In the fierce Battle of Shangganling, the US army fired a total of 1.976 million shells, and the elevation of Shangganling was cut down by 2 meters. Six rounds per second fell from the volunteer positions, and the rocks were blown into knee-deep powder. Most of the soil in the soil was full of various shrapnel, and under this crazy firepower, how did the volunteers survive and persist in fighting? There is only one answer: a good soil work.
Soil taken from Shangganling
At that time, most of the volunteer soldiers were from peasant origins. The talent for soil shaving produced their excellent soil work skills, which were perfectly demonstrated at the beginning of the war. A shovel and a pickaxe, flying up and down in the hands of volunteer soldiers, can often create miracles. In the second campaign, guo Zhongtian platoon, in order to paralyze the US Air Force, was able to build a fake position in a short time. It was this false position that allowed Guo Zhongtian to annihilate more than 200 enemy troops without any casualties.
In the stage of position warfare, in the face of U.S. aircraft and artillery, the fortifications are even more important. Since the beginning of 1952, the whole army has begun the operation of "building a city through tunnels". In addition to building countless tunnels, trenches, communication trenches, anti-tank trenches, cover points, and fire points on the front of the 250-kilometer-wide front of the line, hundreds of kilometers of trenches were also built on the coastline on both sides of the line.
In Shangganling, the amount of work in the soil work industry can fully go down in history. A few months before the Battle of Shangganling, in view of the importance of shangganling's location, the 45th Division of the 15th Army began to build a large number of tunnels, trenches and communication trenches.
At that time, the slogan put forward by the 15th Army was: Break through the belly of the mountain to build the Great Wall, and hollow out the ridge to settle my home. With regard to the tunnels, the 15th Army also put forward the "seven defenses" requirements of "air defense, artillery defense, poison prevention, rain prevention, moisture prevention, fire prevention, and cold prevention," and strived to build the tunnel into a defensive fortification that "can be carried, hidden, defended, and fought."
For the parameters of the tunnel, the volunteers also had specific requirements. For example, the height should be more than 1.9 meters, the width should be more than 1.2 meters, the thickness should be more than 15, and each tunnel should have at least two exits. Later, with the american 203 mm howitzer into battle, the thickness of the tunnel was increased to 30 meters.
The tunnel also built a command room, an intelligence room, a rest room, an ammunition depot, an operating room, a library and other facilities, which sound like fully functional, but in fact the strip is very bad. Although there are clear requirements for the thickness of the tunnel, sometimes the site conditions cannot be met. Even if it is satisfied, it may not be able to resist the direct hit of the US aerial bomb.
The US military also often sends a small group of troops to the entrance of the tunnel of the ordinary volunteer army, once found, it will concentrate on the firepower, if the unfortunate blow up the entrance of the tunnel, the soldiers inside will inevitably be trapped, starved, and thirsty.
Because the rear supply lines were heavily blocked by American artillery fire, it was difficult for the wounded and sick to be sent down in time and could only be placed in the tunnels. The smell of blood, smoke, smell, sweat, musty smell and other flavors are all mixed together, and the taste of staying in it can be imagined.
It is under such difficult conditions that the soldiers are still highly motivated. Tunnels are the best way to deal with the powerful firepower of the US military. It was through the tunnels that the volunteers were able to survive the frenzied firepower of the Americans and persist in fighting. In 43 days, it repelled more than 900 U.S. attacks and annihilated 25,000 enemy troops.
According to post-war statistics, in Shangganling, which is only 3.7 square kilometers, the various tunnels, trenches and communication trenches built by the volunteers are as long as 6250 kilometers, which has exceeded the length of the Great Wall. The excavated earth and stone square 60 million cubic meters, if arranged horizontally according to one cubic meter, can circle the earth for one and a half. The tools used to create these miracles are hammers and shovels made by soldiers after melting the shells of the US military, and the explosives that open the mountain are pulled out of the US time bombs.
The fortifications on Shangganling are only the tangible Great Wall, the truly invisible Great Wall, the heroic and fearless volunteer soldiers.