Real casualties in the battle of Changjin Lake

Our army suffered more than 23,000 casualties in the battle of Changjin Lake. The losses of American and British troops exceeded 19000.

The battle of Changjin Lake took place on the eastern front near the 38th parallel at that time. At that time, Pyongyang, the capital of the North Korean army, had been captured, and the border of the North Korean interim government was also suppressed by the US military. It can be said that the whole South Korea is already in do or die. Faced with this situation, the ninth corps of volunteers was urgently transferred to the eastern front of the US-DPRK war.

After the Ninth Corps entered Korea, our army took the tactics of attacking the flank of the American army, breaking it up and disrupting it, and then dividing and encircling it. In order to meet the tactical requirements, our army often lies motionless in the snow for a long time.

At that time, our army entered the DPRK in an emergency, and the clothing problem was not properly solved. In addition, the temperature in the northern part of North Korea is extremely cold, and it is common to reach MINUS 20 or 30 degrees. Therefore, in this battle, a large number of volunteers were frozen to death by frostbite.

The plight of the volunteers reached its peak in the battle of Changjin Lake. On June 27th, 1950, 165438+ the elite of our army joined forces in Changjin Lake area, and the two sides immediately launched a fierce battle.

At that time, the US Army Marine Corps 1 Division and two infantry divisions participated in the Battle of Changjin Lake. If the South Korean First Army, which has been stationed here, is added, the number of allied troops led by the United States will reach 65,438+10,000. As for our army, the 20th, 26th and 27th armies of the Ninth Corps of Volunteers participated in battlefield battles, with the number reaching 1.5 million.

After the battle of Changjin Lake began, our army still adopted the tactics of flank attack and dividing troops for a month. A large number of volunteers crouched in the snow and launched a surprise attack in the middle of the US military March.

Due to the lack of warm clothes, frostbitten volunteers account for one-fifth of the whole army. Of the 6.5438+0.5 million people, at least tens of thousands lost their combat effectiveness or froze to death because of the cold. The "Ice Sculpture Company" recorded in military history was born in the Battle of Changjin Lake.

Under the attack of the volunteers, the heavy weapons of the American army could not be used, and the whole army was divided into several parts and was besieged and intercepted by the volunteers. In the face of the crazy offensive of the volunteers, the US military decided to withdraw south. Therefore, War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, which lasted for a month, went to the battle of Changjin Lake and became a siege and annihilation war.

After that, our army blocked the American troops layer by layer, but because of the front problems, the resistance of the American troops to retreat to the south became smaller and smaller. Finally, the U.S. military fled northeast Korea by boat under the cover of seven aircraft carriers.

According to postwar statistics, more than 20,000 Americans were killed, 1 10,000 Koreans were killed, and10.9 million our troops were killed. In addition to the soldiers who died in battle, 4000 people died of the cold. So our army suffered more than 23,000 casualties.

According to American figures, there were more than 6,800 American combat casualties and 65,438+3,000 non-combat casualties in the Battle of Changjin Lake, including 4,433 combat casualties in 1 marine division, 73 non-combat casualties in13, 2,200 combat casualties in the 7th infantry division, more than 4,000 non-combat casualties and about 500 British casualties.

It is understood that after the volunteers entered the DPRK, they mainly encountered three difficulties: first, poor weapons and equipment and lack of ammunition; There is also the problem of eating, especially the difficulty in supplying hot food; In addition, the tight winter clothes have caused a large number of non-combat attrition.

"Most of the soldiers of the 9 th Corps come from the south and don't know much about the weather in the north." Zhang Xiaoying said that the Changjin Lake area is the most bitter and coldest area in North Korea, with an altitude of 1000 to 2,000 meters, dense forests, narrow roads, few people and low temperature at night. In the temperate zone of East China, all volunteer soldiers wear winter clothes.

The Ninth Corps originally planned to rest and change clothes in Liaoyang and Shenyang. However, due to the urgent situation in North Korea, when the train entered Shanhaiguan, the former General Staff Department sent senior staff officers to stop the train and read out the order of the Central Military Commission to "enter the DPRK urgently". More than a dozen trains only stopped in Shenyang for a while and then continued to rush in.

Most of the soldiers of the Ninth Corps wore top hats, rubber shoes and thin cotton-padded clothes to enter the Changjin Lake area, resulting in large-scale frostbite and attrition in the ice and snow.

She went on to say that no one expected that the winter of 1950 was the extremely cold weather in North Korea for 50 years. It can reach MINUS 30 degrees Celsius at night, and sometimes even MINUS 40 degrees Celsius.