It has been 70 years since the end of the Korean War, but the war that once touched the nerves of the whole world is forever etched in people's memory, and people associate this war with the rise of China.
South Korea's famous Marshal Baek Sun-yeol led the Korean ** people to fight bravely in the Korean War, and as the first general in South Korea, he experienced three heavy defeats against the volunteers. Let's get into his perspective and see how powerful the volunteer army is in his eyes.
On October 19, 1950, Baek Sun-yeol, the commander of the 1st Division of the South Korean Army, who led more than 15,000 South Korea-US troops into Pyongyang, recalled that night a few years ago, when he was 7 years old, he moved to Pyongyang with his mother, only a year, the family was too poor to survive, his mother felt powerless, and was about to commit suicide when he was persuaded by the Bai family's sister.
That scene carved a deep trace in Bai Shanye's heart. At this time, he transformed from a hairy boy to a general.
On the day he took Pyongyang, Baek Sun-yeol's heart was surging. After staying for two days, he led his army to continue northward, aiming directly at the Yalu River.
On October 25, in Yunshan County, Bai Shanye was complacent, swept away, and the soldiers who were smooth sailed also drew the middle finger symbol, they were ambushed by the volunteers, which was also the first confrontation between Bai Shanye and the volunteers.
It had been reported that the Chinese Volunteers had crossed the Yalu River, but MacArthur had always believed that China could not enter the war.
When he learned that a Chinese volunteer prisoner had been captured, Bai Shanye was shocked, and he personally interrogated and reported the news of the volunteers to MacArthur, who was carried away by the victory at that time and maintained an extremely optimistic attitude towards the development of the war situation, believing that the prisoner was a Korean volunteer, and his words could not be trusted, which was probably a kind of diplomatic blackmail.
However, when marching on the Yalu River, the two regiments that rushed to the front, the 7th Regiment and the 2nd Regiment of the 6th Division of the ROK Army, were divided and surrounded by the Volunteer Army, and the squadron participated in the battle.
The news spread quickly, and the morale of the officers and men plummeted.
At night, the Volunteer Army launched a fierce attack, and the overwhelming sound of military trumpets and gongs, as well as the roar of the attack, plunged the South Korean army into great panic.
A colonel of the Korean army said to Baek Sun-yeol that the enemy is constantly attacking the gap in our defense, and the situation is very critical, and I am afraid it will be difficult to withstand it today.
Bai Shanye asked, are you scared?The colonel replied with a straight face, if we don't retreat today, we will be all annihilated. Bai Shanye looked at the colonel, who was usually calm, but at the moment, he looked nervous, and he fell into deep thought.
He then inspected the position and talked with several regiment commanders, who agreed that although the firepower of the Chinese volunteers was not strong, they were familiar with night battles and had very strong combat effectiveness.
The South Korean army was so heavy that a retreat was proposed, but MacArthur was still urging him to attack forward.
Bai Shanye was in a dilemma, he gave a briefing on the Yunshan crisis, and finally decided that the first division of the South Korean army would retreat, and the first cavalry division of the US army would provide cover, and after a night of fierce fighting, the first division successfully withdrew from Yunshan.
The 8th Battalion of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment of the US Army suffered a fatal blow, and all the officers and men of the 3 4 Battalion were killed or missing in battle.
From the attack on October 25 to the gradual cessation on the night of November 5, this battle is still studied by many people as a typical example to this day.
Bai Shanye analyzed the reasons for the defeat as follows: First, the surprise attack on the Chinese volunteers was not fully prepared in advance.
At that time, the South Korean army captured many places with overwhelming momentum, and was carried away by the victory, and was in a state of overmorale and lost its vigilance.
Secondly, there is too little understanding of the Volunteer Army, and the combat effectiveness of the Volunteer Army is seriously underestimated.
Through the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, the Chinese Volunteers have accumulated rich combat experience and skills, and they are well aware of the situation of the enemy army. The Battle of Yunshan made Bai Shanye's long-awaited reunification come to naught.
On November 24, MacArthur planned the Christmas Offensive to motivate soldiers to end the war as soon as possible so they could return home for Christmas.
Even the units prepared firers for the soldiers, and the whole position was filled with happy air.
At 10 o'clock in the morning, the battle began, and Bai Shanye commanded the first division of the Korean army to cross the Daning River and launch an attack on Taecheon.
Then the next day, the tide of battle unfolded in an unfavorable direction. First, the right flank of the US 8th Army was torn open, and then the 7th and 8th Divisions of the ROK Army were surrounded by the Volunteer Army, defeated one by one, and lost their combat effectiveness.
Then the rear road of the US 9th Army was cut off, and it had to cover the retreat of the First Army of the South Korean Army and the 24th Division of the US Army.
The 2nd Division of the US Army was ambushed by the Volunteers, almost all of the troops were annihilated, the Christmas Offensive collapsed, and the morale of the ROK and US troops plummeted.
The psychological impact of the defeat shrouded the entire army in a heavy haze, and the soldiers were in a panic all day long, and their survival instinct surpassed the military order, and they no longer absolutely obeyed the command of their superiors.
The ROK army has lost the courage, courage, and fighting spirit that a soldier should have. The officers and men of the 1st Division of the ROK Army retreated in tears all the way to the Linjin River.
The Great Retreat: The Volunteers pursued non-stop, and the South Korean Army almost had a nervous breakdownOn the evening of December 31, the Volunteers launched their third campaign.
The tidal wave of volunteers launched a fierce attack on the positions of the 12th Regiment on the right flank of the ROK army, and then concentrated fire on the defensive positions of the 1st and 6th divisions of the ROK army.
Amid the sound of military trumpets and gongs, the volunteers concentrated their forces and pushed over to the position of the South Korean army. Bai Shanye wanted to take advantage of the darkness to recapture the lost position, and even urgently drew the sappers and signal troops of the division headquarters to the front line.
The urgent news came, and one or two more regiments were already hopeless.
His eyes were dark, his whole body collapsed, and he couldn't help but ask himself, was the brave and good first division defeated in this way?Grief and shame made Bai Shanye's spirit unable to lift up.
At this time, he received an order from his superiors to retreat on all fronts. He has been in a trance, his self-esteem is on the verge of collapse, he doesn't even have the strength to retreat, and he can't say a word.
He didn't even want to retreat, not to live and die with the enemy. Later, a captain of the U.S. Army Advisory Corps picked him up and put him in the jeep, saving him his life in humiliation.
Since the start of the war, his troops had never been beaten so badly, and his heart was full of guilt.
Later, he deeply reflected on this fiasco and believed that he was personally responsible. At the time, he had just recovered from malaria and was in very poor health.
When a person is sick, his temper is often short-tempered and he is prone to anger, which makes his subordinates nervous, and they can't devote themselves to the war by looking at his face.
Secondly, the officers and men had a strange sense of fear of the volunteers, and they had already lost psychologically before the battle had even begun.
Bai Shanye suffered three defeats after the Volunteer Army entered the Korean War, which made him feel a sense of frustration that he had never felt before.
The Battle of Yunshan barely broke through, and the Christmas offensive retreated quickly, and the dismal retreat made him almost insane. But he also knew a lot about the Volunteer Army.
He believes that the combat effectiveness of the volunteer army mainly stems from the following aspects: 1. Strict discipline. Discipline is the lifeblood of an army, and if discipline is not strict, the army will be like a plate of loose sand.
One of the great advantages of the Chinese volunteers is their discipline.
In order to avoid aerial reconnaissance by the US military, the volunteers only marched from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. the next day, leaving no traces.
For example, the volunteers were not allowed to light fires, and the rations were fried sorghum, rice, millet and soybeans.
The strict discipline made the volunteers twist up and down into a rope, creating the conditions for a surprise attack without the gods knowing.
2. Surprise Attack at NightDuring the battle, the volunteers tried to avoid frontal combat as much as possible, and waited for the enemy to be exposed or vulnerable before striking at them.
If a surprise attack tactic is adopted, such as cutting off in a roundabout way and encircling the rear road, the implementation of this tactic requires a rapid march in the mountains at night.
For the volunteers, it is very easy to walk 20-30 kilometers in one night.
The way of attacking at night is also very special, the volunteers will always attack while playing the flute and beating the gong, they will quietly approach the place where the South Korean army cannot see, and use the smallest force to make the South Korean army suffer the greatest losses.
3. Psychological TacticsIn addition, the volunteers are also good at using trumpets and flutes as psychological warfare tools, and even use them as communication and command tools to play a tactical role.
When the enemy hears this piercing noise, their first reaction is to shoot, which will reveal their own fire position.
And once the volunteers confirm the direction of the enemy's fire, they will concentrate the attack with light ** and grenades.
After the war, Bai Eel wrote a large number of memoirs about the Korean War, and he repeatedly mentioned the superiority in numbers, that is, the tactics of crowds.
The original intention of the crowd tactic was to use overwhelming forces far beyond the enemy to carry out a frontal attack at any cost.
This tactic has a high chance of winning in the era of cold weapons, and after entering the era of hot weapons, in the face of the US army, which has the most powerful equipment in the world, it is impossible for the volunteers to win by adopting the tactics of crowds.
According to Baek Sun-yeol's recollection of the Korean War, the numerical superiority was more inclined to the tactic of concentrating superior forces to annihilate the enemy.
The Volunteer Army used a small part of its strength to contain and cut off most of the enemy's troops, and then concentrated a considerable amount of superior forces to quickly intersperse and outflank it, attack in many directions, encircle and annihilate one part of the enemy, and form a situation of three times or even five or six times the enemy's superiority in some parts.
Through many battles, Bai Shanye also found that there were obvious disadvantages in the Volunteer Army, such as the material supply of the Volunteer Army could not keep up, many supplies of the Volunteer Army were transported by manpower, and they walked a very long distance to send food and ammunition to the front-line troops, and malnutrition became a serious problem for the Volunteer Army.
However, the volunteers are still a formidable existence, they can flexibly adapt to changes on the battlefield, keenly grasp fighters, have high morale, and are not afraid of sacrifice and hardship.
In short, this is a powerful army, and their heroic performance on the Korean battlefield declares to the world that the days when Western aggressors tried to occupy a country are gone forever.
The wounds of war are sometimes difficult to heal, and the Chinese volunteers have become a shadow that Bai Shanye will not be able to get rid of throughout his life.