Speaking of the Battle of Chosin Lake, someone always took out a big hat and buckled it: 150,000 volunteers could not eat more than 20,000 people in the First Division of the Land War, and let people retreat. It was as if the volunteer soldiers who climbed the ice and snow and lacked food and clothing were guilty of not having merit. What were the casualties of the First Marine Division in this battle?
The First Marine Division, waiting in the heavy snow of Lake Chosin, wore thickened down suits
Regarding the comparison of troop strength, it may be a major misunderstanding of many people's understanding of the Battle of Chosin Lake, and they always believe that the volunteer army is in an absolute superiority in terms of strength. This is not the case at all. The 20th, 26th, and 27th armies of the 9th Corps are all four-four systems, each army is 50,000 people, and the entire corps is about 150,000 people.
However, the coalition forces in the Chosin Lake area were not only the US 1st Marine Division, but the US 10th Army. The corps has jurisdiction over the 1st Marine Division, the 7th Infantry Division, the 3rd Infantry Division, the Puppet Capital Division and the 3rd Division, and the British Marine Corps Contingent, with a total strength of more than 100,000 people. In addition, the US military also dispatched 13 aircraft carriers such as the Bataan and the Valley Forge to support the operation.
The U.S. Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Antittan is supporting operations on Chosin Lake
In terms of troop deployment, the 26th Army could not reach the battlefield in time when the battle broke out due to transportation reasons, so when the 9th Corps launched an offensive on November 27, it was actually 7 divisions of the 20th and 27th Armies (owed to the 94th Division). In this way, the volunteer army not only did not have superiority in firepower, mobility, and logistics, but also did not have superiority in troop strength.
Fortunately, Almond was not a good commander, and he was blind and impatient, dividing the 10th Army of 100,000 troops into five routes: the pseudo-capital division and the 3rd Division, marching along the east coast to the border; the 17th and 32nd regiments of the US 7th Division (owed 2 battalions) as one way, and marching through Dafeng to Huishan. The 31st Regiment Battle Group of the US 7th Division (reinforced with the 2nd Battalion of the 32nd Regiment, the British Marine Corps, and the 187th Airborne Regiment) marched along the east of Chosin Lake to Xinxingli; the 1st Marine Division marched all the way along the west of Chosin Lake; and the US 3rd Division remained on the first line of Hingnam Hamhung.
As MacArthur's hardcore minor follower, Almont (first from right) is not very good at command
From this deployment, it can be seen that the US military is extremely dispersed, creating opportunities for the volunteer army to break through. Despite the superiority of local troops, the volunteers were still quite cautious, and they did not choose to attack on all sides, nor did they sit on the ground, but directly let go of the first, second and fifth roads, and decided to eat the 31st Regiment of the US 7th Division and the 1st Marine Division on both sides of Chosin Lake.
The specific division of labor is the 20th Army against the 1st Marine Division, and the 27th Army against the 7st Division and the 31st Regiment Battle Group. The final result was that the 31st Regiment Battle Group was largely annihilated, the regimental commander McLean and Lieutenant Colonel Feith, who had taken over the command, were killed, the regimental flag was captured, and the First Marine Division escaped.
The First Marine Division was bombarding volunteer positions, and they had absolute firepower superiority
The history of the 1st Marine Division records that the division fought in the Chosin Lake area (as of December 6) and suffered 604 casualties, 3508 wounded, and 7313 frostbite. Of the wounded, 114 died of their wounds, most of the frostbitten returned to the team and participated in the subsequent breakout operation, and finally 18,000 people successfully boarded the ship at Xingnan Port and escaped.
Seeing this result, it is really dumb to laugh. A major battle-level operation that ended in 604 casualties? An ace division of 25,000 people was killed by 600 people, like a widow, panicked, desperate to escape? In order to render this "epic breakthrough" operation, the battle history of the First Marine Division records that after six days and five nights of bloody fighting, the First Marine Division finally got rid of the about 1,500 Chinese soldiers who had been chasing it and began to break through to the south.
U.S. military H13 helicopters at Chosin Lake transported the wounded to the rear
18,000 U.S. soldiers who had a full stomach, sat in cars, and had the cover of aircraft and tanks were carried by 1,500 hungry, cold, 60% of the mortar shells could not be beaten because of the cold, and there were no cars and only two legs to run for 6 days without fighting back? I'm afraid fools won't believe it either.
If the number of deaths is concealed, then the number of injuries is also inconsistent. The airstrip in Shimogaru-ri was built at the insistence of Commander Smith, and it turned out that this airfield later played a huge role. When introducing the airfield, the Marine Corps war wrote: The U.S. army airlifted 4468 wounded from here, including 1160 wounded of the 7th Infantry Division, the British army and the puppet army, and 3308 wounded of the 1st Marine Division. Of these 3,308 men, 762 wounded were also included in the breakout operation.
The image of the volunteer army in "Ice and Snow Chosin Lake"
If you subtract these 762 men, by December 6, the wounded of the First Marine Division were only 2,546. On this day, the airport also transported 536 lightly wounded people who returned from wounded troops, and if these 536 people were subtracted, the wounded of the First Marine Division before the breakthrough actually became 2010, which was 1498 different from the 3508 people recorded in their own war history.
If the US military has the habit of treating the losses of the personnel of the puppet army as material losses, how can it do the same to its own people? Is there one more word that is credible in the U.S. casualty statistics?