Chapter 92 A company of the 27th Army froze to death on the ground, and maintained a fighting posture until death

The 5th Company of the 242nd Regiment of the 80th Division of the 27th Army was ordered to set up an ambush on the way to the retreat of the US army.When the battle started, due to the long time of setting up an ambush and the cold weather, no soldiers could stand up and charge. More than 100 soldiers in the battle formation all froze to death in simple bunkers, only one straggler and one The courier who conveyed the order survived. The iron-blooded General Song Shilun was also deeply moved by this. He called Peng Dehuai and reported to the Military Commission: "The 5th Company of the 242nd Regiment of the 80th Division of the 27th Army, except for a straggler and a correspondent, the entire company set up an ambush and prepared to attack and wipe out the US Army. The 31st Regiment of the 7th Division. After the battle started, no one in the company stood up. When cleaning the battlefield, it was found that all the cadres and soldiers of the company were frozen to death in battle formation, and the corpses were examined carefully without any wounds or blood. "

It is said that the commander-in-chief Mao Zedong stood silently for a long time after reading this telegram, and swiped his pen to reply: "The 9th Corps fought on the Eastern Front this time, and under extremely difficult conditions, it completed a huge strategic task. Due to the cold weather, lack of supplies and fierce fighting , The loss of staff reached as many as 40,000, and the central government misses this very much.” Here, Chairman Mao Zedong used the words "the central government misses this very much" to his subordinates, which is very rare. In fact, there was another company of volunteer soldiers who also froze to death on the ground. They were the 2nd Company of the 180th Regiment of the 60th Division of the 20th Army.When they were guarding Huangcaoling 1081 highland, the whole company froze to death on the position.According to the records of war history: "This heroic blocking force, a whole company, the whole organization froze to death on the position, and no one left the post. Every soldier still maintained a fighting posture when he froze to death. More than one hundred old-fashioned rifles, The mouth directly points to the road that the US troops pass by under the ridge."

According to a veteran of the 20th Army named Zou Shiyong, after his 3rd company captured the 1282 highland and Liutanli, he was ordered to pursue the U.S. troops from the flank to Death Eagle Ridge.On the mountain, they found a blocking position of the Volunteer Army. About a company of officers and soldiers were lurking here. The blocking force relied on the terrain. Point to the road below.The position is well concealed, and the ambushes on the ridge cannot be seen from below.Zou Shiyong went forward to pull a soldier, but found that the soldier had already frozen into ice. The 3rd company hurriedly checked the other soldiers and found that all the soldiers were frozen to death on the ground, and many soldiers' hands were frozen on the rifles and could not be separated.

When the officers and soldiers of the 3rd company left, all of them had tears in their eyes, and they took off their hats to pay tribute to these comrades-in-arms who sacrificed their lives on foreign battlefields! In the history of the US military's campaign, it has never experienced such bad weather, nor has it faced such a tenacious and fearless opponent. For the U.S. military, the good thing is the equipment.The uninterrupted bombing by U.S. aircraft greatly slowed down the pursuit and interception capabilities of the Volunteers.Some U.S. pilots even dispatched for dozens of hours without a break.In this regard, the Volunteers have nothing to do.

Although the 26th Army of the Volunteer Army rushed on the road desperately, after all, the mountain road was far away and rugged. The troops were stuck in knee-high snow and crawled forward. arrived at the predetermined location. In this way, a peculiar situation in the history of world wars appeared. The extremely weakly equipped Chinese soldiers, relying on their feet, braved the bombing of planes, and pursued the highly mechanized U.S. military without stopping. U.S. military vehicles retreated recklessly southward on the mountain road, running as fast as possible.On the side of the mountain road, volunteer soldiers who ran and chased appeared from time to time and shot at them.There were also some scattered units of the Volunteer Army who copied to the front of the US military to launch a blocking attack, but after all, they were too weak to stop the large number of mechanized troops of the US military.

Even on some road sections, a large number of U.S. troops composed of tanks and cars found dozens of barefoot volunteer soldiers chasing them on the ice and snow.These volunteer soldiers are all like savages, their hats have fallen off, their clothes are crooked, and their physical strength has been exhausted to the limit, but they are still chasing staggeringly, chasing endlessly, and shooting forward... See In this scenario, the U.S. military even feels like a dream. The American war history wrote with respect: "These Chinese soldiers faithfully carried out their tasks." On December 12, the 1st Marine Division finally escaped the Valley of Death after a bloody battle and joined the 3rd Division of the US Army.

In this battle, although there were still many Korean troops advancing with the U.S. Army at the beginning, in the face of the fierce attack of the volunteers, these Korean soldiers had already greased the soles of their shoes and slipped away.This incident made the U.S. military's teeth itch with hatred. On December 17, after all kinds of difficulties and dangers, the highly mechanized U.S. military finally retreated to the Puxing Nangang area, disengaged from the volunteer army, and withdrew from the sea to southern Korea under the cover of naval and air firepower. When the U.S. Navy personnel who came to meet them first saw the marines, they found that they were all unshaven, with sunken eye sockets, wearing broken coats, dragging open military boots, walking staggeringly, and looking like no one else. They looked like ghosts, and many soldiers even wore the clothes of Korean civilians.

But the 1st Marine Division of the U.S. Army is the 1st Marine Division. After all, they are the most effective troops in the U.S. military. After all, they are the most tenacious troops in the U.S. military. March. At this time, all the hills near Xingnan were within the artillery range of the U.S. Navy ships, and the U.S. cruiser was already frightened and nervous. As long as there was any movement on the mountain, it would be fired from a giant cannon.In fact, the main forces of the 26th Army and the 27th Army of the Volunteer Army, which were chasing with their legs, were already so cold and hungry that they could barely crawl, and they were still dozens of kilometers away.

The US Eastern Front troops, half frozen to death and beaten to death, finally boarded the ship in batches and began to evacuate.In Xingnan Port, a large number of military supplies were piled up. Since there was no time to load and withdraw, and they were afraid of falling into the hands of the volunteers, just after the last batch of U.S. troops boarded the ship, engineers from the Marine Corps carried out a large-scale blast.Accompanied by the sound of "rumbling" explosions, the steel beams of warehouses and docks were thrown hundreds of meters into the air, and the thick smoke could be clearly seen dozens of miles away.

Under the cover of a powerful firepower network, the US military transported 105,000 people, 17,500 vehicles and 350,000 tons of supplies from Xingnan Port. In this battle on the Eastern Front, the U.S. military killed 11,000 people and seriously injured 4,000. The entire First Marine Division of the Ace Army almost lost its combat effectiveness.At the end of the battle, the roads of more than 60 kilometers were filled with discarded tanks, cannons, trucks, and dead soldiers who were too late to bury.On both sides of the road and on the nearby high ground, the corpses of volunteer soldiers who were torn apart by shells and frozen by the severe cold were covered.

Such a disastrous defeat was the first time in the history of the 1st Marine Division of the US Army. On December 24, the vanguard of the 9th Corps of the Volunteer Army pursued to Wonsan Port, Xingnan area and coastal ports.At this time, there was no American soldier to be found here. So far, the arduous Eastern Front campaign in the history of world wars has come to an end with the complete victory of the Volunteers.