The battle of the heroes of the Volunteer Army continues: "Chosin Lake's Water Gate Bridge" was officially announced today

Today, the movie "Chosin Lake No Shui Mun Bridge" released a pilot poster, telling that after the battle between Xinxingli and Hagaru-ri, the soldiers of the Seventh Interspersed Company will have to fight with each other again at the throat of the US retreat route, the Watergate Bridge.

The Pratunam Bridge is located 5.6 km south of Guturi and is built between two mountains. Although the span of the bridge is only 8.8 meters, it is a cliff below, so it is the only bridge that can pass vehicles and personnel, and it is also the bridge that the US 1st Marine Division escaped from the Chosin Lake area and retreated south to Zhenxingli.

On the evening of December 6, 1950, Jiang Qingyun led dozens of people to the vicinity of the Watergate Bridge in the dark.

Jiang Qingyun, commander of the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion, 240th Regiment, 80th Division, 27th Army, Chinese Volunteer Army. Behind him was an infantry platoon of the 27th Company and a heavy machine gun squad.

Each of them was wearing a cotton jacket, and the white cotton jacket was covered on the outside, which was difficult to be found in the vast snow. Each of them carried a few kilograms of explosives because they were a "death squad" with only one goal: to blow up the Watergate Bridge.

It should be said that it is to blow up the Watergate Bridge for the third time.

On December 1, after the Volunteers blew up the Pratunam Bridge for the first time, it was believed that with the climatic conditions and the degree of damage to the bridge deck at that time, the U.S. Army could not repair the bridge for 10 days and half a month - by that time, the First Marine Division would have been annihilated long ago.

However, they watched as the U.S. military used some modern equipment they had never seen before, and soon repaired the Watergate Bridge.

On December 4, the Volunteers successfully blew up the Pratunam Bridge for the second time, and this time some of the materials that could be used to build the bridge near the bridge were also blown up. At that time, the volunteers thought there should be no more problems.

It didn't take long, however, for them to watch again as the U.S. engineering battalion repaired the bridge deck again, and it was a hybrid steel-and-wood structure—after repairing it, the U.S. tanks rumbled unharmed from above.

On December 6, Jiang Qingyun received the task: at all costs, he must blow up the Watergate Bridge again.

Many years later, Jiang Qingyun recalled the tragic battle scene of that night, and still sighed: "When the enemy fired a shuttle of machine guns, we fell here with 7 people, four of whom were killed and three were injured..."

But the comrades did not hesitate in the slightest, and still desperately rushed in the direction of the bridge.

During the battle, Jiang Qingyun himself was shot twice and was seriously injured. He said that at that time, he still wanted to rush forward, but the blood flowed too much and he couldn't move: "As soon as a person bleeds, he has no strength and can't rush..."

However, Jiang Qingyun's comrades-in-arms still completed the task: this time, they not only blew up the bridge deck of the Watergate Bridge, but also blew up the bridge foundation.

During the day the next day, a deputy division commander of the 58th Division of the 20th Army of the Volunteer Army personally observed the effect of the explosion and believed that according to the degree of damage to the Watergate Bridge, it would take at least half a year for the US army to repair it.

Therefore, he reported to his superiors with confidence: the bridge had been completely blown up, and the First Marine Division could not run.

However, at that time, the US military had a strong air transport force, and 8 US C-119 large transport aircraft airdropped 8 sets of M-2 steel beams and repaired the Watergate Bridge overnight.

After the war, Zhang Yixiang, commander of the 20th Army of the Chinese Volunteer Army, once said such a sentence: "At the Shuimen Bridge, even if you give me a heavy artillery, there will be one, and the First Marine Division will not be able to run!" ”

EDIT: Wei Zhong