I didn't expect that there were quite a lot of people reading the little story about the Korean War in the American archives that I wrote two days ago, and I saw that everyone was interested in this, so let's talk about Changjin Lake. In the comments, I saw that some people said: "The US record cannot be trusted, it is all to destroy the prestige of the Chinese and increase the morale of the Americans." When I wrote this, I checked the official information in China.
First of all, the Battle of Changjin Lake is also hyped in the United States, and the Memorial Hall of the United States Marine Corps has a monument to the Battle of Changjin Lake, which is almost a fixed check-in point for the President of South Korea to visit the United States.
And in 1952, before the end of the Korean War, the American film industry filmed a movie depicting the 1st Marine Division of the US Army at Changjin Lake: "Retreat from Hell".
Why would the United States hype up this campaign, because the Americans considered it a great victory.
The reason was that at that time, the 1st Marine Division of the Eastern Front was divided and surrounded by the 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army in the area of Changjin Lake, and it was impossible to retreat by land, and no capable troops could rush over to rescue the division in a short period of time, including Japan and the United States, so the situation was extremely critical, and the American news media thought that the division might be doomed.
President Truman declared a state of emergency, and even went so far as to say that the use of nuclear weapons could not be ruled out. At that time, all Americans watched the radio and read newspapers every day, paying attention to the fate of the 1st Marine Division, which was deeply encircled in the ice and snow of the Far East.
When the 1st Marine Division systematically broke through the encirclement and interception of 160,000 people of the 9th Corps of the Chinese Volunteers, successfully arrived at the port of Hungnam on the east coast, and then conveniently evacuated nearly 100,000 Korean refugees, it was a relief for the Americans, and for the US military, especially the Marine Corps, it was considered a highlight moment in its history. A great victory to remember.
Therefore, the U.S. military awarded a total of 17 Medals of Honor and 70 Navy Crosses for the Battle of Changjin Lake, which is the largest number of medals awarded for a campaign in the history of American warfare.
Compared with the retreat of the US Eighth Army in western Korea during the Second Battle of the Korean Battlefield, the Americans publicized the battle of Changjin Lake more when mentioning the Second Campaign, believing that the First Marine Division, which had already been divided and surrounded, overcame difficulties and finally succeeded in breaking through the encirclement in a structured manner, and also brought back most of the heavy equipment, which was a victory.
In the history of the United States, the Battle of Changjin Lake is commented on as follows: "The 1st Marine Division retreated from the encirclement, took all the equipment that could be used, evacuated the wounded, and broke out of the encirclement in formation. The three corps of the 9th Corps of the Chinese People's Volunteers have lost their combat capability due to losses suffered during their participation in the Changjin Lake operation, and it will take quite a long time to replenish their equipment and reorganize their organization. As a result, the "United Nations Army" avoided the reinforcement of 12 divisions of the Chinese army to the front of the 8th Army at the critical moment when Korea could maintain its foothold or had to give up. US Commander Ridgway also mentioned in his memoirs that they carried out a remarkable retreat under the constant attacks of an absolutely superior enemy.
Next, I will talk in detail about the comparison of the strength of the Ninth Corps and the 1st Marine Division of the United States, and the equipment and supply issues of the Ninth Corps when it entered Korea.
The Ninth Corps was planned to be used to liberate Taiwan, so its troop allocation and equipment were the strongest among the volunteers and even the entire People's Liberation Army at that time.
The three subordinate armies are all 4 divisions. Among them, there are 50,569 people in the 20th Army, equipped with 13,285 rifles, 3,227 submachine guns, 1,021 light machine guns, 152 heavy machine guns, 311 mortars, and 47 rocket launchers; The 26th Army has 48,894 personnel, equipped with 13,504 rifles, 4,353 submachine guns, 932 light machine guns, 209 heavy machine guns, 435 mortars, and 42 rocket launchers; The 27th Army has 50,501 personnel, equipped with 13,448 rifles, 4,413 submachine guns, 1,210 light machine guns, 212 heavy machine guns, 494 mortars, and 68 rocket launchers; The total strength of the Corps is about 150,000.
The 27th Army, the main force of the Ninth Corps, was even more proud at that time, and the slogan before entering the DPRK was:
"A belt of dry food, from the north to the south, a pair of liberation shoes, the liberation of the whole of Korea"
However, due to the fact that the regiment was transferred from East China to the DPRK urgently, the field artillery and howitzers equipped at the corps and division levels could not be transported, and most of them could not enter the DPRK with the troops, which made the gap between the corps and the US army in terms of heavy firepower.
Regarding the issue of clothing, the propaganda in domestic movies is because they urgently went to North Korea and have not yet changed their winter clothes, so the soldiers at the train station took off their cotton coats and threw them on the military trains.
The real situation is that when the 9th Corps went north, the whole army had already changed into new cotton clothes according to the cold protection standards in East China. When passing through Beijing, Corps Commander Song Shilun led some of his generals to the north, and when he passed through Beijing, he asked Xiao Hua, who had fought in the northeast for three years, about keeping warm in the severe cold, and communicated with his superiors many times on the issue of winter clothing.
According to the original plan, the 9th Corps was supposed to make a short stop at Shenyang and Meihekou to replenish the standard warm clothing of the northeast. However, the changes in the battlefield situation on the eastern front of Korea forced the corps to enter the DPRK from Ji'an and Linjiang in advance, resulting in the delay in the transfer of many materials. In order to solve the urgent need, He Jinnian, deputy commander of the Northeast Military Region, urgently mobilized the cadres and directly subordinate teams of the military region on November 5 to donate 641 cotton coats to the 20 th Army, which arrived in advance. On November 8, the Northeast Military Region transferred 35,090 cotton coats to the 9th Corps that were to be distributed to the 13th Corps on the Western Front, and then urgently coordinated with the Ministry of Finance to transfer 100,000 new and old cotton coats, and cotton coats were also shipped to various places for emergency. According to statistics, by the end of November, the logistics department of the 9th Corps had signed for a total of 226661 new and used cotton coats.
Because of the high hopes for the 9th Corps, the supply of the 9th Corps at that time was personally grasped by Chairman Mao Zedong, and from the books, the 9th Corps, with a total number of about 150,000 people, had received enough winter equipment.
According to the records of the US military, under the temperature conditions at that time, it was far from enough to have a cotton coat, and it was very important to have fleece pants, especially gloves, cotton hats, and cotton shoes, otherwise it was very easy to get frostbite on the hands, feet, and head outdoors.
Secondly, although the cotton coat had been successfully handed over to the logistics department of the 9th Corps at the end of November, the 20th, 27th, and 26th armies had crossed the Yalu River on November 7, 12, and 19 respectively and moved to the front line. At that time, the blockade of the US Air Force made all the cotton coats that the logistics department of the 9th Corps failed to receive to the front-line commanders and fighters in time.
Subjectively speaking, at that time, in order to be able to quickly encircle the US troops without affecting the speed of the march, many commanders and fighters who had already received cotton coats actually left their cotton coats in the places left behind in order to bring more ammunition and dry food.
For example, before the 60th Division of the 20th Army crossed the Yalu River, because the coats and backpacks of the whole division were left in Ji'an, more than 700 people were frostbitten on the first day of dispatch with only one regiment.
The 27th Army, which entered the DPRK from Linjiang, basically received cotton coats, cotton shoes, and velvet hats, one-third of which were winter clothes of the standard in cold areas. However, before crossing the river, the army left most of them in the Linjiang garrison, and as a result, on the first day of leaving the country, two people froze to death and more than 500 people suffered frostbite. Since then, the troops have been marching and camping in the field day and night, and it has snowed almost every night along the way, and the clothes are often soaked and difficult to dry, and the number of frostbite people is increasing day by day.
More importantly, the severe shortage of food and non-staple food supplies prevented frontline soldiers from taking in enough calories to protect them from the cold, which exacerbated the damage caused by frostbite.
According to the calculations of the logistics department before the war, at least 150 vehicles were needed to ensure the food supply of one army alone. Of the 735 vehicles of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Logistics Divisions of the Chinese People's Volunteers when they entered Korea, 315 were destroyed by enemy planes by 12 November, and more than 20 were damaged by car accidents. As a result of the serious shortage of transportation capacity, the units of the 9th Corps could only receive less than 46% of the required supplies from time to time, and most of the time they could only rely on the dry food they carried with them, mainly fried noodles, fried rice, and fried soybeans. In the battle of Changjin Lake, many troops had a shortage of food, and the longest interval between complete food outages was as long as 3 days. It was in this situation that the volunteers had to feed themselves by digging up potatoes that no one had harvested in the fields on the side of the road, instead of the supply food from the rear as depicted in the film.
Let's go back to the situation of the 1st Marine Division, the opponent of the 9th Corps.
The 1st Marine Division has an establishment of about 25,000 personnel. At the time of the Battle of Changjin Lake, because the division's 1st Coastal Battalion, the 1st Amphibious Vehicle Transport Battalion, and one 114-mm multi-mounted rocket artillery company belonging to the 11th Marine Artillery Regiment remained in Xingnan Port, and the casualties suffered in the previous battles had not been replenished, the actual number of participants in the division was about 18,000.
Although in terms of numbers, the 20th Army and the 27th Army of the 9th Corps, which fought at the beginning, had a numerical advantage of nearly five times over the 1st Marine Division, the firepower of the 1st Marine Division was stronger than that of the entire 9th Corps.
Its division belongs to the 11th Marine Artillery Regiment, which has four artillery battalions under its jurisdiction. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions are each armed with 18 105-mm howitzers, and the 4th battalion is armed with 18 155-mm howitzers. The 1st Tank Battalion of the division is equipped with 63 M26 heavy tanks, 6 M4 medium tanks, and 2 M24 light tanks, for a total of 71 vehicles.
Each Marine regiment has three infantry battalions and one heavy mortar company (armed with 12 107 mm mortars) and one anti-tank company (12 75 mm recoilless guns and five M4A3E8 tanks). Each infantry battalion has 3 infantry companies and 1 firepower company (armed with 4 81 mm mortars, 4 75 mm recoilless guns, and 12 12.7 mm M2HB heavy machine guns). Each infantry company has 3 infantry platoons and 1 fire platoon (armed with 4 89mm rocket launchers, 2 81mm mortars, and 6 12.7mm M2HB heavy machine guns). Each infantry platoon has 3 infantry squads and 1 fire squad (armed with 2 89mm rocket launchers, 3 BAR Browning light machine guns and 1 12.7mm M2HB heavy machine gun). Each infantry squad is armed with 10 M1 Garand automatic rifles and 2 BAR Browning light machine guns. Squad and platoon commanders are equipped with M1 carbines, and officers above the company commander are equipped with M1911A1-type automatic pistols.
The biggest difference between the 1st Marine Division and other U.S. troops is that they are all volunteers, and there is no conscription, so almost all of them are veterans who participated in World War II, and their combat effectiveness is a grade higher than that of other U.S. military units.
Judging from the offensive deployment of the 9th Corps at that time, it was obvious that the enemy was underestimated. The original plan was to dispatch the forces of the 20th Army and the 27th Army at one time to divide the 1st Division of the US Army into three sections and encircle and annihilate them, and the 26th Army was on standby in the rear as a reserve. However, after the actual battle, it was discovered that even without considering the air support of the US army, the ground firepower of the US 1st Marine Division alone far exceeded the firepower of the entire 9th Corps.
The following are some details about the battle of Changjin Lake in the history of the war between the two sides, because it is different from many domestic media propaganda, I deliberately spent a long time to check the corresponding information in China.
First of all, the entire battle of Changjin Lake was tragic and arduous, and the mental pressure on the personnel on both sides on the battlefield was extremely great, and many unexpected situations occurred.
According to U.S. records, there have been at least two cases of insanity among soldiers on the battlefield.
One example is that the 1st Battalion of the 7th Regiment of the 1st Marine Division had fought behind the volunteers once, and in the process of interspersing, the severe cold of more than 20 degrees below zero and the pressure of being discovered by the opponent, coupled with the harsh natural environment and huge mental pressure, made one of the soldiers have a nervous breakdown, and everyone had to tie him to a stretcher, and the next morning everyone found that he died quietly on the stretcher.
A medic of Company E of the 7th Marine Regiment had a nervous breakdown when he was besieged by the 58th Division, yelled and locked himself in a tent, shot at anyone who came close, and had to shoot him dead.
Here is the aforementioned incident that was interspersed behind the Volunteer Army.
The Americans believed that the most dangerous moment of the 1st Marine Division's battle at Changjin Lake was the fierce battle at Death Eagle Ridge on the shore of Changjin Lake.
The battle broke out on the night of November 27, and it was also the time when the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army launched a full-scale attack on the American forces in the Changjin Lake area. At that time, Company F (Reinforced Company) of the 7th Army Regiment was responsible for guarding the Dedong Pass, a commanding height on the road through which the American troops had to retreat.
Toktong Pass, known locally as Death Eagle Ridge by the local Koreans, is said to be named after the high altitude and extreme cold that eagles freeze to death when they fly over the mountains. On the night of November 27, the 59th Division of the Volunteer Army sent the 175th Regiment to occupy the high ground along the road west of Dead Eagle Ridge, the 2nd Battalion of the 177th Regiment occupied the positions near Xingli in the east and west of Dead Eagle Ridge, and the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 177th Regiment occupied the 1519 and 1563 heights of Dead Eagle Ridge south of the road, but the attack of the 1st and 3rd Battalions failed.
Company F of the 1st Army Division, which was guarding the pass, was here to force the two battalions of the Volunteer Army to attack six times its own strength. From the night of November 27, the battle continued until December 2, when it joined the 1st Battalion of the 7th Army Regiment, and F Company did not lose an inch of land. Later, based on the details of the five days and five nights of fighting, the Americans published a monograph "The Last Stand of Fox Company" to tell the story of the five days and five nights of the battle of F Company.
In this battle, although the volunteer army had superior strength, its firepower was backward, and it was only supported by mortars. In addition to its own strong firepower, F Company also has a 105th howitzer company in the corner of the exhaustion a few kilometers away to provide heavy artillery firepower. In addition, there is aviation fire support during the day. The U.S. military's ammunition supply was carried out by airdrop.
After this battle, the defending F Company suffered more than 180 casualties, of which 32 were killed, and 6 of the 7 officers were wounded. The following is the death data of the US military after the war.
In order to support the holding F Company, the U.S. Army also took risks and arranged for the 1st Battalion of the 7th Army Regiment to use the tactics used by the volunteers to intersperse and catch the attacking troops of the volunteers by surprise. Although the distance of the attack was not far and only about ten kilometers, it was a mountain cross-country in the snow and cold night, and it broke into the rear of the position of the volunteers and launched an attack to defeat the attack of the volunteers, which not only won two congressional medals of honor representing the highest honor of the US army, but also beat a battalion-level commander of the volunteers to a complete collapse and fled the battlefield in fear.
As a result of this battle, Lieutenant Colonel Davis, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 7th Army Regiment, performed brilliantly and defeated the opponent with the tactics of the volunteers, and on December 7, before the battle ended, he was promoted to deputy commander of the 7th Army Regiment, and soon received the Congressional Medal of Honor, which represents the highest honor of the US military. Since then, his career has been smooth, and he has become a four-star general in the Marine Corps.
The failure of the attack on Death Eagle Ridge allowed the 1st Marine Division of the US Marine Corps to withdraw smoothly from the lower corner. And Song Shilun was furious about this, and shot the fleeing battalion commander in public at the post-war battle summary meeting of cadres above the regiment level.
In addition to this situation, the 27th Company of the 243rd Regiment of the 3rd Army also had problems.
At that time, the task of the 243rd Regiment was to block the withdrawal of the 1st Marine Division along the road, and the 1st Company of the 243rd Regiment, which arrived first, fought well on the north side of the road, and even destroyed several American 155 howitzers, but its own casualties were also very large. In this case, the instructor of the company commander was passively afraid of the battle, and held a democratic life meeting on the front line, but after discussion, he did not launch an attack on the retreating American troops.
The most tragic thing is the encounter of the 263rd Regiment of the 88th Division of the 26th Army, when the 263rd Regiment rushed to the predetermined blocking site as planned, it found that there were clear rut marks on the snow on the road, and the commander of the 263rd Regiment mistakenly thought that the American troops had passed ahead of schedule, so the regiment commander decided to go down the mountain and pursue along the road. Just as the troops were descending the mountain and crossing the road, they encountered the M26 Pershing tank rushing out from behind the US army. In the case of a long-distance march, the mortars, heavy machine guns and other heavy weapons of the 263rd Regiment were disassembled and transported, and the result was that the light infantry was crushed and fired by the US tanks without the ability to counterattack, the troops suffered heavy casualties, and a main force regiment lost its combat effectiveness before it actually came into contact with the US troops, and the regiment commander was removed from his post after the war.
The most serious incident was that, according to U.S. archives, on December 6, 1950, when the U.S. troops began to withdraw from Xiayuli, the 5th Regiment of the 1st Army Division, which was in charge of the rear of the palace, in order to clear the threat of retreat, concentrated fire on the Dongshan area of Xiayuli with the cooperation of the Air Force, and a volunteer unit guarding Dongshan actually killed their officers and surrendered to the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Army Regiment. What is even more tragic is that these surrendered volunteer prisoners of war did not get out of the Changjin Lake area alive. According to U.S. records, on the night of December 6, the retreating troops engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with another volunteer unit during the march, and during the fierce fighting between the two sides, the attacking volunteers shouted to the prisoners of war escorted on the road. The prisoners of war began to flee in all directions, and then fire was fired at them from both sides......
As for the surrender incident mentioned by the US military, I have not found direct evidence from the domestic historical materials that I can find, but the materials I have found also mention that during the five battles, there were incidents in which the company commander of the Volunteer Army led the troops to surrender on their own initiative.
In any case, after the Battle of Changjin Lake, the 9th Corps suffered heavy casualties and failed to complete the original task of annihilating the 1st Division of the US Army, so after the war, the 9th Corps made a review to the Military Commission.
As for the casualties on both sides, the "Summary of Health Work in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" compiled by the Health Department of the General Logistics Department of the People's Liberation Army records that the 20th Army suffered 2,963 casualties, 5,539 battle wounded, and 11,468 frostbite; The 26th Army suffered 1,674 casualties, 4,488 battle wounded, and 7,945 frostbitten; The 27th Army suffered 2,667 casualties, 4,035 battle wounded, and 11,319 frostbitten. The 9th Corps, which totaled 150,000 people before the war, lost 52,098 personnel, a reduction rate of 34.7%. Among them, 30,732 suffered frostbite, which accounted for 20% of the pre-war number of the corps and 59% of the total attrition of the 9th Corps.
The U.S. military admitted that the 1st Marine Division had lost a total of 604 casualties, 114 wounded and 114 wounded, 192 missing, 3,508 wounded in battle, and 7,313 frostbitten during the Battle of Changjin Lake, with a total loss of 11,731 personnel. Based on the actual number of more than 18,000 men in the division, the attrition rate was as high as 65.2 percent. Among them, frostbite accounted for 40.6 percent of the 1 Marine Division's combat personnel and 62.4 percent of the division's total attrition.
In addition to the casualties of the 1st Marine Division, the U.S. military admitted that the U.S. 7th Division suffered more than 2,670 casualties in Sing-ri, and 1,602 South Korean soldiers were included in the division, of which the 31st Regiment battle group was basically annihilated. The U.S. 3rd Division, U.S. Naval Aviation, British troops, and the ROK 1st Army Corps, which covered the U.S. 10th Army's retreat in the Hamhung area, suffered a total of 1,805 casualties and captured.
After the war, the top commanders of both sides withdrew from the front line, indicating that the top leaders of both countries believed that the command of the senior commanders was a big problem. Almond, the commander of the U.S. Tenth Army on the Eastern Front, was assigned to teach at a military academy after Changjin Lake, and then retired. The commander of the 1st Army Division thought that he had performed well and was promoted to lieutenant general after the war.