On October 25, 1950, more than 250 warships and landing craft of various types appeared in the waters near the port of Wonsan in eastern Korea. These ships were carrying the officers and men of the famous US Marine Division. Since October 10, the 1st Marine Division has been embarking from Incheon Port until October 25, and more than 20,000 people have been cruising the Japanese sea for half a month. What caused tens of thousands of troops to linger in the face of the nearby port of Wonsan begins with the Inchon landing.
On September 15, 1950, U.S. five-star General MacArthur personally commanded more than 70,000 people of the U.S. Tenth Army and launched the Inchon Landing Campaign, cutting off the bee waist of the Korean Peninsula and blocking the retreat of the Korean People's Army in one fell swoop. The next day, Walker, commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, commanded the remaining U.S.-South Korean forces on the eastern front of the Luojiang River to launch a counteroffensive. The situation in Korea was reversed, and the people's army front collapsed and withdrew all the way north.
■ Situation map of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
The reason why the Inchon landing battle was able to win a complete victory was not only the strong land, sea, land and air superiority of the United States, but more importantly, the DPRK's misjudgment of the situation in the Inchon region. The North Koreans always believed that the port of Incheon was seriously affected by the tides and the sea space was small, which was extremely unfavorable to the LANDING of the US troops here, and even MacArthur himself admitted that the plan he personally formulated was a five-thousand-to-one gamble. General Bradley, known for his "steady fighting," expressed strong opposition to the adventure at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with Army Chief of Staff Collins and Chief of Naval Operations Sherman opposing the plan from the perspectives of military materiel allocation and the geographical environment of The Port of Incheon, respectively. In the end, MacArthur succeeded in convincing the Three Musketeers to approve the plan. It has also turned out that this landing site, which was not favored by everyone, became the key to the surprising victory of the Inchon landing battle.
■ Stills from the Korean movie "Incheon Landing"
On September 28, 1950, with seoul captured by the Americans, MacArthur was no longer satisfied with the simplicity of keeping Korea. At the press conference after the capture of Seoul, he threatened to cross the 38th Parallel, drink the Yalu River, and completely eliminate the Korean People's Army. As we all know, MacArthur is famous for his proficiency in amphibious landing operations, and his invention of the "frog jumping tactic" has made him invincible in The Pacific Island Operations. So MacArthur proposed the long-brewed Plan for the Landing of Wonsan at the military conference. The goal of the Wonsan landing was to make the US Tenth Army land at Wonsan Port on the east coast of Korea and completely cut off the retreat route of the Korean People's Army, and the US Eighth Army crossed the 38th Line and launched an attack along the kaesong, Shari-in, and Pyongyang lines, forming a pincer-shaped offensive of east-west attacks, and recreating the glory of the Inchon Landing Battle.
As soon as this plan came out, it was strongly opposed by the commander of the US Eighth Army, Walker. The reason was that the First Army of South Korea was rapidly attacking north along the east coast of North Korea and could soon capture Wonsan. Second, the US Eighth Army counterattacked all the way from Busan to the vicinity of the 38th Line, and it was in urgent need of rest, and if the Tenth Army was transferred and the Eighth Army pursued alone, the speed of the attack would inevitably slow down. Third, the Tenth Army withdrew from the front line to Incheon to board the ship, bypassed the Korean Peninsula by sea and landed at Wonsan, it is very likely that the whole army has not yet reached Wonsan, the South Korean First Army has already conquered Wonsan, the Korean People's Army has long jumped out of the encirclement, and the Wonsan landing battle has become meaningless.
Although Walker's reasons were strong, MacArthur had very different ideas than Walker's. There is a big difference between the way of the general and the way of the two to think about the war. With the rapid development of the Korean War situation, the front line and supply line were gradually lengthened. The so-called "misfortune and blessing, blessing and misfortune", the port of Incheon, which originally made MacArthur infinitely glorious, became the key to hindering the momentum of his attack. The geographical disadvantage of the port of Incheon mentioned earlier caused it to unload only 5,000 tons per day, which was simply not enough to maintain the supply of the US Tenth Army and the Eighth Army at the same time, and the railway from Busan Port to Seoul, the largest port in southern Korea, had been severely damaged. The key to fighting a war is logistics, and the key to the strength of the US military is the amazing material consumption and continuous logistical support. As commander-in-chief of the three services, MacArthur was eager to establish a new supply port on the east coast of North Korea to maintain a strong U.S. offensive. Although this plan was still strongly opposed by his colleagues and subordinates, MacArthur, who had the aura of the god of war at this time, could not listen to any objections.
■ Incheon Port full of supplies
The U.S. Tenth Army, which was pursuing the Korean People's Army on the front line, received the order to land at Wonsan and had to stop and turn around and return to Inchon to prepare for boarding. At this time, the port of Incheon, as a transit station for the logistics materials of more than 100,000 troops of the United Nations Army, was already in a state of overloaded work, and suddenly had to face the task of transporting the Tenth Army to board the ship, and the two could not be coordinated at all. MacArthur could only suspend the materiel supply mission to the United Nations army and complete the task of boarding the ship of the Tenth Army. Even so, the capacity was only enough for the First Marine Division of the Tenth Army to board the ship first, and the Seventh Infantry Division under the Tenth Army was ordered to go to Busan, more than 300 kilometers from Inchon, to board the ship. The entire Tenth Army was divided into two groups in a chaotic situation, and marched to the direction of Wonsan to assemble. However, when the 1st Marine Division arrived at the waters near Wonsan Port first, it found that the sea surface was full of mines.
Wonsan Port is the largest port in eastern Korea and a transportation hub to the interior of North Korea, and has an extremely important strategic position. At the beginning of the Korean War, the North Korean side predicted that U.S. troops might land here, and in early September 1950, under the guidance of Soviet advisers, laid a minefield of 400 square kilometers outside the port of Wonsan, with more than 3,000 Soviet mines. At the same time, coastal defense shore guns were built on the islands outside the port, and anti-landing positions with mines in the harbor and guns outside the port were built.
■ Cross-sectional structure of Soviet triggered mines
After destroying the coastal defense artillery positions, the U.S. military began demining operations on October 10. In the process of clearing mines, the U.S. military found that the mines laid outside wonsan port not only had ordinary trigger mines, but also Soviet-supported magnetic mines. Ordinary trigger mines are connected to a large anchor by means of an iron cable, floating in the water, and exploding by means of antennae fuses. The U.S. military can successfully clear mines by using minesweepers and aircraft to drop bombs to detonate mines. The working principle of magnetic mines is that the magnetic needle is rotated by the magnetic field of the ship, and the explosion circuit is connected to explode. After the magnetic device is set, it can explode after multiple ships pass through the magnetic field, which greatly improves the concealment of magnetic mines. Therefore, the minesweeper must constantly travel to and from the same area to identify a safe area. Slow demining progress necessitated MacArthur sending 1,200 soldiers and 46 minesweepers from the Japanese to assist in the battle.
■ Magnetic mines work
■Sketch of the Motoyama Port Demining Plan drawn by the Japanese Minesweeper Fleet
On the night of October 25, the U.S. military cleared a safe channel outside the port of Wonsan at the cost of damaging more than 10 minesweepers and killing more than 200 officers and men. During the 15 days of U.S. mine clearance operations, the First Marine Division had been awkwardly floating in the Japanese sea. When the 1st Marine Division finally set foot on Wonsan, what awaited them was not the main force of the Korean Army, but the 3rd and Capital Divisions of the ROK Army, which had occupied Wonsan 17 days earlier. All this was unfortunately told by Walker, and the Battle of Wonsan turned into a labor-wounding and meaningless operation. The 7th Division, on the other hand, took a bumpy ride from Seoul to Busan to board the ship, completing the landing of all equipment and personnel in Leewon on November 9. At this point, the entire 10th Army drifted at sea for nearly a month before it all landed and assembled, and sailed to their last stop in northern Korea, ending at Chosin Lake!
On the same day that the First Marine Division landed at Wonsan Port, our heroic Chinese Volunteer Army officially launched the first campaign to resist the United States and aid Korea, and the officers of our 13th Corps attacked the US Eighth Army on the battlefield of the Western Front of Korea. At the same time, the officers and men of the 20th Army, 26th Army, and 27th Army under the Ninth Corps have set off from Shandong and boarded the train to the northeast. Just as the U.S. Seventh Division landed in Riwon on November 9, the Ninth Corps had entered Korea from the Eastern Front and headed for the Chosin Lake area. On November 17, the 20th Army advanced into the Liutanli area. On November 21, the 27th Army reached the Old Jinli area and the 26th Army reached the Changkou area. By this time, our Ninth Corps had completed the encirclement of the Chosin Lake area. After landing, the US Tenth Army was heading north, into the Chosin Lake area, and thoroughly penetrated into the tianluo net that the volunteer army had already laid for them.
■ Stills from the movie "Chosin Lake": The Ninth Corps boarded the train and secretly entered the DPRK to fight
Time on the battlefield as a factor in victory or defeat can not be overestimated, and MacArthur's wrong command caused the US Tenth Army to delay for 1 month on the way to attack Korea for various reasons. And our heroic People's Volunteer Army overcame all kinds of difficulties on the battlefield, risked the enemy planes in the sky to bomb at any time, and even braved the cold of minus 40 degrees Celsius in the Chosin Lake area, and the hidden rush of people not removing their armor and horses without leaving their saddles. This back and forth made the negative number of time occupied by my Ninth Corps suddenly become a positive number, and we used two legs to outperform the four wheels of the American army and complete the division and encirclement of the US Tenth Army.
On the night of November 27, the Battle of Chosin Lake began. The First and Seventh Marine Divisions were divided and surrounded by the Ninth Corps. On November 30, Almond, commander of the U.S. Tenth Army, issued an order to retreat south, and the U.S. army frantically retreated towards Xingnan Port with its strong firepower superiority and industrial strength. On December 24, Christmas Eve, the last US military transport ship was evacuated from Xingnan Port, and the Second Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea came to an end. In this battle, the Chinese Volunteers, with their iron will, overcame unimaginable difficulties for ordinary people, repelled the most elite 1st Marine Division, the 7th Infantry Division and other ace units of the US Army, and completely shattered MacArthur's dream of ending the war before Christmas and letting the soldiers go home.
■ Stills from the movie "Chosin Lake": The Ninth Corps launches a general offensive
The U.S. troops in the Battle of Chosin Lake floated back and forth in front of the Sea of Japan for a month, and were driven back to sea less than two months after landing. And many of them, as MacArthur said, ended the war before Christmas and went back to their hometown forever...