In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, our volunteer army vigorously launched a battlefield political offensive in order to strengthen the political blows against the US military and to promote the war-weary and anti-war sentiment of the US soldiers, so as to achieve the goal of striving to disintegrate the enemy army. In addition to thoroughly exposing the enemy's conspiracy in public opinion propaganda and making the officers and men of the enemy army realize that the future of the war of aggression is dark and it is not worth it to travel far away to serve as cannon fodder for war peddlers, at the same time, it also allows the officers and men of the US military to personally experience our army's preferential treatment of prisoners.
After our army won the first battle, 100 US and pseudo-PRISONERs of war were publicly released. This move shocked the whole world, pierced through the enemy's reactionary propaganda, greatly weakened the morale of the US and puppet armies, and created good conditions for winning the war.
The first battle was successful, and it was difficult to place prisoners of war
From October 25 to November 5, 1950, the Chinese Volunteer Army launched a fierce attack on the enemy who had frantically ventured to the Yalu River with strategic late-movers and the suddenness of the battle, and won the initial battle in one fell swoop. In the first battle, our army destroyed 15,800 enemy troops and captured more than 1,000 prisoners of war at the cost of more than 10,000 casualties. However, how to deal with these prisoners of war became a difficult task in front of Du Ping, director of the Political Department of the Volunteer Army.
A company of prisoners of war in the United States, with the sign on the back reading "Thank you to the Chinese Volunteers."
Before our army entered the DPRK, most of the units had abolished the work departments of the enemy army, and some had not yet recovered when they entered the DPRK, and some had just started. However, there are very few cadres in the army who are familiar with the work and operations of the enemy army, understand the situation of the enemy army, and understand foreign languages. Although our army implemented a policy of leniency toward prisoners of war, the officers and men of the enemy army at that time were not aware of these policies of our army. The enemy carried out a great deal of deceptive propaganda in order to consolidate its interior.
In the first campaign, the enemy stubbornly resisted and refused to surrender his guns, and very few were taken prisoner. Therefore, it is necessary to make use of prisoners of war, vigorously publicize our army's policy of leniency toward prisoners, cooperate with military strikes, and carry out political offensives. However, due to our army's unfamiliarity with the environment and no experience in fighting with the US army, it is difficult to deal with THE US prisoners, so it has brought a lot of trouble to the army's operations.
At the beginning of its entry into the DPRK, our army was faced with a scorched earth that had been destroyed by the enemy, the cities and villages were wiped out, and the crops that had been harvested and were to be harvested in the fields were burned to ashes. All of our army's supplies came entirely from the rear, but under the blockade of enemy aircraft fire, the logistics supply lines were interrupted from time to time, the troops were short of food and clothing, and medical facilities and medicines were also very scarce. This is true of our own army, of course, it will affect prisoners of war.
The Volunteers gave preferential treatment to American prisoners
Although the supply standards for US prisoners of war exceed those of the average personnel of our army, the staple food can only be corn and sorghum, and the lack of meat food is not suitable for their tastes, which makes the US prisoners of war who have always been well treated feel hungry and physically weak.
As MacArthur boasted of ending the Korean War before Thanksgiving and returned home before Christmas, enemy soldiers were captured without winter clothes and suffered a lot of frostbite. As a result, the supply and treatment of captives became a major problem. The mood of the captives during this period was extremely disturbing, and the mortality rate in the shelter increased. The direct cause of death is pneumonia, partly dysentery. There is also a disease peculiar to Americans: swollen and rotten limbs, mainly malnutrition.
In his book "Decisions on the Korean War," the American journalist Potts wrote in detail about the American prisoners of war he interviewed: "Most of the deaths of prisoners of war were due to malnutrition and poor living conditions. The Communist military could do nothing about it, and the returning PRISONERs stressed that the captives themselves were no better off than the prisoners, but that they were accustomed to hard life and could withstand harsh conditions. ”
In view of these serious situations, Director Du Ping repeatedly considered and believed that the prisoners of war must be dealt with as soon as possible. Two principles should be followed in the handling of the situation: first, the prisoners of war must live, and second, it is necessary to publicize our army's policy of leniency toward prisoners through prisoners of war, weaken the morale of the enemy army, and achieve the goal of disintegrating the enemy army. Therefore, Du Ping made a proposal to Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai to release the prisoners.
American prisoners of war wore volunteer cotton coats
The President decided to release them in batches
On November 17, when Du Ping briefed General Peng on the political work conference of the Volunteer Army, he focused on the issue of prisoners of war and some ideas for the disintegration of the enemy army. After hearing this, General Manager Peng expressed his complete agreement and pointed out that the matter is of great importance and must immediately consult Chairman Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission.
At 9 o'clock on the same day, Peng Dehuai, Deng Hua, and Du Ping jointly sent a telegram to the Central Military Commission, and the telegram read: We intend to release 100 AMERICAN and Li puppet prisoners (30 Domestic and American prisoners and 70 pseudo prisoners) in order to expand the influence of our army's preferential treatment policy, break the enemy's fear of killing, and prepare to send them out through the positions of both sides on the night of the 19th.
The next day, Mao Zedong called back and pointed out: It is very right for you to release a group of prisoners, and you should release them quickly. It should be released in batches at any time thereafter.
After reading the telegram, Mr. Peng was very happy and instructed Du Ping to seize the time and release it immediately, without waiting until tomorrow. Du Ping immediately made arrangements and personally selected some outstanding political work cadres, translators and car drivers to complete the task. Du Ping also instructed the comrades in the shelter to conduct ideological education on the prisoners of war to be released, and to use the method of laying out the facts and reasoning to make them realize that it was wrong for the United States to invade Korea by force, and it was even more wrong to interfere in China's internal affairs.
Peng Dehuai
The educational results of the education that preceded the release of prisoners of war were remarkable, and most prisoners of war were able to accept this view. Before their release, they were also arranged to get a haircut, take a shower, change into new clothes, pay for the journey, and deliberately add a few dishes to dinner. Finally, all the prisoners of war were summoned to a farewell party in a large wooden hut.
That night, several trucks carrying 100 prisoners of war escaped bombing by U.S. aircraft and drove to the front position in Yunshan. Our prisoners of war confessed to the prisoners of war the method of crossing the U.S. military cordon, and at the same time explained that if they could not pass, they could still come back. The prisoners of war were so moved that they hugged each other with the prisoners.
The release of prisoners of war for the first time shook the world
The first release of 100 prisoners of war by the Volunteers shook the whole world, especially in the United States, causing strong repercussions in the government and the public. On November 23, Associated Press correspondents Whitehay and Bllings covered the details of the incident in a scoop through several interviews with the PRISONERs, quoting the PRISONERs' accounts: the Chinese Volunteers were "good to them," they "received the same rations as Chinese," they "had a sense of equality," "the volunteers treated wounded soldiers with their limited equipment," "Chinese did not search the pockets of U.S. soldiers and let them keep their cigarettes, gold watches, and other personal things..."
Volunteer Management Staff Cut Hair for American Prisoners of War
The mainland government also vigorously publicized this, and at the same time, published a letter from the PRISONERS in custody. The letter was signed by 10 U.S. prisoners on November 23 (Thanksgiving) and written by a U.S. prisoner named Watt. The letter reads:
"As an expression of our gratitude to the Chinese Volunteers, we have written this letter to the following signatories. Since November 5, 1950, we have been their captives.
"After we surrendered to them, their officers and soldiers were very attentive to our safety and health. Medicines were given to those who were injured and to give us all enough food and comfortable shelter. They gave us their cigarettes and food, and they always tried to care for each of us. ”
It turned out that on November 5, when the volunteers were cleaning up the battlefield in Yunshan, they found these prisoners who were too cold and hungry to move. They were deceived into believing that the volunteers had killed prisoners, so they did not dare to surrender, and when they were captured, they were frightened and their legs trembled. The 6 volunteers brought 6 portions of dry food, but took out 5 portions for the captives to eat. After arriving at the garrison, the prisoners were placed in rooms with ondol and ate the same food as our army, they had no smoke, they wanted to use sorghum leaves as tobacco leaves, and the soldiers distributed their small amount of yellow smoke to them. The hygienist also medicated their wounds and refused to accept the beautiful wallets they had given them.
American prisoners of war at the party
Through education, these captives gained a new understanding of the aggressive behavior of the US military. The captives wanted to make their names public and were willing to be on camera so that their families would know they were alive. He also hopes that after his release, he will return directly to the United States and is not willing to go to the terrible army. They said that when they returned, they would "rather go to jail than perform military service."
In response to our vigorous propaganda, the United States military authorities were extremely panicked and hastened to block all information, while isolating prisoners of war from the troops and strengthening surveillance activities against prisoners of war. According to the Associated Press, "It is 'extremely secret' that representatives of the press are barred from visiting released PRISONERs of war and that all officers are ordered not to leak information about their release." ”
Agence France-Presse also revealed: "Some military departments are extremely uneasy. They did withhold the news for 38 hours, and the U.S. News Service even demanded a ban on the publication of the most meaningful details. The heads of U.S. news agencies try to make this a trivial matter... On the other hand, wherever these prisoners of war went, they were accompanied by an American general and a number of colonels, as if they were very attentive to them. ”
At the Battle of Unsan, the volunteers captured American troops
After these prisoners of war returned to the enemy side, they invisibly propagated the policy of leniency for prisoners for our army, and this propaganda was widely disseminated. According to the captives captured in the second campaign, except for the US 2nd Division, which was less known because of its proximity to the eastern front, the 1st Cavalry Division, the US 24th Division, and the 25th Division knew about it. This group of people later returned to the United States, visited by journalists, followed up by newspapers and radio stations, and had a considerable impact, and the US authorities were greatly annoyed by this matter.
The release of prisoners succeeded in attacking and winning
The success of our army in releasing prisoners of war for the first time was fully affirmed by Comrade Mao Zedong, who pointed out in his telegram to General Manager Peng: The action of releasing US prisoners has received excellent results in the international community. Please be prepared to release another large number after this battle, such as three or four hundred people.
After the first American prisoners of war returned home, they became news figures concerned by the us media, and although the US authorities tried their best to block the news, prevent the press from covering, and restrict the freedom of movement of the prisoners of war, our army's policy of preferential prisoners of war still went unnoticed among the officers and men of the US army and had a great impact. In the second campaign, there were two incidents in which more than a hundred American troops surrendered to us en masse. Captured American soldiers believed that "it is safer to be a prisoner than to fight."
The released American prisoners of war shook hands with the volunteers to say goodbye
At the same time, in the public opinion circles in the United States, there have also been some views that are contrary to the arguments of the authorities. The New York Times analyzed: "Our soldiers, as to why they fought this battle, only a few people know. And "the political understanding of American soldiers lags surprisingly and markedly behind the sense of combat, and while they can fight when they want to fight, most don't know why." If you ask a soldier about it, you will find that what dominates their thinking is imagination, not ideas. Even the US War Department had to admit that "the propaganda of the Chinese Communist army has dissipated the fighting mood of the soldiers" and "the Communist Party will brainwash the brains."
The release of prisoners of war for the first time was a successful move, which effectively coordinated the military strike and created favorable conditions for the second campaign and subsequent victories. On the basis of the experience of this release of prisoners, our army formally stipulates that after each battle, some people should be selected among the prisoners, and after a short period of education, they should be released on the spot.
Of the more than 1,000 prisoners of war who were captured in the first batch, except for the first 100, the rest were released in phases and batches. As a result of the establishment and improvement of the prisoner of war organization, the management of prisoners of war in our army has been further developed, and the mood of the prisoners has also been greatly improved. At the same time, through the arduous work of our army, the volunteer army's policy of leniency in prisoners has also had a tremendous impact, greatly shaking the enemy's military heart, becoming a powerful weapon for disintegrating the enemy army, and playing an important role in winning victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.