Jia Yong, the Three Musketeers.
The defeat is like a mountain!
Everything he experienced on January 1, 1951 made Li Qiwei, who lived for 98 years, unable to let go of it for the rest of his life
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EditMountain wind.
Wentu |** on the Internet.
South Korean soldiers poured south in trucks. They have no order, no **, no leadership, and they are completely defeated on all fronts - the farther away from the squadron, the better. They threw away their rifles and pistols ......I had never felt this way before, and I prayed to God not to witness such episodes again. ”
This was the scene that was seen by Lee Qiwei, commander of the US Eighth Army, in the north of Seoul that morning. Only one night after the Third Campaign was launched by the Volunteers, the defense lines of the "United **" and the South Korean Army had collapsed on ...... entire front
On that day, the People's Daily published a New Year's Day editorial personally revised by Chairman ***, with the title: "Consolidating Our Great Motherland Under the Banner of Great Patriotism."
The U.S. bomb said "Merry Christmas," but what Americans were waiting for was the bad news of death......
On December 24, 1950, the Second War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea ended—thousands of American families were waiting for the bad news of death instead of "Christmas" gifts on Christmas Eve. In that battle, the volunteers killed, wounded and captured the enemy 360,000, including 2 US troops40 thousand. The commander of the Eighth Army, Walker, also overturned and died during the retreat.
The crushing defeat on the Korean battlefield shook the US government and the public. On the one hand, Truman asked Congress to approve the increase of the US military from 2.5 million to 3.5 million, and to increase the production capacity of combat aircraft and tanks by five times and four times respectively within one yearWhile sending US Army Deputy Chief of Staff Ridgway to urgently fly to North Korea to clean up the mess, Truman also gave this US lieutenant general who was "ordered on the verge of danger" greater command than his predecessor Walker, and made him concurrently the commander of the "Joint **" ground forces.
Matthew Ridgway, a powerful figure in the U.S. military. In 1919, when MacArthur, 39, became the youngest West Point principal in history, the 24-year-old Ridgway returned to teach at his alma mater as a top West Point student. In July 1943, Li Qiwei, then commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, commanded the first large-scale night airborne operation in the history of the U.S. military, the Sicily Landing Campaign. After the Normandy landings, Ridgway was promoted to commander of the 18th Airborne Corps.
Before taking office, Ridgway made a special trip to Tokyo to meet MacArthur. Li Qiwei asked the old boss: "Do you have any objection to me launching an offensive immediately after taking office?"At this time, MacArthur no longer seemed to be so arrogant: "The American troops retreating from the Qingchuan River are holding the 38th parallel, and the troops are tired and their morale is not high......He patted Ridgway on the shoulder, "Matthew, the Eighth Army is yours, do whatever you think is good!."”
It was the coldest season on the Korean Peninsula, the land was white, and the wind was like a knife after the snow. Originally, Li Qiwei also wanted to take advantage of the fact that the volunteer army of the labor division expedition was not firmly established, and immediately turned to the strategy. But when he inspected his troops, his mood became colder than the weather in North Korea. Li Qiwei admits sadly: "This is a discouraged army, which has lost confidence in itself and its commanders, and does not know ......what it is doing."Mentally and spiritually, I was not prepared to carry out the kind of offensive action that I had been planning to take. ”
Ridgway knows a lot about Walker. Both served as instructors at their alma mater and served in the 15th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army in Tianjin, China. During World War II, Walker shined on the European battlefield, leading the U.S. Twentieth Army to break through in the European theater and win the title of "Ghost Army". The U.S. military also named a tank with advanced performance after Walker as the "Walker Tiger Dog".
Since even the troops commanded by such a "tactical authority" as Walker have been successively defeated by the ** squadron with far inferior equipment, this made Li Qiwei calm down and hurry up to deploy the whole line of defense.
The corpse of a U.S. soldier in the snow.
The battlefield support superiority of the world's number one power was instantly revealed. Relying on a large number of mechanized equipment, in just three or four days, the "United **" set up five defense lines in a row on a front of nearly 250 kilometers across the Korean Peninsula and a depth of more than 60 kilometers. There are many clear and dark forts, all kinds of mines are densely packed, and mortar positions and recoilless gun positions cross each other. During the day, US reconnaissance planes and bombers took turns to reconnoiter and bomb the frontAt night, flares alternate with searchlights for battlefield surveillance. MacArthur, who was far away in Tokyo, kept cheering up Ridg: "This is an important front that has a bearing on our lives, and we will never take a step back!"”
At this time, the "joint **" ground forces amounted to 3650,000, and the number of troops put into defense was more than 250,000 people in 13 divisions and 3 brigades. He put eight divisions of the South Korean Army on the front line and the US and British troops on the second line, so that they could attack and defend and retreat at any time. However, as soon as his defensive line was deployed, a new offensive of the Volunteer Army began.
On the last day of 1950, the Volunteer Army fought its third campaign. 106 cannons at the same time in the dusk of the snow**, this is the first large-scale artillery operation of the Volunteer Army - 4287 shells, more than 4 times the total ammunition used in the previous two battles.
When the military information came from the front, Li Qi, who had taken a plane around the front that morning to reconnoitre, was slightly surprised. He didn't expect that the squadron would launch another larger-scale New Year's Day offensive less than a week after a brutal battle that lasted for 29 days. Naturally, he would not have thought that when the second battle was still in full swing, the far-sighted *** was already planning the next stage of combat operations.
The second battle, the first battle that turned the tide of the Korean War. Just when the "United Nations" was losing and retreating, the United States and Britain played the trick of "peaceful blackmail" and sent a signal of so-called armistice negotiations to China through the United Nations, on the condition that the volunteers stopped north of the 38th parallel.
Victory is always the weight of peace. ** Knowing that with the victory of the Second Battle of the Volunteers, the US military's plan for a quick victory has gone bankrupt, the contradictions between the United States and the client states it has gathered that did not want to participate in the war in the first place have begun to sharpen, and the anti-war sentiment in the United States has become increasingly high. Against this background, it is necessary to deal another fatal blow to the US military in order to completely force the enemy to the negotiating table -- otherwise, once the opponent is allowed to breathe, with the strong war mobilization capabilities of the United States and Britain and other countries, the volunteer army will inevitably face greater battlefield pressure.
In the last days of 1950, Zhongnanhai sent unusually frequent telegrams to the Korean front
**Telegram of December 21, 1950: The United States and Britain are taking advantage of the old impression of the 38th parallel among the people to carry out their political propaganda and try to induce us to cease fighting.
** Telegram of December 29, 1950: If our army can fight a victorious battle in the first half of January as you are currently deployed, strive to annihilate several divisions of the puppet army and a single part of the American army, and then rest for two months to prepare for the spring offensive, it will have a very good impact on the democratic front and the masses of the peoples of the capitalist countries, and will deal a new blow to imperialism and aggravate its pessimistic ...... defeat
Telegram, directed at one goal: to hit the 38th line!
This is Ridgway.
In the third campaign, the Volunteer Army concentrated the strength of 6 corps. The specific deployment is as follows: Han Xianchu, deputy commander of the Volunteer Army, commands the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 50th armies and 6 artillery regiments to form the main attack corps on the right flank;Wu Ruilin, commander of the 42nd Army, commanded the 42nd and 66th armies and 1 artillery regiment to form a left column, mainly to contain the enemy's reinforcements and cooperate with the main attack direction.
The main focus of the attack on the right was the Imjin River defense line north of Seoul. It is 75 kilometers from Seoul, and if it is breached, there will be no danger to the "capital" of South Korea. Naturally, this is also a key area heavily guarded by the enemy. During that time, the newspapers of Seoul kept boasting that the defense of the Imjin River was an "impenetrable" "iron wall".
The heavy responsibility fell on the 39th Army of the Volunteer Army, and the first echelon was held by the 116th Division. On December 6, 1950, the 116th Division took the lead in attacking Pyongyang and recovering the capital of North Korea after 47 days.
The Imjin River defense line is divided into two sections, east and west. The 116th Division chose the breakthrough in the eastern sector, which seemed to be easy to defend and difficult to attack. The river bank is a 10-meter-high cliff, and two infantry regiments, one howitzer battalion of the 1st Division of the South Korean Army, and two artillery battalions of the U.S. Army are deployed. However, in the view of Wang Yang, the commander of the 116th Division, it is precisely because of the dangerous terrain in the eastern section that the enemy is easy to be paralyzed. At the same time, there are 3 high ground on our side that can overlook the enemy position, and there are several natural ditches close to the Imjin River with a depth of 15 m to 1At about 7 meters, with a little modification, it is an excellent place for the troops to hide.
Wisdom and courage burst out at a critical moment. Three days before the battle, at a distance of 300 meters from the enemy's line of defenseIn an area of 5 square kilometers, the 116th Division quietly built 316 concealment units, 3,000 anti-artillery holes, 50 ammunition and equipment storage rooms, and 80 artillery firing positions, and hid 7,500 officers and soldiers and more than 80 large-caliber artillery pieces under the earth. Early in the morning of December 31, a heavy snowfall on the banks of the Imjin River covered the starting point of the 116th Division's attack with another layer of natural camouflage, so that even Li Qiwei, who personally patrolled at a low altitude by plane, did not find any signs of the Volunteer Army about to launch an offensive.
At the end of the 20-minute artillery attack, three flares flew into the air. The vanguard of the 116th Division jumped out of the trench and tore a hole in the Imjin River defense line in only 13 minutes - at 22 o'clock on December 31, 1950, all six armies of the Volunteer Army broke through the enemy's defense line. The two South Korean divisions, which bore the brunt of the attack, were the first to be defeated, and the US troops north of the Han River were in a dangerous situation of fighting on their backs.
On the first day of the new year, a reporter accompanying the US military recorded the following scene: "The powerful squadron ** drove back the coalition forces for several miles north and northeast of Seoul on the morning of the 1st. The Allied 1 division directly north of Seoul had completely collapsed. The division's numbering of about 300 men ...... south in confusion on the road several miles east of their original positions”
Frightened. Baek Sun-yeol, then commander of the 1st South Korean Division, always remembered the tragic situation at that time: "The troops I led had never been beaten so badly, my self-esteem was almost on the verge of collapse at this moment, I felt extremely weak, and I didn't even have the strength to retreat." Baek Sun-yeol once wanted to commit suicide, but at the last moment, the American adviser Mei Yi rushed to him and carried him into the jeep, so that the later No. 1 general of the South Korean Army "picked up a life in humiliation".
The wanton and indiscriminate bombing became the last resort of the "United **" in an attempt to stop the offensive of the volunteers. Every 10 minutes, the American bombers that took off from the aircraft carriers dropped bombs on the heads of the volunteers and on the circuitous roads that the volunteers were interspersed. On January 1, the US military flew 564 bomber sorties;On the 2nd, the US military flew 531 sorties. However, just as glaciers and moats cannot stop the volunteers, minefields and barbed wire cannot stop the volunteers, tanks and artillery cannot stop the ...... of the volunteersThe bombers that covered the sky and the sun could not stop the marching pace of the volunteers.
This army has an indomitable spirit.
The trumpet of the squadron's charge is getting closer and closer. In the early morning of January 3, 1951, Li Qiwei made a very reluctant but forced decision: abandon Seoul!
Seeing that the "capital" that had just been "recovered" for three months and seven days had been lost again, South Korea "** Syngman Rhee scolded Rhee for not keeping his promises: "He once said that he was ready to stay in North Korea for a long time, but now he has just arrived in North Korea and will withdraw from Seoul a week agoWhen U.S. Ambassador Mosio relayed Rhee's remarks to Ridgway, Ridgway told Mosio simply: "Please tell that lovely South Korean **, it is best for him to go to the front line in person to listen to the piercing military horn blowing when the squadron attacks, see the terrifying scene of the squadron rushing to the US military position and shouting to surrender the gun and not kill, and then see how the South Korean army broke and fled like a flock!"”
The army was defeated, and the birds and beasts were scattered. The only bridge over the Han River was blown up by the South Korean military, which was trying to halt the Korean People's Army offensive as early as June 28, 1950. At present, the only thing that connects the north and south of the Han River is two temporary pontoon bridges built by the U.S. military. Ridgway ordered: Take all necessary measures to prohibit civilians and civilian vehicles from passing through bridges and key roads to ensure the rapid retreat of US troops. He also ordered that shots could be fired directly at refugees who did not listen to their calls.
At the same time as evacuating Seoul, the US military ignited 500,000 gallons of aviation fuel and 30,000 gallons of napalm that could not be taken away, blowing up airports in Seoul, Incheon, Gimpo and other places, and seriously damaging schools, hospitals, libraries, museums and other public facilities in Seoul. Reuters correspondent White saw on the plane: "Seoul burned ...... in fireworks."The fire was still visible 50 miles south of the city. "A logistics officer of the US Eighth Army asked himself until his old age: What is the situation when 500,000 gallons of fuel burn up?Hell!
The battlefield materials of the US army are piled up like a mountain.
At the critical juncture, the Americans' specialty of "pitting their teammates" was staged again. On the evening of 3 January, a battalion of the 25th US Division, which had received the order to retreat earlier, resisted a little and fled, and the Volunteers quickly advanced to the south of Gaoyang, cutting off the retreat of the British army, and the first battalion of the 57th Regiment of the British Altes rifles and the squadron directly under the Royal Irish Hussars Regiment of the Eighth King of the British Army were annihilated. In this battle, the volunteers destroyed 27 British tanks and armored vehicles, captured 4 tanks, 3 armored vehicles, and 18 automobiles, killed and wounded more than 500 British soldiers, and captured 227 people under the British battalion commander Major Conish. This is a classic example created by the 149th Division of the 50th Army of the Volunteer Army, an infantry division that became famous on the Korean battlefield and later made brilliant achievements in the counterattack against India in 1962.
A muddy and snowy field 20 kilometers northwest of Seoul became the "valley of death" for the British army. On the way to the prisoner of war camp, Major Konish exclaimed all the way: "Your Chinese anti-tank guns are too powerful!."Knowing that the Volunteers had blown up the British heavy tanks with just blasters, explosive packets and grenades, Conish called it "impossible". Perhaps, the British overlooked the fact that nothing is impossible in the face of the valiant volunteers!
When the news of the defeat reached London, the British were furious, and even the "main battle faction" in parliament was furious: "The Americans fled for their lives and abandoned their friends. "During the Korean War, 4,435 British troops were killed, wounded, captured and missing. This was the greatest victory of the Chinese nation over this old empire since 1840.
With the sound of the military trumpet, the charge of the volunteers was indomitable.
Thursday, January 4. South Korea** announced that it would "move its capital" to Busan, the southeasternmost part of the peninsula, and the "United **" frontline headquarters was withdrawn to Daegu, more than 200 kilometers southeast of Seoul. There, Brigadier General Davidson, commander of the U.S. Army's engineers, forcibly requisitioned tens of thousands of South Korean laborers, built trenches and artillery positions, and set up layers of barbed wire.
The long wind rolls up the sky with snowflakes and calls. Ridgway, who was almost the last American to withdraw from Seoul, gathered up the family portrait on his desk and wrote the following sentence on the wall of his office: "The commander of the Eighth Army greets the commander-in-chief of the squadron!"”
Ridgway later succeeded MacArthur, who had been removed by Truman, as the second commander-in-chief of the "United **". He lamented in his memoirs that the mobility of the volunteers was almost not the speed that the light infantry should have, "When the charge horn sounded, almost everyone rushed forward desperately like a superman who was not afraid of death, no matter how fierce the artillery fire in front was, the volunteers did not choose to retreat, but blocked the artillery fire with their flesh and blood, and in a cloud ......of gunsmoke, they used their lives to open up the road to victory."”
In the third battle, the Chinese and North Korean armies expelled the "United **" and the South Korean Army to the vicinity of the "37" line, advanced the front line by 80 to 110 kilometers, and killed and wounded the enemy at the cost of 8,500 peopleThe results of more than 90,000 people. The six armies of the Volunteer Army that participated in the third campaign were all the first units to go abroad to participate in the war, far away from the motherland, fighting fiercely continuously, lacking food and clothing, and ......The logistical support and combat effectiveness of the troops have reached the limit, and the United States has smashed its attempt to "gain time and reorganize its troops to fight again" by relying on its loyalty to the motherland and relying on its heroic spirit of daring to overcome all difficulties and the enemy.
Assault on Seoul.
At 16 o'clock on January 4, 1951, the 116th Division of the 39th Army of the Volunteer Army, the 149th Division of the 50th Army and the First Army of the Korean People's Army entered and occupied Seoul. The Volunteer Army strictly implemented the "Ten Policies and Discipline Codes" and left the image of the squadron as a mighty and civilized division in this ancient capital city that was destroyed by the US military and was ruined everywhere.
In Syngman Rhee's "** Mansion", Wang Yang, the 30-year-old commander of the 116th Division, shook the dust of war on his body, sat in front of the black piano, played two tunes, and improvised a poem: "The 38th defense line is strong, the Imjin River is cold, the three odds are complex and the three dangers are broken, and the formation is broken." ”
Almost at the same time, Washington, the capital of the United States. Walker's remains are buried in Arlington National Cemetery District 34. The day before, the U.S. Congress had just approved the promotion of Walker to a four-star general ...... the U.S. Army