Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 324 Fight to support war
However, do the US military have the confidence to hold Hungnam?
The answer is, of course, no! This can be seen from the decision-making process of the US military to withdraw from Chosin Reservoir.

On November 28, 1950, when the United Army was in dire straits after being fiercely attacked by the reinforcements on both the eastern and western fronts of Chaozhou, Michael Asahi summoned Eighth Army Commander Walker and Tenth Corps Commander Almond to the General Headquarters for an all-night meeting and finally decided to switch to a defensive posture.

Therefore, on the afternoon of November 30th, the 10th Army issued a retreat order to the Marine Corps, abandoning the Changjin Lake area and retreating to Hamhung.

On December 8th, while the 1st Marine Corps was still slowly retreating south along the mountain road from Gutu-ri to Jinheung-ri, MacArthur officially ordered the entire 10th Corps to withdraw from Hungnam Port. Prior to this, on December 3rd, the US troops occupying Wonsan Port had already left. This shows that MacArthur never intended to hold Hungnam from the beginning.

Under the sudden attack of the reinforcements from Chaozhou, the US military was like a frightened bird, losing confidence in holding Hungnam. This collapse was primarily due to the serious misjudgment of the situation by the US military leadership and their fear of the reinforcements' flanking maneuvers.

Before the second battle of the anti-rice aid to Chaozhou, Michael Aser made a serious misjudgment of the participation of the aid army in the war, believing that the number of troops entering Chaozhou was only 30,000 to 40,000, which was symbolic in strategy and only had limited purposes such as protecting the Fengman Hydropower Station in tactical terms.

Therefore, he commanded the Allied forces to launch a "Christmas Offensive" on both the eastern and western fronts simultaneously, in an attempt to end the war before Christmas.

Therefore, the reinforcements from Chaozhou turned the tables and adopted a tactic of luring the enemy deep into their territory. They retreated rapidly on both the eastern and western fronts, enticing the Allied forces into the pre-arranged battlefield and then quickly encircling them. The Battle of Chosin Reservoir unfolded against this backdrop.

As Chief of Staff of the Michael Assassin Corps and Commander of the Tenth Corps, Almond always followed orders without regard to reality. Ignoring the advice of General Smith, Commander of the 1st Marine Corps, to proceed cautiously, he forced the 1st Marine Corps and the 31st Infantry Regiment to march north alone.

When the Ninth Army Corps of the Chaozhou Army launched an attack, severely damaging the 31st Regiment-level combat team and besieging the First Lion Land Force, Almond misjudged the combat effectiveness and troop strength of the Chaozhou Army and went to extremes.

The initial underestimation and recklessness quickly turned into fear of the enemy. Michael Aser was also deeply shocked by the dramatic reversal of the situation on the front line. Under such a huge psychological gap, retreat was almost an instinctive reaction. Even if there was a desire to hold Xingnan, it would probably be fleeting.

When countless soldiers of the Chaozhou reinforcements launched desperate charges against the American troops, when Yang Gensi charged into the American ranks with a satchel charge, and when company after company of Chaozhou reinforcements froze on the ground with no one retreating, the fighting will of the American troops from top to bottom had been crushed by the Chaozhou reinforcements and completely collapsed. To escape was probably the only thought in everyone's mind at that time.

Of course, besides fearing the reinforcements from Chaozhou, there was an even more important reason: in the eyes of the US military, Xingnan Port had little strategic value.

Of course, it cannot be said that holding Xingnan Port was completely meaningless, but its significance was not great.

First, it must be acknowledged that if the US military holds onto Xingnan Port, strategically speaking, it would indeed drive a thorn in our side's rear and tie down our forces. However, its actual containment effect would be quite limited.

Although it would be difficult for the Chaozhou army to forcibly annihilate the US forces in Xingnan Port with its offensive capabilities, it would not be difficult to keep an eye on them, because the mountains and ridges surrounding Xingnan Port are the best chains. As long as the Chaozhou army firmly controls the key mountain roads and high passes, it can restrict the movement of the US forces.

Meanwhile, compared to the equipment advantage of the US military, the biggest advantage of the aid-to-Chaozhou army lies in its abundant human resources reserves. The forces required to monitor and contain the US military in Xingnan Port are not a significant burden for the aid-to-Chaozhou army.

Secondly, since the diversionary effect on the overall battle situation is not significant, the value of Hungnam Port as a bridgehead for the US military is at most that of serving as a springboard for launching a renewed offensive in northern Korea. If the US military launches a counterattack from Hungnam, there are essentially two directions: one is to move north directly towards the border between Korea and Taiwan, threatening the mainland of Korea; the other is to move west, coordinating with the US military on the western front, thus flanking the Chinese and Korean forces from both sides.

However, regardless of which direction of attack they chose, they would have to once again enter the mountainous region, which was difficult to access and easy to defend. The mountainous region in northern Taiwan was basically similar to that of the Chosin Reservoir area, with few roads and poor accessibility. The US troops, which relied heavily on roads, could only march and fight along a limited number of roads in the mountains. If they went too far into the mountains alone, they might very well fall into a situation similar to that of being cut off and surrounded in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.

Meanwhile, the US military's firepower and air superiority would be greatly diminished in mountainous areas, which would actually give the reinforcements in Chaozhou a greater advantage in terms of flexible and mobile tactics. Therefore, the reinforcements and the People's Army only needed to use a small force to hold off the US military at various points along the highway, destroy the highway, bridges, and passes, and harass the US military's supply lines, which would effectively delay the US military's operations.

In conclusion, for the US military, Hsingnam Port is a completely useless asset, neither worth keeping nor easy to abandon. If the US 10th Corps were to hold Hsingnam Port with its current strength, its 100,000 troops would instead be tied down by a small force from the Huachao army, making it a completely counterproductive effort. If the US wanted to use Hsingnam Port as a base to restart its northern offensive, it would inevitably have to draw reinforcements from the western front, and in the short term, it would be impossible to support the western front through the western mountains or threaten the Huachao border through the northern mountains.

With its forces weakened and unable to hold even its existing fronts, the U.S. forces on the western front are likely to be unable to defend them. Deploying troops from the U.S. mainland or other regions would not align with the fundamental strategy of the U.S. in its confrontation with the Soviet Union. Moreover, after the U.S. entered the war in Korea, the U.S. authorities, who had no intention of escalating the war in Korea, abandoned their strategic ambition to occupy the entire Korean peninsula and began seeking a way to end the war in a dignified manner.

Therefore, in this context, holding onto Xingnan Port became even more meaningless. For the arrogant US military, this retreat was indeed a choice that was both helpless and wise.

However, for Wang Gensheng, if the US army simply withdrew and left behind the supplies and other items in the port, then there was nothing he could say.

They left, but the US military, showing no sportsmanship, actually tried to destroy these supplies.

In this way, Wang Gensheng's idea of ​​using war to sustain war will fall through.

After all, Wang Gensheng had already tasted success at Hagaru-ri Airport.

It goes without saying how much help it was for the impoverished nation to bring back about thirty transport aircraft at once.

The sheer quantity of supplies piled up at Xingnan Port naturally made Wang Gensheng extremely envious.

If we can obtain such a large amount of supplies, it will naturally be of great help in future battles.

Of course, there is only one way to get the US military to leave the supplies behind: launch a powerful attack tonight.

This forced the US military to hastily retreat, thus preventing them from destroying the supplies in the Hsinchu port warehouse.

(End of this chapter)