Ninth Army Group

… advanced, Peng ordered the uncommitted Ninth Army Group (commanded by General Song Shilun) to leave Manchuria and destroy it. Song’s army group (12 divisions in 3 armies) numbered 150,000 soldiers—mostly infantry with mortars and machine guns but not much artillery, since the Chinese lacked guns, shells, and trucks and feared…

…last week of November the Ninth Army Group launched simultaneous division-level attacks on the 1st Marine Division at Yudam-ni, Hagaru-ri, and Kot’o-ri and on Task Force MacLean east of the reservoir. The 7th and 5th Marines, having met major Chinese forces in a daylight attack on November 27, quickly prepared…

…the grasp of the CPVF Ninth Army Group. To achieve this aim, Almond took a worst-case position: the Yudam-ni and Hagaru-ri garrisons would rally at the latter perimeter and then fly out, abandoning the division’s heavy weapons, vehicles, and supplies. The rest of the division would march back down the…

…the campaign ruined the CPVF Ninth Army Group, which did not return to the front until March 1951, and it convinced the UNC that allied ground troops could defeat Chinese armies, however numerous. The Chinese have remained vague on their losses in the battle, but their own records and UNC…