Lieutenant Colonel Kahlo, commander of the artillery battalion of the US Seventh Division, said: The bloody battle at Chosin Lake will never be for me. All my comrades have been sacrificed, and I have never encountered a battle like this. I fought against the Germans in World War II, but it was by no means as fierce as the Battle of Chosin Lake, and I never want to remember that war.
Lieutenant Colonel Carlo was lucky. Since the U.S. army repaired the Watergate Bridge for the third time, the exhausted volunteers could no longer give the First Marine Division a fatal blow. If only the Ninth Corps could have a fresh force. The First Marine Division could not escape Chosin Lake in any way, and this was already a matter recognized by the history of world warfare and various military experts.
After the 31st Regiment was eaten by the Ninth Corps, The Commander of the Tenth Army, Major General Almond, and the Commander of the First Division, Major General Smith, as well as the Commander of the Seventh Division, Major General Barr, both received orders from MacArthur to retreat. In fact, before this order was given, the three major generals already knew that they would not escape again, and what awaited them was the same fate as the 31st Regiment.
On 1 December, the U.S. 1st Marine Division began to concentrate its forces on the breakout, and they moved closer to Hagaru-ri under the cover of aircraft artillery. However, the subordinate units of the 58th and 59th Divisions of the Ninth Corps, which were responsible for blocking the attack, had been overwhelmingly frostbitten and almost lost their combat effectiveness, but they were facing a blow with a very high level of air-ground coordination of the First Marine Division. The aircraft was also able to launch napalm attacks at a distance of 50 meters from the positions of the two armies, causing heavy casualties to the blocking forces.
But now it has to be fought. The 79th Division of the 27th Army suffered 2,297 casualties and 2,157 frostbite, leaving only one artillery company and five infantry companies in the division, basically incapacitated. Now Song Shilun could only hope that the 26th Army, which was the reserve of the whole army, would arrive on the battlefield in time.
It's just a pity that the iron foot plate can't run the wheels of the First Marine Division after all. Under the attack of the 1st Marine Division without counting the blood costs, the 59th Division suffered heavy casualties, and a company stationed on the 1419.2 heights was all killed, and they had no survivors, and they maintained a fighting posture before dying.
In the "Blood Battle of Changjin Lake", it is recorded that Song Shilun was already very upset at this time, and he constantly asked where the 26th Army was. His fists kept smashing on the floor of the command room, on the tables, and the mess of small items was smashed everywhere. Nothing was like the enemy who had fallen into his own encirclement to escape again, and the other commander was bitterly sad.
Song Shilun's determination was so firm that he never proposed a retreat. Whatever the difficulty of the situation. The First Marine Division, relying on its powerful airlift capability, constantly airlifted countless ammunition and food from the rear, and was able to transport their wounded to the rear for treatment, but what did the Volunteers have?
Originally, the Song Dynasty asked the 26th Army to launch an attack on December 5, but due to heavy snowfall and frequent air raids by enemy aircraft, the 26th Army marched very difficultly, and it was not until December 6 that it reached the designated position. Among them, when the 228th Regiment of the 76th Division rushed to the attack position southeast of Hagaru-ri, the Us army launched a breakthrough operation without a stable foothold, and the 228th Regiment was powerless to stop it, and could only watch them go away.
Now there is only one way to go, and that is also the old way of our tuba road - breaking the bridge and breaking the road. In particular, the Pratunam Bridge south of Gutuli. It is the focus of the volunteer army's attention. According to the experience of the civil war, the Watergate Bridge, which had been destroyed twice, could not be repaired again, and the First Marine Division had become a turtle in an urn.
But the U.S. military's strong logistical support capabilities have once again created a miracle. Lieutenant Colonel John of the Engineer believed that four sets of M2 components were needed to repair the Watergate Bridge, but Tokyo actually directly dropped eight sets of M2 components, six of which successfully fell into the US position. Within two hours, the U.S. military had rebuilt the Watergate Bridge with new bridge components. At this time, the volunteer army was exhausted and could no longer blow up the bridge for the third time.
What an amazing logistical support capability, what a powerful comprehensive national strength, what a terrible speed of maneuvering. This series of operations of the First Marine Division surprised all the soldiers of the Ninth Corps and even the entire Chinese Volunteer Army.
Our adversaries possess extremely modern means of warfare and are indeed unimaginably formidable enemies encountered by the Volunteers. This tough enemy is solid and has taught the volunteer army a lesson, what is modern warfare? After the end of this war, no one is more eager than the Chinese soldiers for their own army to plug in the wings of modernization and take off!
I hope that you will read more of He Chuwu's "Blood Battle of Changjin Lake". Just like the recollection of Lieutenant Colonel Carlo, the commander of the US artillery battalion at the beginning of the article, the war was so tragic that neither the Chinese nor the American soldiers wanted to recall the war.
He Chuwu's "Blood Battle of Changjin Lake" is the only documentary work in China that tells the battle of Chosin Lake in a panoramic way, and it contains the personal experiences of 28 veterans of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, most of whom have fallen, and all their memories have become the precious wealth of all our Chinese and can never be forgotten.
The Bloody Battle of Chosin Lake tells in detail the whole process of the Chinese Volunteer Army from light enemy, fear of enemy to enemy. The equipment differences between China and the United States, the command methods between commanders, and the strategies were explained. From the beginning of the Korean War to the end of the Battle of Chosin Lake, it fully recreates the brutal history and can be purchased by clicking on the link below.
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