Chapter 10 2. "Christmas Offensive"

Thanksgiving originated in Plymouth, a British colony in North America. After the harvest in 1621, the local residents held grand celebrations to "thank God", and then gradually formed a fixed festival called Thanksgiving.The time of the festival is the fourth Thursday in November every year. Thanksgiving in 1950 was November 23. MacArthur's luxurious mansion in Tokyo lit candles for the Thanksgiving holiday on November 23, and the aroma of the turkey just out of the oven on the dining table was pleasant.MacArthur and his family began to enjoy the festive dinner after praying "Thank God".After dessert, MacArthur made an exception and poured another glass of champagne, then stood at the window and stared at the lights of thousands of houses in Tokyo.At this time, the announcer on the radio was describing the Thanksgiving menu for American soldiers on the front line in North Korea. It sounded less like reporting a menu in the trenches, and more like introducing a meeting of bankers in a golf club: Cocktails, stuffed olives, roast young turkey with marmalade, fruit salad, cakes, mince pies and coffee.MacArthur was not interested in the specific content of this menu. He would fly to the front line in North Korea at dawn, and he wanted to go around among those American boys.If reporters could take a photo of General MacArthur and American soldiers discussing the taste of turkey and publish it in the press, this Thanksgiving would be complete.

On the 24th, the weather over Sinanju near the Cheongcheon River in North Korea, where the headquarters of the U.S. Eighth Army is located, was clear.When MacArthur's special plane landed on the bumpy runway, the generals headed by General Walker greeted him respectfully.MacArthur, wearing a parka, got off the special plane and did not shake hands with his military generals first, because he knew that reporters were not interested in such photos, so he squatted down first unexpectedly, and took a picture of the commander of the US First Army. The head of a German puppy named Ebe, brought by General Milburn, also seemed to have made a joke.The reporters took this light-hearted photo, and without hearing clearly what kind of joke MacArthur was talking about, they grinned with the American generals present.

Then MacArthur took a jeep to the front line for inspection. MacArthur half-jokingly blamed General Walker for his slowness, and Walker had always taken a noncommittal approach to the issue.He heard MacArthur say to Major General Church, the commander of the US 24th Division: "I have made a guarantee to the wives and mothers of the boys of the 24th Division. The boys will return home on Christmas. Don't let me be a liar .When you reach the Yalu River, I will let you go." MacArthur's words were firmly remembered by the reporters of the American "Time" magazine present.

Reporters seized on the subject and asked, "General, do you mean this war can be over by Christmas!" MacArthur said: "Yes. The powerful offensive of my left wing will be unstoppable, and any resistance will be weak and hopeless; my right wing will be in a very favorable position with the cooperation of a powerful navy and air force. The left and right wings are on the banks of the Yalu River The meeting of the two is, in a sense, the end of the war." "How many Chinese troops does the general think are in North Korea?" "30,000 regular troops and 30,000 volunteers."

"What's your plan after victory?" "Eighth Army transferred back to Japan, two divisions to Europe... Let the children go home before Christmas!" The next day, November 25, the major newspapers and periodicals in the United States published the headlines: "General MacArthur promises to end the war before Christmas", "Christmas soldiers can go home", "Victory is in sight-is Christmas not far away?" ? "... The name of the campaign "Christmas Offensive" has since become ironic. The phrase "bring the children home before Christmas" has become a perpetual joke in people's gossip.Although MacArthur would strongly deny that he had said anything similar in his defense and memoirs, all senior US military generals and a large number of reporters at the Sinanju Airport have witnessed it, and it is impossible to completely deny it.MacArthur's staff officer, Major General Whitney, later recalled that MacArthur's words at that time were "half joking, but with a certain certainty in meaning and purpose."MacArthur's own defense is: "In conversations with some military officers, I told them that General Bradley hoped to transfer two divisions back to the country before Christmas, if Red China did not intervene in the war... The press misinterpreted this sentence It was a prophecy of our certain victory, and this bogus twisted interpretation was later used as a powerful propaganda weapon against me."

What MacArthur could not deny was an announcement he made that day: The United Nations forces' compression and encirclement of the elite troops fighting there in North Korea is now approaching a critical moment.During the past three weeks the various air forces which are independent elements of this pincer have launched sustained attacks with exemplary coordination and combat effectiveness, successfully cutting off the supply lines from the north, so that the resulting reinforcements have been drastically reduced. Basic supplies are clearly limited.The right flank of this pincer offensive, effectively supported by the navy, had now reached the condescending enveloping position, bisecting the geographically probable enemy north.This morning, the western sector of the pincer offensive launched a general offensive to complete the encirclement and close the pincer.If successful, this would actually reduce the war, restore the peaceful reunification of Korea, allow for the prompt withdrawal of United Nations troops, and allow the Korean people and country to enjoy full sovereignty and international equality.That's what we fight for.

The British "Times" announced in the newspaper that day: "Seven United Nations divisions (three American divisions and four South Korean divisions) and the Commonwealth brigade are ready to carry out what is said to be the final offensive to sweep from the west coast to the west. This section of the lower reaches of the Yalu River where South Korean troops have arrived." In the history of world wars, no military commander would publicly announce his attack plan in broad daylight before an attack. Absolutely confidential military content such as the route, scale, strength, and purpose of the attack were posted like travel plans.The much-publicized attack, said the British press, was "apparently a most peculiar way of fighting war."

MacArthur's intelligence officer Willoughby was far more nervous than his commander.Given the lessons of the first campaign, this famous optimist was much more realistic in his estimates of the Chinese army on the eve of the "Christmas Offensive."Willoughby reminded his commander on November 15: "About 300,000 combat-experienced Chinese Communist troops have assembled on the 128-kilometre stretch from North Andong to Manpu on the Yalu River. Intelligence from Guangdong, China also indicates that a large number of Artillery, small arms, ammunition, and other military supplies are being shipped north."

Willoughby is skeptical of the report that the pilots of the US military reconnaissance planes flying 24 hours a day "found no trace of the Chinese army".He believes that the Chinese army is capable of infiltrating troops into North Korea because the Chinese army is good at marching through remote roads and using night as cover.Moreover, the logistical support of this army is relatively easy, because the supply line is very short. Regarding the maneuverability of the Chinese army and the characteristics of concealed marches, the US military history describes them in great detail:

The ability of the Chinese Communist Army to force a march is extraordinary.According to reliable information, three divisions of the Communist Party of China set out from Andong on the Yalu River, marched 286 miles in 16 to 19 days, and reached an assembly area in eastern North Korea; , Marching an average of eighteen miles a day on rugged mountain roads.The "day" of the CCP soldiers begins when night falls, around 7:00 p.m. and ends at 3:00 a.m. the next morning.At dawn, at five-thirty, they dug their bunkers, camouflaged all their weapons, and then ate.During the daytime, only scouting units were on the move, looking for a camping place for the next day.The main force was stationary and camouflaged, invisible from aerial photographs and aerial observation.If a CCP soldier takes off his camouflage during the day, he must remain motionless where the plane left his tracks, and the officer has the power to shoot anyone who violates the order immediately.

Although the aerial reconnaissance of the U.S. military planes is very strict, the maneuvering of the Chinese army's large corps has not been detected.After the Korean War ended, military strategists in the United States, Britain and other countries called this move "a miracle in the history of contemporary warfare." The U.S. Eighth Army gave the following explanation for why it did not detect the large-scale mobilization of Chinese troops: 1. When obtaining relatively accurate information, a preconceived notion of "it won't be like that" swayed the judgment.Any intelligence cannot be called effective intelligence if the commander does not believe it. Second, the intelligence organization of the Eighth Army is poor.It turned out that the intelligence network established by the US 24th Division in South Korea was later disbanded, and no effective intelligence network was established after that. Third, there is no effective means of night reconnaissance in intelligence technology.Interpretation officers do not have the ability to see through the camouflage of the Chinese army. 4. The reconnaissance officers and interpretation officers called by the group army are all people who have not participated in the war for many years. The years have made them lose their professional sensitivity. As for the fact that the exact number of the Chinese army has never been clarified, the Eighth Army's explanation is that they "fell into a trivial trick of the Chinese army."Because, "the Chinese army stipulates that the appellation should be lowered by two levels, that is, the army is called a certain unit, which makes people sound like a regiment, the division makes people sound like a battalion, and the regiment makes people sound like a company." These rhetoric just illustrate the point of view of General Walker, the commander of the US Eighth Army: everything is a far-fetched evasion after failure. General Walker, commander of the US Eighth Army, was a timid and cowardly person in MacArthur's eyes.As the new campaign was about to begin, Walker was no longer angry at MacArthur's arbitrary style of command and the independence of Tenth Army from his command.At this moment, what worries him even more is the complicated and confusing battlefield that his Eighth Army will face.Walker was terrified that the Eighth Army was "dangerously exposed" on its right flank due to the huge gap between it and the Tenth Army on the Eastern Front.When MacArthur ordered him to attack on November 15, Walker protested that he had not received the logistics supplies he deserved at all, and his troops needed 4,000 tons of various supplies every day of attack.As a result, MacArthur had to change the time of the attack to November 20.Then Walker's negative preparations delayed the attack until the 24th.Did Walker’s delay just give Peng Dehuai the time to mobilize his troops? Not to mention, the military scientists of the US military gave a seemingly bizarre but very philosophical analysis of Walker’s caution. They said that the reason why Walker did this It came from his "certain admiration for the Chinese army."Walker made it clear to a reporter that although MacArthur's orders must be resolutely implemented, his preparation was to retreat if the situation changed.He once told a close friend that the retreat of the right-wing Eighth Army before the Chinese had nearly cost him his job.MacArthur didn't like him.He must attack according to MacArthur's plan, otherwise his professional military career will soon be over.But at the same time, he had a sensitive and strong premonition: "The Chinese army must be waiting for us somewhere." In order to contact the U.S. Tenth Army on the Eastern Front, Walker sent a patrol to look for friendly forces on his flank. As a result, the patrol reported that the Eighth Army's flank "seemed to have a force."At the press conference that was about to start the offensive, General Walker's words made the news people present feel that the atmosphere was not right. Reader's Digest reporter James Michener later recalled that press conference as "the most bleak and bleak event in all my memory." The reporter asked: "General Walker, you said that your patrol has established contact with the left wing. Are they friendly neighbors?" Walker replied: "We think so." "Don't you know?" "We think they must be friendly forces." "You don't have any connections with the left?" "No. We are fighting independently. But we are sure that those troops must be friendly." A few days later, when the battle broke out, Walker learned that the "surely friendly" force his patrol had seen was actually a Chinese detour. General Walker was not the only one who strongly questioned MacArthur's "Christmas Offensive". President Truman and senior US generals including Ridgway believed that MacArthur was walking a tightrope.At a meeting called by Truman, Ridgway made a sharp attack on MacArthur.Li Qiwei believed that MacArthur divided the Eighth Army and the Tenth Army into two offensive lines without contact with each other, which gave the Chinese army, which is good at interspersed and divided, an excellent opportunity.This kind of deployment is something that only the lowest cadets of West Point Military Academy will do.He then ridiculed MacArthur's so-called "offensive" in a mocking tone: "Although MacArthur called this advance to the Yalu River an 'offensive', it was actually just an enemy movement. Before the enemy's position was clarified, You can't attack the enemy until the enemy's troops have even made contact with your troops. Many field commanders believe that China's powerful troops must be waiting somewhere, and there are one or two commanders He was also wisely skeptical of blindly advancing without regard for the safety of his flanks and without contact with friendly forces on both flanks. But no one backed down, and many displayed the overly optimistic attitude of the Commander-in-Chief. sentiment." Truman also expressed doubts about MacArthur's "end the war before the holidays" argument, although this doubt was expressed after the fact: "What we should have done was to stop at the neck of North Korea (he pointed to a globe say), that's what the British want. We know the Chinese have close to a million people on the border and whatnot, but MacArthur is the field commander. You pick him, you have to support him, it's a The only way a military organization can work. I got the best opinion I could get, and this guy on the front line said, this thing should be done. So I agreed. It was a decision I made, regardless How about hindsight." Even the president has nothing to do with MacArthur, what can other senior military staff do? Secretary of State Acheson wrote in his memoirs: "The government lost its best chance to stop North Korea from heading for disaster. All the presidential advisers concerned, whether civil or military, knew that something was wrong, but what was wrong? No one has an idea on how to find out and how to deal with it.” As a military general stationed abroad, MacArthur's relationship with his own government and his country's highest military decision-making body has become the strangest and most absurd relationship in the history of world politics and wars after World War II. "He always thought we were a bunch of hairy kids," said General Bradley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.This metaphor is extremely vivid, but the American writer Joseph Gurdon put it even better: "The main crime of the Pentagon is timidity. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are as scared in front of MacArthur as school boys are when they meet street bullies in the city." trembling." On the morning of Thanksgiving Day, November 23, Peng Dehuai dangled on the map with a magnifying glass. He called Hong Xuezhi, Deng Hua, and Jie Fang, pointed to De Chuan and Ning Yuan on the map, and said, "It's right here! it's here!" The fighter Peng Dehuai was waiting for was clear: the right wing of the United Nations Army had formed an obvious weak spot, which was in the Dechuan and Ningyuan areas.The United Nations forces in this area are the 7th and 8th Divisions of the South Korean Army, and the Chinese 38th and 42nd Armies will be opposed to them.It should be said that this was the most ideal situation Peng Dehuai envisioned, and the South Korean army was no match for the Chinese army at all.Inserted from this part, it can go straight to the rear of the United Nations Army on the Western Front.Peng Dehuai seems to have been able to see the end of the complete annihilation of the two divisions in South Korea. Peng Dehuai immediately sent a power call to the 38th and 42nd armies: "You should aim to completely annihilate the 7th and 8th Divisions of the Li Puppet Army in the Dechuan area. Your attack time will start on the evening of the 25th. The armies on the west bank of the Qingchuan River depend on the development of the battle situation. Comrade Han Xianchu is requested to make adjustments according to the actual situation. In short, the principle is to cut off and encircle first, and then completely annihilate Syngman Rhee's 7th and 8th divisions." On this day, except for the South Korean 7th and 8th Divisions that arrived at Dechuan and Ningyuan, the South Korean 6th Division was moving eastward from the Gecheon area, and Beicang-ri and Gakang-ri were replaced by the U.S. Second Division.At the same time, the 1st Division, 24th Division of the U.S. Cavalry, the 27th British Brigade, and the 1st Division of South Korea have all entered the field, Yongsandong, and Bochuan.The change in the enemy's situation attracted the attention of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, and a telegram was sent: After our army launched an offensive on the east bank of the Qingchuan River, the US Second Division and the First Cavalry Division may send reinforcements eastward.If the two enemies come to the east, our 39th and 40th Armies on the east bank of the Qingchuan River will not be able to cooperate with the 42nd and 38th Armies to annihilate the 7th and 8th Divisions of the Li Army.Therefore, it is suggested that the 40th Army move eastward and move closer to the 38th Army to strengthen our army's left-wing assault force.In order to deal with the stadium and the direction of the courtyard, it is possible to ensure that the 38th Army and the 40th Army will first annihilate the 7th and 8th Divisions of the Li Army, and cause a battle for the next battle against the enemy. Roundabout advantage. Peng Dehuai immediately adjusted his campaign deployment: Deputy Commander Han Xianchu directly commanded the 38th Army and the 42nd Army, and first annihilated the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth South Korean Army of Dechuan, Ningyuan, and Mengshan. Three divisions; the 40th Army moved eastward to the north of Xinxingli and Suminli, and replaced the defense of the 112th Division of the 38th Army with one division to block the enemy. Its main force penetrated into Jiariling and Xicang After the Fortieth Army moved eastward, the Thirty-ninth, Sixty-sixth, and Fiftieth Armies also moved eastward one after another, taking defenses one by one to maintain the integrity of the front.After launching a full-scale attack on the enemy, all armies should actively attack the enemy in front of them, seeking to wipe out part of the enemy. Peng Dehuai reported the adjusted plan to Mao Zedong, and reconfirmed that the time for the attack on the western front was the evening of November 25, and the correspondingly adjusted time for the attack on the eastern front was the evening of the 26th. When MacArthur went to the front to talk and laugh, Peng Dehuai received a call back from Mao Zedong: "Your combat deployment at seven o'clock today is completely correct." Mao Zedong didn't know that when he sent this telegram to North Korea, an event that made him sad all his life happened. On the morning of the 25th, a U.S. military plane flew over the headquarters of the Volunteer Army. A napalm bomb fell on the roof of Peng Dehuai's house, and the house burned instantly.Because the Volunteer Army headquarters had been bombed by U.S. aircraft the day before, at the firm request of Hong Xuezhi and others, Peng Dehuai and his party went up the mountain to hide this morning, but Mao Anying and several other staff officers did not go up the mountain to hide.It took only a few minutes for the hot napalm to burn the house to ashes.When the U.S. military plane left and Peng Dehuai came down from the mountain, he saw Mao Anying's charred body. "Why did you blow him up?" Peng Dehuai repeated this sentence in extreme sadness. Except for Peng Dehuai and several senior commanders, no one knows Mao Anying's real identity. Mao Anying, the eldest son of Mao Zedong, was born in Changsha, China in 1922. He spent his childhood in the KMT prison with his mother Yang Kaihui.Later, he was rescued by the CCP's underground party.A graduate of the Frunze Military Academy of the Soviet Union and the Institute of Oriental Languages ​​of the Soviet Union, he became a tank lieutenant of the Soviet Army during the Soviet-German War.Before entering the court, he was the deputy secretary of the party committee of Beijing Machinery General Factory.After entering the court, he served as Peng Dehuai's secretary and Russian translator. He was only 28 years old when he died and was newly married. This is what happened the day after the UN Army's "Christmas Offensive" officially began. A few hours later, the soldiers nailed a coffin with wooden boards and buried Mao Anying on the mountain. Up to now, in the place called Dayudong in North Korea, a stone tablet has been erected, and the front reads: Tomb of Comrade Mao Anying.It reads on the back: Comrade Mao Anying was originally from Shaoshanchong, Xiangtan County, Hunan Province, and is the eldest son of Comrade Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese people.In 1950, he resolutely requested to join the Chinese People's Volunteers, and died heroically on November 25, 1950 in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.Comrade Mao Anying's spirit of patriotism and internationalism will forever educate and inspire the younger generation.The martyr Mao Anying is immortal! Without the on-site reconnaissance and marking of the target location by United Nations agents, the bombing of Peng Dehuai's office by U.S. aircraft would never have been so accurate.This incident revealed China's negligence in the defense of the war headquarters in the early days of the Korean War. If Peng Dehuai did not follow the advice and went up the mountain to hide, then he would not have escaped the disaster.What would the Korean War look like without this Chinese commander? MacArthur gave the order to attack across the board. After seeing the rumble of tanks and the inexplicable excitement of the reporters sending a telegram to the world that the United Nations Army had started the "final offensive", he felt that he was no longer the commander-in-chief here. What happened, so he boarded the special plane again, and then he gave the pilot an instruction that shocked everyone present: "Fly to the west coast, and then go north along the Yalu River!" The accompanying staff officers immediately said no, because even if this special plane had self-defense weapons and fighter jets to escort it, it would be very dangerous to fly to the Yalu River.Didn't Intelligence Officer Willoughby repeatedly warn that the Soviet MiGs had crossed paths with American aircraft on the Yalu River?Didn't the anti-aircraft artillery on the riverside of the Chinese army already have a record of shooting down US aircraft? MacArthur said: "I want to look at the terrain and see the signs of the Soviets and the Chinese... The courage to dare to make this flight is the best protection!" Any opposition to MacArthur's will has no effect. The reporters were frightened and muttered, "Is this necessary?" General Whitney, MacArthur's staff officer, carefully reminded: "Are you bringing a parachute?" "You gentleman, you can take it if you like, but I don't take it anyway." MacArthur was smoking his pipe, with a clear mockery on his face. The plane took off.Turn over the west coast and reach the mouth of the Yalu River. MacArthur ordered: "Fly along the river! Fly lower!" Altitude 5000 meters. Under the wing is a snow-capped mountains and plains.The Yalu River has been frozen, and the middle of the river, where the water is particularly fast, occasionally reveals the black surface of the river.The rugged and winding roads along the huge wasteland along the river are covered with thick snow, without any signs of people and vehicles passing through. The wasteland extends to the remote Siberia without human habitation in the misty wind and snow. MacArthur, 70, saw nothing. General Whitney later remembered vividly the awe he felt when he looked down from the porthole of his plane: "As far as the eye could see were endless backcountry, high mountains, deep rifts, and the almost black water of the Yalu River. Trapped in the deathly silence of a world of ice and snow." Whitney felt that MacArthur was right not to use a parachute, because he believed that in case of emergency, he would rather die with the plane than land in "this unforgiving wilderness." it is good. MacArthur was awarded the Meritorious Flight Medal and the Combat Flight Medal of Honor by the U.S. Air Force for his Yalu River flight. MacArthur ended the border flight under the adoring eyes of reporters.His special plane really flew to Tokyo this time.When the plane disappeared into the clouds, Walker who stayed behind muttered in a low voice: "Nonsense." Although Walker's voice was very low, everyone present said that they heard it clearly afterwards. Lynch, General Walker's aide, when he had to answer a reporter's question on this matter, replied: "General Walker does not use profane language no matter what annoys him." MacArthur returned to Tokyo and immediately issued a statement: The United Nations offensive will soon end in victory. Tokyo's "Asahi Shimbun" published the headline in large font in a prominent position that day: The United Nations Army has begun a general offensive, and the war is expected to end