The 1st Marine Division of the US Army, known as the strongest combat force of the US Army, has never been defeated.
However, in the Battle of Changjin Lake, the 1st Marine Division faced the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army and almost wiped out the entire army.
For the rest of his life, as long as Changjin Lake was mentioned, Smith, the commander of the 1st Marine Division, couldn't stop breaking out in a cold sweat.
The Battle of Changjin Lake was the most tragic battle fought on the Korean battlefield.
It was 1950, the coldest winter in 50 years, with daytime highs of minus 20.
At that time, the US Air Force covered the entire airspace.
In order to gain an advantage, the Ninth Corps, which was sharpening its knives in Fujian and preparing to recover Taiwan, was urgently transferred to the Korean battlefield.
Before leaving for the Northeast, Liaoyang and Shenyang had already prepared cotton clothes for the soldiers to protect them from the cold.
However, the battlefield is changing rapidly, the military situation is like fire, and Mr. Peng is eager for reinforcements.
In the end, the fighters didn't even have time to change their clothes and were pulled directly to the river.
The soldiers of the Northeast Frontier looked at the Ninth Corps wearing thin winter coats, and their eyes instantly turned red.
They immediately took off their coats and hats and gave them to the Ninth Corps.
However, there were too few border guards, and they stayed for even less, and when they finally entered the DPRK, more than 100,000 officers and soldiers wore thin clothes for the winter in Fujian.
On the first day of entering the DPRK, 700 people of the Ninth Corps suffered frostbite.
The Changjin Lake battlefield, in the most bitter and cold place in North Korea, has sparse forests and fewer people, and only mountain paths can be passed.
On a night of minus 45 degrees Celsius, there were more than 10 people in each squad of the Ninth Corps, and there was only one quilt, and the soldiers could only spread the quilts on the ground, hug each other, and use each other's body temperature to keep out the cold.
And the worst thing is that the logistics can't keep up.
At that time, the sky was full of American planes, and more than 40 trucks full of supplies of the 27th Army were directly burned by napalm.
At temperatures of minus forty or fifty degrees Celsius, eating high-calorie food can't keep out the cold, but our fighters can't even eat cold potatoes and fried noodles to satisfy hunger.
Moreover, for the sake of air defense, fire could not be born, and the soldiers were hungry and cold, but they could not even drink a sip of hot water.
Many people have collapsed in extreme weather and can never wake up again.
However, no one flinched.
At that time, the U.S. military had the best equipment, including cold hats, tweed uniforms, cotton tents, heating stoves, canned delicatessen, dairy products, and even canned vegetables and fruits.
However, when the Battle of Changjin Lake began, 100,000 Chinese ** people who were about to be frozen swooped down the mountain, and cut the US Seventh Division and the First Marine Division into five pieces overnight.
Encirclement and suppression!
It's just that the fighters endured the bitter cold weather, but the steel barrels of the mortars could not stand it.
Under the thermal expansion and cold contraction, the barrel of the cannon contracted so that even the shells could not be put in.
The artillerymen were in a hurry, so they roasted it with fire, poured it with hot water, and finally stuffed it in, and the sharpshooters aimed it accurately, but the shells that went out did not explode!
If you fight again, you still won't blow up!
The weather was so cold that even the shells could not **.
The artillerymen cried loudly at the duds, because they knew that these were carried by the infantrymen with their lives.
Artillery shells can't be **, so the infantry can only use rifles and machine guns to fight the enemy's steel fortress.
Later, according to statistics, there were at least 2 3 bombs, which could not **.
The soldiers of the Chinese Volunteers, enduring hunger and cold, and enduring extreme living conditions, rushed to the battlefield one after another to engage the enemy.
Some of these mid-level people who have been involved in the battle have not eaten a mouthful of hot food for at least 2 days, and most have not eaten a mouthful of hot food for 9 days.
But they are like a rainbow and shock the US military.
1 day, only 1 day.
MacArthur hastened to order: retreat south.
In order to boost morale, division commander Smith told his subordinates: "We are not retreating, but attacking in a different direction." ”
They don't know that the way back has been cut off by the squadron!
China, which has been weak for a hundred years, has no advanced **, no modern logistics, but in the face of world powers, the PLA has won beautifully.
The 58th Division of the Twentieth Army also trapped the reinforced American detachment and captured the British commander, Major McLaughlin.
The U.S. military suffered heavy losses, and for many years after that, when it came to Changjin Lake, I couldn't stop sweating coldly.
They gave it a name, "Hellfire Valley".