Before the article starts, or to explain, this article is not trying to refute the film, on the contrary, I think that history can be filmed very good, now such a large production and large cost on the screen, it is reasonable to be good, the formation of many cultures and concepts, movies are the key carrier, just like the cultural output of the United States to the outside world, mainly with movies and games to achieve.
The purpose of this article is mainly to those readers who want to know more after watching the movie, although for most people, it is enough to watch the movie, but there are still some friends who want to understand the things behind the movie.
After watching the movie, I believe that everyone obviously has a feeling, Xu Ke as a martial arts director, the martial arts set moved to the movie, watching the fun at the same time, but also has a sense of unreality, just backstage these two days of news super much, let me put aside the blood, there is a talk, talk about what happened to the Watergate Bridge, and what the US casualties are in the end.
The holidays coincided with a lot of time, and all the Korean War documents that could be found at hand were found, such as the "History of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" by the Institute of Military History of the Relatively Authoritative Academy of Military Sciences, "Decisive Battle of Korea" written by Li Feng, Wang Shuzeng's "Korean War", and several books in the United States, the coldest winter, the history of the US military war, "Escaping the trap", and so on.
When consulting the data, I found a problem, the biggest problem of the Chinese network is that the editors will hardly check the English materials, nor will they check the official materials, and even bother to find a slightly more serious military history book.
This article seeks to restore exactly what happened. This article is based on all the information that can be found, and if there is any omission, you can point it out in the comment area.
Put a picture first, and you should have a sense of geography.
After being besieged by thinly clad volunteers at Chosin Lake, the U.S. army suffered heavy losses and had to retreat south, and on December 4, it reached the lower corner of the picture above, where the U.S. army had an airstrip, loaded the wounded on the plane, blew up the supplies that could not be taken away, and continued south.
At this time, the United States fried the pot, because there were reporters on the front line, the news that the US troops were retreating was first transmitted back to Tokyo, and then back to the United States, the Americans all knew that the First Marine Division was going to run, and the official rumor was that it was "changing the direction of the attack", well, attacking South Korea.
At this time, it is already December 6th, pay attention to this time, because the first time the Watergate Bridge was blown up was on December 1, and the second time it was blown up was December 4.
That is to say, after the outbreak of the Chosin Lake Campaign, the volunteer army and the US army fought fiercely in the area of Chosin Lake, at this time the Watergate Bridge has been bombed, the first time the bridge should be no defense, in fact, not only the Watergate Bridge was bombed, the engineers of our army who sneaked behind the US army blew up all the bridges along the way, and also blew up a lot of pits on the road, which shows that at that time it was already planning to cut off the US army's retreat and completely annihilate the US army.
The picture below is the Pratunam Bridge, as can be seen, in fact, it is not a bridge, it is a dam, the dam can be passed by the way, when Japan occupied Korea, a large number of such hydropower facilities were built in the north, so that long after the end of the Korean War, South Korea's electricity was bought from North Korea.
At another angle, it looks like this, and it's a single lane:
After the Watergate Bridge was blown up, it was not too serious, and the sappers quickly repaired it.
When the U.S. army withdrew from Chosin Lake to Hagaru-ri on December 4, the Watergate Bridge was bombed for the second time, and the American engineers continued to repair it, at this time the U.S. military high-level did not know what happened to the bridge, because the volunteers were besieging Hagaru-ri. The beginning of the movie "Watergate Bridge" talks about this, but in the movie, it seems that our army won the war, but in fact, it did not. There was an airfield in Hagaru, where the U.S. army stayed to load the wounded onto the plane before continuing on.
There is a question here, such an important key node as the Watergate Bridge, why is the US military so weak in defense, can it be bombed and bombed?
In fact, before the U.S. military retreated, the Watergate Bridge was not important, the U.S. Army did not expect to come back so soon, so the attention to the Watergate Bridge was similar to all other bridges, as mentioned above, the volunteer sappers blew up all the bridges.
After dealing with the wounded, the U.S. troops poured gasoline and burned the supplies in the lower corner, and the large troops set out along the route shown above, which was December 6, when the bridge had been repaired two days earlier, so the Upper Americans did not notice that there was a problem with the bridge.
From Hagaru-ri to Koto-ri, a total of 18 kilometers, the U.S. army walked for 36 hours, because countless squads of our army had sneaked into the mountain bags on both sides of the main road and began to block the U.S. troops along the way. Because our army's tactics were already very mature at this time, we specially selected a place where the tanks could not drive up, the elevation angle was too high, and the tanks could not hit, and the US troops were threatened by our army's flank fire along the way, so they had to remove the fire points one by one.
The U.S. military is extremely hard in this section, otherwise it would not have walked so slowly, moving a kilometer in two hours, and three-year-olds are faster than this.
However, it should be noted that every time the troops on the top of the hill of our army launched an attack on the US army, it was a suicide attack, because once exposed, soon the US troops began to lay out artillery positions, and the bombers also rushed with incendiary bombs and high-explosive bombs, and the final result was definitely that the entire hill was blown into a sea of fire. At that time, North Korea was minus forty degrees, the ground was frozen like iron, it was impossible to dig fortifications, if there were fortifications (some of the hills had Fortifications built by the Japanese), no fortifications could only be bombed.
Wang Shuzeng said that there were 616 casualties in these 18 kilometers, because our army did not have heavy weapons, and the US army had steel helmets, so it was difficult to shoot and kill, and most of them were saved.
On the afternoon of December 7, the US military finally arrived in Gutuli, which was very, very close to the Watergate Bridge, and then the news came that the Watergate Bridge had been bombed, and it was the third time, and the US military high-level was stunned.
As for these three times, why did they explode? The American side only said that it was bombed, did not say the specific process, did not mention casualties, because at that time the large troops were still on the road, and it was only a few days later that they arrived at the Watergate Bridge, and there were only a few sappers near the Watergate Bridge.
There was no record on our side until the documentary "Bloody Soul" said that 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 composed of an infantry platoon and a machine gun platoon, and against the fire of the Us army, blew up a pier of the Watergate Bridge with explosive packages. However, this claim caused a lot of controversy, because in the Battle of Chosin Lake, the 80th Division of the 27th Army fought in Xinxingli until the 8th, when it began to be ordered to pursue south.
According to this schedule, the 7 companies attached to the 27th Army are unlikely to appear on the battlefield at Watergate Bridge. And in the documentary, Mr. Jiang Qingyun recalled the experience of blowing up the bridge at that time, 40 people went up to the death squad, only he survived, because he lost too much blood after being injured by two bullets and lost consciousness, until he was rescued until he cleaned up the battlefield.
But the problem is that since December 7, the Watergate Bridge has been completely controlled by the US army, it is almost impossible for our army to clean up the battlefield nearby, as we all know, lying in the snow in the extremely cold temperature for a night is basically no way to live, the US army has been busy there for two or three days before leaving.
So as soon as the documentary was broadcast, the Tianya Forum began to discuss, and everyone's consensus at that time was that the old man must have blown up the bridge, but what should be blown up was the bridge in the Xinxing area, where the US army ran in a hurry, and the battle ended that night, and he was then found by our army and sent to the rear. After all, there was no such thing as a "Watergate Bridge" at that time, and I may have misremembered it later.
So who blew it up?
Now there is a clear official record that it should be the 180th Regiment of the 60th Division of the 20th Army of the Volunteer Army, and now that the telegram has been found, their clear task at that time was to blow up the bridges in the area of Huangcaoling (the Shuimen Bridge is in Huangcaoling), of course, to blow up all the bridges. In the process of blowing up the bridge, the United States and the United States did not mention it, and there was a high probability that there was no fierce battle process, because the volunteer army blew up the bridge three times, and the large US troops still broke through in the distance.
Anyway, the bridge was broken, the Americans had to find a way, and now the common saying is that the US military used the iron bridge of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, I carefully checked it, and it was also a false rumor.
The real situation is that the United States used their standardized MZ type rutted bridge components this time, which is the standard equipment of the American sappers, like a rail, paved with two lanes, just so wide as the wheels, the car wheels pressed the rails past, because the US military in the European battlefield often encountered the bombing of bridges, when Germany retreated to blow up all the bridges that can be blown up. At that time, this component was taken out and laid out, and it has been in use since 1944.
Only this time it ran out, and it needed to be urgently transported from an airport in South Korea, but when experimenting, it was found that this thing was too heavy, and it was broken by hanging an ordinary parachute from the sky to the ground, so it urgently got several large parachutes from Japan.
After the parachute arrived, the bridge component was airdropped into the ancient soil, and the sappers loaded the components onto the car, transported them to the Watergate Bridge, and began to repair the bridge, and then the large troops passed smoothly.
I have seen many people say that the volunteers looked at the iron bridge falling in the sky and felt the despair from the industrial country, which is not right, the first thing thrown from the sky is not the bridge, but a few large rails.
Secondly, it was not thrown into the Watergate Bridge, but thrown into the ancient soil far away, and if the Watergate Bridge had our soldiers, they would not be able to see it. When the US army engineers repaired the bridge, the large US army had not yet arrived, fortified in the ancient soil, the large rail was airdropped into the ancient soil, and the sappers loaded the thing into the car and sent it to the Watergate Bridge.
After the third blow-up of the bridge, the soldiers of our army have most likely returned to their lives, and they feel that the US army will not be able to repair it under any circumstances. This is also why the leader of the 180 regiment was later criticized.
In a word, there may not be much fighting near the Watergate Bridge, and when the bridge was blown up, the large Us army was far from the bridge.
There is a question here, if our army blows up the entire Watergate Bridge, will it completely annihilate the US army? I specifically consulted a military history expert, and he said that there was no possibility.
Because our army is already at the end of the crossbow at this time, there are many photos in the United States, it can be seen that the volunteer army in the ultra-low temperature of minus 40 degrees, many people do not even have shoes (should be lost), feet have been swollen to the point of not being able to see, I estimate that many people have not experienced the experience of minus 40 degrees in their lives (the minimum reached minus 53 degrees, the first marine division wore cotton clothes and was frostbitten more than 7,000 people), most of the troops of our army in this cold, after continuous combat, have been tired, and basically frostbitten.
Moreover, there was no navigation at that time, the volunteer army did not know the road signs, and many troops were lost, so our army was already very, very weak in the area of the Watergate Bridge.
The Watergate Bridge was not long, even if it was completely destroyed, it was not too difficult to repair with the strength of the US military, in fact, they encountered this situation many times in Europe, stuffing a few trucks or tanks into it, padding it up, and then laying rutted components on the top.
Wang Shuzeng also said in his book that the Chinese commander knew the value of this pass, but the logistics supply chain was completely broken, and this place could not support the large corps to fight. This also laid the groundwork for Ridgway's counterattack later, and Ridgway found that our army could only maintain an offensive for a week, because of logistical problems, it was necessary to retreat after the materials were exhausted.
At this time, the US military has been completely under the protection of its own air force, whether it is materials or supplies is not a problem, but ammunition and clothing is a great problem for our army.
In the distance, the 155 mm howitzer of the US army in Zhenxingli has also covered the area around the Watergate Bridge. At this time, the large troops of our army could not catch up, and even if they rushed over, it would be difficult to launch a fatal blow against the US army in the case of a shortage of materials.
The really fierce fighting broke out on Hill 1081, and the battle here is recorded in the military history of the United States army and in Wang Shuzeng's book.
This is the last stronghold of our army to block the escape of the First Marine Division, probably on a hill about a kilometer across the Watergate Bridge, and a lone continental army, about a hundred or so people, is guarding the hill without foreign assistance, posing a flanking threat to the retreating Troops of the United States.
The American army had to pull out this hill no matter what, so it transferred an elite battalion to start the siege, the howitzers in the distance began to shell, the bombers also rushed to help, and it took a lot of effort to finally take the hill down, and the American soldiers who later participated in the battle said, "These Chinese soldiers faithfully carried out their tasks, none of them surrendered, fought tenaciously to the end, all held their positions until they died in battle, and none of them survived." ”
The battle on Hill 1081 was extremely tough, and according to the Americans, they had to light a fire in a gasoline barrel before attacking, otherwise many rifles could not be fired, and grenades would not explode when thrown out (it may be that the internal parts were frozen and stuck together, and it was good to dry the water).
You can imagine how hard our army is on that side. Moreover, I can't imagine how it feels for a lone army without foreign aid to launch a deadly attack on a mighty torrent of steel, and it is estimated that only an army like our army in the world can do it.
After crossing this high ground, the volunteer army had no mountain advantage, and the First Marine Division basically escaped. Everyone should pay attention to the fact that our army mainly fought on the hill, and the tanks could not be driven up, otherwise they would have been directly run over, and our army had almost no weapons to penetrate the heavy tanks of the US army at that time.
Later, when the US troops arrived at Xingnan Port, several units of our army also chased after it, but it was of little significance, completely exposed to the densely packed naval gunboats and bombers, and there were 193 warships and seven aircraft carriers in Xingnan Harbor, and several attacks had no effect.
There is a question here, what are the casualties of the US troops in the watergate bridge area?
Wang Shuzeng's book is similar to that of the US army, from Gutuli to Zhenxingli (the Watergate Bridge and the 1081 Highland are between these two places), the main force of the retreating US Marine Division took 77 hours, an average of 2 hours per kilometer forward. On the road, U.S. troops were killed 75, 16 missing and 256 wounded. This data can also be matched with the history of the US military.
And these casualties were basically generated in the 1081 heights, and the Watergate Bridge may not have been fought.
The history of the Sino-US war has no record of the Battle of Watergate, and in the early records of the mainland, there is not even a mention of the Watergate Bridge, and later it seems that Phoenix Satellite TV made a documentary, quoting the American side, and the matter of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' airdrop of the big iron bridge was also mentioned in the documentary, until this time it was put on the big screen.
Why do Americans record this? Because they were really shocked at that time, we now know that the volunteer army can no longer move, they don't know, they are very worried that the volunteer army and tens of thousands of people are rushing towards them, so the time of building the bridge is particularly painful.
However, the U.S. military is very satisfied with their own performance at the Watergate Bridge, believing that this matter is a model for the coordinated operations of various arms, which is why the details of the Watergate Bridge appear in the U.S. Military. What may be at odds with what many people understand is that the United States is also satisfied with their overall performance at Chosin Lake.
For the United States, a successful retreat is also a victory, the captives are also heroes, they are regarded as heroism, the honor generated in this war is second only to the Battle of the Bulge, that time was also the blind optimism of the Us army, soon besieged, in the Battle of Chosin Lake, the United States withdrew 100,000 United Nations troops and South Korean troops from Hingnam, as well as a similar number of refugees (Moon Jae-in's parents were among the refugees), they felt that this was also a victory. Objectively speaking, they also agreed with the enormous pressure that the volunteers had placed on them.
There is another question, which is also asked more during this period, what are the casualties of the First Marine Division in the whole process of Chosin Lake and the retreat? Wang Shuzeng's data there are: from the landing of Yuanshan to the complete withdrawal of Chengxing, a total of 718 people died, 192 people were missing, 3504 people were wounded, and a total of 4418 combat personnel were reduced; at the same time, 7313 non-combat personnel were reduced, most of them were frostbitten, and for several months the First Marine Division could not fight, and the wounded recovered before they appeared on the battlefield again. The data on Wikipedia is similar.
The 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army on our side had 3 corps and 12 divisions with a total of 150,000 people participating in the Battle of Chosin Lake, with 19,202 combat casualties, 28,954 frostbite wounds, and more than 4,000 people frozen to death, with a total of more than 52,000 casualties.
Last question, is the seven companies at Watergate Bridge the seven companies in Soldier Assault?
The crew obviously wanted everyone to discuss this matter, but "Soldier Assault" is Lan Xiaolong's novel, which is not true. Today's article also wrote that the explosion of the bridge may not be seven consecutive. That seven companies have no prototypes, no inheritance relationships, in other words, there are countless prototypes, and there are also iron inheritance relationships.
Today's article may be heavier for many small partners, but too many people have ignored a reality, our army in that war, all aspects are at an absolute disadvantage, can fight this casualty ratio is already good.
In some articles, they are eager to write the US military to death of more than 100,000 people, in fact, this is also a not very good atmosphere, perhaps in their hearts, they are not satisfied with the results of the martyrs, in fact, there is no need, seeking truth from facts is the greatest positive energy, the martyrs have done enough.
For the movie, there is a criticism during this time is, "the people are patriotic, the capitalists make money", so it is not very good, the article mentioned at the beginning of the article, the United States to enhance cultural identity internally, external cultural output, mainly rely on those works that are very successful in business, such as "Saving Private Ryan" and "Call of Duty" These games, works that can make money are works that can move people's hearts, and conversely, what moves people's hearts must be able to make money, otherwise consumers will not pay money.
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