Chapter 89 The U.S. military encountered an overwhelming attack

Before the battle started, the soldiers of the 9th Corps did not have a hot meal for at least two days and at most nine days, and some troops had to slaughter and eat the marching horses.There is no hot water, so they have to drink water from melted ice and snow, or even eat snow to quench their thirst. At first, the U.S. troops marched slowly and were very cautious, but when news came that a unit of the 7th Infantry Division of the vanguard had arrived at Huishan Town by the Yalu River and raised the Stars and Stripes, they were relieved and used airdrops to supplement cold-proof equipment, Pushing forward in strides to the north.

On November 27, there was heavy snowfall around Changjin Lake, and the temperature dropped to minus 40 degrees Celsius.At dusk, the astonishing sound of bugles and shouts suddenly came from the forests of the Langlin Mountains. Eight divisions of the 20th Army and the 27th Army of the Volunteer Army, under the command of Song Shilun and Tao Yong, launched an attack on the US 10th Army. Onslaught. The battle on the Eastern Front has begun. In the ice and snow, the two ace armies launched a fierce confrontation rarely seen in human history. When the trumpet sounded, the soldiers of the volunteer army who had been hiding in the ice and snow for six days, even though many of them were delirious from the cold and hunger, still got up from the snow and launched an attack on the U.S. troops on the highway. Onslaught.

Many soldiers of the Volunteer Army limped and dragged their frozen legs and feet to charge; some soldiers were too cold to move because they lay down for too long, so they could only fire guns and bombs; a small number of them had frozen to death in the positions On, can't get up again. Although caught off guard, the 1st U.S. Marine Division, which was armed with steel, was the ace division of the U.S. Army after all, and the 7th U.S. Infantry Division was not a vegetarian either. They quickly calmed down in panic and quickly took measures to preserve their strength. The "turtle shell" tactics.

In the situation of being divided and fighting on their own, the United Nations quickly gathered the troops to several relatively open places according to the order of Commander Smith, and used hundreds of tanks to build a circular defensive circle in the besieged place. Soldiers included, The muzzle was outside, using a multi-layered firepower net to shoot violently at the attacking volunteer troops. Taking advantage of the cover of night and snow, the volunteers approached the U.S. military positions on the road covertly, and successfully broke into the U.S. military positions many times, throwing pieces of grenades and launching violent attacks.

At this time, the weakness of Chinese soldiers' weapons and equipment was revealed.Due to the lack of heavy artillery, the few light artillery and grenades could not break through the US steel positions surrounded by tanks.Even the small number of mortars carried by the Volunteer Army, due to the shrinkage of the barrels due to freezing, 70% of the shells could not be put in. The light machine gun had to move the trigger pin from time to time to ensure normal shooting. In the face of the tide of attacks, the 1st Marine Division of the U.S. ace army was in danger, quickly organized, and continuously fired flares around, illuminating the battlefield like daylight.

They organized two dense protective fire nets: using rifles, machine guns, and submachine guns to form a dense near-fire force circle to block the wave-like attacks of the volunteers; using large-caliber machine guns and mortars to cooperate with tanks to intercept volunteers coming from a distance. For a whole night, for more than 10 hours, the cannons and machine guns of the U.S. military fired uninterruptedly in all directions. By dawn, the weapons had been used to their limit and the ammunition they carried was about to run out.But the Volunteer Army's offensive is still unabated, wave after wave, wave after wave, seemingly uninterrupted and unstoppable.

"As long as the U.S. military's firepower is slightly weaker, there will be charging horns, whistles, and horns sounding everywhere, and then there will be fierce attacking Chinese and flying grenades." This night, the entire wolf forest mountain range was flickering with fire, and there were guns, shouts, and bugles everywhere. Fighting overnight, the U.S. military with extremely strong combat capabilities really learned the combat literacy of the volunteers.They found that the Volunteers are not only not afraid of death, but also flexible and changeable in tactics.They made full use of the terrain, pinpointed all the gaps, groped and rolled, true and false, and launched uninterrupted attacks.

According to U.S. Captain Speer, after the heavy bombardment by artillery and tanks, "when our infantry rushed forward to seize the enemy's position, they were hit back by dense machine guns and grenades. We really don't understand what's going on on the enemy's side." . In the early morning of the 28th, the extremely weak 20th Army and 27th Army failed to annihilate the U.S. troops in the "turtle shell", but cut the U.S. troops marching in a long snake formation into four sections and surrounded them in Liutanli , Xinxingli, Xiajieyuli and other places.

After fighting all night, the US military commanders began to realize that they had really encountered an "extremely tough opponent" this time. This opponent was no worse than the Japanese in spirit, and their tactics were even more terrifying than the Japanese. The U.S. military, which thinks it is number one in the world and advocates offense, finally understands that it is unreliable to attack the Yalu River, and it is even more unreliable to defeat the Chinese.The most reliable thing is to retreat quickly, find a way to break out of the encirclement, and run out of the encirclement of the Chinese!

During the day, it became the world of the US military.The U.S. military used tanks and artillery to open the way, and tried to break through the divided and surrounded positions with firepower.At this time, the wolf nature of the ace army of the 1st Marine Division was fully revealed. They were full of energy and made full use of the coordination of aircraft and ground artillery fire to bombard the volunteer positions indiscriminately. Napalm bombs, high-explosive bombs It slammed into one piece. Looking at the positions of the volunteers, thick smoke billowed, the snow was dried up, bunkers were bombed down, and many soldiers were killed and injured.

In Liutanli, the two regiments of the 1st Division of the US Marine War braved the severe cold and heavy snow to attack the 1282 and 1240 highlands of the 79th Division of the 27th Army that blocked their way five times in a row. Incendiary bombs blew up the volunteer positions In a sea of ​​flames, the two sides fought repeatedly, and positions changed hands several times. In Xiajieyu, the U.S. Army fought back desperately against the 20th Army. Both sides have red-eyed.American soldiers and volunteer soldiers fought together, pulling grenades on each other's bodies, fighting with bayonets, and there were gunshots, shouts, and explosions everywhere on the battlefield. Throughout the day, the U.S. military launched the craziest attack with its extremely powerful firepower and fighting spirit, and paid a heavy price, but it was like this, and still did not break through the defensive positions of the Volunteers. Of course, the strategic goal of the Volunteer Army, which had an extremely weak supply of weapons, to annihilate the besieged U.S. troops, also failed to achieve as scheduled. On the 28th, night fell again. At night, the Volunteers turned from defense to offense. After fighting for a whole day and night, the volunteers had almost no food or water. They were already extremely hungry and tired. Many soldiers were even starved and starved.The thinly dressed soldiers of the 80th Division of the 27th Army, dragging their frostbitten legs, still doggedly pursued the mechanized U.S. troops retreating to Xinxingli. out to fight. The 58th Division of the 20th Army also compressed the US military positions into a small area after extremely difficult and bloody battles. During the battle, many volunteers had already run out of ammunition, so they had to continue fighting non-stop by picking up weapons and ammunition abandoned by the US military. Injury is a scary thing in extreme cold weather.Due to the lack of medical conditions, many wounded and sick volunteers were shivering from the cold, and the wounds and blood flowing out were instantly frozen, and many wounded were frozen to death on the battlefield. At this time, the physical strength of the volunteer soldiers had been exhausted to the limit, and many people were even frozen on the ground.Even so, as long as there is a breath left, these Chinese soldiers will continue to fight and will never stop. At this time, the endurance of U.S. soldiers is also close to the limit.Many soldiers supported themselves with only a small piece of chocolate during the two-day battle. Some soldiers scrapped several automatic rifles, and some soldiers were frozen with the ground and could only get up by knocking on the ice or tearing their clothes and pants. However, the material conditions of the U.S. Army are not on the same level as that of the Volunteer Army after all. Compared with the Volunteer Army, their logistical supply is sky-high and underground.Moreover, U.S. military planes and mechanized vehicles rescued and transported wounded soldiers from time to time. After two full days of melee, the commanders of both sides were taken aback and began to feel how deep the other side's water was.Wow, this time I really encountered a hard stubble. The Volunteer Army found that the progress of the matter greatly exceeded the original estimate. Only in the Liutanli, Xinxingli, and Xiajieyuli areas, there were more than 10,000 US mechanized troops under siege, and the total strength was twice as much as estimated.Among them, Liutanli has two battalions of the 5th Regiment, the 7th Regiment and the 11th Artillery Regiment of the 1st US Marine Division; Xinxingli has two battalions of the 31st Regiment of the 7th US Infantry Division, The 1st Battalion, the 57th Artillery Battalion and the tank detachment of the division; Xiajieyu Li is the headquarters of the 1st Division of the US Marine War, two battalions of the 1st Regiment, a battalion of the 5th Regiment and a tank battalion; there are American infantry in Shecang 7th Regiment of the 3rd Division. The U.S. military also discovered that there are countless volunteers participating in the battle, and it is estimated that there are at least five divisions. Their appetite is huge. After nightfall on the 28th, the two sides began to adjust their tactics. The head of the 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army believed that since the number of opponents exceeded estimates, and he could not eat them all at once, he had no choice but to concentrate his troops, mobilize superior forces, and annihilate the enemy in one place first.Then expand the results of the battle and eat the enemy one bite at a time. They set their sights on Xinxingli. On the 29th, the main force of the 81st Division of the 27th Army, together with the 80th Division, was preparing to encircle and wipe out the US troops in the Xinxingli area. The 94th Division, as a reserve force, was also ready to go into battle at any time. In order to cooperate with the 27th Army to annihilate the enemies in Xinxingli, Song Shilun decided at the same time that the 58th Division of the 20th Army and the 79th Division of the 27th Army would attack the U.S. troops in Xiajieyuli and Liutanli respectively, and the 89th Division of the 20th Army Temporarily take a defensive position against the 7th Regiment of the 3rd US Infantry Division in Shecangli. In order to encircle and wipe out the U.S. troops in Liutanli, the 59th Division of the 20th Army was temporarily placed under the command of Commander Peng Deqing of the 27th Army. At this time, the 26th Army of the 9th Corps was still stuck in the snowstorm in the mountains of northern North Korea and could not catch up.They had run out of food, were badly frostbitten, and were staggering to come for reinforcements. When the Volunteer Army began to mobilize its troops, the U.S. military moved first.The U.S. military found that the troops were scattered in a 70-kilometer-long ravine and cut into several sections. This was very passive. It was necessary to open up the traffic links in each pocket-shaped defense area, drive away the volunteers who were guarding the road, and then gather together to escape.