Old Week
Abstract: On October 28, the film "Chosin Lake" film side announced the sequel "Chosin Lake Watergate Bridge" pilot poster, officially announced that "Chosin Lake" does have a sequel, and will be released early next year, from the title of the sequel can know that it must be around the Chosin Lake area of the only bridge Watergate Bridge to unfold, in history the volunteer army has organized three consecutive bombings on the Watergate Bridge, the last time even the bridge base was completely destroyed, so how did the US 1st Marine Division pass through the Watergate Bridge?
On October 28, the filmmakers of the movie "Chosin Lake" announced the pilot poster of the sequel "Chosin Lake No Shuimen Bridge", officially announcing that "Chosin Lake" does have a sequel, which is also the original renma shooting, and will be released early next year.
Since the release of "Chosin Lake" on September 30, the box office in a month has exceeded 5.4 billion yuan, becoming the runner-up in the box office revenue of Chinese films in history, but although the film has not yet gone offline, the screening has entered the closing stage, and it is estimated that the subsequent box office will be difficult to have a large growth, and it is still very difficult to go further. However, the box office of 5.4 billion yuan, the results of 100 million people watching the movie are still quite good, and set off a wave of Chosin Lake fever in the society, the Battle of Chosin Lake has become the hottest topic in the past month, the most lovely people volunteer army, and the great spirit of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, once again became the focus of everyone's attention.
Therefore, the "Chosin Lake" filmmakers took advantage of this shareholder wind and lost no time in launching the pilot poster of the sequel "Chosin Lake's Water gate Bridge" to warm up the sequel, which is also a relatively successful marketing strategy.
In fact, when watching "Chosin Lake", Lao Zhou felt a bit heavy and light,3 hours long, the first 2 hours were all about the background of the entire War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the real battle of Chosin Lake was only 1 hour, and the protagonist Wu Qianli played by Wu Jing, Wu Wanli played by Yi Yanqianxi, and the ending of the Gangqi Company where they were located were not clearly explained. But now there's a sequel — most of the shots have been shot before, and some shots need to be shot in the winter, so now it's time to reconvene the original crew to continue shooting. If this is the case, there is a long time to consider a sequel, then the two full films of 5 hours, with 2 hours to introduce the background of the times, in the structure of the film can also be said.
From the title of the sequel, it can be known that it must be around the only bridge in the Chosin Lake area, the Pratunam Bridge, in history, the Volunteer Army has organized three consecutive bombings of the Pratunam Bridge, and the last time even the bridge base was completely destroyed, so how did the US 1st Marine Division pass through the Pratunam Bridge?
The Shuimen Bridge, the only bridge along the 125-kilometer highway from Xingnan Port to Liutanli, is located between Gutuli and Zhenxingli, about 5.6 kilometers south of Gutuli. Bridges are known to be the most vulnerable link on the road, the most vulnerable to attack, and difficult to repair after an attack. And the Shuimen Bridge is a dry bridge, under the bridge is not a river, but four huge reinforced concrete pipes - this is the water of the Chosin Lake Reservoir is diverted here through the tunnel, and then through these four reinforced cement water pipes, along the steep mountain all the way to the power plant turbines under the mountain, cement pipes and highways intersect with the mountain to build a substation, the Shuimen Bridge is on the cliff below the substation. In the announcement of the "Chosin Lake Watergate Bridge" pilot poster on the four huge cement water pipes in the eye, it can be seen that this time the crew is still very careful about the restoration of the Watergate Bridge.
From Gutuli to Zhenxingli 11 kilometers, the altitude difference is 730 meters, and the 3.5 kilometers from Huangcaoling to Baohouzhuang, the altitude difference is as high as 640 meters, which can be described as straight up and down. On such a steep mountain, the Pratunam Bridge, although only 8.8 meters long, could not be detoured at all, and was undoubtedly the most vulnerable node in the retreat of the 1st Marine Division. Once the Watergate Bridge is blown up, the personnel can pass on the cement pipe, but the vehicle is completely impossible to pass, and without the vehicle, even if the Huangcao Ridge in Zhenxingli is the plain of the Pingchuan River, it is difficult for the retreating American troops on foot to get rid of the pursuit of the volunteer army.
Therefore, the Watergate Bridge determines whether the US 1st Marine Division can successfully escape the encirclement of the volunteer army, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a key node of life and death.
The Volunteers naturally knew the great value of the Pratunam Bridge to cut off the retreat of the US army, so on December 1, they sent a small force to blow up the Pratunam Bridge, but the 1st Engineer Battalion of the 1st Marine Division quickly repaired it; on December 4, the Volunteer Army organized the second bombing of the bridge, and blew up the Pratunam Bridge again, and the 73rd Engineer Battalion of the 10th Army of the U.S. Army erected the M2 Rutted Bridge on the bridge - the M2 Rutted Bridge is a special bridge equipment equipped by the US Army Engineer Corps, which is composed of steel and wooden rutted plates, which can erect a span of 30 meters to 50 meters. The 40-ton M26 tank could pass through the Bridge of Pratunam, which allowed the Bridge to be restored; but it was soon destroyed by a third detachment organized by the Volunteers, and this time the bridge was blown up more thoroughly, even the base of the bridge was blown up. Therefore, the 60th Division believes that the task of blowing up the bridge has been completely completed, and it is impossible for the US army to repair it without ten days and half a month. Song Shilun, commander of the Ninth Corps, received a report that the Watergate Bridge had been completely destroyed, and also rekindled the confidence of annihilating the 1st Marine Division in Gutuli, and immediately urged the 27th Army and the 26th Army to accelerate toward Gutuli to catch turtles in an urn.
Commander Smith ordered Lieutenant Colonel John Partridge, divisional engineer staff officer and commander of the 1st Engineer Battalion, to build a bridge as soon as possible! Partridge believed that the only way to build the bridge was to airdrop the prefabricated parts of the M2 rutted bridge and transport it to the Watergate Bridge for erection. To this end, Partritch took a helicopter to conduct a careful aerial reconnaissance of the Watergate Bridge in the early morning of the 6th, believing that 4 sets of M2 rutted bridge parts were needed, considering the possible losses during the airdrop, Partritch asked for 8 sets of airdrops, that is, 8 steel beam parts and 4 wooden rutted plates.
Since the M2 rutted axle components weighed 1.1 tons and were difficult to load by ordinary parachutes, Partridge specifically requested a test launch at Lianpu Airport first. As a result, the huge impact force on the landing destroyed the steel beam of the M2 rutted bridge so that it could not be used at all. In desperation, Captain Hessel Brasingem was eager to suggest the use of two large parachutes at the same time, and the test shot was a success. The Army's parachute technical team, carrying a large parachute, flew from Japan to Lianpu Airport overnight, and made technical preparations throughout the night with the assistance of technicians from the Marine Corps Airdrop Platoon and the Marine Corps' 1st Amphibious Tractor Battalion.
From 9:30 a.m. on the 7th, 8 C-119 transport aircraft parachuted 8 sets of M2 rutted bridge parts (a total of 8 steel girder prefabricated parts and 4 wooden rutted plates) into the ancient soil, and the US army engineer unit received 6 steel girders (1 of the other 2 fell to the volunteer position, 1 was damaged on landing) and 3 wooden rutted plates (the other 1 was damaged during landing), And Partridge immediately loaded these equipment into 2 trucks and set off with the 1st Battalion of the 7th Marine Regiment at 14:00 on the 8th.
On the morning of the 9th, the 1st Battalion of the 7th Marine Regiment finally seized the position to cover the bridge, and the truck commanded by Patrice reached the Watergate Bridge around noon and began to build the bridge at 12:30. Because the volunteers completely destroyed the bridge foundation when they blew up the bridge, the distance between the two sides was expanded to 8.8 meters, while the steel beam of the M2 rutted bridge was only 7.3 meters, and Patric immediately commanded 60 prisoners of war and some infantry to use the abandoned railway sleepers and sandbags nearby to build the bridge foundation, and then erected steel beams, and then set up wooden rutted bridge plates, and finally finished at 16:00. Commander Smith immediately ordered his troops to cross the bridge quickly. From 18:00, vehicles begin to cross the bridge. The first few went well, when a truck dragging a TD-18 bulldozer broke the wooden rutted bridge as it passed, and the most skilled truck driver, Sergeant Wilfred Prosser, jumped on the still shaking tractor truck and drove the tow truck back from the crushed bridge deck! Originally, the steel girder of the M2 rutted bridge was used for the M26 tank, and the wooden rutted bridge plate was used for other vehicles, and now the wooden rutted bridge plate is broken, and the passage of other vehicles has suddenly become a problem. Patrice immediately took a closer look at the precise calculations and came up with a strain to change the position of the steel beam. Sappers quickly removed the wooden rutted bridge plate, and then moved the position of the steel beam inward, so that the tires of all vehicles were pressed on the steel beams, but because the tire positions of various vehicles were different, the position of the steel beams was also different, such as the smallest jeep only pressed 1.3 cm! In this way, all vehicles can pass, but only to be greatly slowed down by the safety speed, and the speed of vehicles is strictly controlled below 3 kilometers per hour when crossing the bridge!
More than a thousand vehicles and tanks passed through the bridge, 14,000 U.S. soldiers and about 4,000 North Korean refugees, and even dozens of refugee cattle, and incredibly, there were no accidents on the bridge all night.
In this way, the U.S. army passed through the Watergate Bridge, successfully reached Zhenxingli, escaped from the Chosin Lake area, which was known as hell in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps, and then went south from Zhenxingli, and then ran all the way to Xingnan Port on the plains using cars and trains, which ended the nightmarish retreat of Chosin Lake.
At this point, some people will definitely find it strange, why would the volunteer army allow the US military to build a bridge on the Watergate Bridge? Wouldn't it be possible to shoot and fire to stop the U.S. military?
The reason is simple and helpless, because the Watergate Bridge is too small, the span is only 8.8 meters, and it is on the cliff, it is impossible to arrange defensive positions to deploy troops to defend. To block the Watergate Bridge with fire, there was only a nearby unnamed hill, which the 1st Battalion of the 7th Marine Regiment captured before the bridge-building operation began, which ensured the smooth progress of the bridge-building operation.
In fact, the Pratunam Bridge was not the last pass, and the 1081 Highland Volunteer Army, about 1 km south of the Pratunam Bridge, established a blocking position, which was also the southernmost position of the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army in the entire Chosin Lake area. The 1081 Heights are not only the commanding heights, but also the road from Gutuli to Zhenxingli has a U-shaped curve near the 1081 Highlands, and from the 1081 Highlands, it can overlook the entire 2000-meter-long highway, in other words, the volunteers on the 1081 Highlands can effectively block this section of the road.
In order to open the road between Gutuli and Zhenxingli, the U.S. army sent 1 battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment in Zhenxingli to attack the 1081 heights north. The 1st Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment was not only the elite of the 1st Marine Division, but also had not been attacked by the Volunteer Army in the previous battles - the southernmost point of the Volunteer Offensive was only in Gutuli, so the 1st Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment was complete and had strong combat effectiveness. From 8 December, the 1st Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment launched an attack on the 2nd Company of the 1st Battalion, 180th Regiment, 180th Regiment of the 60th Division of the 20th Army of the Volunteer Army (1 platoon reinforced by 3 companies) that was holding on to the 1081 Heights, and the two sides fought fiercely for a whole day. That night, the temperature dropped to minus 34 degrees, the U.S. military was issued wool underwear, sweaters, sweaters, hat-proof cold suits, rain-proof hiking suits and duck down sleeping bags, wind and rain coats were made of special cold and rainproof materials, and combat boots were specially equipped with multi-layer felt pads to adapt to the cold areas, but there were still as many as nearly a hundred soldiers with frostbite, and even several people had to amputate their limbs due to severe frostbite. Then, it is self-evident what kind of tribulations the volunteer army that lacks clothing and food will encounter under such a cold.
After dawn on the 9th, the 1st Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment of the US Army launched another onslaught with the support of a large number of aircraft, and finally occupied the 1081 Heights.
As for the 2nd Company of the 1st Battalion of the 180th Regiment, there are two theories, the first of which is that due to the severe cold on the night of the 8th, and on the top of the mountain at the mouth of the wind, all the companies froze to death on the position and became one of the three "ice sculpture companies" in the Battle of Chosin Lake.
The second theory, mainly according to the records of the US military history, the battle on the 1081 heights lasted until 15:00 on the 9th, and finally there was a white-knife battle, 1 battalion and 2 companies were all killed, and the 1081 highlands fell into the hands of the US army.
Whether it was the "Ice Sculpture Company" that froze to death in the whole company, or the sacrifice of the whole company, the real battle reached the last man and one bullet, and the 1 battalion and 2 companies faithfully fulfilled their combat mission at the cost of their lives!
After repairing the Watergate Bridge and occupying the 1081 Heights, the main force of the 1st Marine Division was able to withdraw from Gutuli to Zhenxingli.
The 60th Division of the Volunteer Army's 20th Army in the Gutuli area has indeed reached the point of exhaustion at this time, due to combat casualties and cold starvation, the whole division can still fight less than 200 people, looking at the 1st Marine Division that fled all the way south from Zhenxingli, the 60th Division is really unwilling, and the division chief of staff Cai Qunfan, led by more than 120 people, is still gritting his teeth and chasing after them, but obviously they are powerless to change anything!
I just don't know how "Chosin Lake No. Shuimun Bridge" will show this tragic battle, look forward to it!
(The picture of this article is from the network)