Ripples of Changjin Lake

Some domestic friends watched it and said that the battle scene was very exciting. It's a pity that the movie was not filmed in my area, and I couldn't find any resources online, so I couldn't see it in person. Not content to watch movie reviews to join in the fun, I took curiosity to read this piece of history.

On June 25, 1950, the great leader of North Korea, Kim Il-sung, led his army south to prepare for military control of South Korea, euphemistically called "liberation", and the Korean War started. Since North Korea dared to pick things up, of course, it came prepared. In just over two months, almost the entire South Korea (only one corner of Busan was left) was conquered.

South Korea is a sovereign state recognized by the United Nations, so North Korea's actions are aggression. Therefore, the United Nations soon passed a resolution to send troops (mainly the US military) to aid South Korea. After the successful landing in Inchon, it took only half a month for the United Nations army to defeat the Korean People's Army and recover the rivers and mountains in South Korea.

The next question is whether the United Nations military should cross the 38th parallel and continue to attack North Korea. The UN resolution did not say to help South Korea unify the Korean peninsula. However, the North Korean regime was neither overthrown nor negotiated, and the war was not over. As the saying goes, "it is advisable to chase Yu Yong after the poor bandits".

At the beginning of October, the United Nations army crossed the 38th parallel to the north, captured most of the Korean territory including Pyongyang, and wiped out the main force of the Korean People's Army. Leader Kim, who was unable to protect himself, could only ask his eldest brother (the Soviet Union) and his second brother (China) for help. The eldest brother ran the train with his mouth full, but he refused to come forward, and by the way pushed the second brother forward.

It is said that Mao Zedong also considered it for a long time, and finally chose the latter carefully between liberating Taiwan and handing over to his eldest brother. The reasons for participating in the war propaganda by the CCP are somewhat far-fetched. It is said that the war threatens China's border, so is it not the end of sending troops to guard the border? It is said that the United Nations invaded North Korea, but North Korea was the first to invade. Did the Allies invade Germany during World War II as aggression? It is estimated that Mao also knew something, so he did not send troops in the name of the country, but hung up the name of a volunteer army.

On the Eastern Front, the 124th Division and the Ninth Corps of Song Shilun (heh, not Jay Chou's Lun) entered the war with the Chinese army. After the UN troops landed in Wonsan, they planned to pass through the mountains to the north and directly attack the supply line for the remnants of North Korea. At Huangcaoling, they first encountered the 124th Division. However, the division had only defended for two weeks before retreating; the United Nations continued northward and entered the Changjin Lake area, but they did not know that the Ninth Corps had quietly come to take over the defense. I feel that this is the habit of "lure the enemy into the depths" used by the Communist army.

Changjin Lake is actually a large reservoir, surrounded by high mountains on all sides, with a narrow valley in the middle, and the tanks and vehicles of the United Nations Army can only pass along the road at the bottom of the valley. This terrain sounds like a good place for ambush, why didn't the Americans think of it?

U.S. military planes also scouted the nearby area, but found no trace of supply vehicles (there was no such equipment as heat detection at the time, only larger things, such as car wheel prints). In 1950, the Changjin Lake area encountered a rare cold winter, and the temperature at the end of November had dropped to minus 20-30 degrees. The U.S. believes that under such conditions, giving up supplies and going into the mountains is almost suicidal, thus judging that there is no large-scale enemy deployment ahead.

Americans may have forgotten that, just a few years ago, there was a suicide attack by a kamikaze from another Asian country. Under the "system superiority", it is not too difficult to "suicide" some people in exchange for a certain strategic goal. So on November 27, the United Nations forces that had just entered the Changjin Lake valley were raided by the Ninth Corps of the Volunteer Army -- they carried food and equipment with them and walked across the mountains to the ambush site.

The Volunteer Army had an advantage in numbers (the Ninth Corps invested 67,000 people, and the United Nations army had only 30,000), and it occupied a favorable position. The huge disparity in equipment between the United States and China that is publicized in China is actually mainly reflected in the navy and air force, and the gap between ground forces is average. Moreover, the advantages of equipment, in a small space, can't play a big role, just like fighting in the closet, the difference between holding a knife and holding a gun is not big. So at the beginning of the battle, the United Nations army was divided and surrounded, and the casualties were very heavy.

Among them, the battle on the east side of the lake was the most tragic. One of the main plot points of the film is that the Volunteers claim to have annihilated a regiment, the 31st regiment-level combat team (known in China as the "Polar Bear Regiment"), and captured the regiment flag. However, according to U.S. military reports, the 31st Regiment-level Combat Team originally consisted of 2,500 people, and only more than 1,000 of them successfully broke through, of which more than 300 were still able to fight, forming a temporary battalion. According to this statement, it should be rout, not annihilation, but the loss is also quite large.

The enemies on both sides, in addition to the other side, also had severe cold weather. With the stalemate of the battle, the problem of insufficient supplies of the volunteers began to be highlighted. The lack of cotton-padded clothes, cotton trousers and food caused a large number of non-combat attritions of frostbite and freezing to death. The "Ice Sculpture Company" in the movie is an example. The soldiers of the entire company were frozen to death on the ground. I don't know how this scene is presented in the movie. The horror of war and humanistic concern are all I can think of. However, some viewers wrote such comments: The spirit of volunteer soldiers who are not afraid of sacrifice and stick to their positions has inspired me to work harder. Hope he is not 996.

There is nothing wrong with advocating the spirit of sacrifice, but what we should know more about is how to avoid unnecessary sacrifice. Like the "Ice Sculpture Company" incident, we should check whether there is a problem with the management of the army. The Ninth Corps is affiliated with the East China Field Army and has never fought in the Northeast. Therefore, when the leaders gave orders, they did not know that lying in the field in the Northeast in winter would easily freeze to death, which was excusable. But the company commander who froze to death with the soldiers, he should know. The whole company froze to death together, not only could not complete the ambush mission, but also had to catch so many lives, except to create a tragic effect, there was no other use. Then why not withdraw from the position and find a hidden place to make a fire for warmth? Is the cost of disobedience too high, more terrifying than death, or is the soldier trained as a machine that only executes orders and lacks the ability to make independent judgments?

The overall decline in the combat effectiveness of the Volunteer Army has also brought a turning point for the United Nations Army. Because of the air-dropped supplies, the encircled United Nations forces will not be interrupted, so they can effectively organize counterattacks and break outs. On December 11, the United Nations forces withdrew from the Huangcaoling Pass of Changjin Lake and began to march towards Xingnan Port.

When they came to the plains, the pressure of the United Nations army was much less, and they quickly retreated to Xingnan Port, where there was more powerful naval firepower of the 90th Task Force of the US Navy. Although the Volunteers also came to reinforce, they were still unable to get close to the port defense circle. They could only watch the United Nations forces withdraw all troops, including their heavy equipment, and nearly 100,000 North Korean refugees (their descendants don’t have to bother” defected”). The cooked duck flew away.

Throughout the campaign, the Volunteer Army suffered 19,202 casualties in combat and 28,954 in non-war casualties (3,000 of whom died of freezing), with a total reduction of 48,156. On the United Nations side, a total of 17,843 personnel were reduced, but there were only 7,338 casualties, and most of them later recovered and returned to the army. The number of casualties does not determine success or failure. The Volunteers helped North Korea regain the territory, and the leaders also had confidence at the negotiating table. Of course, it was described as a great victory! The United States also believes that this is a Dunkirk-style victory (and indeed much better than the Kabul retreat), and the medals awarded are the most of all the battles of the Korean War.

There is no real winner on the battlefield, the real winner should be the investors of "Changjin Lake". The film's rating is not high, with a score of 7.4 on Douban, but the box office is rising steadily; many units and schools organize to watch it. As a patriotic education, it is also required to write after watching, and some even let students eat frozen potatoes. The success of a commercial blockbuster is nothing more than becoming a political mission, making a lot of money and bringing a patriotic aura.