Recently, the film "Chosin Lake", which reflects the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, has been screened in theaters around the world. The plot of the "Ice Sculpture Company" in the film has touched the tears of countless audiences. Many viewers, especially young people, could not help but ask: Why did the volunteers for the Battle of Chosin Lake not have thick cotton jackets?
Stills from the movie "Lake Chosin"
In the early days of entering the DPRK, the winter clothes of the volunteer army were seriously insufficient
After entering the DPRK, the volunteer army mainly encountered three difficulties: one was the inferiority of weapons and equipment and the shortage of ammunition; the other was the problem of eating, especially the difficulty of supplying hot food; and the other was the shortage of winter clothes, resulting in a large number of non-combat attritions.
In fact, in order to prepare the volunteer army to go abroad to fight, the General Logistics Department of the People's Liberation Army arranged as early as July 1950 for the Northeast, North China, East China and Central and Southern Military Regions to rush to produce 340,000 sets of cotton clothes, 360,000 pairs of cotton shoes, 400,000 pieces (tops and strips) of cotton hats, flannel pants, cotton vests, and cotton coats, and 700,000 pairs of cotton gloves and socks. However, due to the increase in the number of troops entering the DPRK and the urgency of the situation, many troops were too late to match their winter clothes.
On November 6, 1950, at Shenyang Railway Station, He Jinnian, deputy commander of the Northeast Military Region, who had come to inspect the troops' preparations for entering the DPRK, was greatly shocked when he saw the officers and men of the 20th Army of the 9th Corps wearing cotton coats from East China, wearing large brimmed hats, and rubber-soled single shoes on their feet. However, the 58th, 59th, and 89th Divisions of the 20th Army basically did not stop and drove directly to the River Boundary of Korea, and only the 60th Division of the army's direct subordinate units and the rear guard received a few thick cotton coats and cotton hats in a short parking gap.
The winter of 1950 was the lowest temperature in North Korea in 50 years, with the highest daytime temperature in northern Korea only -20 °C, while the Chosin Lake Battlefield was located in the alpine mountains of northern Korea, with an altitude of between 1,000 and 2,000 meters, and even below -40 °C at night.
The units of the 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army, which participated in the Battle of Chosin Lake, did not have winter cold clothing due to the emergency entry into Korea, and only distributed thin cotton jackets of the southern troops, which could not withstand the cold of Korea at all; at that time, the soldiers did not have a general distribution of coats, some had a coat in a class, who stood guard and who wore them; quilts were not for everyone, and more than a dozen people in each class shared one or two quilts.
Due to the lack of sufficient winter clothes, the non-combat casualties of the troops were extremely large, and their combat effectiveness was sharply reduced. The 27th Army of the 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army suffered frostbite on the first day of marching. On December 8, 1950, Song Shilun, commander of the 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army, reported to his superiors: "After nearly half a month of fierce fighting, the troops of the 9th Corps have been extremely tired, especially frostbite and attrition are very serious. Taking the 79th Division as an example, from the 3rd to the 7th, the battle casualties were 2297, the frostbite was reduced to 2157, and the division was reduced to 5 infantry companies and 2 machine gun companies. When the 6th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 239th Regiment of the 80th Division attacked the enemy in Xinxingli, it was suppressed by the enemy's fire and immediately lay down on the ice, and when it finally cleaned up the battlefield, it was found that all but one soldier who had fallen behind and a messenger were in a combat formation, and all of them froze to death on the position, carefully inspecting the corpses, without any wounds or blood..."
The volunteers held their ground in the snow and ice
In the Battle of Chosin Lake, the 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army annihilated a total of 13,916 enemy soldiers, the 9th Corps suffered 19,202 combat casualties, 28,954 frostbite losses, nearly 1,000 people directly froze to death, and more than 3,000 people died after frostbite treatment, and the frostbite reduction greatly exceeded the combat attrition. The first-class U.S. troops, wearing thick cotton coats and even duck down quilts, but more than 7,000 people were frostbitten and hundreds of them froze to death. The picture presented in the movie "Chosin Lake" shows only the tip of the iceberg of the Battle of Chosin Lake.
"Ice Sculpture Company" is not fiction!
Song Shilun, commander of the 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army, said that the 6th company of the 3rd Battalion of the 239th Regiment of the 80th Division froze to death in a combat formation, which was the "ice sculpture company" that made the US army fear! In the Battle of Chosin Lake, there was not only one such "ice sculpture company", but also three, namely: 6 companies of the 177th Regiment of the 59th Division of the 20th Army, 2 companies of the 180th Regiment of the 60th Division of the 20th Army, and 5 companies of the 242nd Regiment of the 80th Division of the 27th Army.
After the war, a thin note was found in the pocket of a soldier in the ice sculpture company. The warrior's name was Song Amao, and he was from Shanghai. He wrote on the note: "I am a glorious volunteer soldier, ice and snow! I will never submit to you, even if I freeze to death, I will stand proudly on my position! ”
Song Amao's oath
The winter clothes of the volunteer army touched the hearts of the people of the whole country
The issue of winter clothes for the volunteer army has aroused the great attention of the volunteer army headquarters, the Central Military Commission and the CPC Central Committee. To this end, the Central People's Government urgently set up the Northeast Military Uniform Factory and ordered Shanghai to organize the development of industrial sewing machines as soon as possible to solve the urgent need for the supply of cotton clothes for the volunteer army. Premier Zhou Enlai was very anxious, and called twice a day to inquire about the production and transportation of winter clothes. And personally instructed: the uniforms of the volunteers must be made of new cotton, high-quality cotton! Why do you have to use new cotton? It turned out that this new cotton was not only fluffy and warm, but more importantly clean, once the soldiers were wounded on the battlefield, they could take out the cotton in the cotton coat to stop the bleeding.
The great victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and the vigorous support of the people of the whole country are inseparable. In particular, the northeast region, as an important base for supporting the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, provided the volunteer army with a large number of military uniforms, military shoes, food, artillery shells, rockets, explosives, and other military supplies. The four major cities in the northeast region alone, Shenyang, Brigade University, Harbin, and Changchun, produced millions of sets of military uniforms in just a few months after the volunteer army entered the DPRK, ensuring the needs of frontline soldiers.
Other large and medium-sized cities across the country have also extensively mobilized the masses to sew cotton coats, coats, quilts and military shoes for the volunteers.
The city of Andong (present-day Dandong) mobilized women to sew quilts for the volunteers
The people are threaded in their hands, and the soldiers are clothed. The picture shows a female middle school student in Wuhan using her spare time to sew cotton clothes for volunteers
With the strong support of the people of the whole country, in October 1951, before the second winter of the Volunteer Army's entry into the Korean War, the Volunteer Logistics Command had prepared all the winter clothes for that year. The standard of winter wear has also been adjusted, according to one set of cotton clothes per person, one velvet hat, one cotton coat (and some leather coats, for field and night duty sentry personnel), two pairs of cloth shoes, and one pair of cotton gloves.
After continuous improvement, the winter clothes of the volunteer army have basically achieved sturdiness, durability, warmth and cold protection, and have better adapted to the requirements of korean battlefield operations.
The cotton of the improved volunteer cotton coat is tied to the inside
The improved volunteer cotton coat was thickened and had a listening hole in the cotton cap.
"Fight to ensure that not a single winter coat is lost"
In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the US military relied on air superiority and has always regarded the destruction of the rear supply of the volunteer army as one of the means to weaken the combat effectiveness of the volunteer army. In particular, from July 1951 onwards, the U.S. military carried out a "strangulation war" against the rear of the Volunteer Army, in an attempt to cut off the rear transportation line of the Volunteer Army.
In the summer of 1951, due to the many intermediate links, the material arrival station was too concentrated and could not be evacuated immediately, which caused enemy aircraft to bomb and caused heavy losses. Some troops on the Eastern Front could not change their clothes on time, and in the hot summer, they could not wear single clothes, so they had to change their cotton clothes to jackets to wear.
U.S. military conducts "strangulation war" against the rear of the volunteer army
In 1951, the volunteer army's winter clothing was transported, and it learned the lessons of the summer transportation, starting from active air defense, trying to shorten the stop time of materials in the middle of the way, and instead of returning to China to carry them and carry them directly by surprise. The train was transported to North Korea by the "one-sided continuation method", and then the second-line troops organized forces to pick them up at the end of the railway transportation, and then people carried horses on horseback to transport winter clothes back to the troops from the unloading point. Due to the tight organization, it is not only fast to transport, but also has a small loss, accounting for only 0.52% of all 1.43 million sets of winter clothes.
Female soldiers in the Volunteer Logistics Unit hand out cotton bedding
In the late autumn of 1951, the volunteer units put on cotton coats a month before the enemy. When volunteer soldiers in brand-new cotton uniforms appeared at Panmunjom, the negotiating site, the enemy's armistice negotiators were stunned. They said, "I didn't expect the bombing to be so bad that you could still put on cotton clothes, earlier than us." ”
After 1952, the pre-shipment was generally carried out by the method of pre-shipment in the winter of 1951, and there were almost no losses during the transportation, ensuring that the troops changed their equipment on time.
salute!
You guys are the cutest people!
Source: People's Liberation Army Daily Party History Study and Education