Author: Kuyutei
On November 28, 1950, Walker, commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, ordered a retreat, after which the U.S. Army began the longest retreat in military history.
In the Second Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Commander Peng Dehuai adopted the strategy of luring the enemy deep and surprised, and defeated the arrogant United Nations Army. The defense line of the ROK 2nd Army was the first to be breached, the US 2nd and 25th Infantry Divisions fled, the Turkish brigade was defeated, and no matter how optimistic MacArthur was, he had to admit that the United Nations Army suffered a crushing defeat.
During this battle, the American troops, intoxicated by the dreams of prosperity, were almost vulnerable, throwing away their cars, tanks and even their rifles, and desperately fleeing south.
Compared with the American army, the combat quality of the British soldiers was much stronger, and the American army, in order to escape, gave a lot of cover and tail breaking work to the British 29th Brigade. Therefore, in the process of retreating, the British described this "disaster" more comprehensively and in more detail.
The U.S. 2nd Infantry Division was trapped in a narrow canyon during the retreat, and under the pursuit of the volunteers, they threw away everything they could and fled. Due to panic, the American army even killed 2 British soldiers stationed at the south gate of a canyon.
On November 30, the British Gloucester Regiment and the Rifle Regiment, under the cover of tanks, seized several commanding heights in northern Pyongyang, and they were ordered to cover the American retreat, so they saw the largest retreat in history.
The UN troops retreated for 2 days before passing in front of the British army, and the British soldier was full of questions about his task: "If the same number of Chinese came from the opposite side, how could we possibly resist?" ”
When American soldiers saw the British, one of the most common words they said was: "It's hell there!" In order to prevent materials from falling into the hands of the volunteers, the US military ordered the implementation of a scorched earth policy, thousands of tons of "Christmas materials" were burned, the flames in Pyongyang were bursting into the sky, explosions were endless, some warehouses were more than 10 meters high, and many unused equipment and supplies were all burned.
The British officers and men of the 29th Brigade received the task, all to cover the retreat of the Americans, and the British soldiers complained about this, but they could not do anything. Although the British have not yet engaged in large-scale fighting with the volunteers, judging from the withdrawal of American troops, it is enough to make them palpitate.
The British officers of the Gloucester regiment had to admit that it took only 20 days for the Chinese volunteers, armed only with mortars, to drive the enemy out of North Korea. After that, the British and American troops had to face not only the pursuit of the volunteers, but also another most terrible enemy, that is, the bitter cold.
The winter of 1950 was the coldest in decades in North Korea, surpassing even any previous war in which the British had participated, and Perrins, an intelligence officer with the British Flintlock Regiment, tested the temperature once to minus 38.9 degrees Celsius.
North Korea's weather is unpredictable, with rain, snow, and sunny weather, but without exception, extremely low temperatures. In such conditions, everything is different, and the British soldier, in a state of waking energy, will make a sound when he blinks, which is the sound of frozen eyelashes hitting each other.
Tapson, a soldier of the Fusiliers Regiment, found that at this temperature, if you just woke up, you could not speak without 20 minutes, because your mouth was almost frozen.
If a British soldier has just received a hot drink, if he does not drink it quickly, when he returns to the trench, the hot drink will turn into ice. In addition, everyone must realize that lips should not touch metal lunch boxes or kettles, and if they do, a layer of meat will be torn off.
At this point, valuable experience is important because it will save your life. When they get up in the morning, soldiers must learn how to thaw their boots, and at the same time, learning to make a fire is important at all times.
Of course, in such low temperature conditions, casualties are inevitable. Two flintlock regiments slept in a truck compartment at night, and in the morning one lost both of his feet while the other lost all his toes.
In order to protect themselves from the cold, well-equipped British soldiers also had to strip their clothes from the corpses, in other words, they would find everything they could wear and wear them on their own.
The low temperature not only threatens the lives of soldiers, but also the mechanical equipment, the car must be started every 20 minutes, otherwise it will never walk again, and the compass and artillery mirror will not accurately return data because they are frozen. In order to be able to respond to the battle in time, the soldier will hold the rifle to the chest and use the body temperature to keep the firearm normal.
A British sentry with a Bren light machine gun invented a thawing method in which urine was poured on the barrel after the grease of the light machine gun was frozen, but the effect was not ideal.
There is always a stop during the march, and once stopped, one of the elements of warmth is to dig a hole, that is, a foxhole. There are also precautions in the foxhole, that is, it is best not to lean in the same position for a long time, otherwise you will not be able to move.
In fact, the temperature of ordinary foxholes is also very low, and some soldiers use shell casings as chimneys, butter as fuel, and gun cloth as twisters, and small flames can not only illuminate, but also heat.
The British soldiers who were digging the holes also found a way to keep the pit as deep as possible, but they ran into another big problem. The mortar platoon of the Gloucester regiment dug a very deep foxhole, but because they dug too deep, they actually dug a nest of poisonous snakes, and after the poisonous snakes were disturbed, they bit people when they saw them, and the artillerymen fled immediately when they saw this.
In fact, the struggle of the vipers was also temporary, because they were dug up, they were all frozen to death soon after. At minus 30 degrees Celsius, excretion is also a painful thing, because you have to solve it as quickly as possible, otherwise, it will be very embarrassing.
The most gratifying thing for the British was that their friend Americans, was generous, not only giving them a lot of cold blankets and sleeping bags, but also giving them a lot of food and supplies.
The U.S. Army's C ration was generous enough to feed a soldier for a full day, and there were 8 boxes of canned food, including canned pork, canned beef, small portions of coffee and candy, and sometimes prizes, such as zippo lighters.
The British were well supplied and fed, but they wanted some fresh meat, and a few flintlock soldiers drove to a Korean countryside to find food, snatched a pig, and they gutted it and fed it.
Meat was not to be encountered or sought by the volunteers at that time, but here in the British army, they could still eat it. However, a misunderstanding greatly reduced the appetite of the British army, a British officer named Belize, many times saw the American army truck full of fresh pork, some still bleeding, and even some soldiers drooling, but after inquiring, they found that this is what kind of pork, but the corpse of the American army.
Volunteer soldiers, who were good at melee night combat, would enter American tents at night and kill them with bayonets so that the bodies could remain so intact.
In such a harsh environment, the well-equipped British soldiers were still so unbearable, and the situation of the Ninth Corps of the Song Shilun could also be imagined. Our volunteer soldiers, braving the freezing cold of minus tens of degrees, wearing single clothes and cloth shoes, armed only with rudimentary light weapons, in such harsh conditions, we still achieved a decisive victory, paying tribute to the loveliest people!
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