Compared with the hesitation of the 8th Army in the west, Major General Almond, who commanded the 10th Army in the east, was eager to try and had a high morale.
@Talk about history
The U.S. 1st Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division under his command attacked Chosin Lake and Riwon and Hyesan respectively in two routes, but their attacks met with no major resistance and proceeded smoothly.
Almond was heartened.
On 26 October, after landing at Wonsan, the U.S. 1st Marine Division advanced north toward Chosin Lake, encountering few major obstacles except for large-scale resistance from the North Koreans along the way.
Around November 5, the U.S. 1st Marine Division engaged the 124th Division of the Volunteer 42nd Army near the water hole, but the other side soon retreated.
On 15 November, they occupied Hagaru-ri, which had been the headquarters of the 124th Division of the Volunteer Army 10 days earlier.
Elated, Almond instructed the 1st Marine Division that the 10th Army "would advance rapidly to the Manchurian border before winter came, so that we would not have to fight a battle under winter conditions." ”
General Oliver Smith, commander of the 1st Marine Division, was not so optimistic.
Everyone knows that the 1st Marine Division is the elite of the U.S. army.
This unit has a long history, and its predecessor can be traced back to the old 1st Marine Regiment specially established by the U.S. Army in 1846 for the Overseas Conquest War.
Half a century earlier, in 1900, the 1st Marine Division had participated in the Eight-Power Coalition invasion of Beijing and the suppression of the Boxers.
And it became famous as a unit, beginning in World War II.
In February 1941, the 1st Marine Division was formally formed and immediately sent to the Pacific Theater to participate in the war against Japan.
The first battle it fought was in August 1941 against the Japanese on Guadalcanal.
This battle was the first U.S. counteroffensive operation in the Pacific.
The battle lasted until January 1943, when the Japanese army withdrew from the island.
The intensity of this battle is hard to describe.
On this small island, which is 160 kilometers long and 80 kilometers wide, the Japanese army lost a total of 50,000 people.
On October 23 alone, the Japanese army dispatched more than 22,000 people and launched a fierce attack on the 1st Marine Division under the leadership of General Hyakutake, the commander of the Japanese 17th Army.
But more than 2,500 people died, but they could not move forward.
The 1st Marine Division held the island for four months, with as many as 7,500 casualties.
His spirit of fighting to the death can be seen here.
In April 1945, the 1st Marine Division took part in the Battle of Okinawa, known as the "Gate of Japan", as the main force.
The number of American troops participating in the battle was 180,000, and the number of Japanese troops defending the island was more than 100,000.
Although the Japanese army was numerically inferior, its Bushido spirit made them a ten-a-dozen.
In the end, the Japanese army was killed in battle 10. 70,000 people, the U.S. military also suffered more than 40,000 casualties.
The fierceness of its battles is rare in military history.
Later, the US 1st Marine Division went to Beiping and created a shameful incident of raping my female college student.
More recently, the Inchon landings, which were just completed not long ago.
The 1st Marine Division, as the main force of the landing, once again won a huge reputation.
As the commander of such an army, General Smith was certainly not a mediocre.
On November 3, near the water hole, his vanguard, the 7th Marine Regiment, had just engaged Chinese.
This was the first battle between the 1st Marine Division and the Chinese army.
However, the prestigious 1st Marine Division did not get any advantage.
The 1st Marine Division was not an army that escaped from a vicious battle, it had always been known for daring to fight a vicious battle.
But "the 1st Marine Division doesn't fight a muddy battle either," General Smith thought.
"It's a Marine Corps, not an infantry."
Almond had his Marine Division advance north along the small towns of Hagashi and Yuri at the southern end of the Chosin Reservoir.
But what kind of path did the 1st Marine Division take?
This "road" is a narrow path paved with mud and gravel, which has been winding around the mountain, sometimes at the top of the mountain, sometimes hanging in the air on the steep halfway point, with cliffs on one side and deep valleys on the other.
The road is narrow enough to accommodate a car, and sometimes steep, long slopes are difficult for even jeeps to cross.
General Smith, therefore, thought it foolish to have his mechanized forces attack the enemy through such a path— without any flanking cover.
General Smith could not disobey orders, but a premonition of defeat kept him ahead. He ordered his troops to build an airstrip in Hagaru for use in order to evacuate the casualties, at which point General Almond asked incomprehensibly: "How can there be casualties?" ”
This made General Smith angry. He later wrote: "That's what you face, and he won't even admit that there were casualties." ”
