Chapter 18 4. The Offensive of the Marine Corps

On the day when the attack on the Eastern Front began, what impressed the officers and soldiers of the two warring parties most was not so much the bloody battle overnight, but the heavy snowfall in this area.The snowflakes are dense and thick, and the temperature has dropped below minus 30°C. The frostbitten victims on both sides of the war are more miserable than the war wounded. By dawn on the 28th, the onslaught that had lasted all night began to subside.The sky is thin, whether it is the Chinese army or the US army, the two sides finally have a space to examine their current situation:

The 60th Division of the Chinese 20th Army occupied the front line of Fushengli and Xiaomintaili, cutting off the escape route of the 1st U.S. Army Division in Xiajieyuli; the 58th Division of the 20th Army has entered Shangping In the Li area, Xiajieyuli was surrounded on three sides, and the 59th Division occupied positions such as Dead Eagle Ridge and Xinxingli.The 81st Division of the Chinese 27th Army has occupied the west side of the Quzhan Lake, and the US 7th Infantry Division and the 1st Marine Division have been isolated.The 80th Division of the 27th Army surrounded the US 7th Infantry Division in Xinxingli.In Liutanli, the vanguard of the 1st U.S. Marine Division and the 79th Division of the Chinese 27th Army fought all night, forming a confrontation.

The Chinese commander found out that the number of U.S. troops in this area is twice as large as expected, and their equipment is far superior to that of the Chinese army. The commander of the U.S. military has judged that the U.S. military has been divided by a large number of Chinese troops in this cold and barren land. If no measures are taken, as long as the sky gets dark again and the Chinese soldiers' trumpets are blown again, they may be doomed . It should be said that the Chinese army's attack on the Eastern Front on the first night was at least tactically flawed. Therefore, the confrontation between the Chinese and American troops in Liutanli at dawn became an unexpected and difficult situation for the Chinese commanders. Feeling very headache reality.The Chinese commander realized that his command was inappropriate at dawn, so he decided to change his tactics, that is, to concentrate his forces on attacking the 31st Regiment of the 7th US Infantry Division in Xinxingli and the relatively weak command of the 1st US Marine Division. So and the basement Jieyu where the airstrip is located.This decision is at least tactically in line with the basic principles of the tactical thought formed by the Chinese army in its history. When attacking, if we can surround the enemy in Liutan-ri without fighting, and concentrate our attack on Xiajieyu-ri and take it down, the situation at dawn will be much more favorable to the Chinese army. It is a big headache to set up one's own frontier command post.

In the early hours of the morning, Commander Smith, who was in the base camp of the First US Marine Division in Xingnan Port, looked tired because he had not slept all night.This veteran of World War II did not wait until midnight to understand a truth: from the time the First Marine Division landed in this damned place, everything he did to resist, defy, and oppose Almond—whether these actions were Active or passive--now it's all proven to be correct, what a man he is.The most remarkable thing is that I almost risked the cost of losing my career as a soldier, and won the time to build an airstrip in Xiajieyu.As the Marine Corps, the most important thing at present is to keep the safety of Xiajieyu-ri, the middle part of the route scattered over hundreds of kilometers. down the most critical parts.

That night, the Chinese army did not attack Xiajieyu-ri very violently and did not occupy it. This is really a blessing for the fate of the 1st Marine Division. At dawn, Mr. Smith flew to Xiagaru-ri by helicopter. This time, Smith could see clearly with the naked eye on the plane that the Chinese army had divided the road where the landing corps was distributed into isolated sections.Since the carrier-based aircraft carrying out the bombing by the US military has not yet arrived, along this road, the figures of Chinese soldiers moving on the snow can be vividly seen. "There were incalculably many Chinese," Smith later recalled, "at least ten times as many as there were Marine divisions."

Xiajieyuli is a small town located at the south end of Changjin Lake, where three simple roads branch off, and the town becomes a traffic center.Except for a plateau to the east, it is a gently sloping basin.The airstrip at the southern end can be used for transport aircraft to take off and land to maintain the logistics lifeline of the First Landing Division.Here is the front headquarters of the 1st Marine Division, where the service troops of the 1st Marine Division are concentrated.In charge of security here is Lieutenant Colonel Rich, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Division, and he commands 3 companies.At the same time, due to transportation problems, the battalion headquarters of the Second Battalion of the Seventh Regiment and a firearms company also stayed here.During the daytime on the 27th before the Chinese army began to attack, Lieutenant Colonel Rich instructed the combat staff to formulate a defense plan. Anyone with a little military common sense would understand that the key points for defending Xiagaru-ri can only be the high ground in the east and the high ground in the south. Airport.

In fact, on the day that Almond gave the Marine Division the "Northward Advance" order, most of the personnel in the command post of the First Marine Division and the directly subordinate units sent by the Tenth Army had already arrived in Xiajieyuli one after another. The town was suddenly overwhelmed with traffic.At the insistence of Commander Smith, the construction of the airstrip of the airport was stepped up, and the soldiers of Company D were ordered to work day and night.When night fell and the U.S. troops in Liutanli began to come under attack, the construction site at Sai Yi Airport was still brightly lit, and the runway was only a quarter of the way completed.This is the airstrip that Commander Smith insists on. In the next few days, even when Chinese soldiers have rushed to the runway to fight hand-to-hand with American soldiers, and mortar shells from the Chinese army rain down, the construction of the runway The work didn't stop. The American soldiers raised their guns and fired while driving the bulldozers.The runway, bought at the cost of the lives of American soldiers, finally played an almost decisive role in the retreat of the 1st Marine Division. Commander Smith used it to save the lives of thousands of American soldiers.

At 11 o'clock on the 27th, the US Marine Division 1 and the US Army 7th Infantry Division opened a command post in Xiajieyu.Almond, the commander of the US Tenth Army, also flew to Xiajieyu.Almond and Smith talked in secret for nearly an hour in the tent of the command post. It is not clear what they talked about, but one thing is certain, that is, Almond did not talk about changing the plan. The reason is very simple: MacArthur did not change The order of the attack plan.Smith, who came out of the tent, looked calm.Almond then visited a small army that had been surrounded by the Chinese army and awarded a medal to the small army.At the award ceremony, Almond actually said to the soldiers: "At this stage, we are pursuing the retreating enemy, and we must quickly advance to the Yalu River." Contrary to Almond's argument, Commander Smith is issuing orders to the troops In the order, there was no word "Yalu River" at all, and Smith had already decided that he would never mention the Sino-Korean border river that had nothing to do with himself and his soldiers.

The main point of Commander Smith's order is: each unit quickly opens the passage of communication with each other. At 13:00, Colonel Puller, head of the 1st Regiment of the 1st Marine Division in Gutuli, ordered Company D of the 2nd Battalion to attack in the direction of Xiajieyuli.When the company was about one kilometer away, it was suddenly and violently attacked by the Chinese army in the heavy snow and was surrounded on three sides.Colonel Puller immediately ordered the company to retreat. As a result, it was not until dusk that Company D broke out from the encirclement and ran back to Gutuli. Company D lost 38 officers and soldiers in this operation. They were attacked by the 179th Regiment of the 60th Division of the Chinese 20th Army.

Throughout the day on the 28th, the Chinese army has been in a state of mobilization and concealed air defense. Dusk is coming soon.The situation of the 1st Marine Division of the U.S. Army at dusk was as follows: On the long dirt road between mountains, the troops were still compressed in the five isolated villages of Liutanli, Deokdong Pass, Xiajieyuli, Gutuli and Zhenxingli. In the ring position. Commander Smith decided to spend the night in Xiajieyu. He clearly knew that Xiajieyu must be the primary attack target of the Chinese army tonight. Smith was on a squeaky receiver, listening to reports from various units.He was terrified by the battle situation on the western front: Not only did Walker's Eighth Army start a full-scale and frantic retreat, but the US Second Division was blocked by the sudden appearance of the Chinese army at a place called Sansuoli on its way back.

Now that the Western Front has collapsed, why is there any need for the First Marine Division to advance on the Eastern Front? Now that it has been proved that the Chinese army is trying to wipe out the First Marine Division in this barren mountain, what is the talk of advancing to the border river to form a "pincer offensive" by the United Nations? Smith kept reporting to Almond the danger of the 1st Marine Division. However, he just did not receive any "short word to modify the offensive plan" from Almond.This means that the mission of the First Marine Division is still: to attack north and west from Liutanli. "It was so stupid," Smith later recalled, "and it looked like we were going to fight for our lives." Smith's combat instructions to Lizberger, commander of the Seventh Regiment in Liutanli, were: "Dig trenches and defend." Smith's combat instruction to the marine troops in Xiajieyu was still: "Dig trenches and defend." At this time, Xiajieyu was fragile.Although Smith officially issued an order to "appoint Lieutenant Colonel Rich as the commander of the unified defense of the Xiajieyu-ri area" when it was dark, it is not easy to be able to command the US troops currently in Xiajieyu-ri.When Rich counted all the troops he had the authority to command in Xiajieyu, he was quite surprised by the count. The U.S. troops here were basically a big platter: 3,913 people were from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and South Korean Army. There are 58 units, many of which are advance teams or liaison teams with less than 10 people belonging to different systems.Many of these soldiers are not combat soldiers, but engineers and communications personnel. The snow fluctuates from time to time, and the dusk is silent, frighteningly silent.Occasionally, sporadic shooting sounds of light weapons came, adding to the solemnity of the entire Mengma Snowfield. It is the 58th Division of the Chinese 20th Army that is attacking Xiajieyuli head-on.This was the first real battle the force had faced since crossing the Yalu River.The 172nd Regiment is in the west, the 173rd Regiment is in the east, and the 174th Regiment is the reserve team.When night fell, all the soldiers who participated in the attack had their bullets loaded and their bayonets drawn. In front of the fifty-eighth division, defending the main position is H company and I company of the first division and one regiment of the U.S. Marine Corps.In order to dig out fortifications on the hard frozen soil, American soldiers packed explosives in cans and detonated them.They also filled thousands of sacks with soil and built the parapet of the fortification.In front of the position, there are mines, booby traps, tripwire flares, five-gallon gasoline cans that can be detonated by hand grenades, and concertina-shaped barbed wire.Machine guns, recoilless guns, tank guns and mortars and howitzers were also deployed.On the dividing line between the two companies, the US military deployed two tanks. Behind Company H and Company I was the brightly lit airstrip construction site. At 20:00, it started to snow again. At 22:30, the tripwire flare in front of the U.S. position exploded.In the light of the flares, what the U.S. military saw were Chinese soldiers divided into several tentative groups looking for the flank positions and frontal gaps of the U.S. military positions.After the exploratory group of Chinese soldiers retreated, the artillery preparations of the Chinese army began.Mortar shells fell on the US positions, and the US soldiers huddled in the fortifications, and the hands holding the guns began to heat up.After the artillery preparations of the Chinese army lasted for 30 minutes, suddenly, three trumpets sounded, and the American soldiers subconsciously looked forward from the parapet, and what they saw was: "The Chinese soldiers' shock formation is like the ground suddenly boiling up. ". The Chinese soldiers who arrived at the front of the US military positions immediately entered the fire net of the First Marine Regiment. In front of the US military fire net with a very powerful firepower configuration, Chinese soldiers only had the necessary frontal casualties.The Chinese soldiers knew this, so they rushed up one after another. Chinese soldiers and their commanders have the same view on the firepower of the U.S. military, that is: as long as they rush past the powerful firepower of the U.S. military, when the real hand-to-hand combat occurs, the U.S. soldiers will die. An hour later, the central part of Company H's position was breached by Chinese soldiers.During the hand-to-hand combat, Company H abandoned their position and retreated. The company commander, Captain Corley, saw the shadows of Chinese soldiers rushing towards him in the company command post.U.S. soldiers retreated all the way to the airport runway under construction.The soldiers of Company D who were under construction counterattacked the Chinese soldiers with the light weapons around them and the soldiers of Company H, barely driving the Chinese soldiers off the runway.Soldiers from Company D then continued construction. The soldiers of Company H, with the support of the signal troops and engineers sent by the battalion headquarters, began to counterattack the Chinese soldiers again and again. As a result, the American commander who commanded the reinforcements was killed.Captain Corley admired China's "excellent firepower of 60mm and 82mm mortars and heavy machine guns". Company H's position was full of Chinese soldiers, but there were also American soldiers mixed in. In the snowy night, both sides Soldiers had difficulty identifying each other.At midnight, a regiment once again organized a counterattack force composed of engineers and drivers to attack the Chinese army occupying the position of Company H. This counterattack by the US military regained some of the lost positions, and the two sides formed a see-saw pattern in this part confrontational situation. Captain Fisher of Company I was a big man who ran from trench to trench, and the Chinese bullets missed him, the obvious target. The position of Company I was occupied by Chinese soldiers twice. Because two houses on the position were hit and caught fire, the fire illuminated the position. This is something that Chinese soldiers do not like very much. Not being suppressed, more than 1,000 shells were fired continuously, and the Chinese soldiers finally failed to occupy the position of Company I. The importance of defense on the high ground in the east is very obvious, because standing on the high ground can overlook the entire Xiajieyu.However, the deployment of the U.S. military's highland defense forces is surprising.Company G of the 1st Marine Division and 1 Regiment, which was scheduled to serve as the defense, did not arrive. In the hour before the Chinese army began to attack, Lieutenant Colonel Rich managed to cobble together a defensive force. A miscellaneous army dominated by companies. D Company is composed of 77 Americans and 90 South Koreans. Their mission in Xiajieyu is not to fight wars, but to repair vehicles and tanks.When they learned that they were being sent to hold positions, and that a Marine Corps captain was in command, the soldiers resented.At 20 o'clock in the evening, this disgruntled team reached the high ground, and just crouched down in the incomplete trench, the Chinese army's attack began.Almost instantly, D Company's defenses collapsed.The Chinese soldiers drove their opposing motley crew off the hilltop, losing 44 of the 77 American engineers in the short battle.South Korea suffered 60 casualties out of 90.The captain of the Marine Corps who was in charge of commanding this motley army was killed in the chaotic gunfire.The captain's signalman was a first-class soldier named Podolek. This first-class soldier hid on the mountain with a radio on his back and failed to run down. So he kept reporting to the command post how the Chinese army rushed to the position. of. It was almost dawn when the U.S. military organized a service unit under the cover of tanks, barely forming a defensive line opposite the Chinese soldiers on the side of the high ground. At this time, it was almost only a matter of time before Xiajieyu fell into the hands of the Chinese army. However, the Chinese troops occupying the high ground to the east did not continue their attack. Why not expand the results in one fell swoop and break through the weak defense line of the US military? Commander Smith's judgment is: Maybe the Chinese army lacks sufficient combat power to sustain a deep assault.Then Smith immediately realized another phenomenon worthy of his gratitude, that is, the piles of ammunition and fuel in the U.S. military's circular positions. Both were absolutely disastrous.However, although the artillery of the Chinese 58th Division fired accurately and effectively at the front of the U.S. defense, they did not fire a single shell at these extremely dangerous exposed materials of the U.S. Army. Even so, the loss of the eastern highlands was fatal to the American troops in Hagaru.Because this highland not only guards the road leading to Gutuli, but also can shoot bullets to any position in the circular position of Xiajieyuli with a rifle. From dawn, under the supervision of Lieutenant Colonel Rich, Deputy Battalion Commander Myas directed the U.S. forces to start counterattacks to the highlands again and again. The U.S. military knows that at dawn, the Chinese army usually does not take the initiative to attack, and U.S. military aircraft that can take off the hats of Chinese soldiers who have turned to defense are coming. At dawn, a Chinese company commander accepted the task of defending the highlands. His name has been known and admired by all Chinese people for quite a long time since 1950, and he is still the pride of the Chinese 20th Army. He is Yang Gensi, commander of the third company of the 172nd Regiment. Yang Gensi was born in 1922 in a small village called "Yang Huan Lang Dan" in Wuguan Township, Taixing County, Jiangsu Province, China.Yang Gensi, who grew up in extreme poverty, joined the Chinese People's Liberation Army at the age of 22 and joined the Communist Party of China the second year after joining the army.At the age of 28, he had become a delegate to the National Conference of Heroes of Combat, an honor that speaks volumes for his outstanding performance during the years of war. The force allocated to the commander of the third company is a platoon.Including Yang Gensi, the dry food on all soldiers' bodies was three cooked potatoes that had already been frozen hard.Except for the three potatoes, the soldiers' pockets, which could hold things, were all stuffed with grenades. The battalion commander said to Yang Gensi: All the positions outside Xiajieyuli are already in the hands of the Chinese army. After dawn, the troops are going to stop attacking, adjust and air defense, and attack after dark.And after dawn, the U.S. military will attack this high ground first, and we must not let this attempt of the U.S. military come true. "Don't let the U.S. military climb an inch up the high ground!" This was the battalion commander's last order. At dawn, the snow fell even more heavily.Yang Gensi and his soldiers built fortifications with snow on the high ground.Fighting continuously in the severe cold, the soldiers' shoes and feet had froze together, and they lost consciousness, and it was difficult for them to bend their fingers. It was dawn, and the artillery preparations of the U.S. military began. At the same time, carrier-based aircraft that took off from U.S. warships outside Xingnan Port also arrived.The high ground was suddenly shrouded in thick smoke.The sound of heavy explosions and shrapnel was mixed together, and the black snow and frozen soil splashed on the ground, and the strong smell of sulfur suffocated the Chinese soldiers.Petrol bombs dropped by U.S. planes set the black snow on fire.The Chinese army did not have anti-aircraft artillery fire to fight back, and the young Chinese soldiers could only huddle in the simple fortifications and endure, and were buried by continuously flying steel fragments and frozen soil.Chinese soldiers called to each other, asking their comrades to help bandage the wounds, or asking their comrades to dig themselves out of the collapsed fortifications. After the artillery fire, the US military's first attack began, but it was quickly beaten down by dense grenades from Chinese soldiers. Then, there was more violent bombing. This time, amidst the explosion, there was a sound that made Yang Gensi vigilant. He thought it was the shelling of tanks.Sure enough, he found eight US tanks on the side of the high ground. If tanks join the US military's positional warfare, it means that the US military is about to start a rare storm. Braving the grenades of the Chinese soldiers, the U.S. military has already rushed to the front of the position. Soldiers from the two armies fought together.The U.S. artillery fire stopped, and U.S. planes circled low above the high ground, and only the sound of soldiers fighting could be heard on the ground.None of the Chinese soldiers took a step back. Even if the American soldiers saw blood on their faces and they were blind, they would still rush towards them. As long as they grabbed one of them, they would never let go. Time and time again, Yang Gensi discovered the weakness of the US attack. He sent half a squad from the mountainside to the side of the high ground, and suddenly opened fire behind the attacking US troops.At the same time, he personally brought a soldier with explosives and blew up an American tank closest to the front of the position.The U.S. military couldn't support it and retreated. During the bombing again by the U.S. aircraft, Yang Gensi ordered the soldiers to bury the bodies of the sacrificed comrades-in-arms, and at the same time ordered the eighth squad leader to take people down to transport grenades. When the eighth squad brought up the grenade, they also brought a note from the battalion commander. The handwriting on it was scrawled, but the meaning was clear: don't lose your position. At 10 o'clock in the morning, another round of attacks by the US military began.This attack was more violent than any other, and the density of planes in the sky was unprecedented for Chinese soldiers. Under the strict order and supervision of Lieutenant Colonel Rich, the U.S. military formed a "special attack team" and launched a resolute attack on the high ground. The corpses of American soldiers are scattered in front of the highlands, and the number of Chinese soldiers is also decreasing. Yang Gensi saw the leader of the heavy machine gun platoon crawling towards him. The platoon leader said, "The machine gun is out of bullets." Yang Gensi asked: "How many people are there?" The platoon leader said: "Besides me, there is still a wounded soldier alive, and you, the company commander." Yang Gensi said: "You and that soldier go down and report the situation to the battalion commander." The platoon leader asked, "What about you, company commander?" Yang Gensi said: "I am here to defend the position." Yang Gensi stood alone on the high ground in the east, from here he could see the US military transport planes taking off and landing on the runway of the Xiajieyu-ri airstrip.Around the airport, fighting is also going on.No U.S. military vehicles can be seen on the highway under the high ground, which is the result of guarding the high ground.Now, the high ground is very quiet, only the strange groans of the wounded on both sides lying on the front snow can be heard.Yang Gensi walked around the perimeter of the highland, and then he found a hidden place to hide himself. The US artillery preparations and aircraft bombing began again. This shelling and bombing was very long. As the shelling subsided, American soldiers began to climb to the higher ground. Yang Gensi saw a blue flag in the U.S. Army. He didn't know it was the flag of the U.S. Marine Corps. The American soldiers who were crawling were not shot. They felt that there might be no Chinese soldiers alive on this high ground. When approaching the top of the mountain, the American soldiers straightened their backs. At this moment, the American soldiers saw a Chinese soldier standing up in front of them as if he had suddenly emerged from the ground.In the soldier's arms is a huge explosive bag, the fuse on the explosive bag has been ignited, and yellow smoke is coming out. The ears on the sides of this Chinese military cotton cap are dangling. He rushed towards them in stride. When Yang Gensi rushed under the flag of the Marine Corps, the explosive package in his arms exploded. The blue flag of the US Marine Corps shattered into the snowy sky. Flying along with the fragments of the flag were the stumps of the human body. Yang Gensi stopped the attack of the American soldiers. From this moment until the entire withdrawal of the U.S. troops from this area, the Americans have never been able to take a step on this high ground overlooking the whole of Xiagaru-ri. Not long after, on this ordinary hill in the north of North Korea, a stone tablet was erected. The stone tablet was carved from a white stone transported by the people of Changjin County, North Korea from a distant sea.Decades have passed, and the stele has always stood in the rolling northern part of the Korean Peninsula, commemorating this Chinese soldier named Yang Gensi. While the 1st U.S. Marine Division was fighting in Xiajieyuli, in Xinxingli, the 7th U.S. Infantry Division was continuously attacked by the 80th Division of the Chinese 27th Army from the evening of the 28th.By dawn on the 29th, there were more than 300 corpses abandoned by the Seventh Division on the outer positions.Most of the soldiers of the 80th Division of the Chinese 27th Army were seriously frostbitten, and the logistics supply was difficult to keep up with, but the troops still rushed into Xinxingli for a while.The two warring parties engaged in a brutal tug-of-war on a circular position.The U.S. commander guarding Xinxingli is Colonel McLean, commander of the 32nd Regiment of the 7th Division of the United States. Seventeen Artillery Battalion was formed.When Commander McClain was killed in the scuffle, the Seventh Division began to fall into unprecedented chaos. Seeing that the Seventh Commander was about to be wiped out by the Chinese army, Almond made an order to command the Commander of the First Marine Division Smith felt extremely angry about the decision: Smith was required to take on the task of commanding the 7th Division of the Army, and the 1st Marine Division was required to send a regiment from Liutanli to rescue the 7th Division from the mountain.The troops of the 1st Marine Division in Liutanli were surrounded by the Chinese army at this time. They were overwhelmed and in danger. They were thinking about how to escape the bad luck. How about sending a regiment to save the damned army!However, Smith is a soldier after all. He really sent a small army to test in the direction of Xinxingli, but was immediately beaten back by the small country army.The 7th Division of the U.S. Army Infantry was unable to expect reinforcements in the fiercer attacks of the Chinese army. The acting head, Lieutenant Colonel Fine, finally issued the order to "break out of the encirclement by itself". .The breakout target set by Colonel Fine was in the direction of Xiajieyu-ri, and the acting regiment commander was injured just after the breakout began, and the American officers and soldiers who lost their command broke up into stragglers and ran all over the mountains and plains. According to the records of South Korean war history after the war, a total of 670 officers and soldiers of the U.S. Seventh Division located in Xinxingli fled back to Xiajieyuli.The total strength of the three American battalions there before the war should have been 2,500.When annotating this statistic, the South Korean War History said: "Three hundred people were found dead in action, and the rest were all missing." No matter how reliable the specific statistics are, the complete annihilation of the 31st Regiment of the 7th Division of the U.S. Army Infantry is an undoubted fact. . There are many reasons why the Chinese army did not occupy Xiajieyu in the end, but there is one reason that cannot be ignored, that is, an American army rushed over from the death blockade laid by the Chinese army and arrived at Xiajie, which was in urgent need of reinforcements. Yuli.Although the number of this force was small, it gave a strong support to the 1st Marine Division in Xiajieyu, which was on the verge of destruction.This reinforcement was the mixed force known as "Task Force Drysdale". This mixed force was reorganized after a company of American infantry sent by Divisional Commander Smith to Hagaru-ri was beaten back.Smith's order to the task force was: "Reinforce Hagaru-ri at all costs." Commander-in-chief of the task force was Drysdale, Englishman, Lieutenant Colonel, Commander of the Forty-first British Squadron.This British detachment is part of the US Marine Corps.The troops equipped by the task force include: five tank platoons of the US First Tank Battalion, with 29 "Pershing" tanks; one regiment and one company of the US Marine Corps, with 22 vehicles; The regiment has been staying in a company in Gutuli, with 22 vehicles; the personnel of the Marine Corps Command, 66 vehicles, and the 41st British Army itself, with 31 vehicles. At noon on the 29th, reinforcements set off.This is a force that makes Chinese soldiers look very luxurious: 17 tanks open the way in front, more than 100 cars in the middle, and 12 tanks in the back.Over their heads, there are two "Corsair" fighter jets covering.At the same time, the U.S. artillery in Gutuli and Xiajieyuli used 105mm howitzers and 107mm and 81mm mortars to provide intensive artillery support to the roads they were going to pass. As soon as the Drysdale contingent set off, they were severely blocked by the Chinese army. It took them four hours to advance four kilometers.The mortar shells and machine gun bullets fired from the positions of the Chinese army on both sides of the road caused the British and American soldiers in the car to jump out of the car again and again to fight back in concealment. The tanks also stopped and fired, but they could not completely suppress China. Army shooting.As darkness fell, it was time for the Drysdale Task Force.First, the tanker who was walking in front said that the road ahead had been destroyed by Chinese soldiers, even if tanks could rush over, cars could not.Besides, Chinese soldiers may rush down from their positions by the road at any time, and fighting with bayonets is not something British and American soldiers like.Then, except for the communication in the tank, which could still be maintained, all the communication equipment was destroyed.The darkness brought great fear to the British and American soldiers, and the severe cold as the sun set began to make all soldiers feel that they would be frozen to death if not killed.Drysdale asked Commander Smith for instructions on what to do through the radio in the tank, and Smith's answer was still very simple: continue to advance to Xiagaru-ri. Waiting for the Drysdale contingent was the 179th Regiment of the 60th Division of the Chinese Twentieth Army.It is impossible to imagine how these Chinese soldiers were not replenished in the severe cold and did not freeze to death.What the British and American soldiers saw in the freezing weather were Chinese soldiers rushing towards them in the dark, sometimes with the sound of trumpets, sometimes quietly, and then raining grenades .Lieutenant Colonel Drysdale and his adjutant were wounded, the car was broken up and caught fire, the road was soon blocked, and the cars behind drove into the ditch at the side of the road.The troops of the task force were mixed together, and the sequence began to become chaotic.The most frightening thing is that before the wounded Drysdale rectified the chaotic troops, he found that there were only a small number of troops left to follow him.The troops behind have been cut into several pieces by the Chinese army.The British officer knew that once he faced this situation in a war with the Chinese, it meant that the most serious moment had arrived. Along the road from south to north, the task force was surrounded by sections of the Chinese army: two platoons of the US Army and some Marines concentrated in a ditch, and Captain Capraro, the officer in charge of propaganda of the Marine Corps, The head was compressed behind a ridge, the head of the naval officer in charge of the car transport, Major Healy, hid under the car, and another isolated group formed by the tanks who served as rear cover.These besieged British and American officers and soldiers resisted independently, and the Chinese army's light weapons and mortars caused their casualties to increase.The Chinese soldiers approached and threw grenades, then disappeared into the darkness, and rushed up again at some point.The armored tankers immediately turned around and drove back, and fled back to Gutuli one after another after suffering huge losses.The soldiers who lost the cover of their tanks and their cars were destroyed could only face despair.The most isolated people on the highway was a group of about 250 people led by a US Army officer.The Army officer's name is McLaughlin. He is the assistant chief of operations of the Almond Tenth Army Command and the head of liaison between the Tenth Army and the Marine Corps.McLaughlin commanded the wounded to gather in a circle, and sent scouts to detect the breakout route, but the people never came back after they were sent out.McLaughlin decided to hold out until dawn, when the plane arrived, there was hope of survival, but at this time, no one would listen to his command.Several soldiers got into a jeep and started to flee, but they all became prisoners of the Chinese army before the car drove far. At about 4:00 in the morning, Major McLaughlin, who was already numb, saw a Chinese soldier coming to him with a captured American sergeant. Lieutenant Colonel McLaughlin asked with trembling lips, "Are you here to surrender?" The Chinese soldier said: "I am a military envoy. We agree with you to send a few people to send the seriously wounded back to Gutuli, on the condition that the rest must surrender to the Chinese army." McLaughlin looked at the sky and said, "I'll think about it." McLaughlin wanted to estimate when it would be daylight, and he wanted to delay the negotiations until then.He exchanged views with other wounded officers, and then got in touch with Major Healy, who was also surrounded by Chinese troops. Healy said he still had a little ammunition and he didn't want to surrender.McLaughlin counted the ammunition of his resistance body and the number of people who could continue to fight, and found that the soldier with the most bullets had only eight bullets, and most of the people in the crowd were seriously wounded still groaning loudly. "We surrender," Major McLaughlin said. The Chinese soldiers swarmed up, desperately climbed into the car to unload the trophies, many of which were urgently needed food and cold-proof quilts for the Chinese soldiers. While the Chinese soldiers were unloading their trophies, some American soldiers slipped away. On this stretch of road, the number of surrendered contingents was 240. As the vanguard of the task force led by Drysdale approached Hagaru-ri at this time, they could already see the snow-white lights shooting from the airstrip.Only risked their lives to move forward.他们在距离下碣隅里只有一公里的地方受到中国军队几乎令他们覆灭的攻击，德赖斯代尔第二次负伤，不得不让美国海军陆战队的一位上尉代替他指挥。最后，这位上尉终于在下碣隅里向里奇中校报到了。 德赖斯代尔特遣队向下碣隅里的增援行动以损失一半的代价完成了。 脆弱的下碣隅里的防御得到了加强，尽管德赖斯代尔特遣队到达下碣隅里的人数只有300多人。 特遣队到达后没多久，中国军队向下碣隅里的攻击又开始了。 这是一场绝死的战斗，双方都表现出不顾一切的决心。中国军队的迫击炮射手终于发现了美军防御阵地中的一个绝好的目标，这一次，中国炮兵的炮弹击中了美军堆积如山的汽油桶，燃烧起来的大火令整个下碣隅里亮如白昼。 始终占领着有利地形的中国军队在经过反复攻击并且弹药消耗严重和士兵伤亡巨大的情况下，没能攻下下碣隅里。 30日清晨，美第十军派驻陆战一师的高级参谋福尼上校从古土里飞到了咸兴，向阿尔蒙德军长报告了陆战一师目前的情况。 此时，麦克阿瑟已经命令朝鲜战场上的联合国军“全面撤退”。 阿尔蒙德立即飞到了下碣隅里。 在那里，阿尔蒙德召开了有陆战一师师长和步兵第七师师长参加的会议。 阿尔蒙德终于宣布了“向南撤退”的命令，同时授权史密斯师长指挥长津湖地区所有美军的撤退行动，同时授权他“可以破坏影响撤退的一切装备”。 史密斯师长对这个已经太迟了的决定没有显示出一点兴奋。这时他对阿尔蒙德将军说的话是：“一、撤退的速度取决于后送伤员的能力；二、陆战队愿意战斗到底，并把大部分装备带回去。” 就这样，其悲惨程度在美军历史上极其少见的、对于美军士兵来讲如同炼狱般的长津湖大撤退开始了。 而史密斯师长在给他的美军陆战一师下达的撤退指令中有一句措辞让以后世界许多军史学家们长久地品味着。 史密斯师长面对损失惨重的陆战一师说：“陆战队，向南进攻！”