The US military called the miscalculation of the combat strength of the volunteers before the Korean War the biggest mistake in the war, but in fact, the US military's underestimation of the enemy was both accidental and inevitable, and the US military had never fought with the people's army before
【U.S. Forces in Korea】
In this way, the U.S. military's assessment of the combat strength of the volunteer army cannot be high, because neither the Kuomintang army nor the Japanese army is considered a strong army in the eyes of the U.S. military.
The miscalculation of the US military
According to the official war history of the US military, the US military estimated that the combat strength of the volunteers before the war could only reach the second-rate level of the Korean People's Army, which may make many Chinese people feel incredible.
Because the combat effectiveness of the Korean People's Army is not strong, otherwise it would not have been possible to rout all the way from Busan to the Yalu River, and in the eyes of the US military, the volunteer army can only be equivalent to the second-rate troops of the People's Army, and this evaluation is too low to be believed.
【Volunteers】
At that time, the US military assessed the combat strength of the Chinese People's Volunteers, and weapons and equipment accounted for a large proportion, and the People's Volunteers at the time of entering the DPRK were really inferior to the main force of the People's Army in terms of weapons and equipment.
The reason is very simple: when Kim Il Sung launched the Korean War, he received Stalin's full help, and the main force of the People's Army was a combat unit equipped with a full set of Soviet weapons, and the degree of standardization and mechanization was much better than that of the volunteer army, which was still using weapons made by all nations.
[The People's Army is well equipped]
The reason why the KPA was able to open up the situation in the early stage of the war was to force the US-South Korean coalition forces to Busan.
For example, at that time, the armored forces of the KPA were all T-34-85 medium tanks, while the South Korean army had almost no such heavy equipment, and only the US army deployed a small number of M-4 Sherman medium tanks in Korea, which was not an opponent of Soviet tanks at all.
Therefore, from the perspective of equipment, it is not unreasonable for the US military to believe that the volunteer army is only a second-rate unit of the People's Army, but it is quite justified.
【KPA Armored Units】
Another reason for the U.S. military's carelessness is the U.S. military's self-confidence in its own combat capabilities, and the Americans have seen the difficulties of the Chinese army fighting the Japanese army in World War II.
After fighting the Japanese army in the Pacific theater, the US military felt that the Japanese army was nothing remarkable, and it was true that they were not afraid of death, but under the absolute superiority of firepower, not being afraid of death did not play any role.
Therefore, in the eyes of the Americans, the most powerful volunteer army is only at the level of the Japanese army in World War II, and they have nothing to worry about.
【Volunteers】
MacArthur even called the volunteer army a "mud-legged army", and he didn't pay attention to it at all, so he still insisted that after the Chinese government announced the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the number of troops sent by the CCP to Korea would not be too much, and it would be tens of thousands of troops in the sky.
Huge misses
After the Chinese and US armies fought each other in the Battle of Yunshan, the front-line officers and men of the US army immediately knew that they had been fooled and lame by their commanders, and the US troops were greatly surprised by the strong combat capability and the high quality of individual soldiers of the volunteers.
【Volunteers】
Veterans of the US army who participated in World War II even believed that the combat effectiveness of the volunteers was higher than that of the elite German army in World War II.
First, the interspersed combat capability of the volunteers is very shocking to the US military, first, the interspersed speed is very fast, even the US military, which has already achieved mechanized and relied on road mobility, does not dare to guarantee that it can achieve such a speed on the battlefield.
Second, the combat personnel have a very strong ability to sustain operations, and the volunteers can even go directly into battle without recuperation after a rapid march of several tens of kilometers, which the US military cannot do on its own, not only because the military quality of the officers and men is not so high, but it is also impossible for the troops' sense of discipline to reach such a level.
【Volunteer Charge】
Third, the volunteers are very bold in interspersed operations, and interspersed tactics are originally a very high-risk way of playing, and if they are interspersed well, they will encircle the enemy, and if they are not interspersed well, they will be surrounded by themselves, so the US military will not adopt interspersed operations under normal circumstances, especially this kind of large-scale long-distance intersperse.
However, the Volunteers regard interspersed operations as a basic tactic, as large as a division dares to intersperse, and as small as a squad dares to intersperse, and in the eyes of the US military, the Volunteers are truly bold.
In addition, the collective consciousness and belief in victory of the volunteers also made the US military feel emotional, and the US military has seen an army that is not afraid of death, whether it is the elite SS troops on the European battlefield or the Japanese troops in the Pacific theater, they can ignore the fear of death.
[Volunteers hold their ground]
In short, the volunteers do not simply despise death, but face up to the value of death and turn it into a tactical advantage to achieve victory, which is a collective consciousness that has developed to the extreme.
For example, in order to cover the retreat of the main force of the corps, the Volunteer Army once divided an operational division into pieces and blocked the pursuit of the US army in the form of a combat group.
The reason for this is to avoid the troops being wiped out by the Americans to the greatest extent, and the US forces can only eliminate one combat group at a time, so as to buy enough time for the main force of the corps to retreat.
【Volunteers】
The key to this lies in the fact that the volunteer division was ready to die when it made a blockade attack, and even at the cost of lives, it must buy enough time for the large army to retreat.
When the obsession with victory is beyond life and death, such an army is invincible, which is why the U.S. military will call the Volunteer Army the strongest light infantry in history.
In fact, the Americans did not understand one thing before and after the Korean War, that is, the shortcomings and disadvantages of the Chinese military in their eyes are no longer a problem in our own eyes.
【Volunteers】
Taking backward equipment as an example, the people's army has never had an advantage in weapons and equipment after fighting for several decades, so in the final analysis, our army is an army that wins battles with backward weapons, and its combat effectiveness is only higher than that of the US army.
Sources:
[1] Party History Research Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Memorabilia of the People's Republic of China. People's Publishing House.2009-09-01