subsequent Korean armistice negotiations!
The Second Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, composed of the Western Front and the "Chosin Lake Campaign" on the Eastern Front, dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of the "United Nations Army," completely reversed the situation in the Korean War, and also laid the foundation for the subsequent armistice negotiations.
As an important part of the second campaign to resist US aggression and aid Korea, the "Battle of Chosin Lake" has basically realized its political value.
Therefore, in general, although the Ninth Corps of our Volunteer Army suffered huge losses in the "Battle of Chosin Lake" and did not accomplish the predetermined combat objective of "total annihilation of the US First Marine Division," in terms of the strategic tasks and political strategic tasks it achieved, our Ninth Corps was still a veritable "victor." There is no doubt about that!
Therefore, some scholars have commented that the battle of Chosin Lake was "tied" between the enemy and us, which is inaccurate!
They only looked at this battle from a purely academic or single level, and did not start from the overall situation, and the results obtained in this way were only one-sided and superficial!