When we discuss the loss of troops in war, we usually say what the casualties are, but in fact there is a lot of learning here.
An army calculates the number of casualties in combat based on attrition, both combat attrition and non-combat attrition. Among the combat attritions were the dead, wounded, captured and missing.
Conversely, if the outcome of a battle is calculated, it is usually measured by how many kills, how many wounds, and how many prisoners are taken.
Generally speaking, the ratio of casualties to casualties in battle is 1 to 3, and the number of prisoners is more knowledgeable. If it is in a war of attrition, then the number of prisoners captured will be relatively small, but if there is a siege and annihilation war, then the number of prisoners will be relatively much higher.
If we know this principle, we will understand a lot if we read some war reports.
For example, some people say that 9,000 enemy troops were killed, then behind this number is not to make the enemy lose 9,000 people in combat, there are at least 20,000 wounded and wounded behind these 9,000 people, then the total combat losses of the enemy army are at least more than 30,000 people, and the combat attrition of more than 30,000 people often means that the troops of 100,000 people have lost their combat effectiveness.
If we combine the scale of the opposing force's participation in the battle, then we will understand whether this kind of war report claim is reliable in the end.
In war, commanders must have a clear idea of the strength and losses of their own troops, and they must also have a strong ability to analyze and judge the number of battle reports compiled by subordinate units.
However, many army war reports will deliberately exaggerate the number of enemy losses, which actually causes great trouble to the commander's decision-making.
Typical examples are the national army, all levels of the national army have the habit of exaggerating the results of the war, and it is really possible to read the propaganda war report as a real war report, which is no wonder that it does not suffer losses in the course of combat.
For example, in the Shandong Battlefield in 1947, the main force of the southern front of the Nationalist Army claimed to have "wiped out" 16 brigades of our army in Linyi, and the East China Liberation Army had been "severely damaged."
In this context, the old Jiang Yan ordered the Li Xianzhou group on the northern front to quickly move south.
Wang Yaowu naturally knew that the so-called 16 brigades of the southern front "annihilated the enemy" were nonsense, and Wang Yaowu felt that something was not quite right, but instead ordered Li Xianzhou to shrink.
Old Jiang doesn't do this, you shrink, how can you do it in a battle?
Therefore, old Jiang strictly ordered: Wu Xi followed the instructions to send troops to Xintai and Laiwu. The cities of Xinxin and Lai each have the strength of an army, and the enemy is powerless to attack, and the enemy is coming to attack, which is just suitable for our hopes. Moreover, Old Jiang did not forget to say in the end: Do not miss this good opportunity!
As a result, two elite armies of Li Xianzhou's group, plus a division of the 12th Army, were annihilated in Laiwu in just three days by the "already severely damaged" East China troops, of which more than 10,000 were killed and wounded, and more than 45,000 were captured.
Afterwards, Wang Yaowu broke his mouth and scolded: More than 50,000 people will be wiped out in three days, that is, 50,000 pigs will be released for the communist army to arrest, and they will not be able to catch them in three days.
Wang Yaowu scolded Li Xianzhou here, and old Jiang came to Jinan to scold Wang Yaowu:
You have only lost two corps and another division in the battle of Laiwu, lost so many light and heavy weapons, and increased the strength of the enemy, and this battle will be even more difficult to fight in the future. Such a failure is a shame. Since Laiwu is already under siege, why do you want to retreat? You cannot blame such a big loss.
The generals you selected this time are also inappropriate, and Li Xianzhou's command ability is poor, don't you know? He didn't even send a defender when he retreated, what kind of deployment was this? Why did you send him to command? If you send someone with good ability to command, you will not fail.
You see, old Chiang Kai-shek generally asked others for trouble after the war, so he didn't want to think about what the fake war report that "annihilated" 16 brigades was all about? Why do you believe it?
This is a negative example, and we will talk about the positive example of the Shandong battlefield, that is, the Battle of Menglianggu.
The Battle of Menglianggu was "the first rank of a general in a million troops", and in May 1947, the reorganized 74th Division, the most effective of the Nationalist army, was completely annihilated.
In the Battle of Menglianggu, the main battle was over by the afternoon of 16 May, when the mountain rain was coming, the clouds were thick, visibility was low, and the gunfire was rare, and all columns reported to the command post that the battle was over.
However, the former commander of the East China Field Army still found that there were enemy radio activities in the Menglianggu area, and immediately and strictly ordered all departments to quickly check the actual number of enemies killed and wounded.
It was found that in the valley between Menglianggu and Jiaowo, there were still about 7,000 remnants of the enemy.
The 4th, 8th, and 9th columns of Huaye were engaged in battle one after another, and by 5 p.m., they had cleared all the remnants of the enemy.
If it is said that the number of annihilated enemies reported by the various departments is not accurate, and it is thought that they will be withdrawn directly after the battle is over, then the 7,000 remnants of the army will be withdrawn, and the theory of the 74th Division of the whole annihilation and reorganization will not be established.
If the Nationalist army rebuilt the troops with these 7,000 remnants and the wounded veterans of the original reorganized 74th Division, it would still have relatively strong combat effectiveness.
Therefore, it is very important to summarize the war reports in wartime, especially since it has been decided to fight the integrated 74th Division, it must be completely annihilated, otherwise it will be a big trouble.
Why? Let's also analyze it from the number of casualties mentioned at the beginning.
In the Battle of Menglianggu, our army's battle report was to kill and wound more than 13,000 enemy and capture more than 19,000 enemy, including more than 8,000 results in fighting other enemy units, and the rest was the results of the battle against the reorganized 74th Division. Since the number of prisoners in blockade operations is usually small, the proportion of the integrated 74th Division will be even higher in the actual number of prisoners.
Battles like this, where the number of prisoners exceed the number of casualties, can generally only be fought in the encirclement and annihilation war, and if it is a war of attrition, then the number of casualties is much greater than the number of prisoners.
Before the reorganization of the 74th Division, there were victories and losses with each other, and its casualties and losses were more than 10,000 people.
At this time, the reorganized 74th Division was in its own hands, and the wounded were all in their own hands, among which, in addition to those who could not serve due to injury, there were many wounded who could return to the army after recovering from their wounds.
Because these wounded veterans have combat experience with our army, after returning to the unit, they are often able to play the role of backbone, and it is even more difficult to fight again.
If the reorganized 74th Division had withdrawn at that time to rest and replenish new recruits and returned from wounded veterans, it would have been a fresh force when it came up again. Of course, this situation is not limited to the integrated 74th Division, but also to any Nationalist unit.
Therefore, in the war against the nationalist army at that time, our army should strive to fight a war of annihilation, and it is more cost-effective to fight a war of annihilation against 3,000 people than to fight a war of attrition that kills and injures 5,000 people.
Once the war of annihilation is fought, and the enemy's structure at all levels no longer exists, it is not a matter of replenishing the soldiers to restore combat effectiveness, but having to rebuild the troops.
The reorganized 74th Division was later rebuilt, relying on the wounded veterans of the past as the backbone, and although the combat effectiveness was still OK, it was obviously no longer a first-class main force.
If the 74th Division had not been completely annihilated, its structure at all levels had survived and been restored, it should still have been able to serve as the first-class main force.
For example, our army later planned to annihilate Hu Lian's reorganized 11th Division and Huang Baitao's reorganized 25th Division, but after failing to succeed for various reasons, these units actually became more and more slippery and more difficult to fight, and finally did not completely annihilate until the Battle of Huaihai in 1948.
And we also have to pay attention to one point, that is, in the battle at that time, in fact, the number of casualties on both sides in the battle link is not much different, if the enemy army is not completely annihilated, then the battle loss ratio is difficult to open, and the enemy's subsequent recovery is easier.
However, if it is a siege and annihilation war, if the enemy is crushed in one fell swoop, the casualties in the final capture of prisoners may not even reach one-tenth of the total casualties, which can greatly expand the ratio of battle losses.
For example, in the Battle of Menglianggu mentioned above, our army actually killed and wounded more than 13,000 enemy troops, and its own casualties were more than 12,000, which is actually not much different. But our army has taken more than 19,000 prisoners, and the nationalist army cannot capture our prisoners.
Moreover, of the more than 12,000 people reduced by our army, 9,300 were wounded, and a large part of them could return to the team after recovering from injuries, and the irreparable war losses would be relatively small.
The Nationalist army lost the entire reorganized 74th Division, tens of thousands of people had to rebuild their combat strength, and a large number of captured officers and men of the Nationalist army became liberation fighters, which made our army's strength rise without falling.
In the aforementioned Battle of Laiwu, our army killed and wounded more than 10,000 enemy soldiers, but captured more than 45,000 prisoners, and there were tens of thousands of liberation fighters alone. In the Battle of Menglianggu, there were many soldiers who had been liberated from Laiwu who made meritorious contributions.
To sum up, since it has been decided to fight the reorganized 74th Division, the strongest combat strength of the nationalist army, it must be completely annihilated, otherwise this bite will not be able to continue, and it will be even more difficult to deal with after it recovers its strength. At the same time, the attrition of the combat and the situation of war reports mentioned here can also help you to learn more details about the war.