The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea is a magnificent war to build a country. It is a term that will make people feel enthusiastic when they hear it.
We all know that in this war, countless tragic battles broke out, and a large number of volunteers gave their young lives.
From the Songgufeng Special Skill Company, which was almost annihilated in order to stop the US army, with only seven people alive, to the "Ice Sculpture Company", which was frozen to death in Changjin Lake area at minus 40 degrees Celsius in order to ambush the US army. They stand like monuments in the history of national heritage.
At that time, the People's Republic of China had just been established, and there was still a lot of waste to be built in China. Although under the call of the Central Committee, the people of the whole country were able to contribute to the volunteer army, they still could not make up for the weakness of our volunteer army in terms of logistics support compared with the US military.
Especially under the suppression of the powerful air firepower of the United Nations Army, many supplies cannot be transported to the front line of operations, which makes the logistics of the volunteer army a weak point.
Faced with this situation, the main force of our army often needs to withdraw supplies from the rear after fighting a battle, which greatly affects the depth of operations. In the fifth campaign, the commander in chief of the United Nations Army, Li Qiwei, laid a big net for the main force of the volunteer army.
1、 The new coalition commander in chief
When the United Nations led by the United States landed on the Korean Peninsula, MacArthur, the then commander in chief, was quite arrogant.
In the first campaign launched by our volunteer army, the enemy's 8th Army Group was defeated and retreated to the south bank of the Qingchuan River. The US military lost more than 3000 people and the entire United Nations army lost more than 15000 people.
But even in the face of such a defeat, MacArthur was still confident of the situation of the war. It should be noted that after learning that our army entered the Korean War, the command organization of the United States rear - the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent a telegram to MacArthur's headquarters, which read as follows: "Try to solve the problem of China's entry into the DPRK through political means, and at the same time, it is necessary to re-examine the task of the United Nations military".
The translation of this sentence has the same meaning. In the face of the Chinese army entering the DPRK, do not use force to solve the problem (but try to solve it through political negotiations). The task of the United Nations army is not to defeat the Chinese army.
However, MacArthur proudly rejected the decision of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and claimed that "victory must belong to us". Later, he formulated a war plan to launch a general attack on North Korea. Before the attack, he proudly said to the people around him, "Let the boys go ahead. After they hit the Yalu River, I will take them home for Christmas.".
What happened later is known to all. In the face of MacArthur's operation, our volunteer army directly targeted the target as the main force of its main force, the trump card of the trump card - the first division of the marine corps.
In the battle of Changjin Lake, this American ace division, who had won great prestige from the Pacific battlefield, suffered heavy losses. It was only by almost endless artillery fire and air supplies that it withdrew some of its elite and was not completely annihilated by the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army.
Since then, MacArthur seems to be trapped in a kind of obsession. He is eager to defeat our volunteer army to clean up this huge stain in his nearly 60 years of military career. For this reason, he even intended to push the war directly into our country, which was obviously inconsistent with the overall strategy of the United States.
Therefore, after the defeat of the United Nations army in the fourth campaign of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, President Truman of the United States signed the order to remove MacArthur from the post of commander in chief of the United Nations army on April 10, 1951, and appointed his successor at the same time, that is, Li Qiwei, the enemy that made the volunteer army more headache.
Li Qiwei is known as a famous military strategist in the United States. History has said this about him: He saved the Eighth Group Army, which was at the bottom of failure and was on the verge of collapse, and stopped the offensive of the Chinese People's Volunteers.
Indeed, as Mark Arthur's successor, at the beginning of his term of office, he adopted the "magnetic suction tactics" against the "worship offensive" of our volunteer army, and treated them with his own way, pointing the spearhead at the Ninth Corps, the main force of our volunteer army.
2、 The besieged Ninth Corps
Li Qiwei is also a veteran of the battlefield, but he does not have the arrogance of Mark Arthur. Li Qiwei has a clear understanding of the combat effectiveness of the volunteer army.
Through the first four campaigns launched by the volunteer army, he saw the army's tenacious fighting will, superb fighting quality and even the ability of the corps to penetrate mysteriously, but at the same time, he also saw through one of the biggest flaws of the volunteer army - there is no continuous and stable logistics support.
Because the transportation line is too long, the most important thing is that there is no protection of the air supremacy. Our front-line logistics supply has always been a great constraint on the military operations in the Korean battlefield. Therefore, a considerable part of the fighting is mainly blitzkrieg or ambush warfare, and the mobile warfare ability is not strong.
Li Qiwei used a word to describe this state of the volunteer army: the worship offensive. It means that our strong offensive can only last for three or five days, and the longest is not more than a week.
In response, Li Qiwei formulated a combat plan: magnetic suction tactics. It sounds very powerful. In fact, the explanation is to take the initiative to reveal flaws, fight and retreat, and then other forces encircle and eat the main force of our army. The essence of this is to take advantage of the mechanization of the U.S. military, take the initiative to retreat at night, let the volunteer army occupy the position, and then launch fire coverage in the daytime, constantly consuming our troops.
In Li Qiwei's specific plan, the 23rd Corps of the United Nations Army will face the 9th Corps, the main force of our army, and gradually attract the 9th Corps to the enemy. And they also used huge air superiority to constantly attack our supply lines.
In the first stage of the fifth campaign, facing the strong offensive of our army and the intentional or unintentional "release of water" by the United Nations army, the volunteer army broke through the Linjin River, even crossed the North Han River, and the front of the army pointed directly at Seoul. But at this time, Mr. Peng was also acutely aware of the crisis.
Because in the military situation sent back from the front, the United Nations Army displayed a very different tactic from the past, which was highly targeted. When retreating, it systematically carried out "clearing the walls and strengthening the fields", making it impossible for the volunteer army to supply on the spot. The attack on the supply line made the volunteer army's already fragile logistics worse.
When these information were summarized, Mr. Peng, who had been in military service for a lifetime, immediately felt a sense of crisis. Standing in front of the battlefield sand table, he seemed to see an open secret network, eyeing the volunteer army.
On May 21, 1951, Peng Dehuai's military order came out, making all the volunteer army troops retreat to supplement materials and ammunition. At that time, Li Qiwei also issued the order of the United Nations army to launch a comprehensive counterattack - 13 main divisions launched a fierce attack on the retreating volunteer army.
Under the command of Peng Dehuai, each regiment of the volunteer army left a force to block the United Nations army, to ensure the smooth withdrawal of the main force, and required each force to report to the region immediately. By comparing the positions of various forces, Mr. Peng saw that Li Qiwei's goal was the 9th Corps of Song Shilun, whose previous attack was the most prominent.
According to the sand table deduction, Peng Dehuai found that the Ninth Corps had been surrounded by the United Nations forces - the other side's mechanized march was too fast, and Song Shilun could not get away from it anyway.
From the overall perspective, not only the 100000 troops of the Ninth Corps have been surrounded, but also two corps of the Volunteer Army and one corps of the Korean Army are still south of the 38th parallel, facing the pursuit of the United Nations army. Looking along the battle line, Peng Dehuai found a key point - Tieyuan.
At this time, Li Qiwei was also standing in the military sand table. The smooth implementation of the first half of the battle plan made him energetic. Now he has two big meals in front of him. One is the main force of the surrounded volunteer army, the Ninth Corps, and the more important one is Tieyuan, the city that holds the hub of the volunteer army's transportation line.
Yes, Tieyuan is Li Qiwei's biggest goal. As the supply point of the Volunteer Army and the Korean Army closest to the 38th parallel, it is also a transportation hub, and after crossing Tieyuan northward, it is a smooth road.
It can be said that as long as we win Tieyuan, we will not only wipe out the four corps (including the Ninth Corps) south of Tieyuan, but also occupy a great strategic advantage over the volunteer army, giving full play to its mechanized strength.
Now both sides have seen the strategic battle ground. President Peng faces many problems. First of all, what should we do if we are surrounded by the Ninth Corps?
