Since its release, the film "Chosin Lake" on the theme of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea has exploded in word of mouth, telling the touching story of a company of volunteers who held their positions in an extremely cold environment and bravely killed the enemy and made outstanding contributions to the victory of the Battle of Chosin Lake. So, what was the real situation at the Battle of Chosin Lake? Recently, the documentary work "Bloody Battle at Chosin Lake" launched by the Modern Publishing House was compiled by writers He Chuwu, Feng Ming, and Lu Hongyu interviewing veterans of the Volunteer Army to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and compiling it on the basis of the US military's recollection materials.
Chosin Lake, the largest artificial water storage lake in northern Korea, is located on the east side of the Wolf Forest Mountains, frozen in snow all year round, almost unknown to outsiders, but a major battle on the eastern front of the Korean battlefield in November 1950 made Chosin Lake a household name.
Some historians said that the Battle of Chosin Lake was an inflection point in history and a decisive battle in which the ace forces of China and the United States changed the course of history. Regardless of whether the Battle of Chosin Lake was an inflection point or not, and whether it changed the course of history, the situation at that time was clear: The US Tenth Army was attacking and advancing toward the Chosin Lake area, intending to capture the border of the provisional capital of the DPRK, Jiangjie, and then turned westward to cover the rear road of the volunteer army on the western front; and the purpose of the Ninth Corps of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army to enter the DPRK in an emergency was to thwart the strategic intention of the US military and save the dangerous situation in which the Korean People's Army was encircled.
The Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army, dressed in thin cotton coats, engaged in a 28-day battle with the U.S. First Marine Division in the severe cold of nearly minus 40 degrees Celsius in the Chosin Lake area. The brutality of the battle exceeded the imagination of all the participants, and the battle of weapons and tactics eventually turned into a desperate struggle of willpower on both sides. The tenacity and combat effectiveness of the Chinese army shocked the world, and the strategic attempt of the US military could not be achieved, and finally had to retreat in a panic.
The team of authors of "Blood Battle of Chosin Lake" lasted more than two years, visiting 28 veterans of the volunteer army living all over the country, and also interviewing command organs at all levels and researchers of military science who participated in the war. Most of them were the parties of the 20th, 26th, and 27th Armies of the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army who participated in the Battle of Chosin Lake, including combat heroes and commanders in the line of fire, as well as senior commanders and staff officers involved in strategic decision-making. They are the only remaining witnesses of history, telling rich battlefield details. At the same time, the book also uses a lot of oral materials from the US military and other foreign forces, which is very valuable.
Overall, the book "Blood Battle at Chosin Lake" has both a grand narrative and a microscopic interpretation, such as some volunteer soldiers who have also experienced the psychological process of light enemy, fear of the enemy, and then to the same enemy against the US army; it also includes the interpretation of the details of the equipment, establishment, logistics and supply of the Chinese and American armies.
In order to avoid the shelling of the American army, the volunteer soldiers crawled forward in the snow
In the Battle of Chosin Lake, the Pratunam Bridge was the "bridge" that determined the victory or defeat of both sides in the battle. The bridge is located 6 kilometers south of Kotori on Chosin Lake and is a necessary route for the U.S. military to retreat. "Blood Battle of Chosin Lake" records such a historical fact: On December 8, before passing through the Watergate Bridge, the FIRST Marine Division of the US Army, fearing an ambush, sent the vanguard troops to conduct reconnaissance, and when the American soldiers touched the top of the mountain, they saw: On the high ground near the Watergate Bridge, the officers and men of a company of the Volunteer Army scattered in a battle formation, lying in the snow, everyone was holding a weapon and staring ahead, no one was backwards, and all of them froze to death on the mountain. In this company of more than 100 people, the survivors were merely a fallen soldier and a messenger who delivered orders. Looking at the history of world wars, only China, and only Chinese military personnel, have such a fighting spirit. Years later, Chi Haotian, a participant in the Battle of Chosin Lake and former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and minister of national defense, recalled his comrades who froze to death: The soldiers' eyes were very large, their faces were full of ice, and their faces were very peaceful after icing. It is true that I have never seen such a scene, and I have never seen so many people freeze to death at one time. When the volunteer pursuers arrived at the Watergate Bridge, they witnessed the tragic scene of their comrades-in-arms. Among the soldiers who froze to death, there was a soldier from Shanghai named Song Amao, who found a piece of paper in his jacket pocket and wrote the following passage: I love my relatives and the motherland, I love my honor even more, I am a glorious volunteer soldier, ice and snow! I will never succumb to you, even if I freeze to death, I will stand proudly on my position.
▲ A card found on the body of the martyr Song Amao
After the war, the U.S. military translated a summary of the war in the Eastern Front of Korea by the Chinese Twenty-seventh Army, which included the following narrative: insufficient food and living equipment, soldiers could not stand the cold, and more than 10,000 non-combat personnel were reduced. The inability of weapons to be used effectively is also one of the reasons. But even so, in the battle on the Eastern Front, the most elite Marine Division of the United States Marine Corps, was still devastated by the Chinese army, which had forced it to make a massive retreat on the Eastern Front. At this point, no one thinks that the Chinese army is a force that can be easily insulted.
In "Blood Battle of Chosin Lake", it is written that the volunteer soldiers did not seem to care about the blazing fire net of the American army, the first wave fell, the second wave crossed the corpse, and the third and fourth groups continued to advance. They were not afraid of death and insisted on fighting to the last man. The American officers and men across from them were also amazed at their bravery, but they were also very frightened. What is the source of this brave fighting spirit and stoicism of this army? That's probably not simply coercion and command. Probably because of faith in communism, hatred of imperialism, conviction that the war now being waged is a "just war", all of this has penetrated into the psyche of the officers and men of this army, no, perhaps into their marrow.
▲ In the ice and snow weather, the volunteer army rushed to the battlefield to block the enemy
Fighting under the harsh climatic conditions of Chosin Lake, why were the volunteers able to confront the world's elite troops in the absence of their own logistics, poor communications, and insufficient firepower to attack fortifications? If there is any difference in the combat ability between the two sides, there are actually only two very abstract terms, that is, tenacity and sacrifice.
Sansho-ri is a small mountain village surrounded by mountains and rivers, and a north-south road runs through here to Pyongyang, which is a "floodgate" for the "United Nations Army" on the western front to go north to south. The Chinese army immediately entered the position, and the commander of the 113rd Division of the Chinese 38th Army found that there was another road running from north to south west of Sansoli, and immediately sent 1 regiment to seize the town of Longyuanli in the middle of the road. At this point, the middle road of the US military fleeing south has been cut off. Because the US military is a mechanized unit and can only rely on the road to march, cutting off the road is equivalent to choking the throat of the US army. The US army also desperately retreated, its Eighth Army retreated in its entirety, and the main force of the US Ninth Army was all blocked on the road from Price River to Shunchuan, and Sansoli and Longyuanli were the only way to go. The US military concentrated unprecedented heavy artillery fire to bombard the Chinese army positions, and hundreds of aircraft of the US Far East Air Force also flew to take turns bombing. "Blood Battle of Changjin Lake" also records the tragic scene: the 338th Regiment of the 113rd Division was in Sanshouli, the 337th Regiment was in Longyuanli, and the 335th Regiment was in Songkuofeng, and the positions of the Chinese army were caught in a sea of fire, and the US army believed that there could no longer be living creatures there. When the US troops rushed up to seize the position, the Chinese soldiers jumped up in the sea of fire, fiercely shooting and dropping bombs, and beat the US troops down. The anxious AMERICAN troops, contrary to the usual love for the lives of soldiers, also launched a charge of the entire company and battalion, and stormed the positions of the Chinese army regardless of casualties. At this time, the 1st Cavalry Division guarding Shuncheon also sent troops and a part of the Turkish Brigade to attack from the south, trying to open the gap and meet the main American force. The Chinese army blocked the US army to the north and south, repelled the US attack again and again, and the battle was fierce. When the volunteer soldiers finished their bullets, they smashed them with stones, and when the stones were gone, they took bayonets and rushed out of the position with sapper shovels to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the American troops. Soldiers on both sides stabbed and stabbed, dug their ears and cut their eyes, bit their teeth when they had nothing left, and some of them held together and burned them together. The US Second Division exerted all its strength but still could not capture the position, and the recently besieged US troops could already see the white star emblem on the tanks of the Mounted First Division that went north to rescue, but these hundreds of meters never rushed over.
At that time, Yang Yang Yonghui, deputy of the Thirty-eighth Army of the Volunteer Army, climbed the mountain, and the scene in front of him made him feel thrilled after decades of conquest: "I stood on a high place, looking south, the cold moon and the cold stars reflected in the battlefield, the explosions of thunder tore through the sky, 'rumbling, rumbling' continuously. On the tens of kilometers of the front, strings of tracer bombs, flares, and signal flares intertwined and flew in the air, and the screams of artillery shells, the muffled explosions emitted by grenades, explosive canisters, and explosive packs echoed endlessly in the canyon. The fierce battle between the enemy and us along the highway was a majestic and magnificent scene that I had never seen in decades. The enemy's abandoned artillery, tanks, armored vehicles, and cars of all sizes stretched endlessly and could not be seen at a glance. Everywhere were scattered documents, papers, photographs, artillery shells, American flags, puppet army gossip flags, and other military supplies..."
▲ When the volunteers cleaned the battlefield, the soldiers captured an American soldier
Under the onslaught of the Chinese army, the "United Nations Army" struggled to support it, and the will to fight finally collapsed, and the whole army showed a great defeat.
Colonel Bowser, chief of operations of the U.S. First Marine Division, once said in a memoir: "I believe that the icy and snowy land of Chosin Lake and the fierce attack of the Chinese army regardless of casualties are a nightmare that will never linger in the hearts of every Marine." The U.S. 1st Marine Division suffered an unprecedented heavy blow at the Battle of Chosin Lake. According to the data released by the United States, in this battle, the US military suffered more than 7,000 casualties, of which more than 2,500 were killed or missing, and 7,300 were frostbitten.
▲ Stills from the movie "Chosin Lake"
War is brutal. In September 1952, the Ninth Corps returned from Korea to china, driving along the Yalu River, the commander Song Shilun asked the driver to stop, get out of the car and stand silently in the direction of Chosin Lake for a long time, and then took off his hat and bent down and bowed deeply. When he looked up, the guards noticed that the gray-haired general was in tears and unable to hold himself.
Let us remember these brave and fearless soldiers, remember Chosin Lake, and remember the history that should not be forgotten. (Readers' Daily All-Media Reporter He Jian)
Editor: Wang Xin Responsible Editor: Dong Xiaoyue Review: Zhou Hua