From November 26 to December 13, 1950, in a place that American officers said "Genghis Khan was unwilling to conquer", the Ninth Corps of the Ace Volunteer Army of China and the United States and the 1st Marine Division of the United States launched a fierce battle, and the volunteer soldiers braved the cold of more than -40 degrees Celsius to finally beat the US army to escape.
Song Wheel of Time
In order to prevent the US First Marine Division from successfully escaping the encirclement of the volunteers, the commander of the Ninth Corps, General Song Shilun, had ordered two companies of the volunteers to ambush by the Watergate Bridge in advance, but when the American troops passed, they were also shocked by the scene in front of them, and the rows of volunteer soldiers were lying prone on the position, all of them holding rifles and grenades, looking ahead, maintaining a combat posture, but not a single bullet came towards the American army. Several daring soldiers of the US army then climbed to the commanding heights and found that the entire company of 126 Chinese soldiers had frozen into ice sculptures.
The "United Nations Army" approached the border between China and North Korea, and the Ninth Corps was ordered to fight in North Korea
The situation on the Korean Peninsula is very urgent, and the Ninth Corps is not fully prepared at this time, what decision will the central high-level make?
In June 1950, the then North Korean Prime Minister Kim Il Sung judged that socialism had successfully liberated Chinese mainland, and that after the liberation of Hainan and Taiwan, the United States would surely prevent socialist action on the Korean Peninsula.
The war on the Korean Peninsula was consequential, making China's northeastern borders unstable, and the strategic plan formulated by the CPC Central Committee and the military action to reunify Taiwan had no choice but to postpone it backwards. On June 27, 1950, the U.S. Seventh Fleet entered the Taiwan Strait, putting heavy pressure on the Ninth Corps that liberated Taiwan. At that time, New China did not have a navy, and the PLA did not yet have the conditions to fight against the modern navy and air force of the United States at sea.
On September 15, 1950, the U.S. Eighth Army under the command of MacArthur launched the Inchon landing, since then the Korean People's Army's logistics supply line has been cut off, the Korean People's Army has been cut off under the offensive of the "United Nations Army", and the situation on the Korean Peninsula has taken a sharp turn for the worse.
On October 2, at the behest of MacArthur and the U.S. top brass, the "United Nations Army" crossed the 38th Parallel and advanced toward the China-North Korea border. Chinese Volunteer Army began to fight in Korea to defend the country and resist U.S. aggression against Korea. The ace main forces of China and the United States launched a fierce battle in the Chosin Lake area, and the Chinese Volunteer Army defeated the "United Nations Army" with the US army as the main force in one fell swoop.
MacArthur
The two clashes were between the U.S. Tenth Army and the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army. The U.S. Tenth Army has a total strength of 80,000 troops, including the First Marine Division, the U.S. Seventh Infantry Division, and the Polar Bear Regiment.
The US First Marine Division was established in the period of World War II, experienced the baptism of the Pacific War, is a very headache for the Japanese army, and is also an army that has made great achievements in World War II. The U.S. Seventh Infantry Division was reorganized during World War II, and under the command of MacArthur, it fought many beautiful battles and became the main force in the Southwest Pacific. The Polar Bear Regiment is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Seventh Infantry Division.
The Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army was composed of the 20th Army, the 26th Army and the 27th Army of Sanye, with a total strength of 150,000 people.
The 20th Army, formerly known as Huaye Yizhong, originated as an independent division established by Ye Fei in eastern Fujian during the Agrarian Revolutionary War. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it was reorganized into the First Division of the New Fourth Army, and Changsheng General Su Yu served as the division commander of the division. During the Liberation War, under the command of Ye Fei, the division participated in a series of major battles such as the Seven Victories of the Seven Battles of the Soviet Union and China, the Battle of Menglianggu, the Battle of Eastern Henan, the Battle of Crossing the River, and the Battle of Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou. After entering the Korean battlefield, it was led by General Zhang Yixiang.
The 26th Army, formerly known as the Luzhong Unit of the Eighth Route Army, was transferred to the northeast after the outbreak of civil war, and part of it remained alone in Shandong. After the Shandong Field Army and the Central China Field Army met with the division, the division was reorganized into the Huaye Eight Columns, and under the command of General Wang Jian'an, it successively participated in a series of victories commanded by Su Yu, such as the Battle of Laiwu and the Battle of Menglianggu, and had a tenacious style in battle. After entering the Korean battlefield, he was commanded by General Jang In-chu.
The 27th Army, formerly known as the Jiaodong Military Region of the Eighth Route Army, was led by the legendary general Xu Shiyou. During the Liberation War, the department conquered the north and south, swept through the Jiaoji line, captured Li Xianzhou alive, conquered Jinan Province, and later participated in the Battle of Huaihai, and was an elite division of the East China Field Army. After entering the Korean battlefield, the division was led by General Peng Deqing.
Su Yu
Originally, the Ninth Corps was reorganized on the southeast coast, but later the situation in the Korean battlefield was urgent, and the Ninth Corps was urgently transferred north to the northeast. Originally, it was planned that the Ninth Corps would conduct a month of combat reorganization training in the northeast, but due to the advance of the "United Nations Army", the soldiers of the Ninth Corps began to fight in korea wearing thin cotton clothes from the south without having time to change their clothes, and the Ninth Corps had a low level of weapons and equipment and extremely lacked clothing to resist the cold winter.
In the second campaign, the Ninth Corps was used as a force on the Eastern Front to engage the Elite Tenth Army of the United States.
The First Marine Division was besieged and the "Polar Bear Regiment" was destroyed
The US Tenth Army on the Eastern Front is all ace troops, and the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army is also the ace of Huaye, what will be the result of the encounter between the two powers?
In early October 1950, after the first campaign, the Volunteer Army caused some U.S. troops and Syngman Rhee's Rok army to suffer a blow, but did not annihilate them, so macArthur, commander-in-chief of the "United Nations Army," judged that "China only symbolically sent troops, in order to save the face of Chinese, and bluffed." So MacArthur decided that the "United Nations Army" would march north across the board and end the war on the Korean Peninsula before Christmas.
MacArthur once announced on the news: end the war within a month and let the soldiers go home for Christmas! At this time, inside the headquarters of the Volunteer Army, Peng Dehuai was already full of bamboo, and he was determined to seize the opportunity of the "United Nations Army" to venture forward and lure the "United Nations Army" to the area of Yunshan and Wenjing and deal a heavy blow.
Under Shiji's orders, the 38th Army retreated, leaving only a small force to contact the "United Nations Army". News of the presence of Chinese troops had been received by this time, but MacArthur ignored the news in order to save the image of the United States in East Asia. But this war was about whether the volunteer army could gain a foothold on the Korean Peninsula while ensuring the safety of troops on the Western Front, and the importance of the task of the Ninth Corps was self-evident.
By mid-November, the U.S. 10th Army, advancing northward, had advanced to the Chosin Lake area between Hagaru-ri and Yoshima-ri. In the winter of 1950, affected by the Siberian cold current, the temperature of the Gaima Plateau in the eastern part of the Korean Peninsula dropped directly to minus 20 degrees, and the land was all white. The previous Ninth Corps was on the southeast coast, and now it is still wearing a single suit, and for a time the Ninth Corps combat environment has become more difficult. Soon after, heavy snow fell on the Gaima Plateau, and the temperature plummeted to minus forty degrees, and according to later volunteers, the ears fell off when they touched their hands. In the bitter cold wind, the volunteer army traveled day and night and began to advance towards Chosin Lake.
On November 27, the battle began, and the Ninth Volunteer Corps launched an attack on the forward positions of the American Army on the Eastern Front, and the 1st Marine Division and the Ninth Volunteer Corps exchanged fire. That night, the 20th Army of the Volunteer Army successfully cut off the connection between Liutanli and Hagaru-ri, and after dawn, the American army began to rely on strong firepower to start counterattacking, and the volunteer soldiers repelled the 8th charge of the 1st Marine Division.
In the face of the powerful firepower of the US army, the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army constantly changed its tactics, decided to use the tactics of rapid interspersing and dividing the encirclement, and then concentrated its forces to solve the "Polar Bear Regiment" located near Xinxingli, which dealt a blow to the morale of the US army. After November 28, the U.S. army suddenly found that the originally aggressive volunteer army had divided the U.S. 1st Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division into 5 unrelated parts, and the U.S. army lost hope of victory.
Volunteers in the charge
On November 29, the Volunteers concentrated five regiments to attack the U.S. Polar Bear Regiment (31st Infantry Regiment) in Xinxingli. At this time, McLean, the leader of the Polar Bear Regiment, was spending the night in a small mountain village, roasting the fire in the house and eating canned beef.
Suddenly there was the sound of gunshots and grenades exploding outside the house, and as the charge horn sounded, a group of volunteer soldiers, clad in white cloths, crawled through the woods in waves. American soldiers picked up flamethrowers in their hands, and light machine guns poured fire on the volunteers. The volunteer soldiers fell one by one, but they still could not stop the advance of the volunteers, and the hearts of the American soldiers were completely shaken. The spirit of the volunteer army, which is not afraid of death, completely destroyed the confidence of the "Polar Bear Regiment", and this war was doomed to be difficult for the US army to win.
On the 29th, the battle had just begun, and McLean, the leader of the "Polar Bear Regiment", was killed by the volunteers in the process of commanding the retreat of the troops, and the "Polar Bear Regiment" lost its command for a while. In the evening, two of the regiment's battalion commanders were wounded and fled the battlefield in helicopters, and the retreat of the Polar Bear Regiment was suddenly transformed into an unorganized escape route. On the evening of November 30, the volunteer army launched an attack on the "Polar Bear Regiment" near Xinxingli, and on December 2, most of the US army near Xinxingli was wiped out, and the "Polar Bear Regiment" was completely destroyed.
The volunteer army three bombed the Watergate Bridge, the hero of the "Ice Sculpture Company" in the ice and snow
The Volunteers had set up an ambush at the Watergate Bridge, so why didn't the U.S. troops pass by with a single shot?
Beginning on 28 November, the 1st Marine Division began to desperately open up the links between the various positions, but the American troops, fully mechanized, were beaten by the volunteers in the bitter cold. An American reporter once asked the soldiers of the First Marine Division who were digging fava beans to eat, what wishes do you have now? The soldier replied on the spot: "Let me see the sun of tomorrow."
On December 1, after several fierce battles, the logistics supply had been cut off, and the severe cold caused a large number of casualties among the volunteer soldiers, and the volunteer army was on the verge of the limit of combat effectiveness. However, in order to maintain the honor of Huaye, the main force of Huaye used their tenacious will to fight the enemy to the death, and many fighters insisted on fighting until the last moment of their lives.
The Watergate Bridge was the only way for U.S. troops to withdraw, and once it was blown up, the U.S. military was cut off from retreat. Therefore, Song Shilun, commander of the Ninth Corps, ordered that no matter what difficulties were encountered, the bridge should be blown up at all costs. Volunteers had blown up the bridge twice, but the U.S. military's logistical capabilities were astounding, and the broken bridge was quickly restored.
The 27th Army organized 2 companies of "death squads", each carrying 50 kilograms of explosives, braving the artillery fire of the American army, and using their own flesh and blood to successfully blow up the bridge and the base. After learning the news, the US military ordered Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to urgently process and manufacture 8 sets of M2 steel and wood bridges, and finally 8 large transport aircraft used large parachutes to directly airdrop to the US positions, and the US military successfully erected the bridge.
In the battle on the Watergate Bridge, the U.S. military relied on air supremacy, endless air supply, and the support of hundreds of thousands of logisticians, and the U.S. military played the role of industrial capabilities in the war to the extreme. The Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army could only rely on a strong will, which brought the role of man in the war to the extreme.
Crying blood ice sculpture even
Without logistical supplies and air cover, the Volunteers marched 300 kilometers in a 10-day march, while the highly mechanized U.S. Troops retreated 500 meters in one day. The literature on the Us side once recorded: "Chinese soldiers do not seem to care about the firepower network of the US military, after the first group of people fell, the second group of people continued to advance, followed by countless third and fourth waves." They were not afraid of death, and they persevered until they all fell, as if they were a group of martyrs."
On the way to the south, all 126 officers and men of the volunteer army were seen freezing to death on the position in a fighting posture, and no wounds were found. This shocking scene made American Major General Smith sigh: "The Battle of Chosin Lake was fought by the Steel Force against the Iron Man. When the officers and men of the volunteer army saw this situation, they could not help but cry bitterly. When the U.S. military was at its weakest, we let the U.S. military flee because of the lack of troops. After the Battle of Chosin Lake, the heroic deeds of the "Ice Sculpture Company" were recorded in the annals of history.
In this battle, encountering decades of unforeseen cold, 4,000 people of the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army were frozen to death, and the non-combat attrition reached 30,000. In the case of sufficient logistical supplies, the US military still reduced its non-combat personnel to 7300 people, and directly froze to death hundreds of people. After the war, the 1st Marine Division was severely depleted due to combat and has never set foot in the Korean battlefield since then. The US "Polar Bear Regiment" was completely annihilated and its name revoked. The Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army returned to China for recuperation due to excessive attrition.