Of the seven divisions of the Korean People's Army before the outbreak of the Korean War, the 5th, 6th and 7th Divisions were composed of veterans of the Korean Nationality of the People's Liberation Army. These three divisions were much less equipped than the other KPA divisions, so the KPA, which was heavily influenced by the Soviet Army, looked down on these Korean Plaksmen. What the KPA did not expect, however, was that without being favored by the Korean High Command, all three divisions fought best in the battle to liberate South Korea in the early stages of the war. This time, I would like to briefly introduce the combat experience of the 7th Division of the People's Army (later renamed the 12th Division) fighting in the mountains of the eastern part of the Korean Peninsula.
The KPA crossed the Han River Bridge in a T-34 tank
<h1>First, the formation of the 7th Division</h1>
Unlike the 5th and 6th Divisions, which were reorganized from the 164th and 166th Divisions of the People's Liberation Army, the 7th Division was composed of more than 4,500 Korean officers and men of the 156th Division of the People's Liberation Army after the victory in the Liberation War, and the Korean officers and men of the 139th, 140th and 141st Divisions. The 156th Division, formerly known as the Independent 6th Division of the Northeast Field Army, served as a garrison and bandit around Nanchang after the liberation of Nanchang in June 1949.
According to statistics, of the more than 4,500 officers and men of the 156th Division, more than 2,000 have made great contributions, more than 100 have been awarded the title of "hero" by the Northeast Military Region or by the Headquarters of the Northeast Field Army, and 80 percent of the officers and men are party members! After meeting the Ethnic Korean officers and men of other PLA units, the unit finally reached the northern Korean city of Wonsan in March 1950, with more than 11,000 officers and men.
Quan Yu, Deputy Commander of the 156th Division (second from left)
The 7th Division was headed by Quan Yu, the former deputy commander of the 156th Division, an ethnic Korean born in northeast China who went to moscow in 1936 to study at the Eastern University. After returning to China, he ran to Yan'an and has been teaching at the Korean Revolutionary Military and Political School. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Quanyu returned to the northeast with the Korean Volunteer Army and participated in the plausible battles of the People's Liberation Army in the northeast. After returning to Korea, according to the rules of the People's Army, Jeon Woo was awarded the rank of major general.
<h1>Second, the number change</h1>
After the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950, the 7th Division, with the cooperation of the Independent Tank Regiment, attacked the 8th Regiment of the 6th Division of the ROK Army defending Hongcheon, due to the lack of effective anti-tank weapons of the ROK Army, there was no way to do anything about the KPA T-34 medium tanks, so by the evening of the 25th, the 7th Division regiment successfully broke through the ROK defense line and became the people's army unit that advanced the farthest on the day.
At this time, the 2nd Division of the People's Army attacking Chuncheon, the capital of Gangwon Province, encountered some trouble, and the ROK 6th Division defending this area, under the command of the division commander Colonel Kim Jong-go, was prepared to attack before the war, coupled with the complex terrain of this area, the 2nd KPA Division was severely damaged by the ROK 6th Division during the attack, with a loss of 40%.
Su-76 self-propelled gun abandoned by the Korean People's Army
The KPA command, anxious to capture Chuncheon, did not want the 7th Division to encircle the rear road of the ROK 6th Division, but let them take over the task of attacking the ROK defense line head-on! This could be the enemy's underbelly, and the ROK 6th Division relied on the terrain to resist step by step, and did not withdraw from Chuncheon until the third day. The 7th KPA Division suffered heavy losses in the attack from hill to hill, and only fifty or sixty men remained in some of the squadrons (companies), and in retaliation, most of the captured ROK troops were shot.
Unable to capture ChongwonJu in central Korea as planned, Jeon-woo was removed from his division commander and the unit was renamed the 12th Division, with Choi Chun-kook, a veteran of the Anti-Japanese League, succeeding him as division commander. When He was not yet 18 years old, Choe Chun-kook joined the anti-Japanese guerrilla group commanded by Kim Il Sung, and successively served as a company instructor and regimental commander of the 2nd Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Army.
<h1>Third, successive victories</h1>
After capturing Wonju, the 12th Division continued to pursue the remnants of the enemy at a speed of 70 miles per day, despite the bombardment of American aircraft, all the way to andong-gun Castle, known as the "Spiritual and Cultural Capital of Korea". At this time, the remnants of the ROK Capital Division and the 8th Division in Andong City were covering the retreat of the common people, and the order was quite chaotic, and the 2nd Wing of the 12th Division took advantage of the chaos to control the Andong Bridge. When the U.S. and RoKs learned of the bridge's loss, they desperately bombed them with aircraft and naval guns, and some Of the Roks who had not yet retreated also fell victim.
Anton's battle was once very fierce, and even the commander of the 12th Division, Major General Cui Chunguo, was unfortunately killed by American naval gunfire during the battle. In the end, Lieutenant General Walker, the commander of the US Eighth Army, decided to hold the Nakdong River defense line, so he ordered the Rok army to retreat, and the KPA was able to capture Andong. Although the losses were not small, the 12th Division was awarded the honorary title of "Andong Division" by the People's Army Command, and the division commander was succeeded by Cui Ren, the former commander of the 166th Division of the People's Liberation Army.
The student army that was pulled by the Korean army
In August 1950, the Korean People's Army launched the third campaign, the so-called "August Offensive" of the Us army, the 12th Division was ordered to attack the east coast city of Pohang together with the 5th Division, and cut off the retreat route of the ROK 3rd Division.
The KPA rushed into the ROK position from the mountain and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the ROK army, at which time there were many student troops captured from the school in the ROK army, and the ROK army was used as cannon fodder in the front line of the operation. Under the propaganda offensive of the KPA, the student troops who were pulled by Lazhuangding surrendered one after another, and the remaining ROK troops had to climb on the US warships and retreat. The student captives were educated to join the KPA, the only replenishment of the 12th Division along the way to the south.
<h1>Fourth, the great bloody battle of the Luodong River</h1>
Although the total strength of the U.S. and Roksars in the Busan defense circle had surpassed the KPA front, the KPA high command desperately ordered the launch of the fourth campaign on September 2, the so-called "September Offensive" of the US army. After half a month of fierce fighting, the 12th Division successfully defeated the ROK Capital Division and the 5th Division, occupied the mountainous area behind Gyeongju City, and tore a 12-kilometer-wide gap in the Luodong River defense line.
In order to fill this gap, the ROK army concentrated its forces to launch a frenzied counterattack on the KPA positions on the top of the mountain, with an average of as many as seven counterattacks per day. Due to the impact of the American bombing, the weapons and ammunition of the 12th Division could not be effectively replenished, and it had to rely on the use of captured US and ROK weapons. Without access to supplies, the KPA soldiers starved of grass on the mountain, and when the grass ran out, they ate pine bark. Nearby South Korean people spontaneously delivered food to the KPA who held their positions despite the blows of US artillery fire, and many people sacrificed themselves in the middle of the road.
Soviet artillery captured by the North Korean army in the Battle of Luodongjiang
Under the frenzied counterattack of the US and Roksar troops, the strength of the 12th Division regiment has been exhausted, the south Korean student army has been completely killed, and there are only a dozen people left in each squadron on average, and the soldiers have built the corpses left by the enemy into obstacles and vowed to hold their positions. At this time, the news came that the US and Rok troops had landed at Inchon near Seoul, and the KPA high command ordered the 12th Division and other troops to quickly retreat. In order to cover the retreat of the large troops, the KPA soldiers in charge of the break were armed with grenades and shouted "Long live Chairman Mao" and died with the Attacking American Troops.
<h1>Fifth, it is difficult to withdraw north</h1>
Due to the inability to communicate with the headquarters of the 2nd Army, which was in charge of the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, the various units of the KPA troops retreating on the Eastern Front could only disperse along the mountainous areas, and the US and ROK troops, while pursuing, used their aircraft to drop a large number of leaflets for surrender. Because of the lack of food, the KPA had to disguise itself as a Korean army and go to the homes of local villagers to beg for food, and the villagers gave them food despite knowing that they were actually North Koreans.
The US and ROK troops took advantage of the convenience of transportation to preemptively cut off the retreat path of the 12th Division, and in order to take into account the overall situation, more than 100 seriously wounded members of the People's Army who could not move on their own took the initiative to ask to stay and block the enemy, and finally all of them died heroically, and the other fighters lined up in a triangular dense formation to forcibly break through the enemy's blockade and continue to retreat.
The U.S. and South Korean troops chased after them in a car
In the South Korean city of Yeongju, the various units of the People's Army on the Eastern Front, which had broken through here one after another, gathered to continue to retreat northward, and transported the wounded in the rear hospital of the Second Army here by captured trains, and the bombing of the American army became more intense because it had disengaged from the pursuing Rok troops. When the train carrying the wounded was hiding from the bombing in the tunnel, thousands of KPA wounded were killed because the tunnel was blown up!
Thus, when the 12th Division withdrew south of the 38th Parallel, the troops were left with only more than 2,000 men from 11,000 at the time of dispatch. At this time, North Korea was already mostly occupied by the US and ROK troops, and the ROK army also set up a security team composed of northern dissidents and children of the fleeing landlord class in various parts of Korea to massacre the Korean military and civilians. The soldiers of the 12th Division were forced to fight against these former compatriots, because of the unusual anger at the enemy, the soldiers of the security brigade had no way to live once they were captured.
On December 6, 1950, the Volunteers successfully liberated Pyongyang in the Second Campaign, and the remnants of the 12th Division, which had been fighting behind enemy lines for several days, were able to join the Volunteers in victory. After replenishing new troops and taking a short break, the elite division returned to the front and took part in the fierce fighting of the fourth and fifth battles of the Volunteer Army.
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About the author: Wang Zhengxing, a special military observer of the Xinhua News Agency Lookout Think Tank, and a former officer of a field unit of the People's Liberation Army, has served in infantry detachments, headquarters, logistics departments and other units, is committed to the study of war history and tactics, and has a unique understanding of military tactics and non-war operations. His book "This is War" was recommended in two issues in May and June 2014 by Phoenix TV's "Eight Minutes of Open Volume" column. His public account name is also "This is war", welcome to pay attention