In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the weapons and equipment of the US military were the most advanced in the world at that time, and we often describe it as "armed to the teeth."
The AIR FORCE AND NAVY OF THE US MILITARY ARE NOT TO SAY FOR THE TIME BEING, BUT THE EQUIPMENT LEVEL OF THE US ARMY WAS ACTUALLY VERY COMPLETE AT THAT TIME, AND THE "MORE STEEL" IN THE SO-CALLED "MORE STEEL AND LESS GAS" CAN BE SAID TO BE NOT EXAGGERATED AT ALL. Specifically, it is reflected in the number of guns, heavy weapons, vehicles, and ammunition.
In particular, compared with our army, which was mainly based on the seizure of "made in all countries" equipment in the early stage of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the impression of the US military as "more steel" is even stronger.
If you have any understanding of the modern warfare on the mainland, you will find that there were no full guns in the army at that time, especially in the artillery and other service support units, there were only a small number of guns. In this way, there will be a division full of more than 10,000 people, and there may be about 4,000 rifles.
In the past, some netizens often asked, why did half of the troops at that time not have guns? Because that's how the establishment was made at that time. Looking at the front-line combat units alone, the gun allocation rate may be very high, but in fact, most of the guns are concentrated in these combat units, and the organ service personnel and technical soldiers will actually have very few guns.
Therefore, in the battles at that time, the direct combat effectiveness of the troops was mainly the combat troops, and only if necessary, the personnel would be drawn from the organs and service units to supplement the infantry units, but the weapons could still only be equipped with the combat units. In general, there are always more people in a unit than weapons, especially the higher the rank of the unit, the more people without guns.
Taking the provisional army establishment of our army in 1950 as an example, the strength of a division is more than 11,000 people, and there are less than 4,000 rifles, 680 short guns, 732 submachine guns, 255 light and heavy machine guns, 123 mortars, and 12 mountain guns and 12 infantry guns.
Later, when the volunteer army entered the DPRK and participated in the war, it was basically equipped according to this weapon and equipment, and some divisions added a lot of additional troops while the weapons and equipment were basically unchanged, and most of these soldiers were also not equipped with guns.
Some friends will ask: At least our army did not lack guns at that time, so why could it not achieve full gun allocation?
In fact, it is normal to have such doubts, but we cannot rely on the thinking of playing games and the modern conditions to the situation of that year, because the basic premise is different.
What is the biggest premise? Two words: logistics.
We know that the people in the game can eat, drink, ignore the weight, and under modern conditions, all kinds of vehicles are everywhere, but in the conditions of the mainland at that time, it is impossible.
The army needed food to eat, the battle needed to consume ammunition, and we were lowly mechanized and had a low delivery capacity.
For example, in the aforementioned establishment, an infantry division of more than 10,000 people had only 1 car, 21 large vehicles, 849 mules and horses, and food, ammunition, weapons and ammunition were all carried by people.
In this case, it is not realistic to fully match the gun, and it is even more unrealistic to ensure the ammunition support under the full gun.
In fact, this establishment of the troops at that time could only guarantee the degree of attrition of the combat troops under certain intensity combat conditions, and it was also necessary to receive logistical support from former civilian workers when fighting in the country. When fighting abroad, it is necessary to strengthen the output or get the reinforcement of logistics from higher levels in order to barely ensure the basic combat needs.
So the key to the problem is not necessarily whether the guns and bullets are enough, but whether these guns can be guaranteed to function. Since it is too difficult to support all personnel with guns, and the consumption of priority support combatants is still under great pressure, it is natural not to engage in these seemingly good-looking but less useful plans for implementation.
But we couldn't do it, but the U.S. military could.
The United States was the country with the strongest comprehensive national strength in the world at that time, and its leading position was much stronger than it is today, and its army units had a strong transportation capacity when they could get a large number of airdrops at any time.
Take an infantry division of the US military as an example, which has 3800 vehicles (including trailers) of various types - and how many vehicles were there in the entire volunteer army at that time?
We have always emphasized that the US military has a high degree of weapons and equipment, and the gun matching rate is high, in fact, this large number of vehicles is the basis for its sufficient weapons and equipment, and this is also a point that many netizens ignore when assessing the strength of the US military.
Taking a corps of the Volunteer Army as an example, the strength of the whole army can reach 40,000 to 50,000 people, but the proportion of front-line combat soldiers is actually not high, and many soldiers are occupied by various service transportation. Even if they are front-line combat soldiers, a single soldier bears a weight of tens of pounds, in addition to their own weapons and equipment, they also have to carry food and super base ammunition for several days to fight on foot, how much is the physical exertion?
As far as the US military is concerned, all kinds of heavy equipment such as artillery are car traction, infantry can also be moved by car when necessary, and weapons and ammunition are transported by car, which invisibly saves a lot of manpower. As a result, the existing establishment can be well maintained under the condition of heavy equipment, high gun ratio and sufficient ammunition supply.
Please note that this characteristic of the US military is not only reflected in the combat troops, but also in its organs and technical units, almost full or over-equipped with guns, so that even artillery and other technical troops have a strong mobility and self-defense capabilities.
Earlier we talked about the first campaign in 1950, when an interspersed company of the 358th Regiment of the 40th Army fought a heavy mortar company of the American Army.
After reading the article, some netizens believe that our interspersed company is a reinforced company, and it is also an infantry tip, what is worth saying about the artillery of the US army? Artillery This kind of technical soldier has only a few guns in addition to artillery? And what combat power can it have?
If the time and opponent are converted to the period of the Liberation War, even if the gun ration of the elite artillery of the National Army is not bad, it does not have much ability to fight back in the face of infantry attack, but the artillery of the US Army is different, it is also a "hedgehog".
During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, each infantry regiment of the US army had a heavy mortar company, equipped with 4.2-inch chemical mortars.
This kind of mortar was originally equipped with chemical troops and used to fight poison gas bombs and smoke bombs, but the US military found that this mortar was very effective in supporting high-explosive shells in World War II, so it was commonly used for close combat support for infantry. Later, it was simply listed in the Army Infantry Regiment, making it a conventional mortar under the name of chemical mortar.
Such a regiment belonged to a heavy mortar company, with a total strength of 190 people. The interspersed company of the Volunteer Army was reinforced with a heavy machine gun platoon, and the strength of the troops was basically the same.
The main equipment of this heavy mortar company is 12 107 mm mortars, according to the understanding of many netizens, then this artillery company in addition to these mortars, there are only a few self-defense rifles, pistols, but the fact is absolutely not the case.
In addition to 12 guns, the 190-man heavy mortar company was armed with 24 M1911 pistols, 62 Garand rifles, and 104 carbines —all of whom were armed with guns.
Is that all there is to it? No.
This heavy mortar company also has 6 12.7 mm heavy machine guns and 4 super Bazooka bazookas... It's just a mortar company!
We have spent a lot of time on the impact of U.S. vehicles on their armament, just imagine if the U.S. military does not have so many vehicles, but relies on manpower or mules and horses to supply such a heavy mortar company, then how much manpower will be needed?
What we can tell you is that the Volunteer Infantry Regiment at that time also had a heavy mortar company, but only 3 or 4 heavy mortars were equipped. Moreover, the core of the whole company is operated around these 4 guns, and it will not be equipped with any large-caliber heavy machine guns and bazookas, let alone a situation where all guns are equipped.
The reason why the US military can be equipped with so many weapons and equipment is that this company is also equipped with a large number of vehicles, which can carry weapons and ammunition through motor vehicles and trailers, and realize the mobility of the entire mortar company.
According to the establishment of the HEAVY MORTAR Company of the US Army at that time, this company had 10 (0.25 tons) small jeeps and 10 0.25 ton trailers, 16 (0.75 tons) weapons carriers, 4 2.5 tons trucks and 20 1-ton trailers.
That is to say, this heavy mortar company has 30 automatic vehicles of various kinds, and another 30 trailers.
It is precisely because of the existence of these vehicles that one of its heavy mortar companies can not only easily carry 12 large-caliber mortars and the required ammunition, but also achieve on-board mobility of 190 people in the company.
Of course, with so many vehicles available, the entire personnel of this heavy mortar company can also achieve full gun allocation, and the transportation and replenishment of the required ammunition is not a problem.
In addition, six 12.7 mm heavy machine guns are available on board, which is extremely strong fire support. The heavy mortar company was also equipped with 4 super Bazooka bazookas, which were used on demand.
Think of our heavy mortar company, a company of 3 to 4 guns, mainly by mules and horses and manpower transport, not to mention the full staff with guns, that is, carrying a minimum of ammunition mobility is actually very difficult, the consumption of manpower is extremely large.
And even our infantry company, when undertaking the task of interspersed combat, only reinforced a machine gun platoon with 2 heavy machine guns, and our machine guns were still Type 92 heavy machine guns or Maxim heavy machine guns, and their power could not be compared with the M2HB 12.7 mm heavy machine guns.
In terms of other equipment, one of our infantry companies only has 3 60 guns, 9 light machine guns, more than 20 submachine guns, and the rest are about 100 rifles and barge guns.
Most of the rifles we were equipped with were M1903/1917, Type 38 rifles or NationalLy made 79 rifles, and although the heavy mortar company of the US army did not have submachine guns and light machine guns, it had 166 Garand and carbine guns, and its firepower was also very fierce.
So at that time, it was a heavy mortar company that was fighting the US army, and we were not facing low-armament artillery, but saturated artillery personnel. Although these artillerymen are certainly not good at attacking, they are still not so easy to fight with excellent infantry weapons.
This is true of U.S. artillery, as well as of other technical units and machine soldiers. This is also the reason why the volunteer army always has to face extremely strong firepower after encircling the Us army. It is necessary for us to sort out the actual situation of the US military and let everyone understand this fact, so that we can have a more comprehensive understanding of the difficulties and hardships of the volunteers' predecessors at that time.