Telegram from the Military Commission to Peng Dehuai[1] and Others
Requesting a Report on the Numbers of Volunteer Army Casualties and Missing
(December 31, 1950)
Peng, Deng, Piao, Hong[2], and inform the Ninth Army Group:
From the entry of our entire Volunteer Army into Korean territory for combat on October 19 to December 31, inclusive,
including the numbers of casualties and missing on the battlefields of the two Northwest Campaigns and the Northeast Campaign[3], as well as those frozen to death or injured by frostbite, those who died of illness or left the ranks due to illness, and those killed or injured by bombing during movement, please ascertain the figures for each army and the total for the entire army and report by telegram. Awaiting your report.
Military Commission
December 31
[1] Peng Dehuai, then serving as Commander and Political Commissar of the Chinese People's Volunteers.
[2] Deng and Piao refer to Deng Hua and Piao Yiyu, both then serving as Deputy Commanders and Deputy Political Commissars of the Chinese People's Volunteers. Hong refers to Hong Xuezhi, then serving as Deputy Commander of the Chinese People's Volunteers.
[3] The two Northwest Campaigns and the Northeast Campaign here refer to the First Campaign and the Second Campaign conducted by the Chinese People's Volunteers on the Korean battlefield. The two Northwest Campaigns refer to the First Campaign and the operations on the western front of the Second Campaign; the Northeast Campaign refers to the operations on the eastern front of the Second Campaign.