At the end of October 1950, the Chinese People's Volunteers crossed the Yalu River and opened a chapter in the history of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea. After three successive victories, they advanced south of the 38th parallel and finally liberated Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Despite being inferior in equipment in two tough battles, the Chinese People's Volunteers successfully forced the armed American troops to the negotiating table and eventually signed a relatively equal peace agreement. The victory of this War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea is of great importance to both China and North Korea. In the early days of the war, the Korean People's Army showed great combat effectiveness, nearly driving the combined U.S. and South Korean forces into the sea and capturing an American division commander. However, with the launch of the Inchon landing by the United States, the Korean People's Army was suddenly and rapidly defeated, and the battlefield almost disappeared. What kind of tragedy did the Korean People's Army experience at that time?Below, we'll show you all this from a broader historical perspective. The Korean Peninsula has been a vassal of the Central Plains regime since ancient times.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, Japan defeated China and seized control of Korea, bringing Korea into a decades-long "period of Japanese occupation". On August 9, 1945, World War II was coming to an end, and the major belligerents began to redraw the world. North Korea no longer has a ** that can represent its own will. After many closed-door discussions, the United States and the Soviet Union finally reached a secret agreement: the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and China jointly administered the Korean Peninsula. Considering the weakness of Britain and China, the Korean Peninsula was effectively divided between the United States and the Soviet Union. They decided to divide the Korean Peninsula into two plates, north and south, with 38 degrees north latitude as the dividing line, and each country exerting influence on the side close to them. A few months later, the two countries of North and South Korea were created, and the 38th parallel became the dividing line between the two countries. But both North and South Korea want to reunify the Korean Peninsula. As for how to reunify, the two sides have their own ideas.
South Korea's ** Syngman Rhee clamours every day for reunification by force, and for this reason, he has expanded his military strength on a large scaleNorth Korea's Kim Il Sung, on the other hand, is relatively moderate and prefers peaceful reunification in the form of a unified parliament. However, with the overall liberation of China, the international prestige of the United States has been greatly hit. In order to cover up their responsibility, they intend to instigate a conflict on the Korean Peninsula. The Korean War was a major historical event that will forever go down in history, and its outbreak was initiated by Syngman Rhee's rash proposal"Unification by force"advocated and forced Kim Il Sung to consider military action. Although South Korea had more overall military strength at the time, North Korea's military strength was significantly stronger. North Korea received attack aircraft and hundreds of tanks from the USSR, while South Korea lacked heavy **. The core strength of the Korean People's Army is composed of three divisions that participated in the Chinese revolution, and these veterans have rich combat experience, while most of the Korean ** team is composed of puppet troops left by Japan in those years, and their combat effectiveness is low. Rhee, however, turned a blind eye to this reality.
Over the next three years, the two sides frequently provoked skirmishes near the 38th parallel, more than 2,000 times. The beginning of the Cold War has aggravated the contradictions between the two sides, and the flames of war may ignite at any time. On June 25, 1950, the Korean People's Army crossed the border and launched a war of reunification. Kim Il Sung believed that with the strength of North Korea, victory would be achieved within 15 days, and even the United States would not be able to send troops at that time. The combat effectiveness of the Korean People's Army is truly impressive. Within three days of the outbreak of the war, they seized Seoul, forcing Syngman Rhee and other high-ranking leaders to flee in a hurry. In less than a month, they have occupied nearly ninety percent of South Korea's territory. However, what Kim Il Sung did not expect was that on the third day of the war, the United States suddenly announced armed intervention. As a result, he can only speed up the course of the war and try to resolve the situation before the United States reacts. As the advance of the Korean People's Army accelerated, many unfavorable factors emerged one after another.
More than half of their tanks have been consumed, and their ability to attack fortifications has been greatly reduced;The number of troops gradually became scarce, and some Han ** people who had just surrendered had to be sent to the front line to fight. The pace of progress has gradually slowed down, but Kim Il Sung has been urging to speed up the process. As a result, the rear of the KPA fell into extreme emptiness and vulnerability. On August 6, 1950, U.S. Commander MacArthur formulated a landing operation planOn September 15, 1950, U.S. troops successfully landed at Incheon and cut off the front line of the North Korean army. The Korean People's Army was in danger and was forced to retreat north. As of September 27, U.S. and South Korean forces had recaptured Seoul and intercepted KPA's retreat. The U.S. military dropped 50,000 tons of bombs on the Korean People's Army in just a few days in the early days of the Korean War, inflicting huge losses on them. Despite its strength, North Korea's military is still not strong enough to compete with the United States. Kim Il Sung's strategy is based on the premise that the United States does not intervene, so he is naturally at a disadvantage. Even without the Inchon landing, it would have been difficult for them to win the war.
The war could have ended, but the United States advanced the front to the Yalu River, threatened the Chinese border areas, and forced the Chinese People's Volunteers to fight in Korea, thus establishing its status as a great power. However, the Korean People's Army also suffered serious losses. According to statistics, out of a total of 80,000 Korean People's Army, only more than 20,000 withdrew to the north of the 38th parallel alive, and the rest were either **, missing, or captured. The tragic scene of them on the battlefield was unbearable. The Australian record shows that on one occasion, a hungry Korean People's Army entered an orchard in search of food, and as a result, a fierce battle broke out with the Australian army, in which the North Korean army was killed more than 100 people and more than 200 prisoners, while only 7 were slightly wounded. The fighting of the Volunteers also recorded some tragic conditions of the Korean People's Army: under the bombardment of the enemy's air force, most of the KPA soldiers' limbs were blown to pieces, and some even disappeared from the lower half of their bodies.
Kim Il Sung urgently organized about four divisions, but most of the soldiers in these divisions were new recruits, and some did not even know how to use firearms. This situation is prevalent in various villages in North Korea. Records of reporters accompanying the volunteers show that as they pass through some North Korean villages, there are few adult men in sight, only white-haired elderly women and some middle-aged women working. This was very perplexing for the volunteers, because they knew that it was normal for young and middle-aged men to be drafted into the army to fight, but why were there not even little boys in the village?It wasn't long before the volunteers figured out the reason when they encountered some North Korean troops. It turned out that most of the so-called "soldiers" were young boys around thirteen or fourteen years old, and most of them were short and emaciated, not much taller than the rifles on their backs. The Korean People's Volunteers were deeply shocked to learn that the mechanized units of the US military had completely suppressed the DPRK, resulting in a heavy infliction of the DPRK army**.
Almost all men, both adult and elderly, were sent to the front, countless ** or missing, and almost no one survived. In order to prepare for future battles, North Korea** had to recruit troops again, and the age limit was expanded to 13 years and older. A volunteer veteran once recounted the North Korean "boy scouts" he had seen: "When I joined the war at the age of 16, I thought I was the youngest, until I saw a Korean frontline unit, and I didn't understand what a real 'boy scout' was." The recruits were all small children, almost no older than me, and according to their commanders, the youngest of them was only 13 years old. ”。He also described: "At that time, the North Korean people suffered great losses, and almost every family died. After the adult man is finished, he can only let the child go to the battlefield, which is a helpless move, and at such a critical moment, he has to participate in the war, otherwise there is no way to live. ”。Through these descriptions, we can deeply feel the tragic situation in North Korea at that time. The main reason for all this is Kim Il Sung's lack of military capabilities.
Since ancient times, only those who are not arrogant in victory and discouraged in defeat, and can calmly deal with the situation on the battlefield at any time can be called good generals. Kim Il Sung's pride in good times and his inability to solve complex problems in bad times led to the near-total annihilation of the heroic Korean People's Army in just a few months. Now, the smoke of the battlefield has gradually dissipated, but the world is still in turmoil. Solving problems through strategic means and achieving "war denial" and "strategic checks and balances" is an extremely challenging task. Only in this way can world peace be truly achieved. It is hoped that the tragic lessons of the Korean People's Army will never be repeated to the world.