I don't know if you have ever thought of a question: In the Battle of Watergate Bridge, why did the US military not directly use aircraft to airlift soldiers out, but instead fled through the canoe bridge?
At that time, the number of American troops gathered was about 10,000, and according to the strength of the US air force, it was not impossible to airlift these people.
However, the real war situation is not as simple as we think! If air transport was chosen, according to the terrain at that time, it could only be transported away in batches, and if the Chinese army attacked early in the air transport, it would not be able to organize a resistance force. Moreover, after the evacuation, the remaining troops have no ability to resist in front of the Chinese army at all, and will only be swept away.
Therefore, the US First Marine Division took the dangerous Watergate Bridge, but it became the most life-saving way.
Smith, the commander of the First Marine Division at the time, decided to use the air force to remove all the wounded and American corpses, about 5,000 wounded, and nearly two hundred corpses. In order to remove the bodies, Smith also quarreled with the commander of the Tenth Army, saying that he would take the corpses of the soldiers with his life, and could not say that they would stay in the wilderness. This is a real moral approach.
In the process of transporting the wounded by the Air Force, "fake wounded" appeared in the US military and wanted to take this opportunity to escape. The tent under the jurisdiction of a military doctor, which had only 450 wounded, was transported 941. I can imagine the Americans wrapped in blankets, lying on stretchers groaning without illness.
But there is nothing wrong with it, in the face of a brutal war, how many people in the US military can say that they are not afraid of death!
![Military doctor Xiao Yin ∣ Today's cold[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)