The Pratunam Bridge is not a bridge, it is actually a small power station on the Chosin Lake Reservoir.
Prior to this, the operational data of both China and the United States were rarely recorded, for this power station, the US data simply called it "bridge", and looking through the historical map of our army, it was more called "power station", as for the name of Shuimen Bridge, it was still called "Watergate Bridge" by the volunteer army after the war according to the shape of the power station culvert.
But it is such a small bridge of only 8.8 meters that has become the "Nai Ho Bridge" in the eyes of the US 1st Marine Division: in the past, you can escape from the cracks, and if you can't pass, you will be wrapped in dumplings by the volunteers.
The Watergate Bridge, to put it bluntly, is 4 water diversion pipes across Chosin Lake, suspended, single lane, under the bridge is a vast abyss, there is no other road to go around, if our army blows up the Watergate Bridge, the US troops fleeing in the direction of Xinxingli, in addition to inserting wings into the sky, there is no second way to go.
In other words, the bridge determines whether American soldiers spend Christmas in a military camp or in a prisoner-of-war camp.
In the winter of 1950, shortly after the Battle of Chosin Lake began, the US 10th Army, which was equipped with world-class weapons, was divided and surrounded by the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army of Song Shilun in the four areas of Liutanli, Xinxingli, Xiajieyuli and Gutuli, and at this time, the commander of the US 10th Army, Edward, was not aware of the seriousness of the problem, and the general who was pulled up by MacArthur was very arrogant, and he even personally flew to the 31st Regiment-level Battle Group (Polar Bear Regiment) to encourage the US army to quickly eliminate the "remnants of the Chinese army that were collapsing".
Face punches come quickly.
On November 30, after 5 days and 5 nights of fighting, the 80th Division and the 81st Division of the 27th Army of the Volunteer Army formed a complete annihilation of the "Polar Bear Regiment", up to the regimental commander Colonel McLean (who was seriously wounded and killed after being captured by a bullet) down to the soldiers, a reinforced regiment of more than 4,000 people was completely destroyed, and another 384 American troops were captured, 184 cars, 11 tanks, 137 artillery pieces, more than 2300 guns, and the ace "Polar Bear Regiment" disappeared from the US combat sequence.
Polar Bear RegimentAl flag
The 1st Marine Division, which had originally planned to rescue the Polar Bear Regiment, was taken aback, and division commander Smith, after annexing the remnants of the 31st Division's tank company, urgently ordered the 1st Marine Division stationed in Liutan to retreat across the board.
The retreat routes of the US troops, from north to south, were: Liutanli, Hagaru-ri, Gutuli, and Zhenxingli. And this road of southward escape has also become a nightmare that the US soldiers will never forget for a lifetime.
U.S. troops retreat route
The first of these blockades took place from Liutan to Shimogaru-ri.
On December 1, the 5th, 7th, and 11th Marine Regiments in Liutanli began to retreat south, but "it is easy to walk when coming", a short distance of 22 kilometers, in front of the mechanized and well-equipped 1st Marine Division, usually only an hour to fight back and forth, this time it was like a quagmire, surrounded and blocked by volunteers from all directions, 22 kilometers, hard to walk 79 hours, an average of 1 hour can only walk 300 meters, 22 kilometers of road 1140 people were killed, 1194 non-combat attrition, The 3rd Battalion of the U.S. 5th Marine Regiment was reduced by more than half.
It's a road to hell. This is just the beginning.
Smith, the commander of the tired 1st Marine Division, knew that the road to retreat would definitely face layers of interception and killing by the volunteers, and this road was bloody, it was a sea of swords and fire, and it was a purgatory on earth! This well-equipped First Marine Division, which had fought in the Pacific War, had been chased and killed by their volunteer army barefoot all over the mountains, and had lost the vigor of battle.
Moreover, there are more than 4,000 wounded, and with these "baggage" they simply cannot go fast. What to do? Smith urgently dispatched the Far East Air Force to transport the wounded and bodies, but a strange scene appeared - a military doctor found himself responsible for transporting more than 450 wounded, but more than 940 people were transported that day! And more than 200 wounded people in the tent were not transported!
Emeritus was furious and ordered the medics to check the wounded one by one on board the plane, and finally, with the strong capacity of the U.S. Air Force, more than 5,000 wounded and 200 bodies were successfully transported.
The tow bottle was gone, and Smith could finally shake off the big stride and run—the next stop, Hagaru-ri, where a company of American troops was stationed.
However, Commander Smith, who had worked so hard to get to Hagaru-ri, and the G Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment there stared wide-eyed and despaired of each other:
Smith was desperate that one of his companies had been crippled by the volunteers, and only one squad remained, and if it were not for the timely arrival of reinforcements from the 41st Commando Of the British Royal Marine Corps, I am afraid that the whole army would have been destroyed; G Company was desperate, and it was difficult to expect a large force, but the boss was fleeing for his life, and he felt that it was not as good as himself.
On 5 December, Smith, who was trapped in Hagaru, received a one-sentence order from Edward, commander of the 10th Army: "Retreat to the Zhenxingli area as soon as possible." ”
After battling the volunteers for so long, Smith knew all too well where the "soft underbelly" of the volunteers lay—logistical supplies.
Lack of ammunition, lack of food, lack of cotton clothes, the long logistical supply line of the volunteer army, by the powerful bombers of the US army to stare to death, the soldiers on the front line can only rely on manual potatoes to the trenches, fried noodles, this can only maintain a week of offensive, and then exhausted the food and forced to retreat, unless the enemy's food and ammunition can be captured - so Smith's calculation is very accurate, never leave a bullet, a grain for the volunteer army!
In the early morning of December 6, the 1st Marine Division concentrated artillery fire on the Shimogaru-ri garrison, first artillery bombardment, then bulldozers rolled back and forth, pouring gasoline on the mountains of grain, clothing, heavy weapons, and ammunition, burning and blowing up all of them, cutting off the supply of the volunteers, and there was no way to continue to pursue and kill them.
However, in the second stage of the blockade battle, from Hagaru-ri to Gutuli, the volunteer army pursued and killed more fiercely than the previous one.
Throughout the day on December 6, the U.S. army had only walked less than 5 kilometers before being dragged to death by volunteers in the woods on both sides of the mountain road. In the evening, the 77th Division of the 26th Army, a reserve sent by song shi, arrived and once again stumbled on the pace of the AMERICAN army fleeing south.
Lieutenant Colonel Carol Zendense, commander of the U.S. 57th Artillery Battalion, recalled in his later years: "Never before have marines seen so many Chinese flocking to Chinese stubborn attacks, and despite the full force of Marine artillery, tanks and machine guns, the Chinese continued to come." Their spirit of seeing death as a homecoming made the Marines awe-inspired. ”
From Hagaru-ri to Kotouri, an 18-kilometer journey, the US 1st Marine Division walked for 38 hours, advancing an average of 500 meters per hour, with 34 casualties per kilometer. Because the commanding heights on both sides of the highway were repeatedly fought by the enemy and us, the US Air Force bombers frantically dropped incendiary bombs, and the two sides of the highway were almost burned into a sea of fire, and this road was called "Fire Hell Valley" in the historical records of the Americans.
To make matters worse, the temperature in the Chosin Lake area plummeted in the evening, and a cold snap struck in decades. The American soldier sitting in the car was shivering with his rifle in his arms, his eyebrows were covered with frost, and the wounded soldier was tied to the engine radiator, and the blood on his body had been frozen. On both sides of the hillside, the volunteer soldiers who ambushed the enemy were so cold that their faces were so purple that they could not speak, and they even froze to death on the high ground when they lacked clothing and food...
After paying huge casualties, the US First Marine Division finally arrived in Gutuli, and before it could catch its breath, the reinforcements of the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army caught up, and Smith desperately found that compared with the field terrain in Hagaruli, Gutuli was more suitable for the Volunteer Army to fight guerrilla warfare, and mechanized heavy equipment could not be opened at all, so quickly withdraw, otherwise Gutuli would be the burial place of the First Marine Division.
At this time, among the American troops who did not want to stay in their homeland for a second, a frightening news was spreading: the Watergate Bridge, which must be passed on the way back, was blown up by the volunteers!
A breach of the Watergate Bridge
Watergate Bridge, the "throat road" on the US military retreat road, due to terrain restrictions, the road near the Watergate Bridge near the 1222 highland itself is a U-shaped direction, and the Watergate Bridge is at the top of the U-shape, known as the "U Valley in the U Valley", this place perfectly makes up for the weakness of the volunteer army's heavy firepower, the use of light machine guns and rifles to hold the 1222 heights, you can "control two sections at one point", the narrow mountain road only allows one car to pass, as long as the US military a car is exploded, the cars behind can all be blocked.
This "place where soldiers and families must fight" fell into the eyes of the chief of the volunteer army early on. On November 30, Zhang Yixiang, commander and political commissar of the 20th Army responsible for blocking Gutuli, issued an order to "break the road and break the bridge": It is best to occupy the Huangcaoling Highlands in the south to be beneficial to the blockade; it is necessary to completely destroy the road and bridge to ensure that the tanks cannot pass; isolate the enemy, attack if it can attack, and isolate it if it is not.
The first person who led the team to blow up the bridge was Du Manling, deputy commander of the 180th Regiment of the 60th Division of the 20th Army of the Volunteer Army, who led 1 battalion of the 180th Regiment to carry out blasting operations on the bridge deck of the Shuimen Bridge at night and successfully blew up the road surface.
Subsequently, the 1st Engineer Battalion of the 1st Marine Division of the US Army rushed to repair the bridge, and exchanged fierce fire with the Duman Order, which was ambushed on both sides of the bridge, and the American reinforcements followed, and our army withdrew after dawn, and the details of this battle were not recorded in detail by both sides.
The first time the bridge was blown up, our army underestimated the strength of this bridge that doubled as a dam, although it destroyed the road surface, but it did not cause too much damage to the bridge, and the US army engineers quickly repaired the bridge with wood and repaired the Pratunam Bridge.
Two broken Watergate Bridges
After a series of blockades from December 1 to 3, the US 1st Marine Division broke through the interception of the Volunteer 27th Army and the 20th Army, retreated its troops from Liutan on the west bank of Chosin Lake to Hagaru-ri, and the vanguard troops began to attack, opening up a retreat route from Hagaru-ri to Kotu-ri, while reinforcements from the enemy's rear Zhenxing-ri were also eager to move.
In order to eat this wave of enemies, complete the task of cutting off the enemy's retreat and blocking the enemy's reinforcements, the small reconnaissance unit of our army infiltrated into the Huangcaoling area (presumably still the bridge bombing force of Dumanling) broke through the US defense line for the second time on the night of December 3 and carried out a second blast of the Watergate Bridge.
Unfortunately, the details of the blow-up bridge this time have not been recorded in detail by the two sides, and in the US military's war report, after the second destruction of the Watergate Bridge, the 73rd Engineer Battalion directly under the US 10th Army rushed to repair it, and directly erected the M2 type steel girder rutted bridge at the broken bridge.
At the same time, with the change of the battlefield situation, the US commander also realized the strategic significance of the Watergate Bridge and strengthened the defense of the bridge deck. The defeat of the second bombing of the bridge also attracted the attention of the head of the volunteer army, and while continuing to block the enemy army with all his strength along the way, he organized a third bombing of the bridge, which is the plot in the movie.
Three-break Watergate Bridge
On the night of December 6, 1950, Jiang Qingyun, commander of the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion, 240th Regiment, 80th Division of the 27th Army of the Volunteer Army, led a commando team to blow up the bridge (it is speculated that after two firefights and freeze and starvation, the bombing troops of dumanling who continued to fight had suffered heavy losses), defied The American artillery fire, blew up the 10-foot-long (about 3-meter-long) bridge deck with explosive packages, and completely destroyed a key pier connecting the south highway of the bridge.
Lieutenant Colonel Partridge, commander of the 1st Engineer Battalion of the 1st Marine Division responsible for repairing the bridge, after inspecting the bridge deck by plane, found in despair that the old bridge could no longer be repaired, and the original 1.5-hour bridge repair time was forced to be delayed, so he urgently applied to division commander Smith to send a large military transport aircraft and airdrop 8 groups of prefabricated pontoon bridge components.
American C-119 flying car transport aircraft
On December 7, eight American C-119 transport aircraft took off from the Japanese mainland and airdropped 8 groups of 1.1 tons of rutted bridge components, of which 1 group was broken and 1 group was captured by the volunteers, but the remaining 6 groups still met the minimum requirements for bridge repair (4 groups).
The us military's modern air superiority and absolute air superiority saved the life of the First Marine Division, and with its strong air transport capabilities, the Americans successfully built a bridge with a load of 50 tons that could support the tank retreat on the cliff of the Korean battlefield far from the mainland and at 18:00 on the afternoon of December 9.
At this time, the volunteer army bombing bridge troops were already hungry and cold, short of food and ammunition, and had been fighting for more than ten consecutive days, especially because on the night of December 8, the temperature of Chosin Lake once again plummeted, and many volunteer soldiers were frozen on the position at night.
On the 1081 high ground next to the Watergate Bridge, the soldiers of the 60th Division became the "last nail" on the way of retreat of the US army, and the US army that could not be conquered for a long time called for 4 "Pirate" fighters to carry out air fire saturation assault and suppress the fire with 60 mortars, the fighters could no longer harass the enemy's bridge repair troops, and the 300 officers and men of the 60 Division resisted desperately on the battlefield of running out of ammunition and extreme cold, and all of them died gloriously.
On the Watergate Bridge, three explosions and three repairs are a contest of will and steel, a confrontation between blood and ice, and a war between the blood and tears of the volunteer army and the rich and powerful us army.
After crossing the Watergate Bridge, Smith, commander of the First Marine Division, who escaped from the sea, led his troops to continue to flee, the volunteer soldiers of the 20th Army were still chasing and killing, their supplies had long been completely cut off, the terrified American soldiers watched from all directions, some barefoot volunteer soldiers rushed to kill them, the Marine Corps had never encountered such a tenacious opponent in the history of the Marine Corps, and the American survivors woke up countless times in nightmares: Is this frozen army a human or a ghost?
At 17:00 on December 10, most of the US troops passed through the Watergate Bridge, the 20th Army, which suffered heavy casualties, organized all the personnel who could fight, and after counting, found that only more than 100 officers and men of the 58th Division and the 60th Division could fight, and led by the chief of staff of the 60th Division, more than 100 volunteers pursued and killed more than 10,000 enemy troops!
Interestingly, due to the fear of blocking the Watergate Bridge after the tanks were blown up, the First Marine Division arranged 40 tanks as a rearguard unit, and slowly they became a lone army at this moment.
At 1:00 a.m. on December 11, 1800 meters southwest of the Watergate Bridge, the penultimate 9th car failed its brakes and broke anchor in place, blocking the 8 vehicles behind it and unable to move.
At this moment, the US army, which was anxious to escape, did not care about the lives of its comrades-in-arms, and the 31 tanks in front of them drove across the bridge deck and ran, leaving 9 in place. In the face of the rifle attack of a 20-man unit of the Volunteer Army, the tankers of 9 tanks abandoned their vehicles and fled for their lives, and only 2 escaped - interestingly, the one that escaped was the 9th tank that broke down, which was automatically repaired after 45 minutes of blockage, and left 7 intact tanks as a "parting gift" to our army.
You know, at that time, destroying a tank was already a second-class achievement, and 7 vehicles were captured at one time, which was probably a reward from heaven for the brave "encirclement" of 40 tanks for these more than 20 volunteer infantry.
On December 24, the officers of the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army successfully drove the US 10th Army to Xingnan Port, and the US Far East Air Force even dispatched all fighters to cover the retreat of the First Marine Division over Xingnan Port.
Standing on the warship, Smith trembled as he watched the battle reports, and fled from the Wonsan landing to the Watergate Bridge, with a combat reduction of 4418 men and a non-combat reduction of 7313 men in the First Marine Division, which was a devastating blow that was not in World War II.
On December 25, just before Christmas, MacArthur made a high-profile announcement that "the Korean War will end before Christmas," which was completely reduced to a joke.
The Battle of Chosin Lake, marked by the U.S. Army
At this point, the second campaign ended, the volunteer army won a great victory on the east and west fronts, the volunteer army triumphantly drove the United Nations army back to the 38th line, and the second battle annihilated 36,000 enemies, including 24,000 American troops. Lieutenant General Walker, commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, was killed in a car accident on the way back. In this battle, our volunteer army suffered 30,000 combat casualties and 50,000 frostbite.
Chairman Mao and General Manager Peng sent a telegram of condolences to the troops, and the 9th Corps of Song Shilun was so badly damaged that it suffered 22 percent of its personnel from frostbite alone, but the soldiers refused to return to China to recuperate, and after replenishing their recuperation, the Ninth Corps' battle flag was once again planted in the enemy's position!
The small Pratunam Bridge may not be worth mentioning in the entire Korean War, but this contest around the Pratunam Bridge of "three bombs and three repairs" was fought by the volunteer soldiers who dragged the enemy's elite southward flight under the condition of lack of food and clothing, freezing and starvation, and serious attrition, and fiercely taught the proud United Nations army a lesson: Chinese is not easy to provoke.
It is also because of their deadly battle 72 years ago that we can reunite our families and enjoy our holidays today, just like the sentence "We have fought all the battles that should be fought, and our next generation will not have to fight." History should not be forgotten, heroes must always remember!
Watergate Bridge, Volunteer Army, Earth-shattering, Weeping Ghost God!
It is the Spring Festival, the four seas are rising to peace, I would like to use this article to pay tribute to the heroic soul, long live the great people's volunteer army!