In the movie "Chosin Lake" and the sequel "Watergate Bridge", the advanced weapons and equipment of the US military are impressive. Compared with the U.S. army, sea and air integrated weapons and equipment, the Volunteer Army only has miscellaneous light weapons. If you simply compare weapons and equipment, it can be said that it is a heaven and an underground.
In real history, the weapons gap between the two sides is actually even larger than shown in the movie, such as heavy equipment such as US tanks, which caused great trouble to the volunteer army.
It is even said that the most direct reason why the volunteers blew up the Watergate Bridge at the beginning was to prevent more American tanks from reaching the theater, because the cost of fighting tanks at that time was too great and was not conducive to the completion of the volunteer mission.
The so-called marine divisions and infantry divisions of the US army at that time were not light infantry units based on foot, but heavy armored units with thousands of vehicles and a large number of tanks and heavy artillery.
Taking the US 1st Marine Division as an example, the 1st Tank Battalion under the division's command has 4 tank companies, each equipped with 17 M26 tanks, 3 M4A3 tanks, and 1 M32 tank repair vehicle; these 4 companies have 68 M26 tanks, 12 M4A3 tanks, and 4 M32 tank repair vehicles; in addition, the US 1st Marine Division has 9 Spitfire tanks.
In addition to divisional tanks, each U.S. Marine Regiment's anti-tank company was equipped with 5 M26 tanks, and the 3 regiments were equipped with a total of 15 M26 tanks.
The 31st Regimental Combat Team of the US 7th Division in the theater at the time had a regimental tank company, which had 22 M4A3 tanks and 1 M32 tank repair vehicle.
The above is just a multi-division unit of the US army, there are hundreds of tanks, which shows the degree of equipment of the US army at that time. And the entire 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army, that is not a tank.
Of course, due to the poor road conditions in the Chosin Lake Theater, these tanks of the US military were not all deployed in the theater. At the beginning of the campaign, there were only a few tanks in Hagaru-ri and Yanagitan-ri, and the tank companies of the 31st Regiment of the Army were not encircled by Xinxingli, but in Goura. Most of the rest of the U.S. tanks were still in the rear of the theater.
But on the night of the volunteer attack on the U.S. army, all the departments reported that they were strongly blocked by the U.S. tanks.
Because the US military at that time in addition to the genuine tanks, but also equipped with a large number of tracked equipment, these tracked heavy fire equipment, at that time, in the eyes of the volunteer army, was often regarded as tanks.
Taking the Xinxingli battle as an example, the US military was equipped with four M19-type double-barrel 40 mm self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and four M16-type four-barrel 12.7 mm self-propelled high-altitude aircraft of the D Company of the 15th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion.
Among them, the M19, in particular, looked very similar to tanks at first glance, and the Volunteers called it a "double-barreled tank" at the time. The original purpose of this equipment was air defense, but the Volunteer Army did not have an air force at that time to participate in the war, and the US military actually used it for flat shooting.
This kind of high-rate of fire, high-power equipment, which the volunteers had never seen before, was a great threat to the infantry-based volunteers.
Therefore, at the beginning of the war, many volunteers on the battlefield reported that they encountered American tanks, but in fact, they encountered this thing. Of course, the amount of equipment of the US anti-aircraft gun vehicles will not be particularly large, but the US military is also equipped with a large number of other tracked equipment, which may also be mistaken by volunteer soldiers for tanks in the dark of night.
After the main battlefield of Chosin Lake began, the US military's genuine tanks really opened up one after another.
On 29 November, the commander of the 1st Marine Division ordered the U.S. forces in Gutori to send their elite forces to Gosuru-ri, who sent the British 41st Commando, one combat company each of the Marine Corps and the Army, and some miscellaneous troops totaling more than 900 people to form the Drexdale Task Force to reinforce.
The task force was then reinforced by the main tank platoon of the D Company of the 1st Marine Battalion of the Marine Corps and the anti-tank company of the 5th Marine Regiment from Matiandong, which consisted of 17 M26 tanks, and after reaching Guturi via The Watergate Bridge, it followed the Dreisdale task force.
Task Force Commander Dreisdale believed that tanks should be dispersed in convoys and that tanks should be used to cover the convoys to reach Hagaru-ri. However, Captain Clark, the commander of the D Company of the tank battalion, believed that the scattered tanks were easy to attack and it was not easy to exert the power of the tank cluster assault, so he insisted that all 17 tanks were at the front of the column to give full play to the assault power.
Dreisdale was a lieutenant colonel in the British army, and naturally commanded the captain of the American army, so he finally followed the advice of tank commander Clark and deployed all 17 tanks in the front.
Later, the main force of the B Company of the 1st Tank Battalion of the US Army, a total of 12 M26 tanks, also arrived in Guturi via the Watergate Bridge, and these tanks immediately went out to become the rearguard of the Drexdale Task Force.
It should be said that the judgment of Captain Clark, the commander of the US tank, was not wrong, and for the volunteers who lacked anti-tank weapons, it was basically impossible to take the US M26 tank at that time.
This kind of large tank of more than 40 tons, we saw it for the first time. Previously, in the civil war, the jiang army tanks that everyone had fought were at most a dozen tons of M3A3, and the firepower and protective performance of the latter could not be compared with the M26 Pershing, which made the volunteer army's anti-tank operation impossible to start.
For the troops of the 60th Division, the most powerful weapon was only the 82 mm mortar, which was not anti-tank equipment at all, and the shells were particularly small.
At that time, the troops were equipped with a small number of American-made 60 mm Bazooka rocket launchers, but the 60 mm version of Bazooka was not enough to destroy the Pershing tanks. When a small amount of ammunition ran out, it still could not stop the advance of American tanks.
Seeing the US tanks driving away one by one, the troops were also anxious. The deputy company of the 2nd Company of the 179th Regiment of the 60th Division, Changshou Zhigao, with 2 squads of 3 platoons, a total of 27 people rushed to the side of the road and engaged in close combat with American tanks and surrounding infantry.
According to the old method, the only way to blow up the tank is to use infantry to hold the explosives wrapped, but the "skin" of the Pershing tank is too thick, if the explosive package is not in place, how to explode can not be blown, some soldiers even tied grenades to the bottom of the US tank to detonate, but still can not destroy it.
Vice Company Longevity Zhigao is a first-class people's hero in East China, known as the "King of Demolition", who once lost an eye in battle.
Seeing the soldiers die one after another, but the tank still could not blow up, and finally Shou Zhigao rushed up with the explosives package himself, which paralyzed a Pershing tank.
In order to paralyze the tank, the deputy company Changshou Zhigao, the 3rd platoon commander Hua Yonglin and 2 squads of volunteer soldiers totaled 27 people were killed.
Due to the lack of access to the U.S. tank brigade, the 16 tanks at the head of the army still covered more than 300 infantry to break through the resistance of the volunteer army and reached Hagaru-ri.
However, the vanguard tanks of the US army stopped and stopped under the blockade of our army, so that the convoy in the middle was violently attacked by the volunteers, and the tanks behind them were destroyed and blocked the forward passage of the follow-up convoy, so we focused on the American and British troops here. In the end, the American and British armies surrendered to our army after being severely damaged, and the 60th Division captured 240 enemy troops at a time, and fought a beautiful battle.
The American rearguard, which also had 12 tanks, arrived late and were out of touch with the troops in front, so they were surrounded by volunteers in close combat and retreated into the ancient soil.
Because the subsequent convoy of Task Force Dreisdale suffered heavy losses in this battle, the U.S. army later called the road from Guturi to Hagaru-ri "Hellfire Canyon".
For the American and British troops, this battle losses were very large, but for the volunteers, how could the losses be small?
In addition to the sacrifice of Shou Zhigao, another people's hero of the East China first class, Mao Xingbiao, also died in this battle, and Mao Xingbiao also represented the 20th Army in the National Congress of Combat Heroes and Labor Models, which was only 4 in the 20th Army. On November 29, another of the four battle heroes, yang gensi as we know them, also died heroically in the Battle of Xiaogaoling in Hagaru-ri.
At that time, the bloody battle at Chosin Lake had just begun, and the heroes of the battle had sacrificed so much that they could imagine the cruelty of fighting the American army.
In view of the fact that in these days of combat, the threat of American tanks to the volunteer attacking forces is extremely great, in order to alleviate the threat of American tanks, the volunteers must find a way.
Directly using infantry to hit tanks, the sacrifice is too large and the results are small, and the 20th Army believes that the best way is to stop the reinforcement of American tanks by breaking the road.
Tanks in the existing theater have become a given fact, and the next focus is to disrupt the necessary route for U.S. reinforcements, especially to prevent tanks from reaching the theater again.
In fact, as early as before the start of the Battle of Chosin Lake, the 20th Army of the Volunteer Army had already made arrangements for the broken road from Gutuli to Zhenxingli, and the first reconnaissance battalion of the army was ordered to undertake this task. In addition, the 180th Regiment of the 60th Division, which is southwest of Gutuli, also undertakes the task of breaking the road nearby.
However, by November 29, the communication between the reconnaissance battalion was interrupted, so by the evening, Du Manling, deputy commander of the 180th Regiment, was sent to lead a battalion to break through Huangcaoling.
On the 30th, in view of the extreme difficulty of fighting tanks mentioned above, special emphasis was placed on the 180th Regiment to do a good job in fortifications at Huangcaoling and attack south, especially to prevent tanks, and the road of Huangcaoling should be completely destroyed.
By noon on the 30th, before the 180th Regiment had broken the road (due to the lack of explosives), the American army had armored vehicles arriving at Huangcaoling, and we sent 1 company to judge that the enemy was reconnaissance and shot down one.
In the afternoon, the 20th Army once again stressed: It is best to occupy the Huangcaoling Heights in the south, which is beneficial to the blockade, and it is necessary to completely destroy the roads and bridges to ensure that the tanks cannot pass. In the evening, the 20th Army ordered the 180th Regiment to ensure the occupation of Huangcao ridge, and if it occupied Houzhuang, it would report at 24:00; at the same time, it was clear that the 60th Division's mission was mainly to block the enemy, and it was necessary to break the road so that the tanks could not cross (Note: The Watergate Bridge is between Huangcaoling and Baohouzhuang).
However, when the 180th Regiment had not yet occupied Huangcao ridge, there was an enemy situation of "enemy tanks 44 and 100 infantry occupying Huangcao Ridge". By the early morning of December 1, it was confirmed that the enemy was 40 or 50 tanks, including tanks and tanks.
That is to say, in fact, these dozens of vehicles are not all tanks, combined with the US military data, this is the main force of the 2nd Battalion of the US 31st Regiment, the department did not work with the US 31st Regimental Combat Team, after the battle was launched, the battalion went north, and finally entered the ancient soil. As the battalion entered the ancient soil, the 180th Regiment attacked it and annihilated one of them.
In view of the fact that there are successive reinforcements to the north in the south, it is even more urgent to break the road in dangerous areas. Therefore, on December 1, the 20th Army stressed that the task of breaking the road north of Zhenxingli south of Huangcao Ridge was the primary task, destroying the control of the rear faction, killing and wounding the enemy who built the road, and sending a small number of contacts with the enemy.
The 1st Battalion of the 180th Regiment, under the leadership of the deputy regimental commander, marched on the same day towards Huangcao ridge, where there was an enemy on the hill behind Huangcaoling (i.e., near the Shuimen Bridge), concentrated all its strength and attacked, and then destroyed the road south of Huangcaoling.
Since there were very few explosives in the hands of the volunteers, they could only choose to point the blast, and the location of the Watergate Bridge was crucial, which was naturally the priority target for blasting. At present, the time of the so-called volunteer army 'one bombing of the Watergate Bridge' is December 1, which can actually match the action of the 1st Battalion of the 180th Regiment above, and the specific time should be the bridge bombing operation carried out on the night of December 1.
The deputy commander of the 180th Regiment reported that there was an enemy on the Huangcaoling Mountain, and was now attacking with all his might, so there should have been a battle near the Watergate Bridge at that time.
Therefore, since a little later on December 1, volunteers have been deployed near the Watergate Bridge, specifically in the highlands north of the Watergate Bridge, 1 battalion and 1 company of the 180th Regiment, 2 companies in the 1081 Heights in the south, and 3 companies should be deployed at the road and railway intersection between the two.
The battalion's initial mission was mainly to break roads, especially by breaking roads to prevent the reinforcement of American tanks, while eliminating a small number of enemy troops. In the follow-up to the Chosin Lake Campaign, no More American tanks were reinforced through the Pratunam Bridge to the theater.
It was only later, because of the failure to encircle the main force of the Us army in the encirclement, that the Watergate Bridge and the nearby volunteer positions became the main point of blocking the enemy's retreat to the south and the north.
At this time, the 180th Regiment had been reduced by more than half in the extremely cold environment, and its combat effectiveness was greatly weakened. But in this case, in the face of the US land and air attack, the 180th Regiment still fought until the last moment, and survived with the position.