The U.S. Army attacking the Eastern Front was led by the U.S. Tenth Army, led by the Chief of Staff of the United Nations Army and Commander-in-Chief of the Tenth Army, Edward and Almond, and had jurisdiction over the 1st Marine Division, the 7th Infantry Division (the 3rd Division arrived later), and the First Army of South Korea. The 1st Marine Division was the ace of the U.S. Army, and after landing at Wonsan Harbor, Almond ordered the division to leave a regiment at Wonsan and Xingnan to cover the rear, and the main force to take over the 3rd Division of the South Korean First Army to advance to Chosin Lake, and then went north to join the western front troops to attack the river boundary; the 3rd Division of the South Korean Army advanced along the southeast coast towards the Tumen River; and the US 7th Infantry Division advanced through Fengshan to the Yalu River.
It was planned that the 1st Marine Division would take the lead in attacking, first attacking Wupingli, 90 kilometers west of Liutanli. The 7th Infantry Division, assisting, deployed on the east flank of the 1st Marine Division and advanced along the west bank of Chosin Lake towards Liutan-ri. Bowser, chief of operations of the 1st Marine Division, and Smith, commander of the 7th Infantry Division, were surprised by the task given by the commander, because most of the nearly 100 kilometers of mountain roads in the mountainous area could only be passed by one vehicle, and once they were surrounded, they could easily be broken by each one. Their views were rejected by Commander Almond. As a close confidant of MacArthur, Almond was as optimistic about the situation as Marshal Mai, because excluding the 3rd Infantry Division and the South Korean Army, which arrived later, the 1st Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division alone had more than 40,000 men, more than 200 tanks and more than 6,000 vehicles, and hundreds of artillery of various kinds. Almond forced his 1st Marine Division and 3rd Infantry Division on the left flank, and the Capital Division, 1st Division, and 7th Infantry Division of the South Korean 1st Army on the right flank to advance rapidly northward.
However, Smith, commander of the 1st Marine Division, who had extensive combat experience, was cautious about offensive orders. On November 26, he repeatedly inspected the rugged mountains and terrain of the Gaima Plateau around Chosin Lake by helicopter, and while slowly advancing only 3 kilometers a day, he strongly demanded the construction of an airstrip in Hagaru-ri, a small town at the southern end of the Chosin Lake Reservoir. Commander Almond ordered his troops to launch an offensive on the 27th. The 1st Marine Division began to adjust its deployment in preparation for the next day's attack. At the same time, the US 7th Division in the direction of Xinxingli was relatively scattered and could not assemble on time to complete the battle plan of the 10th Army, so it temporarily formed a task force with the 31st Infantry Regiment as the editor-in-chief (under the command of the direct subordinate company, the 1st Battalion of infantry, the 3rd Battalion, and the 1st Battalion of the 32nd Regiment, the Tank Company, the 57th Artillery Battalion of the Division, and the Heavy Mortar Company, with a total strength of more than 4,300 troops), all under the command of McLean, commander of the 31st Regiment.
Smith's caution, to some extent, greatly saved the demise of the American army. The officers and men of our 9th Corps, who had been lurking in the ice and snow for many days, had long hoped that the enemy would quickly enter our ambush position and deal a heavy blow. Coincidentally, the time of Almond's attack and the total attack time of our army were set for the 27th. That night, the task force of the 31st Regiment, under the leadership of Colonel McLean, successively advanced to the areas of Chosin Lake Neidong and Xinxingli, and opened a command post in Houpu, about 6 kilometers south of Xinxingli. Because it was late, the tired American soldiers only dug some scattered pits and rested, and the whole defense was very lax, thus laying the groundwork for the fierce battle that was about to break out. At this time, the officers and men of the 58th Division of our 20th Army also overcame the extreme difficulty of crossing the mountains and mountains and entered the ambush position on time. At this time, the main combat forces of the U.S. army and the South Korean army on the eastern front of Korea were all concentrated in the area east and northeast of Chosin Lake, with the two apexes of Liutan-ri and Xinxing-ri in the front; the middle node was Hagaru-ri; and the last was the front of Gutu-ri for nearly 70 kilometers.
In the cold and desolate snowy fields, as soon as night fell, the units of our 9th Corps began to operate according to the scheduled deployment. The 20th Army encircled the enemies in Hagaru-ri, Gutuli, and Shecang-ri from the southwest; the 27th Army encircled and annihilated the enemies in Xinxingli and Liutanli from the front; and the 26th Army was a corps reserve. Zhan Danan, deputy commander of the 27th Army, was the commander-in-chief of the army's front line, and in accordance with the operational intent of the army chief, Deputy Commander Zhan commanded the 80th Division, determined to strengthen the 2nd Battalion of the 240th Regiment and a company of the 75th Mountain Artillery Battalion of the Division with the 238th Regiment, coordinate with the 239th Regiment to surround and annihilate the enemy in Xinxingli, and send the 242nd Regiment of the 81st Division to occupy the 1221 Heights and the Cunnan Highlands located on the east side of Xinxingli, cutting off the enemy's retreat route in Xinxingli.
After the battle began, the units quickly began to form a battle formation and launched a fierce attack on their respective targets. Due to the suddenness of the attack, it began to deal a heavy blow to the sleeping AMERICAN troops, but soon after, some enemies hiding behind hidden terrain and tank cars began to counterattack frantically with powerful firepower, and the enemy formed peripheral fire with artillery and tank guns; formed a middle fire net with tank machine guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, and heavy machine guns; and formed close fire with light machine guns, carbines, and rifles to kill and injure our army. However, the volunteers braved the enemy's dense rain of fire and attacked bravely, and went forward to expand the offensive path with blood and life.
The fierce fighting continued until the early morning of the 28th, when the 8th Company of the 238th Regiment attacked near Xiaolinggang on the north bank of the Nanfengliu River, it was suddenly hit by American fire from the independent house under the steep wall of the mountain on the east side. There were 8 jeeps parked on the flat ground outside the house, so our army judged that it was the enemy's command post, so it attacked with fierce firepower, but the US army was strong in fire, causing great casualties to our army. Instructor Lin Anle organized the explosion while instructing the battalion to transfer the 92nd artillery squad. Due to terrain limitations, the detached houses were obscured by small ridges and the artillery could not shoot directly. Kong Qingsan, the commander of the artillery squad, resolutely pushed the 92-step artillery with a killing radius of 25 meters to the small ridge post only 20 meters away from the target, but because the ground was frozen and hard, the artillery right hoe was suspended in the air and could not shoot, so he inserted a shovel into the hand-held ring of the right hoe, the shovel head was against the ground, the shovel was clutched with both hands, and the cannon was stationed with the left shoulder, and the cannon was stationed on the left shoulder, and ordered the shells to be filled to kill the enemy's independent house. Kong Qingsan commanded loudly, "Quick! Listen to my orders to fire! With a loud bang, the enemy's own house was destroyed. Lin Anle led 8 companies to pounce on the enemy, more than 30 American troops and 7 people were captured, the rest were all killed, and kong Qingsan, a first-class combat hero, was heroically sacrificed.
