In June 1951, MacArthur, who had just stepped down as commander-in-chief of the United Nations Forces, received the news that his beloved general, Major General Dean, was not dead and was being held in a prisoner-of-war camp in northern Korea.
This is simply ridiculous! The U.S. military has identified Major General Dean as "martyred" in the Battle of Daejeon, and Congress has posthumously awarded him the "Congressional Medal of Honor", but did not expect that he was still alive and well?
Born on August 1, 1899, William Fisher Dean graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1922 with a fanatical passion for the military, having joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps during his time at the academy and was awarded the rank of second lieutenant.
After the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, Dean was quickly promoted to brigadier general and soon appointed commander of the 44th Infantry Division with the rank of major general.
Dean's battle for fame was the Battle of Winstonburg.
In the spring of 1945, the 44th Division, led by Patton, crossed the Rhine river and met the German ace 19th Army at Winstonburg, and Dean led the entire division to hold its position, fighting for several days in the tidal attack of the Tiger tanks, but did not let the Germans advance one step, and smashed the 19th Army's plan to flee to the Bavarian Mountains.
In the end, the German army, which was "wrapped in dumplings", was forced to surrender, taking a total of 30,000 prisoners, even more than the 44th Division, and the battle shocked the US military. After the war, Dean was awarded the Cross of Distinguished Service and became famous in World War I.
In October 949, after the end of World War II, Dean was appointed commander of the 24th Infantry Division. This division is the main division of the occupying forces stationed in Japan, which is a beautiful difference, the 24th Division is called the "Tatami Division" by the Japanese media due to the corruption of life.
On June 25, 1950, after the outbreak of the Korean War, the South Korean capital fell three days later, Syngman Rhee came to the aid of the United States after establishing a capital in Bactam, and Truman urgently ordered MacArthur, commander of the Far ASEAN Army, to reinforce. The first thing MacArthur thought of was Maj. Gen. Dean, who had fought a bloody battle against the Germans at Winston.
The 24th Division was known for daring to fight hard battles in the Pacific War, and with the addition of Dean, a fierce general, the North Korean army was full of teeth. Dean did not pay any attention to the North Korean army at all, he only took a battalion "Smith Task Force" to set out first, and immediately after arriving in Daejeon on July 2, he took over the defense and became the supreme commander of the defense area.
In an interview, Dean called the North Korean army a "peasant army" and claimed that "I would love to try the cold noodles of Pyongyang."
The punch in the face came too quickly. On July 5, the "Smith Task Force" fought the first battle with the North Korean army at Zhumeiling, and lost most of it. On July 19, after destroying the artillery positions of the 24th Division with howitzers, the 24th Division wrapped dumplings and launched a fierce attack on Daejeon with him, and the 24th Division was in disarray, and Dean could not even contact his subordinates, leading the division tribes to flee in the wilderness.
On July 21, Dean and the division staff were at the junction of the Yuquan and Jinshan Highways, because they had taken the wrong road, they plunged into the ambush circle of the North Korean army, and finally threw the jeep.
They were walking in the mountains day and night, hungry and thirsty, and one night Dean heard the sound of running water, and he carefully touched it, but unexpectedly planted a steep hillside, and when he woke up, all he saw was the sound of the whistling wind, and the people who were traveling with him did not know where to go.
Dean lay in the valley for a long time, during which a North Korean patrol passed by, but he was not found. After dawn, he met Lieutenant Tabor, and the two men supported each other and marched south.
Four days later, exhausted, they ventured into a South Korean home, and Dean took out all his money, about 1 million won, and begged the family to take him to the south.
As a result, the family found a North Korean patrol, Tabor was captured, and Dean, with his agility, crawled through the rice paddies and escaped from the canal into the mountains.
Over the next 35 days, Dean fed on picking wild fruits, catching rats, and sometimes venturing to the edge of the village to "borrow" something to eat, thankfully, he was very fit and never got sick.
Dean then struggled to make his way south. On August 25, Dean finally walked out of the woods, bearded and disheveled, and he weighed only 70 pounds when he was originally 170 pounds. Luckily, he met two well-meaning Koreans who were willing to help Dean cross the line and return to American positions.
Dean burst into tears with excitement, there are still many good people in the world. As a result, the two South Koreans took him into the encirclement of the North Korean army, took a reward of $5 and fled, and Major General Dean became a prisoner and began a three-year career as a prisoner of war camp.
The Korean army was very excited after determining Di's identity, which was a big fish. Not knowing what kind of psychology, the North Korean commander arranged for Dean to eat several meals of cold noodles in Pyongyang, so that Dean was disgusted when he saw the cold noodles.
After a thousand miles of defeat in the Korean War, MacArthur led a heavy army into Korea and sent the 8th Army around to search for Dean's whereabouts, and finally confirmed that Dean had been martyred.
In recognition of Dean's heroic act of "loyalty to duty", on January 9, 1951, the United States Congress awarded Dean the Congressional Medal of Honor, and his wife tearfully accepted the medal.
Soon, out of the needs of the war situation, a news message was announced to the world: Dean was not dead, but was taken prisoner, and is now receiving humanitarian treatment in a prisoner of war camp.
MacArthur had left office to return home when he received the news, and he was very embarrassed to convey the news to Mrs. Dean, who was ecstatic and returned the Congressional Medal of Honor to Congress, and her husband was still there.
Dean lived a "quiet" life in a prisoner-of-war camp until September 4, 1953, when he was repatriated under the armistice agreement and returned home he was appointed deputy commander of the 6th Army.
During this time, Dean also wrote a book, The Adventures of Being Captured in North Korea, which he earned $100,000 after selling it to a bookseller.
Dean reflected deeply on his fiasco on the Korean battlefield: he had fought the most elite German troops, why was he finally defeated by the North Korean army? Were the North Koreans more powerful than the Germans?
However, maj. gen. Dean was incredulous: than he entered the prisoner-of-war camp later, he said with some trepidation: Major General, you should be glad that you only fought with the North Korean army! #历史冷知识 #
