The movie "Chosin Lake" recreates the Battle of Chosin Lake in the Second Campaign of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea with epic shocking scenes, but compared with the real history, the film is far less tragic than one-tenth of it. When the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea occurred, the gap in strength between New China and the United States was too great.
However, the volunteers fought against the tank shells of the US army with their flesh and blood, and with their iron will against the extremely cold weather that was rare in a hundred years in Korea, and finally created an unforgettable battle for the US army at an extremely tragic cost, which became the longest day spent in the hearts of the US troops participating in the war.
The U.S. landing at Inchon reversed the situation in the Korean battlefield, and the South Korean soldiers, who had been in a slump, seemed to have found a support master, and launched a major counterattack against the Korean People's Army under the leadership of the US army, and the commander-in-chief of the United Nations Army, MacArthur, even arrogantly declared that the US military could follow the escape route of the North Korean leader and pursue it all the way to the end.
Peng Dehuai led the volunteer army into Korea after the war and first encountered the South Korean army, and soon won the battle, and also captured some materials. However, the arrogance of the U.S. military itself makes them reluctant to believe that the Chinese military really participated in the Korean War as a system, and subconsciously believes that it is just an exaggeration by South Korean soldiers.
On October 31, 1950, MacArthur sent the U.S. Tenth Army to attack Jiangjie, where the Korean Provisional Government was located, and released the famous phrase "End the battle before Thanksgiving" at a press conference. Almond, the commander of the Tenth Army, obeyed the orders strictly, and did not take it seriously even when encountered the resistance of the volunteers on the way forward, and the proud MacArthur believed that the Chinese army formed by the peasants could not compete with the American army at all, and did not take the volunteer army on the battlefield to heart.
The volunteer army without aircraft, air superiority, howitzers, and tank equipment was indeed very different from the US army, and Peng Dehuai did not dare to take it lightly, and quickly applied to Chairman Mao to let the reserve Ninth Corps enter the korean war.
The Ninth Corps belonged to Su Yu's Third Field Army, which was the main force of Su Yu's previous preparations for the liberation of Taiwan, and the major victories fought were the Battle of Lunan, the Battle of Menglianggu, the Battle of Huaihai, and the liberation of Shanghai. Good at interspersing combat and attacking tough battles, he has always been unfavorable and is a unit that Su Yu is very proud of.
The Ninth Corps was originally conducting intensive training in Shanghai and Wuxi, but the outbreak of the Korean War and the obstruction of the US Seventh Fleet in the Taiwan Strait affected Su Yu's plans. Seeing that it would not be possible to liberate Taiwan in a short period of time, Peng Dehuai and Chairman Mao discussed making this unit the second batch of volunteers to fight in the DPRK.
So the Ninth Corps marched to Shandong for training, preparing to go to the northeast later and wait for the spring of 1951 to re-enter the DPRK. However, the victory in the first battle did not make Chairman Mao and Peng Zong take it lightly, and they did not dare to underestimate the strength of the American army, especially MacArthur's promise to capture all of Korea before Christmas.
U.S. army tanks
On October 24, Chairman Mao urgently summoned Song Shi, commander of the Ninth Corps, to Beijing and asked him to immediately enter Korea with his troops to participate in the war. Feeling the urgency of the war, Song Shilun did not dare to delay for a moment, and when he arrived in the northeast of the transfer center from Shandong, he did not stay long before hurriedly changing trains and entering the DPRK.
The cold winter in North Korea was not weak compared with the northeast, and the deputy commander of the Northeast Military Region, after seeing the thin cotton clothes worn by the soldiers of the Ninth Corps, was very worried that this would freeze people to death. However, the Song Dynasty did not have time to wait for the soldiers to replenish logistical materials such as cotton clothes and quilts, and the 150,000 troops directly took the train to North Korea.
The Volunteers had no aircraft and air supremacy was completely controlled by the U.S. military. After realizing that the Chinese army might participate in the Korean War as a formation, the US reconnaissance planes patrolled the air over the Sino-DPRK border almost non-stop during the day, and directly dropped bombs and bombs as soon as they found traces of troops marching.
U.S. military aircraft
North Korea in 1950 had one of the coldest winters of the twentieth century, with nighttime temperatures dropping to minus 40 degrees. Even north Koreans would not choose to go out at night, but the Ninth Corps could only take advantage of the absence of American planes at night.
The volunteers had no means of transportation and relied entirely on two legs to walk in the snow-capped mountains. Carrying the weight forward, still at night, the Ninth Corps still maintained a marching speed of thirty kilometers a day, and arrived at the predetermined combat site in half a month.
Only the Ninth Corps did not have time to replenish its equipment in the northeast, and the soldiers of one squad were assigned one or two quilts, and buried themselves in the snow nest when they slept during the day, avoiding the detection of American aircraft. Most of the logistics supply lines were intercepted by the US military, and only the fried noodles carried with them could be filled with heavy snow on the ground.
Volunteers entered Korea
Although the U.S. military, which has a full set of thermal equipment, also feels cold, there are sufficient materials and logistics to allow them to eat steaming beef soup and cake at all times. And because their dragging volunteers were ambushed in the snow, they endured the cold of more than thirty degrees below zero, and some soldiers did not have anything to eat for several days, relying only on the snow and the barren grass roots covered below.
When the US First Marine Division continued to approach the Chosin Lake area on the eastern front under Peng Dehuai's tactic of "luring the enemy deeper", the volunteers of the Ninth Corps also gradually arrived in batches and quietly surrounded the US troops.
Due to the caution of Smith, commander of the First Marine Division, the Americans laid out logistical routes for themselves as they advanced. The first marine division's march was extremely long, and Smith vigorously advocated the construction of a temporary military airfield in Hagaru, so he could not confront the volunteers at the first time.
Mechanized base for the U.S. military
Almond, commander of the Tenth Army, scoffed at Smith's caution, urging the Seventh Infantry Division to advance quickly along the way, and was the first to enter the left and right attack range of the Volunteers. The 20th Army on the west side of Chosin Lake and the 27th Army in the northeast had been lying in the snow for six days and six nights, waiting for the general offensive order to be issued.
On the evening of 27 November, the Ninth Corps launched a general offensive against the Americans. The long and slippery U.S. army was divided into five parts in the form of interspersed combat, and fought against the U.S. Infantry Seventh Division and the First Marine Division in Xinxingli, Liutanli, Hagaru-ri, Kotoori, and Zhenxingli.
Operational maps
Although not a true Millet Plus rifle, the Volunteers' Hanyang-made, Japanese machine guns, and even captured equipment from the Nationalists were too backward compared to the U.S. Army, which had independent Marines, helicopters, howitzer battalions, and tank companies.
The 27th Army took advantage of the night to attack the Americans in Liutan and quickly occupied the nearby heights. It was only during the day that the U.S. army brought in aircraft to assist tanks and howitzers to fight, and took away many positions from the volunteers.
The volunteer army launched a tug-of-war with the American army under the extremely poor equipment conditions and the incomparably high will to fight, and the positions in Liutanli changed hands several times in the hands of both sides. The 80th and 81st Divisions of the 27th Army concentrated the artillery of the whole army to attack the 31st Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division in Xinxingli.
Volunteer charge
The US 31st Regiment was formed during World War I, and once went to the Far East to participate in the Siberian Campaign, and was called the "Polar Bear Regiment" by the US Military because of its strong combat effectiveness. However, after the barracks of this "polar bear regiment" were bombed, the company commander of the US army even hid behind the bunker and refused to direct the battle, and even became the only team in the entire Korean War to be annihilated by the volunteer army.
However, at this time, the 20th and 27th Armies had already suffered from severe frostbite, and the frostbite rate of the whole army exceeded one-fifth. Logistics supply lines were blocked by American aircraft, and the volunteers were unable to replenish cotton grain, let alone consume ammunition, and less than 10,000 people were able to continue to fight.
The U.S. military, on the other hand, had a steady stream of airdrops and aircraft rescues, while bombarding any ground where the volunteers might be lurking, fighting the volunteers under extremely saturated logistics. Even so, the U.S. military still felt as if the volunteers were endless, and at every step of the way, volunteers were constantly pouring out to block their movements.
U.S. troops retreat
The distance from Liutanli to Hagaru-ri was only 22 kilometers, and the 1st Marine Division in a car walked for three full days, with an average speed of 300 meters per hour. American corpses could be seen everywhere along the way, but the casualties of the volunteers were even worse.
Even though their hands and feet were frozen and starving for several days, causing them to become weak, the volunteer soldiers seemed to feel no physical pain, and always stuck to their positions to block the retreat of the American troops. Even the U.S. military saw that the volunteers were suffering from frostbite and attrition, and the rapidly depleting ammunition was delayed.
On December 5, Smith finally withdrew the headquarters of the 1st Landing Division to Hagaru-ri, which had a temporary airfield, and the American soldiers interviewed said that the retreat process was the longest period of time they felt in their lives, and if God could fulfill his wishes, he only hoped that he would have tomorrow.
American
The 20th Army Of the Ninth Corps attacked from Dedong Ridge in the north, while the 58th and 60th Divisions ambushed Huangcao Ridge between Gutuli and Zhenxingli, cutting off the retreat of the 1st Marine Division. After Huangcaoling was the Watergate Bridge, and in order to prevent the retreat of the First Marine Division fleeing south, the Volunteer Army bombed the Watergate Bridge three times.
After the single-lane bridge that was originally suspended on Lake Chosin was blown up, the US engineers quickly repaired it, and then the volunteers simply blew up the bridge foundation together, and the US military actually used the aircraft to drop nearly 10 tons of steel components and rebuild a bridge that could calmly carry all the vehicles of the retreating troops through.
Pratunam Bridge
The volunteers, who were nearly exhausted, were powerless to stop the still heavily armed First Marine Division from moving south, and could only hope for the fraternal troops lying behind the Watergate Bridge. After crossing the Watergate Bridge, Smith intuitively sensed that there was a volunteer ambush nearby, but they never saw the volunteers charge.
When Smith reached the heights on both sides of the road, he found the entire company that had been frozen to death on the position. And every volunteer soldier's exposed body on the snow hung a thick icicle, as if it had become a living ice sculpture. To Smith's astonishment, the entire ice sculpture of more than a hundred warriors maintained a gun-holding and aiming posture, and none of them maintained a movement other than the combat posture.
Ice sculpture even
After losing the original blocking of the ice sculpture company, the First Marine Division quickly threw off the two-legged pursuit of the volunteer army behind it and roared all the way to Zhenxingli. But on the way, Smith encountered living "ice sculptures", and even though many of the volunteer soldiers' fingers were frozen on the barrels and triggers, and their hands and feet were almost completely unconscious, they still charged at the First Marine Division.
At this time, the combined combatants of the 58th and 60th Divisions were only more than 3,800, and they still insisted on rushing to fight, vowing to intercept the American army and continue to retreat to Hamheung-ri in the south. American soldiers recalled that Chinese soldiers always suddenly emerged from the snow, completely undaunted by the deterrence of guns, and rushed straight forward, saying that they had never seen soldiers from any country so brave and not afraid of death.
It was only that the First Marine Division had already passed through the Watergate Bridge, and the 26th Army, which had not been able to reach the combat site at the designated time, could not be used, and the plan to annihilate the First Marine Division was impossible, but in the Battle of Chosin Lake, the Ninth Corps still achieved impressive results, giving the First Marine Division a heavy blow.
Fleeing U.S. troops
Instead of returning home for Christmas as MacArthur had said, the U.S. troops withdrew from Hingnam Harbor under the pursuit of the Volunteers and retreated south of the 38th Parallel, and the Battle of Chosin Lake became a nightmare that the 1st Marine Division never wanted to mention.
Colonel Bowser, chief of the U.S. Military Operations Division, once said in his memoirs: "I believe that the icy and snowy land of Chosin Lake and the fierce attack of the Chinese army regardless of casualties are a nightmare that will never linger in the hearts of every Marine." ”
Within a month of arriving in Korea, the Ninth Corps, which participated in the Battle of Chosin Lake, suffered 19,000 casualties in the battle, and suffered as much as 34,000 casualties due to frostbite and frostbite.
Volunteers wounded in battle
The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was a war for the founding of New China, a shield built by the ancestors of the founding of the People's Republic of China with flesh and blood for future generations, and every soldier who participated in the war knew that it was very likely that they would not be able to return from participating in the Korean War, but they set foot on the land of Korea without hesitation, and did not take a step back under the overwhelming cold invasion of Korea and the overwhelming artillery attack of the US military!
Salute to every ancestor of the Volunteer Army in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and to every PLA people who defend the country!
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