In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, there was a battle known as the battle of life and death of the volunteer army, which was as tragic as the Battle of Chosin Lake, and the intensity of artillery fire was comparable to the Battle of Shangganling.
During this battle, the 63rd Volunteer Army and the United Nations Army engaged in a 12-day life-and-death blockade, and the Volunteer Army used the peak tactics of the gods to show the world what is called the king of human light infantry.
So what exactly happened to this battle? Why is it a life-and-death battle for the volunteers? What tactics have emerged to allow the volunteers to recreate the myth of light infantry? Today, let's explore the battle of blood and fire.
On April 22, 1951, the Volunteer Army and the Korean People's Army crossed the South of the Linjin River, kicking off the Fifth Campaign to Resist us aggression and aid Korea, in which MacArthur, the commander of the U.S. Army who commanded the Korean War, had been replaced by Ridgway.
In view of MacArthur's defeats in the first four battles, Ridgway deeply felt the strength of the Volunteer Army, so he tried his best to avoid the means of detour, interspersed, night raid, and melee that the Volunteer Army was good at, so as to maximize the advantages of the U.S. Army in logistics, air force, firepower, and mobility, so as to attack the Volunteer Army.
Through continuous observation and research, Ridgway found that although the volunteer offensive was fierce, but as the campaign deepened, its logistic supply line became fragile and long, so Ridgway called the volunteer army's attack a "prayer offensive", which means that each time the volunteer army attacks, the supplies they carry with them can only last for a week at most, and then the attack will stop.
In response to this weakness of the volunteer army, Ridgway developed a tactic called "magnetic retreat", in which he ordered the front-line troops to avoid direct engagement as much as possible in the face of the volunteer attack, but to retreat at a predetermined speed of more than 30 kilometers per day, relying on long-range artillery fire to kill and wound, so as to lure the enemy deeper.
At the same time, he also ordered the US aircraft to cut off the rear supply line of the volunteer army with all their might, and waited for nearly a week, and when the volunteer army ran out of food and ammunition, the US army immediately gave full play to the advantages of mechanization and motorization to counterattack.
On May 21, the Volunteers had already retreated the Unisking Army to the vicinity of Seoul and the line north of the Han River, annihilating more than 46,000 enemy troops, and although they had achieved significant results, the volunteers' supplies were seriously insufficient, and they were in a dangerous situation of food and ammunition shortages, and even the commander had only one bowl of fried noodles a day to fill the hunger.
At the same time, the retreating UN troops destroyed all possible food and ammunition that could be captured, and the commander of the Volunteer Army, Peng Dehuai, was keenly aware that the US army had laid a huge trap, and if it did not retreat, the three main corps of the Volunteer Army would face the danger of total annihilation.
On 21 May, the Headquarters of the Volunteer Army ordered all armies to retreat and turn to the vicinity of the 38th Line for defense, but a day earlier, the scheming Ridgway had ordered the Uniscounters to launch a full-scale counter-offensive in three ways, intending to annihilate the main force of the Volunteer Army south of the 38th Line.
Among the enemy troops who counterattacked, although the left side had the largest number of troops, it posed little threat to the volunteer army, and for the enemy troops in the middle road, the volunteer army could also fight and retreat at the same time, and organize a relatively solid defense, only the right road volunteer army had the weakest defense and was also the most threatened.
The United Nations army attacked the northwest of Seoul on the right side, where the terrain was mostly plain, which was conducive to the long drive of mechanized troops, and the key to controlling the plain was a place called Tiewon.
Tieyuan is located in the middle of the Korean Peninsula, it and Pyongkang, Jinhua constitute a strategically important iron triangle area, where the mountains are continuous, is a defensive point to block the northward advance of the US military, at the same time there are three railway interchanges, but also a transportation hub for the transfer of materials and the collection of troops, so it is also a core logistics base for the volunteer army.
Of course, Ridgway will not let go of such a strategic place, if he can capture Tieyuan, he can not only cut off the supply of the volunteer army's front line, but also encircle the volunteer army from the right wing, at this time the most dangerous moment of the volunteer army in the Korean battlefield has arrived.
Ridgway assembled 47,000 UN troops on the right flank in an attempt to occupy Tieyuan before our army retreated north, and the volunteer army deployed on the right flank was the 19th Corps, which had been fighting in Korea for several months.
On May 28, Peng Dehuai directly issued an order for the 63rd Group under the corps to organize a defense in the area 25 kilometers frontally and 20 kilometers deep between Lianchuan and Tieyuan, and said that even if the 63rd Army was wiped out, it would hold on to Tieyuan for 15 to 20 days.
At this time, the 63rd Army had been fighting in Korea for more than two months, with 24,000 people to call, but to defend a defensive line as wide as 25 kilometers, the strength of the confrontation was more than twice that of itself, and the United Nations army with superior weapons and equipment, as well as air support, this was almost more difficult than ascending to the sky, the commander of the 63rd Army, Fu Chongbi, was ready to fight until the entire army was destroyed, and the tragic Tieyuan Blockade Battle also began the prelude to history.
Leading the UN army to attack Tieyuan was Van Vleet, commander of the US 8th Army, who commanded more than 1,600 artillery pieces and more than 300 tanks, while the Volunteer Army's 63rd Army only had more than 240 guns, which was obviously inferior in terms of strength and firepower.
Fu Chongbi gave full play to his tactical strength, unfolding the three divisions of the whole army in a glyph shape, the 189th and 187th divisions on the two wings, the 188th division serving as reserves in the rear, and the whole army adopted the tactics of deep echelon allocation, less troops, and more troops, in order to reduce the enemy's firepower and damage to our army, tactically adopt the method of combining frontal resistance with flanking counterattack, and send small troops to harass the enemy in the middle of the night.
In the early morning of May 30, accompanied by the deafening sound of artillery, the battle officially began, and the enemy pointed the main spearhead of the attack at the Lianchuan Pass defended by the 187th Division, in an attempt to seize the favorable terrain on both sides of the Lianchuan River and break through the middle into the Iron Plains.
The 3rd Battalion of the 561st Regiment, which was defending here, clashed with the famous American Ace Cavalry Division, resisted more than ten attacks by the American army several times larger than itself, held its position for four days and three nights, killed and wounded more than 1,300 enemy soldiers, and all of them were awarded the title of "Defending Like Mount Taishan", and at the same time as the 187th Division fought, the 189th Division was also fighting in blood.
On 1 June, the United Nations army, with six divisions, one brigade and one regiment, launched a fierce attack on the 189th Division under the cover of aircraft artillery.
Within an hour, Van Vleet commanded the U.S. army to pour as many as 4,500 tons of shells into the volunteer positions, and its artillery intensity was more than five times the allowable limit of the U.S. military regulations, a record that was written into the world's military history, known as the "VanVleet ammunition quantity."
The 189th Division had more than 14,000 people in three regiments of 565, 566 and 567, and in the face of such a fierce attack from the enemy, division commander Cai Changyuan created a peculiar "nail tactic".
Dividing the 189th Division into more than 200 units and holding more than 200 positions each, as if the position was full of nails, the enemy would be attacked from all sides by each nail when he entered it, which effectively dispersed the enemy fire and slowed down the enemy's attack.
At the same time, Cai Changyuan found that the US army was not good at dealing with the targets in the movement, so he asked all the divisions to constantly change positions and re-establish the unit structure, downsizing the regiment into battalions, downsizing battalions into companies, company into platoons, and platoons into squads.
On 2 June, the United Nations launched a rotational attack on the 233.2 heights and the position of Seed Hill held by the 189th Division, and the enemy temporarily occupied Seed Mountain, Wufeng Temple, and the positions south of it, which were later retaken by our army.
By the evening of the 3rd, the 189th Division only had 1 regiment and 2 battalions totaling more than 4500 people, with casualties as high as two-thirds, and in the battle, there were not only losses caused by the enemy, but also natural disasters.
The next day, torrential rains washed away the anti-slope concealment of the 189th Division, causing heavy casualties and equipment losses, and the 189th Division was able to fight with only 2,800 men left, downsized into a regiment, at which point the 188th Division, as a reserve, took over the position of the 189th Division, and the Tieyuan Blockade Battle entered the second stage.
After entering the position in the rain overnight, the 188th Division's unit made full use of the original trench anti-artillery hole in Tieyuan and transformed it into a trench defense network with deep ravines, hiding troops under the trenches and resisting the onslaught of enemy aircraft and artillery.
At the same time, the division used anti-armor weapons to destroy hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles, in the battle 188 division 563 regiment 8 companies outstanding performance, company commander Guo Enzhi created a tactic called "three flowers", first with mortars in front of the enemy group left and right one shot, the enemy to drive the enemy to the middle, and then with heavy machine guns to the gathered enemy fiercely fire, forcing the enemy to disperse to the sides, and finally our army 1 platoon and 2 platoons from the left and right sides of the initiative to attack, inserted into the rear of the enemy army, plus 3 platoons of frontal attack to surround and annihilate the enemy, Mortars exploded plum blossoms, heavy machine guns came in a string of red, and finally surrounded the enemy.
Guo Enzhi's "three flowers" tactics have achieved remarkable results, the company repelled 15 enemy attacks at the cost of 16 casualties, killed and wounded more than 800 US troops, and the proportion of battle losses was very amazing.
By June 10, the U.S. army broke through the left wing friendly defense line of the 63rd Army, the eastern side of the Iron Plains was completely exposed, and the American Troops encircled the Iron Plains from west to east in an attempt to carry out a sneak attack, and the Iron Plains Blockade Battle reached the third stage.
Under the orders of Fu Chongbi, the 564th Regiment of the 188th Division first blew up the reservoir on the south side of the Tieyuan, causing the road to be muddy, and depleting the enemy with delay, and commanded all battalions of the whole army to organize commandos and take the opportunity to counterattack the enemy, and to support its forward troops in holding their positions and repelling the enemy's attack with active and proactive combat.
By the day of the battle, Zhang Yinghui's 188th Division had actually been wiped out, and at this time the entire perimeter of The Iron Plains had been turned into a sea of fire by the US napalm bombs, and the 187th Division, which was the main force of the right-wing defense, had become the core of the battlefield.
Shockingly, the actual strength of the division was only one regiment, because with the continuous escalation of the battles of the 188th Division and the 189th Division on the left flank, most of the division was drawn to the rescue, and in the face of this undefendable position, Xu Xin, commander of the 187th Division, made a bold move, concentrating all the artillery fire of the whole army to attack the American army to deter the American army from retreating.
Fu Chongbixin decided to gamble on Xu Xin's crazy ideas, and he gave Xu Xin all kinds of artillery and rockets.
On the night of June 10, the artillery units on the front line were equipped with mortars and the second line was equipped with Katyusha rockets, and under the cover of infantry, they quietly entered the position opposite the US army, and in order to resist the night attack of the volunteer army, the US army had already laid down the "turtle shell array" that placed tanks and armored vehicles on the periphery.
And because the volunteer army has not had a large-scale artillery counterattack for a long time, the US army mistakenly believes that the volunteer army has no artillery strength, so it only prevents the volunteer infantry attack, and the deployment is giving the army an opportunity.
Soon, as a yellow phosphorus incendiary bomb of the Volunteer Army was launched, the artillery of the 63rd Army bombarded the US position from dozens of points together, and in more than 20 minutes, hundreds of artillery pieces suddenly poured thousands of shells at the enemy, and the camp surrounded by hundreds of US tanks suddenly turned into a sea of fire.
After witnessing it, tang Manyang, the hero of the battle, said: "On the American position, it is not an ordinary explosion, it is a whole piece burning, it is a red, yellow, white mixed fire, it is iron burning!" ”
At this time, the Americans wanted to fight back, but the problem was that they could not distinguish the artillery positions of the Volunteers, and when the American reserve ammunition was ignited by the rockets of the Volunteers, the violent explosion pushed the feast of iron burning to a climax.
After the artillery attack, the commandos of the 187th Division took advantage of the chaos of the American army to launch a surprise attack on the American camp, severely damaged the American army and captured some of the booty, the American army was completely confused, they could not understand why the 63rd Army was in a disadvantage in numbers and equipment, why did it still have the strength to fight back?
They were terrified of the volunteers' night raid tactics and even exclaimed, "The sun is ours and the moon is Chinese."
The Americans did not immediately launch a counterattack, but took a step backwards, and the 187th Division finally held its position and breathed a sigh of relief.
On June 11, the main force of the Volunteer Army had completed the retreat mission and laid out a complete defensive front in the rear, but Ridgway was greatly disappointed by this, and could only let the American army stop the attack and organize the defense on the spot.
On June 12, the strategic transfer of the volunteer army was completed, and according to the order of the volunteer command, the 63rd Army withdrew from the position, and the 12-day Tieyuan Blockade Battle also came to an end in history.
The Tieyuan Blockade Battle won time to stabilize the entire war situation, protected the right wing of the Volunteer Army, and avoided the risk of being surrounded and annihilated by the United Nations Army, and the 63rd Army killed and wounded more than 20,000 United Nations troops, including 15,000 American troops, at the cost of more than 20,000 casualties, and achieved a great strategic victory.
The Tieyuan Blockade Gave the Americans a glimpse of the peak tactics of the Volunteer Army and smashed the U.S. military's conspiracy to land on the east and west coasts of Korea.
After the war, the Pentagon had to order the United Nations army to turn to strategic defense, and the Tieyuan Blockade Battle became a landmark battle that forced the Pentagon to negotiate an armistice, which directly contributed to the Panmunjom negotiations a month later, and initially ushered in the dawn of victory in the Korean War.
That night, after the 63rd Army was transferred to the Yichuan area for recuperation, Peng Dehuai personally crossed the Baili Theater to comfort the commanders and fighters, which was a unique honor on the Korean battlefield.
Some people recall the days of the Bloody War in Tieyuan, peng Dehuai often looked at the direction of Tieyuan at night and stained half of the sky with cannon fire, so that he shed tears.
The burning positions of the Iron Plains let the world know that even if everything prevails, the battle with the Chinese army will still pay the heaviest price.
To this day, the Iron Plains are still a frozen ruin, and behind this ruin, the peak tactics of the king of human light infantry are recorded, and the will of a nation is harder than steel.