Foreword: On October 26, 1950, the 57th birthday of General Smith, commander of the 1st Marine Division, his 1st Marine Division landed at Wonsan on the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, and two days later, he ordered the 47-year-old Colonel Homer L. Litzberg Jr. to command the 7th Marine Corps Torweet from Wonsan north to Hamhung, preparing to march to the yalu River border 135 miles away, thus beginning one of the most tragic battles of the U.S. Marine Corps, the "Battle of The Chosin Reservoir".
One: The starting point of the Battle of Changjin Reservoir
North Korea's terrain resembles a funnel, with a narrow neck roughly stretching westward from Wonsan to Pyongyang, with funnel mouths formed by the Yalu and Tumen rivers. Because of this geographical structure, any force moving from north to south has the advantage of converging. Conversely, the forces moving from south to north must be scattered. As the Americans advanced northward, the gap between Walker's Eighth Army and Almond's Tenth Army grew wider, and separating the right flank and 10th Army of the 8th Army was the Taibai Mountains, and no army could pass through this backbone of the Korean Peninsula, Walker might be worried, but Almond did not seem to care, as did their commander, General Douglas Mack. In early October, China informed India's ambassador to China, Kavalam M. Panikar, that if U.S. troops crossed the 38th Parallel, China would send troops, a warning that reached Washington through diplomatic channels in New Delhi and London, and on October 15, U.S. President Harry S. Truman met with General MacArthur on Wake Island, where MacArthur believed that China could send up to 50,000 or 60,000 troops to North Korea, and that if Chinese wanted to go to Pyongyang, the largest massacre would occur.
On October 19, four nights after the Wake Island meeting, Chinese troops began to cross the Yalu River, and General Almond's intelligence agencies did not detect chinese troops entering North Korea, and Almond confidently continued to advance, whether from aerial reconnaissance or from intercepted radio signals. Almond's greatest ambition was to defeat his rival, General Walker, the first to reach the Yalu River, and his X Corps consisted of the 1st Marine Division and the 7th Infantry Division, as well as two South Korean Capital Divisions and the 3rd Division, with more troops on the way. With the arrival of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, the total number of men will reach 102,000, the 7th Infantry Division led by Major General Barr, who served as chief of staff of the European Command during World War II and was the head of the U.S. Army Advisory Corps in Nanjing after the war, departed from Busan on October 19 to Yiyuan, 75 miles northeast of Heungnam.
On October 29, when the 17th Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division, led by Colonel Herbert B. Powell, was preparing for an amphibious attack on seven tank landing ships, the South Koreans had already occupied the harbor from land, powell landed without resistance, and rushed toward Hyesanzu on the Yalu River, and in the next few days the rest of the Seventh Division landed. The 31st Infantry Regiment began to land on 3 November, with the task of attacking from the left flank of the 17th Infantry Regiment. On November 4, it entered the camp north of Xingnan, and on November 8, the 31st Infantry Regiment made its first contact with the Chinese army on the slopes of the White Mountain, at the same time, the front line of the Eighth Army, the Chinese army had defeated the Korean Second Army on the right flank, the U.S. First Army was almost to the point of disintegration, but the Chinese army suddenly interrupted the offensive, and east of the Taibai Mountains, General Almond's 10th Army seemed to continue to progress smoothly, but was widely dispersed, without establishing contact with the right wing of the Eighth Army. This means that there is a huge gap north of Wonsan.
Two: U.S. troops landed in Hamhung
smith
On October 30, General Almond stood in front of the regimental battle map and looked at Xianxing and Xingnan, which was located on the north side of the Matsukawa River and flowed into the Sea of Japan from there, the vital Yanpu airport was located on the south side of the estuary, Xianxing was the hub of inland railways and roads, and the railway from Yuanshan to the north was from Xianxing to Zhenxingli, and the railway side was a parallel road, which stretched from Xianxing to Liutanli for 78 miles, which would be the main supply line for the Marines to advance, so far, Willow Pond, who was still just a name on the map, waved his hand to General Barr of the 7th Infantry Division and said, "We'll clean it all up," and then Colonel Edward H. Forney, deputy chief of staff of the Marine Corps in Almond, arranged for The Division to reconnoiter Major Henry Wesner, flying a North American Air Force T-6 Texas aircraft over the target area, where Wesner did not see any enemies, but the rugged terrain impressed him.
On October 31, the 7th Marine Regiment sent a reconnaissance patrol from Hamhung to the vicinity of Sudong to replace the 26th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the Roks, and after reaching the command post of the 26th Regiment, the Koreans told the patrol leader Wilcox that they had 16 Chinese prisoners and confirmed that they belonged to the 370th Regiment of the 124th Division of the Chinese 42nd Army, that they had crossed the Yalu River in mid-October and had been deployed in the middle of the country to defend the Chosin Reservoir, that the 126th Division had moved east to the vicinity of the Fusen Reservoir, and that the 125th Division was on the right side of the 124th Division on the west side. Smith learned of this and continued his advance northward from Wonsan, his first target was Gutuli, he ordered lieutenant colonel George Newton, 35, and his 1st battalion to advance to Chinin, 8 miles southwest of Hamhung, and on November 1, the division's reconnaissance company sent a more powerful patrol, commanded by Captain Ralph B. Krosman, in 21 jeeps to reconnoiter the Hossui area about 45 miles northwest of Hingnam, and the 7th Marine Regiment marched from Hingnam to the staging area behind the 26th Regiment of South Korea, during which no accident occurred, nevertheless, The cautious Colonel Homer Litzberg Jr. still ordered Raymond G. Davis' first battalion to reconnoiter the Korean positions north of Majin-dong,
Colonel Holme Litzberg Jr. (right)
On the morning of November 2, Smith met with Almond again. Smith noted that wonsan's main supply line would be attacked by guerrillas. Almond was not disturbed. He said patrols could handle guerrilla warfare. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 5th Marine Regiment took the train to Hamhung. The South Korean 26th Regiment had retreated to about 4 miles south of Udong, and Davis' 1st Battalion was a mile south of the Soviet Union. Captain Milton Hull, commanding Company D, encountered a problem on Hill 698 on the left side of the road, and the Koreans suddenly abandoned their positions on the hillside and hurried south, turning back and shouting, "Chinese!" The 370th Regiment was on standby at all times to his east, behind these assault regiments, and at midnight on November 2, both the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 7th Marine Regiment were retreating from the fierce attacks from the flanks, and as night fell, davis' three rifle companies suffered heavy casualties, the regiment's 4.2-inch mortar company was destroyed, and on November 4, Colonel Homer Litzberg Jr. for some reason gave up command, and he gave command to David C. Lee, 33, born in Ohio. Lieutenant Colonel Wolff's Army is missing,
Three: Enter Chosin Lake
Smith arrived in Hingnan by helicopter and established a new command. That night, most of his men arrived by train, Smith had a strong army of officers, almost all senior officers were battle-hardened and reputable veterans, the commanders of the three infantry regiments were successful battalion commanders in World War II, the first regimental commander Pühler had commanded the operations in Beriliu, the commander of the Fifth Regiment, Murray, had the longest marine combat time, and the commander of the 11th Artillery Regiment, Broll, was practicing. Serving as a staff officer in the amphibious forces that invaded Sicily and Italy during World War II, The Younger Bauser was Smith's right-hand man, the commander of the artillery battalion on Iwo Jima, the 54-year-old Craig was Smith's assistant division commander, fought the Jungle War in Haiti and Santo Domingo in 1917, and in World War II, commanded the Marines to fight in Guadalcanal, Bougainville and Guam, Smith's chief of staff, 54-year-old Grigon A. Williams was captured by the Japanese at the beginning of the Pacific War until he was repatriated in a diplomatic capacity in August 1942. In 1944, he participated in the sweeping operation on Saipan in the Pacific.
Their first mission was to go to the east side of the reservoir, where the 34-year-old commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Regiment, Royce, was sent to the Xinxing Valley 5 miles north of the 7th Regiment and 15 miles east, where his current task was to block the Xinxing Corridor and find a route north to the Chosin Reservoir, and on November 5, Major Roach's 3rd Battalion of the 7th Regiment began to attack Hill 987, stopped by light weapons and machine gun fire, and the battle was fought between American 105 mm howitzers and Chinese 120 mm mortars. The next morning, Roach's 3rd Battalion continued its attack, all progressing slowly, and it was not until around three o'clock in the afternoon that the attack did not begin, and Lieutenant Ward H. Harris radioed Roach that his company was exhausted. On the morning of the third day, Roach's battalion again moved toward the 891 and 987 heights, this time finding them without enemies. Chinese disappeared, and for most of the next three weeks, traffic northbound was unimpeded,
MacArthur also informed the Joint Chiefs of Staff on November 9 that a complete victory was still possible, and reiterated that his air power would prevent large numbers of Chinese from crossing the Yalu River, and the 3rd Infantry Division began to arrive at Wonsan in early November, with Division Commander Robert E. Lee as the first officer to cross the Yalu River. H. Saul had fought in the 11th Airborne Division in the southwest Pacific, the first landing of the 3rd Infantry Division was the 65th Infantry Regiment, composed mainly of Puerto Ricans, and on November 5, Almond came to see him and said he "did not have much confidence in these troops of color." On November 5-8, the U.S. military spotted Chinese in front of the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment in Emerging Valley, but kept its distance. In northwestern Xinxing, about 10 miles east of Guturi, the U.S. army captured a Chinese soldier sleeping in a house who claimed six divisions had arrived, and on the afternoon of November 7, Smith negotiated with Almond. Smith wrote in his journal: "Apparently, he was somewhat sober about the situation on the front line of the Eighth Army, and the situation was not very good.
On 8 November, one of Smith's patrols encountered a patrol of the 31st Infantry Regiment. Smith and Almond made a deal that if the Marine Fifth Division could not reach the Fussen Reservoir by road, Barr's Seventh Infantry Division would try to reach it from the east, and on the 11th, the C Company of the 1st Battalion of the 7th Marine Regiment fought a battle, in addition to which the Chinese appeared to have disappeared, and Smith reached Kinxingli by helicopter. The helicopter could no longer fly north because of the cold and altitude, and Smith borrowed a jeep and drove to the ancient soil, at which point MacArthur had to admit that the Chinese army was powerful, possibly as many as 100,000 people, but he still believed that China would not intervene in an all-round way. Almond had moved his headquarters from Wonsan to Hamhung on 11 November, and planned to move the headquarters further north to Lower Luri, where Dennis M. The 15th Infantry Regiment led by Colonel M landed at Wonsan, succeeding Lahrer's First Marine Regiment, and the 7th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel John, arrived from Devonsburg, Massachusetts via Japan and will be ashore at Wonsan on November 17.
November 11 was the armistice day of World War I, Almond issued an order at midnight to celebrate the armistice day, asking for a push toward the border, the First Army on the right, the Seventh Division in the middle, the Marine First Division on the left, the Ultimate Goal of the Marine Corps extending 40 miles along the Yalu River, Amond asked his men to prepare an analysis of the situation of the Eighth Army, concluding that there were more than 150,000 American troops on the Eastern Front, 250,000 chinese troops on the Eastern Front, and more than 90,000 Chinese troops on the Eastern Front. With 130,000 men on the Western Front, americans having the upper hand on both the Eastern and Western Fronts, and superior air superiority and superior artillery support, ordered Smith to advance toward Willow Pond on November 13, and on November 15, Rear Admiral Albert K. Morehouse, chief of staff of the U.S. Navy far east, visited Smith, who was concerned about Almond's unrealistic plans and tendency to ignore enemy capabilities.
In the lower stone
There was only one mountain road from Hamhung to the border, and as the Marines advanced down to Jieshili, they could see the Chinese in the distance, which was located 11 miles north of Kotori, at the southern end of the Chosin Reservoir, and the nighttime temperature dropped to minus four degrees Celsius when occupying Hagashili, and the construction of the runway of Hagashili Airport was officially launched, and on November 21, the first battalion of the 17th Infantry Regiment arrived at the Yalu River, Dave. Major General Barr and artillery commander Colonel Powell led a group of men along the road toward the riverbank. It was the first U.S. force to reach the Sino-North Korean border, while Colonel Charles E. Beaucham's 32nd Infantry Regiment was advancing northwest of Powell's 17th Infantry Regiment, and the 3rd Battalion of the 32nd Infantry Regiment sent a 34-man patrol to command Captain Robert B. Bush. Under the command of C. Kingston (the future four-star general), he reached Samsou, 23 miles south of the Yalu River, and did not meet a single Chinese soldier until November 23, Thanksgiving, when many had roasted turkeys with cranberry sauce, candied sweet potatoes, fruit salad, fruit cakes, minced meat pie and coffee. Admiral Doyle brought Admiral Smith a cooked turkey,
On the second day of Thanksgiving, MacArthur came to Korea to watch the Eighth Army attack. He announced to the media that the war would be won in two weeks and that the Eighth Army would spend Christmas in Japan. To complete Walker's victory, MacArthur ordered Almond to carry out the planned westward offensive to squeeze the Chinese, and on the morning of November 25, Smith attended a briefing at the X Corps headquarters outlining the X Corps' Order for Operation No. 7. He learned that his division would cut off the Chinese army's lines of communication at Mupingli on November 27 and then attack the Yalu River. Meanwhile, the Seventh Division would continue to advance north to the Yalu River. The two divisions were nearly 100 miles apart, and the Seventh Infantry Division completed its advance toward the Yalu River. South Korean troops will advance from the Hashou and Cheongin regions toward the Chinese border. In the rear, the newly arrived Third Infantry Division, commanded by General Sole, was responsible for protecting the port and airfield of Wonsan, and Smith's rough plan was for the 5th Marine Regiment to pass through the 5th Marine Regiment in Liutan and then head west.
On the left is Lieutenant Colonel Robert Taplet, commander of the 3rd Marine Battalion, and on the right is the executive officer, Major John Canney, who died in Willow Pond two weeks later
Beginning on November 27, the temperature dropped from minus 207-25C to minus 28C-45C, at 8:15 a.m., the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Regiment, which served as an assistant, began to attack west along the road from Liutanli to Wupingli, with little resistance, the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Regiment and the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Regiment were stubbornly blocked at the 1271 heights, and the reconnaissance detachment sent by the 7th Regiment was also attacked in the southwest direction, indicating that a large number of Chinese troops appeared in front of Liutanli, and by dusk, The 10 infantry companies of the 5th and 7th Regiments began to establish a ring position in Liutan for the night, and Almont decided to send the 31st Infantry Regiment northeast of Hamhung from the 7th Division to replace Murray's Marines on the east side of the reservoir, so that the 5th Regiment would meet the 7th Regiment in Liutanli, and the 1st Battalion of the 32nd Infantry Regiment was commanded by The 32nd Lieutenant Colonel Don Fiss, who enlisted in the army in 1941 and served three years in the 82nd Airborne Division, fighting in Sicily, Normandy and the Netherlands. Fiss established his command post in a cabin on the low slopes of Highland 1221. Until the commander of the 31st Infantry Regiment, Colonel McLean, arrived. Colonel McLean commanded both the 3rd Battalion of the 31st Regiment, the 2nd Battalion of the 31st Regiment (which was replaced by Battalion B Company of the E Company), the 1st Battalion of the 32nd Regiment, and the 57th Field Artillery Battalion.
Four: The escape process of the 1st Marine Division
That same night, the Chinese army began to attack, and the Chinese trumpet sounded throughout the front line, the Chinese 89th Division attacked from the northwest, the 79th Division attacked from the north to Liutanli, and the 59th Division moved back to Nanshan and DedongShan to cut off the American retreat. Chinese soldiers wore two-piece cotton suits and thin rubber-soled canvas shoes. With continuous compact battle groups (usually no more than one company) constantly attacking the American defenses, the 89th Division soon captured Hill 1403, cutting off the retreat of the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Regiment of 1271 Heights. However, after capturing the 1282 heights and 1240 heights, they did not attack the artillery positions not far away, so that the American troops escaped the disaster, and the US 5th Regiment and the 7th Regiment, which were under great pressure, decided to quickly turn to the defense after consultation, and the commander of the 5th Regiment ordered the 2nd Battalion to retreat to the southwest hill and join the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Regiment on the left wing and the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Regiment on the right wing, and only after a night of fierce fighting did they hold Liutanli, and the 2 American companies that held the Dedong Pass on the road from Liutanli to The lower Drinking Yuri also held their positions and saved the retreat of the American troops, on the 28th, It was only when the U.S. 7th Regiment rescued one of the companies, and the other company continued to resist under the leadership of Captain Clarence Corley.
Smith took a helicopter to Xiajie Ali to open a command post, ordered the 1st Marine Regiment to attack Xiajieli, ordered the 7th Regiment to the south, and then ordered the 5th Regiment to cooperate in holding Liutanli, but the operations of the 7th Regiment and the 1st Regiment failed, and the U.S. troops in Liutanli only had a way to supply the air, and on the evening of the 28th, the British Marine Corps 41st Einsatzgruppen, the 3rd Battalion G Company of the 1st Regiment of the US Marine Division, and the B Company of the 31st Regiment of the 7th Division reached Gutuli, and the 1st Marine Division had been divided and surrounded in Liutanli, Dedong Pass, and Hakuyuri. Gutuli and Zhenxingli, each in a dangerously isolated state, on the night of the 28th, the Chinese army launched another attack, although the American army suffered heavy losses, but still held the main position, at 13:00 on the afternoon of the 29th, the commander of the 1st Marine Regiment ordered the British Douglas. Lieutenant Colonel B. Dreisdale formed a task force of 922 men, supported by 29 tanks, to open the road from Guturi to Hagaru-ri,
Douglas. B. Lieutenant Colonel Drexdale
As a result, the Chinese 58th Division blocked 65 kilometers north of Guturi, the entire contingent of 141 vehicles lined up along the road unable to move, Smith ordered a forced breakthrough, but the convoy mixed with each other, passively beaten everywhere, the 300 infantry and 100 tank soldiers of the vanguard force rushed into the Lower Corner, after the break the troops fled back to Guturi, Lieutenant Colonel Dreisdale was wounded by a grenade fragment on his arm, and the best protection that the trapped convoy could find was the shallow ditches on both sides of the road. Army Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Chidest, 37, an assistant to the G-4 Division and a senior officer in the group, tried to transfer the truncated team back to Guturi but was wounded and captured. His position was taken by Major James K. Egan, who was also wounded and captured, and died of his wounds, leaving 140 men, under the acting command of 32-year-old Major John N. McLaughlin,
Major McLaughlin (left)
He was a meritorious veteran who had fought in Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester and Beriliu, and Major McLaughlin tried to send the patrol back to the south but was repulsed, and he gathered the wounded in the ditch, praying for heaven's blessing, praying for Marine Planes to land overhead. By 2 a.m., Associated Press photojournalist Noel and two soldiers tried to escape in a jeep and were captured. At about 4:30, the Chinese army sent several prisoners to McLaughlin's position and demanded surrender. McLaughlin and a British Marine went to negotiate under a white flag, he was desperate, bluffing, pretending Chinese wanted to surrender to him, but the opponent gave him 10 minutes to surrender, otherwise he would face a full-scale attack, Major McLean immediately decided to lead the surrender, and while McLaughlin negotiated surrender, some American soldiers and British Marines managed to escape back to the ancient soil, and according to the most accurate estimates, Task Force Drexdale had 922 officers and men. About 400 people arrived at Shimojili. Another 300 people returned to the ancient land.
Lieutenant Colonel William F. Harris
In the early morning of the 30th, Almond took 2 days to understand what was happening, he ordered the 1st Marine Division to rescue the 31st Regiment on the east bank of Chosin Lake, the 1st Marine Division that was besieged on all sides could not do it at all, Almond, who recognized the situation, ordered to abandon Chosin Lake and retreat to Xianxing, Smith received the order and ordered the 5th regiment and 7th Regiment in Liutan to retreat to Xiayuyu-ri, at 9 o'clock on December 1, the American army began to break through into two groups, and the main force with the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Regiment as the leader retreated along the road. The 1st Battalion of the 7th Regiment went to rescue Captain Clarence Coley, trapped at the Dedong Pass, and on 4 December, only 194 men remained in the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Regiment of the 437th Regiment, Captain Phillips of the E Company was killed, and his administrator, Lieutenant Raymond O. Ball, took over command and finally died at the aid depot in the battalion, Major John Canney, commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Regiment and a pilot from World War II, was killed, and Lieutenant Colonel William F. Harris, who succeeded him, disappeared en route. The last time he was seen hanging from a large rock with a gun, his exact fate remains a mystery
Lower barrier lane
However, the main force of the 1st Marine Division successfully retreated into the Lower Barrier, and the four-day, 14-mile escape from Liutan was over. Of the 1,500 Marine casualties, 1,000 were caused by Chinese, and the rest were caused by the cold. Smith wrote in his journal: "The men of this regiment ... Utterly defeated. There were 10,000 U.S. troops in Hagaru-ri, 1,000 vehicles, 6 days of food and ammunition, as well as a field hospital and an airstrip, which delivered 4,312 wounded and sick in 5 days, greatly reducing the burden on the U.S. military. Giving command to his executive officer, Lieutenant Colonel Youngdale, fled by plane, and there were many uninjured American troops climbing on stretchers, draping blankets over their bodies, groaning a few times, pretending to be wounded, and Smith had to send gendarmes to stand guard on the plane, and no one could board the plane without a medical certificate.
Pratunam Bridge
On December 6, Smith organized all the U.S. troops in Xiayuyuli into two battle groups, began to break through at dawn, retreated to Gutuli at midnight on December 7, and retreated to Zhenxingli, 10 miles away, this section of the road was steep and difficult, 3 and a half miles was the famous Watergate Bridge, the Chinese army blew up the bridge three times, the U.S. army finally airdropped the prefabricated parts of the bridge to repair it, and began to break through on December 8, without encountering resistance in the operation, until December 10. The Chinese army began to prevent the Americans from retreating, but it was too late. On December 11, the 1st Marine Division had fled to the Chengxing and Xingnan assembly areas. By December 24, these forces had withdrawn from the sea, and there was no sign of the "United Nations Army" north of the 38th Parallel. Sgt. Robert B. Galt, chief of the Marine Corps' Cemetery Registration Section, and his 5-man squad and a truck carrying dead Marines escaped from Liutan to the Hingnam assembly area, and a few months later, he recalled, "It was an era without equipment, and whenever possible, you desperately wanted to escape from that ghost place."
Five: The commander of the 31st Infantry Regiment is down
Allan. Colonel D. McLean (left), Fiss (right)
Due to the blockade of Chosin Lake, the US 7th Division took the liberty of advancing, pulling into an intermittent long snake array, and the Chinese army focused on the 31st Regiment Battle Group, the 31st Regiment Commander Alan. Colonel D. McLean, who spent the night of November 27 in The Position where Fiss was, knew little, or even nothing, about what was happening south of Chosin Lake. At dawn, he returned to his advance command post. Almond arrived at Fiss's position in a helicopter and told Fiss in a breezy manner that there was nothing in front of him but scattered retreating northward Chinese, and that he should try to retake the lost heights. Then take the helicopter to find Alan. Colonel D. McLean, told him that once the 2nd Battalion of the 31st Infantry Regiment joined the regiment, the previously planned attack would resume. During the night, the 31st Medical Company, advancing north from Hudongli, was ambushed near Mount 1221, the first sign of a road cut.
At this time, the 3rd Battalion of the 31st Regiment and the 57th Field Artillery Battalion were in Xinxingli, and the 1st Battalion of the 32nd Regiment occupied the high ground on both sides of the road on the east side of Chosin Lake, and on November 28, it was besieged at midnight, and Xinxingli was also surrounded, and the 4th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 240th Regiment of the Chinese Army, after eliminating several large tents of American troops on the mountainside of the 1100th Highland of Xinxingli, went around to a small mountain village with only three houses behind xiangshan, and the 4 companies and a squad of two 3-man groups, a group of cover, a group of attacks, quietly approached the first house, at this time Alan. Colonel D. McLean came out and saw a group of troops walking along the main road, mistakenly thinking that the 4th Company and a squad were American troops, and as soon as he shouted, "That's my children," he heard the crackling of the shooting, as if hit by a bullet a few times, and his body convulsed and fell, and then stood up and walked shakily until he disappeared out of sight.
Artillery positions down the hill
After packing up the other two houses, the 4th Company crossed the village and pounced on the artillery positions down the hill, facing the American troops in the sleeping bags, and blew up the commander of the 3rd Battalion, William Riley, and after learning that Xinxingli was surrounded, Brigadier General Hods, deputy division commander of the 7th Division, sent a company to break the siege, but retreated after losing 2 tanks. The 31st Regiment was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Don Feith, and after learning that hopes for reinforcements had been dashed, Don Feith made a breakout plan and decided to lead three battalions to break through to Hagashi-ri, 8 British to the south, and on November 30, the Chinese army did not wait for dark and began to attack in the afternoon, and The Feith Task Force had been isolated around Xinxingli, and there were no friendly forces between them and Hagashili. By midnight, the attack on the Fiss Line had reached an unprecedented intensity. The U.S. military has completely run out of medical supplies. The dead were frozen stiff, lined up in rows, piled up to four feet high.
On the morning of December 1, Feith took the initiative to flee south from Xinxingli, and most of the off-road vehicles and all unusable trucks would be destroyed, as would all supplies and equipment. During implementation, the destruction of surplus material is intermittent. About 25 to 30 vehicles still in operation lined up in columns, the most important task being to protect the convoy of trucks carrying hundreds of wounded, and soldiers could see Chinese at a glance on the surrounding high ground. The column began to move outward slowly at about 11:00. The Chinese army occupied the high ground on both sides of the barricade, mortar shells continued to fall, causing more casualties, and the Chinese infantry began to approach the column. The fighting for the first half mile was particularly intense, and some of the soldiers in the position began to flee, and Fiss drew his pistol to drive them back. Panicked American soldiers tried to climb into the truck carrying the wounded. Infantry sent to the flanking highlands began to flee towards the main road, and several trucks tried to cross the icy creek, but got stuck on the ice and had to be abandoned,
When night fell, when the column was only 4.5 miles away from Hagaru-ri, a fragment of a grenade pierced Feith's chest, just above his heart, and his men supported his body with a blanket in the cab of the truck, hoping that the news of his death would not spread in the column, causing greater morale. As the column struggled southward, Chinese methodically continued to destroy their convoy, truck after truck, individual soldiers and small groups began to flee the column, trying to cross the ice surface of the reservoir on foot, the original 2500 men of the Feith detachment, and finally 1050 survivors arrived in Shimokuzuri, but all but 385 were wounded. These survivors retreated with the Marines to the Weixing and Xingnan areas. The body of Lieutenant Colonel Fiss was abandoned en route and it was only in 2004 that the skeleton was found, Alan. The body of Colonel D. McLean has not been found.
Six: Conclusion
The second campaign changed the course of the Korean War and was listed as one of the battles that had a major impact on the course of world history, the US army was divided into the western and eastern fronts, the Chinese army was also divided into the western and eastern fronts, and on the western front, the Chinese army took advantage of the weakness of the US army's front-line flat push"," to implement campaign interludes, cutting off the retreat route of the US 1st Army and the US 9th Army, forcing the 8th Army to retreat, shaking the entire campaign layout of the US army, and the enemy of the 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army on the western front was not so much the US army as the cold. The 9th Corps suffered a total of more than 40,000 casualties, of which more than 30,000 were frostbitten (including more than 4,000 people frozen to death, and more than 7,000 US troops were frostbitten, freezing to death very rarely), and the severe cold greatly weakened the combat effectiveness of the 9 Corps, thus unable to prevent the 1st Marine Division from breaking through, but also forcing the US 10th Army to escape from Chosin Lake, ensuring the flank and rear safety of the main battlefield on the Western Front.
The U.S. army lost a large number of mid-level officers who had participated in World War II, trained and experienced in combat, but the full body of the 1st Marine Division retreated and Major General Smith would become the only division commander in the U.S. Army who had not been removed from his post (Major General John Coulter, commander of the Ninth Army, Major General John Coulter, Major General Lawrence Kaiser of the U.S. 2nd Division, and the replacement division commander, Major General Robert McClurel, the commander of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, Major General Hobart Guy, the commander of the U.S. 24th Division, Major General John Church, the commander of the U.S. 24th Division, Major General Day Bale, the commander of the U.S. 7th Division, and William W. Bush, the commander of the U.S. 25th Division. Major General Keane, the generals who had been defeating the German and Japanese armies in Europe and the Pacific a few years earlier, were dismissed.) Of course, Major General Smith's full retreat was only a blessing, and Colonel Alpha Paozawa, chief of operations of the 1st Marine Division, later said: "If Chinese have sufficient logistical support and communication equipment, the 1st Marine Division will never escape the Chosin Reservoir, and the 1st Marine Division is just a fluke."