Author: Ocean
On January 8, 1951, the Third Campaign of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea ended. This great war began on December 31, 1950, and although the six armies that had fought continuously were short of food and clothing, numerous wounded and sick, and facing great difficulties in logistical support, they still took Seoul in one fell swoop, which greatly deterred the arrogance of the "coalition forces" and gave ridgway, who had taken office as a new official.
According to Ridgway's recollection, on the morning of New Year's Day, Ridgway, as the "last American to leave Seoul", drove out of the city helplessly from the north of Seoul. Along the way, he saw a scene that he would never forget: South Korean soldiers in cars, fleeing south in an disorderly manner, and many of them discarded their weapons. At that time, Ridgway realized that it was completely impossible to stop these soulless defeated soldiers. In fact, not only the Rok army was defeated, but the armies of the United States, Britain, and other countries were also defeated, but they ran faster with oil on the soles of their feet, and the ROK army was forced to act as cannon fodder and run slower.
According to the "History of the Korean War" written by the South Korean army, when the coalition troops gave up all their heavy artillery and machine guns, they climbed into the truck and fled south, the car was overcrowded, there was no longer a place to stand, many people gave up all their weapons and climbed on the truck, because the number of trucks was limited, if they ran slowly with weapons on their backs, they might be abandoned. This almost crazy escape state was the real scene of the coalition army's escape at that time.
In the wave of escape, there was a person who was reluctant to run, this person was Ridgway, who had rushed to the battlefield on December 26, 1950, and the reason why he arrived here was to replace Walker, who died because of the overturning, as the commander of the Eighth Army. The fundamental reason for this transfer is that the White House is highly dissatisfied with MacArthur, and has decided to let Ridgway take over the position of commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, in order to avoid "promoting too quickly" to affect the morale of the US military, let him fill the vacancy of Walker first, and then choose the opportunity to promote the "coalition" commander-in-chief.
When Ridgway became commander-in-chief of the Eighth Army, he had planned to take advantage of the weakening of the Volunteers' continued combat front and take advantage of the opportunity to launch a counterattack, but the fierce offensive launched by the Volunteers on December 31 surprised him. This U.S. general who graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Army Military Academy is recognized within the U.S. military as a person who is good at meticulous planning, and led the U.S. military to launch the first large-scale night airborne operation in the history of the U.S. military in the battlefield of World War II.
He made a move ahead of time: let the ROK troops be on the front line, while the troops of the United States, Britain and other countries were deployed in the second line. Even if the ROK army expressed dissatisfaction, Ridgway had enough reasons to dismiss it, because the main force of the attack had always been the US army, and the defense work of course had to be shouldered by the ROK army.
At 17:00 on December 31, as more than 100 cannons began firing, the snow-covered wasteland in the dusk burned up again. A few hours before the shelling, Ridgway had just finished his reconnaissance by plane, and in his opinion, it was impossible for the Volunteers to attack at this time, and the U.S. Command did not find that the main force of the Volunteers had secretly arrived at the offensive position. In fact, as early as December 13, more than ten days ago, Beijing had sent a telegram to General Manager Peng, demanding that the volunteer army must fight the 38th Line, which was out of strategic consideration, and hoped that in the process of advancing, it would choose the opportunity to annihilate some of the enemy.
At this time, the 6 corps of the Volunteer Army were actually quite tired after continuous combat, but the opportunity could not be lost. Shiji decided to take the 38th Army, 39th Army, 40th Army, 50th Army, and 6 artillery regiments as the right column, with Han Xianchu in charge of the command. The 42nd Army, the 66th Army, and an artillery regiment formed a left column, commanded by The Commander of the 42nd Army, Wu Ruilin, and three corps of the Korean People's Army also participated in the battle.
With full patriotic enthusiasm and fearless courage, the volunteer soldiers defeated the main first and second divisions of the ROK army in only one day and night, and the ROK general Pak Sun-yeol was forced to abandon the first line of defense, and the commander of the ROK first division was even too tired to have the strength to escape, and was stopped by the US adviser May at the moment of raising his gun to commit suicide. The rout of the ROK army directly exposed the troops of the United States, Britain and other countries to the front line. At this time, Ridgway tried to hold on, when Ridgway personally led his men to stop the fleeing troops, but the fleeing trucks "flashed past me in an unspacing state", a feeling that Ridgway said "had never experienced in his previous military career". In desperation, Ridgway finally decided on January 3 to abandon Seoul.
After Ridgway made the decision to withdraw, it caused strong dissatisfaction from the then President of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, who publicly scolded the US military for not keeping promises, saying that the US military had promised to stay on the peninsula for a long time, but it would be withdrawn in less than a week. In this regard, Ridgway clearly told US Ambassador Mosio and asked him to convey to Syngman Rhee verbatim that it would be best to let the president personally go to the front line to listen to the clarion call of the Chinese army when charging, and see the scene after the collapse of the US position, especially how the ROK army fled like a flock of sheep! In order to ensure that the troops can quickly retreat, the US military top brass asked the troops to maintain order, and any civilians and civilian vehicles that tried to rush through the roads and bridges with the troops could shoot and shoot.
In order not to leave the volunteers with usable strategic military supplies, the U.S. army made a rare use of "scorched earth tactics", and before withdrawing from Seoul, ordered the complete destruction of airfields in Seoul, Inchon, and Gimpo with gasoline and bombs. Even the schools, hospitals, libraries and museums in Seoul were destroyed to some extent, and some grain depots and thatched huts were burned. A British Reuters reporter who followed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Seoul wrote in the report: Even 50 miles south of the city, fireworks caused by burning can be seen.
Moreover, at the critical moment of the retreat, the US military exposed their true thinking, not that they "will not leave behind any of their comrades-in-arms." Because the American army retreated too quickly, a main battalion of the British army, a tank squadron and two companies were completely annihilated, becoming another wave of "cannon fodder" after the Rok army. The incident also provoked strong resentment among the British, who publicly accused Washington of saying that "Americans are only concerned with fleeing for their lives and forgetting their friends." In fact, the British side may have thought too much, and the Americans have no friends when they really run for their lives.
On January 8, the third battle ended, and the Chinese and North Korean troops annihilated more than 19,000 enemy troops, including more than 12,000 volunteers, sacrificed more than 5,000 people, and advanced 80 to 100 kilometers on the battlefield with a width of more than 200 kilometers from east to west. This fatigued pursuit battle won the volunteers a period of valuable rest time, and the combat headquarters at all levels took the opportunity to sort out and sum up the combat experience, and the logistics side began to prepare materials again to prepare for the next more difficult battle.
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