In the early morning of June 25, 1950, the fierce roar of guns and tanks broke the tranquility of the 38th Line, and for reunification, ten divisions of the Korean People's Army, under the command of its supreme commander Kim Il Sung, suddenly launched a full-scale attack on South Korea, opening the prelude to the Korean War.
The KPA moved rapidly south
The People's Army, which was fully equipped in the Soviet style, quickly broke through the 38th Line and advanced deep into South Korea with lightning speed, and the South Korean army, which was caught off guard and the US troops who came to reinforcements from Japan and rushed into battle, were for a time beaten by the People's Army and abandoned their armor, and the wolves rushed to the ground, first losing Seoul and then Daejeon, and finally being compressed in a small space at the southernmost tip of the Korean Peninsula, north of Pudasan and east of the Nakdong River.
Schematic map of the progress of the KPA in the early years of the Korean War
Reluctantly, the United States, out of its global strategy, formed the United Nations Army with MacArthur as its commander-in-chief in July of that year and began to further involve in the Korean War. It landed at Inchon on September 15 of that year, forming a pinch attack on the Korean People's Army from behind. The People's Army, which had won successive battles, suffered heavy losses under the attack of the United Nations Army, and routed to the north, and the United Nations army took advantage of the situation to counterattack, not only crossing the 38th Line to the north and occupying Pyongyang, but also burning the flames of war all the way to the border between China and North Korea.
The United Nations Army, led by MacArthur
Proceeding from the long-term interests of the country, the Chinese Communists, who had just emerged from the flames of war and established a new China, decided to form the Chinese People's Volunteer Army to attack Korea to defend their victory gains, and appointed Peng Dehuai, deputy commander-in-chief of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, as commander of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army.
Volunteers crossing the Yalu River
A commander-in-chief of the army who has been fighting for more than twenty years in The Chinese Revolutionary War, and an American general who claims to be the most powerful country in the world and who has participated in two world wars, will stage a summit duel like Mars hitting the earth on the Korean battlefield. Let's start by taking a look at the personal experiences of the two managers in order to get close to their personal worlds:
The great general Peng Dehuai, who had made outstanding achievements in the horizontal sword
Peng Dehuai was born in 1898 in Hunan as a peasant baby, when he was young, he studied private school for two years, most of the time at home to help his parents take care of housework, at the age of 18, he became a soldier in the Xiang Army, and was admitted to the Hunan Daowu Hall in the Xiang Army.
Peng Dehuai during the Xiang Army
After leaving the Lecture Hall, he began to serve as a grassroots officer in the Xiang Army, and participated in the Northern Expedition with the army, during which he was armed with progressive ideas and became a member of the Communist Party of China. After the defeat of the Great Revolution, he led and participated in the Pingjiang Uprising, and led his troops to Jinggangshan to integrate into the revolutionary torrent. He also gradually grew from a Red Army commander to a commander of the Red Army Corps, deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, deputy commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army, and commander of the Northwest Field Army.
Peng Dehuai, deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army
Although he did not smile and was not angry, he was loyal to the party, loved soldiers like a son, and was one of the recognized marshals in our army.
Peng Dehuai, who does not smile
Five-star General MacArthur, who created several U.S. military firsts
MacArthur was born in the United States arkansas Will gate family, genetic influence, he from a young age determined to inherit the father's business, inherit the glory of the father,at the age of 19 he was admitted to the Cradle of the United States General West Point Military Academy, and became one of the best cadets in the school, his graduation results surpassed all seniors, still no one can match.
MacArthur as a young man
During the First World War, he went to Europe with the US "Rainbow Division", because of the proper tactics, command and repeated achievements of his troops in the competition with the German army, he not only won the cross medal symbolizing the honor of the soldiers, but also became the youngest brigadier general in the history of the US army. After the war, he was even more favored by the U.S. government and military, and even became the principal of the United States Military Academy at West Point at a record age. Subsequently, he successively served as the commander of the Third Military Region of the US Military Region and the commander of the US military stationed in the Philippines.
Mark Arthur during World War I
At the beginning of the Pacific War, MacArthur did not resist the Japanese attack, leaving a message of "we will come back" and lost Australia from the Philippines. In the later stages of World War II, he adopted the frog jump tactic to launch a counterattack against the Japanese army, and finally not only accepted Japan's unconditional surrender on behalf of the United States on the Missouri, but also stationed in the Japanese mainland, at this time, he had become a five-star general in the U.S. Army, serving as the commander of the Allied Southwest Pacific Theater, and also became the emperor of Japan.
However, this person has a flamboyant and unruly personality, and at the same time suffers from the common diseases of victors: blind confidence and arrogance. A corn cob cigarette butter and a pair of sunglasses have always been his personality labels, and his every movement seems to be permeated with arrogance emanating from his bones.
Mars hits the earth, and the game is in the three thousand miles
The victory at the Inchon landings immersed MacArthur in the invincibility of the mighty United States, and he ordered the United Nations forces to pursue the retreating People's Army in multiple ways, ignored our government's warning that "once the U.S. army crosses the 38th Line, it will change its neutrality policy", and even announced to the outside world that the war would end within two weeks, and before Christmas, the United Nations army would drink the Yalu River and occupy all of Korea.
All the way north for the United Nations army
In his view, the new China, which has just been founded, is full of devastation and is in ruins, and it will not and cannot send troops to fight abroad at all. The United Nations forces will be invincible all the way to a speedy resolution of the North Korean issue.
However, what MacArthur and the U.S. government did not expect was that the newborn China was no longer the old China that had been poor and weak for a hundred years, and they had the heroic spirit of daring to fight to the end with all the enemies who came to fight to the end, and there was also a powerful army that had been tempered from the flames of war after hundreds of battles, and there was also a battle-hardened and decisive opponent prepared for them, peng Dehuai, the commander of the volunteer army.
Commander Peng Dehuai is with Kim Il Sung
In the protracted revolutionary war, Peng Dehuai accumulated rich experience in war and was comfortable in using strategies and tactics such as luring the enemy to penetrate deeply, detouring between the two wings, dividing and encircling, and breaking through each other. After taking over as commander of the Volunteer Army, he calmly judged the war situation in Korea as a whole, analyzed in detail the military deployment and progress of the United Nations army all the way north, firmly grasped the arrogant and arrogant and blind characteristics of the coalition forces under MacArthur's command, and ordered the first batch of troops entering the DPRK to secretly march into the designated area in a covert posture, and to launch a surprise attack on the enemy without the enemy noticing, catching him off guard.
Volunteer soldiers who entered the Korean War
Therefore, the first batch of 6 armies and 300,000 people of the volunteer army to participate in the war were divided into two fronts, east and west, and the western front, with the 39th and 40th armies advancing from the area of Wenjing and Unsan, seeking opportunities from the front to ambush the invading enemy; the 38th Army and the 42nd Army marched in the direction of Xichuan and Tokugawa, and after winning the battle, they made a large detour along the Cheongcheon River toward Xin'anzhou, cutting off the enemy's rear road. On the eastern front, the remaining troops of the 42nd Army and the first unit of the People's Army organized defense in the area of Huangcaoling and Xiangzhan Ridge; the 50th and 66th Armies were used as strategic reserves.
On October 25, 1950, the 40th Army fired the first shot of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea at Wentong, and after 13 days of fighting, all parts of the volunteer army participated in the battle in Wenjing, Unsan, Huangcaoling and other places, and in the process of meandering and annihilating, annihilated more than 15,000 UN troops, and drove the UN troops who had rushed northward and had everything in sight back to the area south of the Cheongcheon River, thus initially stabilizing the Korean war situation. At this point, the first campaign of the volunteer army to enter the Korean War was over.
The volunteers are fighting
Although MacArthur, who was confronted head-on, felt the pressure brought about by the blockade of the front-line troops, his flamboyant personality and arrogance made him still firmly believe that the Chinese Communists army could not intervene in the Korean War on a large scale, and even if the Chinese army appeared, it would be only the activity of a small group of troops, and as long as the Un Army continued to attack, it would certainly be able to occupy all of Korea as soon as possible.
MacArthur was in North Korea
So he ordered the Air Force to blow up all bridges and crossings from China to North Korea in order to block China's continued replenishment of troops to North Korea or to provide material support to North Korea, and also began to plan a "final offensive" aimed at ending the Korean War by Christmas, increasing the number of troops involved in the war to more than 220,000 people, and without in-depth reconnaissance, he drove all parts of the United Nations army to the east and west lines again in the direction of the Yalu River.
The UN forces are on the way
In view of MacArthur's tactics of using soldiers to eat and not remember to fight, Peng Dehuai immediately began to prepare for the second campaign to enter the DPRK and participate in the war. On the basis of summing up the experience of a battle, he prepared a good scene for Mai Shuai to invite Jun into the urn.
With the addition of the 9th Corps, the total number of troops of our volunteer army into the DPRK has reached more than 380,000, and he ordered all the participating units of our army to adopt the strategy of resisting one after another attack by the enemy, luring the enemy into the deep strategy, and introducing the enemy into the preset battlefield set up by our army on the east and west fronts.
Map of the Second Battle of the Volunteer Army
By November 25, 1950, our army's second campaign against the United Nations army was in full swing, and on the western front, the strength of 6 armies of our army once again sacrificed their flanks to attack and divide the enemy army, detouring to cut off the enemy's retreat, and concentrating the superior forces to break the killer skills. At the same time, all the units exerted their forces to divide and encircle the US 8th Army and the 27th Brigade of the British Army, as well as the 1st, 7th, and 8th Divisions of South Korea, which were lured into the preset battlefield of our army, and annihilated them one by one. On the 29th of the battle, the United Nations Army on the Western Front began to retreat in an all-round way in an attempt to break through, and the various units of our army divided and annihilated the enemy according to the preset plan, especially the 113th Division of the 38th Army, in the battle between Sansoli and Longyuanli, fought wit and stubbornly, and completed the preset combat tasks with excellence, which was called "Long Live army" by Peng Zong after the war. On the eastern front, three corps of our 9th Corps surrounded the 1st and 7th Divisions of the US Marine War at chosin Lake, and fought to the death with the US army under the conditions of backward equipment, insufficient winter clothing, and cold weather.
Under pressure, MacArthur no longer had the arrogance of the past, and on December 3, he reluctantly ordered the whole army to retreat to the entire 38th line. The various units of the Chinese and Dprk armies took advantage of the victory to go south and retake Pyongyang within a few days, and then attacked in all directions, with the iron flow rolling and the peak of the soldiers pointing directly to the 38th line.
9 Corps fighting in the snow and ice
By December 24, our army achieved unexpected results, driving all the United Nations troops south of the 38th Parallel, and reversing the entire Korean war situation. At this point, at the end of the Second Campaign, MacArthur's men were killed, wounded, or captured by our army, including 24,000 of his fellow Americans. Of course, the brutal battle also cost our army nearly 30,000 people.
Un troops were taken prisoner
In the face of successive defeats, MacArthur had to put aside his contempt and arrogance toward our army to re-acquaint himself with the Chinese army and its commander, Peng Dehuai, who even proposed to the U.S. government that the atomic bomb be used against the volunteer army. The United States Government also recognized the seriousness of the problem and had no choice but to resort to diplomatic means to propose a temporary ceasefire between the two sides for negotiations. In fact, it is to use the time of the ceasefire to prepare the military force in order to fight again. Moreover, in accordance with the characteristics of the volunteer army's good at interspersing and roundabout combat, a new defensive line was established south of the 38th Parallel that spanned the east and west of the Korean Peninsula, with a depth of more than 60 kilometers, and consisted of two defensive lines. According to MacArthur, such a defensive line could be attacked and defended. In fact, it was a defensive line that put the South Korean army in front as a cannon helmet, while the United Nations army hid in the back and could slip away at any time.
The UNITED Nations forces are in positions
In order not to leave MacArthur with more respite, senior domestic leaders and Commander Peng Dehuai decided to immediately organize the third campaign to enter the DPRK, which was the first campaign in which our army took the initiative to launch an offensive since its entry into the DPRK, and it was also the first operation since the establishment of the Sino-DPRK Joint Forces Command.
Leader of the Sino-Dprk coalition forces
The third campaign began on the eve of New Year's Day in 1951, the Chinese and North Korean troops closely coordinated with the entire line across the 38th Line, divided and encircled the South Korean army on the enemy's first defensive position, under the powerful offensive of our army, the first line of defense guarded by the South Korean army soon fell apart, MacArthur and his successor Ridgway hurriedly ordered the UN troops to withdraw to the area south of Seoul in turn to re-establish a new defensive line.
The units of the Sino-DPRK coalition army took advantage of the situation to turn into pursuit mode, and as a result, on January 4, 1951, they captured Seoul, and then, with another blow, the troops pushed the front line to the vicinity of the 37th Line or even south, at this time, Peng Dehuai keenly found that the retreat battle commanded by MacArthur seemed to have a bit of the taste of the tactics of "luring the enemy deeper" under the command of MacArthur, coupled with the fact that the logistics supply line of our army was too long, and there was a suspicion that it was impossible to guarantee the needs of the troops, so he decisively ordered the whole army to stop the pursuit, rest on the spot, and make preparations for defensive operations. Thus, the third battle was also concluded with the record of annihilating more than 19,000 enemy troops.
Schematic of the Third Campaign
History will not forget
On April 11, 1951, MacArthur quietly left the Korean battlefield as a defeated general under Peng Dehuai after General Peng stopped his troops and continued to struggle with the blood of how to achieve a final victory in the Korean battlefield.
MacArthur, who was removed from his post and left North Korea
Regardless of the general's 52 years in the U.S. Army, his three battles with General Peng Dehuai on the Korean battlefield ended in his defeat. Some say macArthur was dismissed because he didn't have a good relationship with President Truman, and some blamed all this on his unruly and arrogant, and even after he quietly returned to the United States, he was welcomed like a hero by the American people, but no matter what reason was found, it was difficult to hide the fact that after three rounds of fighting, he retreated 594 kilometers.
Peng Dehuai, who was in a good mood
The victory was not easy to come by; it was not so much a victory for General Peng as it was a victory for the entire Chinese People's Volunteer Army and the entire New China; the officers and men of the Volunteer Army, under the circumstance that their weapons, equipment, and logistical support were far inferior to those of the United Nations Army, gave the arrogant AMERICAN army and its servants a good lesson with their tenacious fighting spirit, strict discipline, and spirit of not being afraid of death, and gave them a lesson that they would never forget for a lifetime. Thousands of volunteer soldiers who have given their precious lives for this purpose will be remembered and remembered forever by future generations.
The people's heroes are immortal!