On April 22, 1951, the fifth battle began. As the first echelon, the 63rd Army of the Volunteer Army engaged the enemy for the first time, and its task was to break through the enemy's "steel defense line" at the Linjin River. In the communist middle school, the 188th Division chose a strong breakthrough point between the east and west of Matianli; the 187th Division chose a breakthrough point east of Gaolangpu and forcibly broke through the Linjin River.
The Imjin River is a large river in the middle of the country. The width of the river is about 100 meters, and due to the influence of the sea tide, the river is shallow when it is deep, the water depth is at the same shore at high tide, and the water depth is more than 1 meter at low tide. On the south bank of the river is a continuous mountain, and Mount Cyanue, Moyi Mountain, and Daole Mountain are the main commanding heights.
Relying on favorable terrain, the enemy built a solid defense system, trenches, communication trenches, bunkers, barbed wire, and mines covered with large and small hills, and defended the first line of highlands and depth points in Jiangnan with the main force.
There is a tank pontoon bridge on the river surface, which connects the north and south of the Linjin River, and the river is full of iron matters. Its artillery firepower can control the main points and passages of the river surface and the north of the river.
The enemy in Jiangnan was the British 29th Brigade, which had the US 3rd Division to the east and the ROK 1st Division to the west. The total strength of the army is 42,000 people, equipped with more than 1,800 artillery pieces of various types, more than 400 tanks, and can be supported by aviation at any time.
Although it was extremely difficult to break through the Linjin River, the officers and men of the 63rd Army were never afraid of difficulties. Veteran army commander Fu Chongbi and Xu Xin, commander of the 187th Division, who was the main offensive task of the right wing of the first echelon, rushed to the river overnight to reconnoiter and find out the relevant situation, and made careful and proper arrangements for a smooth breakthrough through the Linjin River.
At 21:00 on the 22nd, the 559th Regiment and the 561st Regiment of the 187th Division were the first echelons, and they began to smuggle across the Linjin River from Shihu and Xinbao respectively. After 20 minutes, the 2nd Battalion of the 559th Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the 561st Regiment first reached the south bank.
At 22:00, when the enemy found that the volunteers were attacking, the first echelon had all been successfully smuggled, and the second echelon had also begun to cross.
At this time, the artillery fire on both sides of the Linjin River was woven into a dense network of fire. In a few moments, hordes of enemy planes poured into the sky above the river, and the black pressed shells were pressed down like clouds. On the banks of the river are flying mud, stones and smoke; in the middle of the river are columns of water and waves like waves; on the other side, the enemy's light and heavy machine guns frantically block bridges, ferries, and wading points.
However, they had difficulty blocking the numerous assault points. Braved the enemy's artillery fire, the volunteers jumped into waist-deep water and rushed to the opposite shore...
In less than 3 hours, the 4 regiments of the 187th Division of the first echelon had crossed the river in victory and approached the enemy's vigilant forces to engage in fierce battles with the enemy.
The reason why the 187th Division was able to cross the river quickly was mainly because they boldly adopted the method of ambushing from the assembly area into the riverbank assault point during the day.
Relying on the fortifications of the Linjin River and the constant reconnaissance of planes in the sky, the enemy never expected that the volunteer army would dare to approach the river bank during the day. The 187th Division, under the command of Commander Xu Xin, took advantage of this precisely, strictly camouflaged, adopted the method of multi-line columns and distance, and reached the riverbank along the mountain path.
The success of the 187th Division's surprise attack not only greatly shortened the time to cross the river, but also gave great encouragement to other units.
When the volunteer assault troops crossed the river, the enemy's artillery fire became more intense, the enemy planes were also bombing furiously, the flares and searchlights illuminated the river bank like daylight, coupled with the barbed wire and mines under the water, the casualties of the volunteer army were very serious. But the warriors had long ago put life and death aside, and while dealing with the enemy, they enthusiastically crossed the river.
At midnight, due to the rising tide of the sea, the river water soared, the enemy's deep artillery fire tightly sealed the ferry, and the 188th Division, which served as the main attack on the left wing of the first echelon, used part of its troops to contain the enemy who besieged the Jingu Mountain in the north of jiangsu, and the main force forcibly crossed the river south of Matianli to the Shiyin swamp and wedged into the enemy's position in the south of the river.
The troops who crossed the river in the early stage were frantically counterattacked by the enemy, and the battle was extremely fierce.
The 3rd Platoon of the 7th Company of the 564th Regiment, which held the 194.4 heights, fought fiercely with the enemy for several days, and finally only the soldier Chen Sanyi was left, who alone repelled the enemy's attack twice, killed and wounded more than 80 enemy people, held the position, and covered the follow-up troops to cross the river.
At the same time, the enemy of the Belgian battalion in Jiangbei, guided by a tank, attacked in the direction of the pontoon bridge in an attempt to flee south. The volunteer troops crossing the river used the enemy fortifications to launch a fierce battle with the enemy, adopting the tactics of small groups, multiple roads, and encirclement on all sides to attack uninterruptedly, and finally annihilated most of the enemy and broke through the enemy's defense line on the north bank of the Linjin River.
At dawn on the 23rd, all the troops of the 188th Division crossed the Linjin River.
After crossing the river, the units of the Volunteer Army continued to advance deep into the enemy, successively seizing 4 high grounds of the enemy, crossing 15 kilometers of rugged mountain roads, and crushing the enemy's resistance more than 10 times.
The 2nd Battalion of the 561st Regiment annihilated 1 company of the enemy in one fell swoop with the tactic of frontal containment and ropes made a rope with fried noodle bags behind it, seized the First Commanding Heights of the Volunteer Army's offensive, and severed the connection between the British 29th Brigade and the US 3rd Division, destroying 22 enemy tanks and capturing 2 vehicles; shooting down 6 enemy aircraft and capturing more than 2,000 enemy personnel.
The main force of the Volunteer Army continued to advance south, and at 18:00 on the 25th, it broke through the main defensive positions of the ROK 1st Division and the British 4th Brigade, and launched a fierce attack on the Gloucester Battalion of the British 4th Brigade, which was surrounded in the Shemali area.
The battalion was a British ace and was extremely effective. As early as the colonial war to conquer Egypt in 1801, the battalion was awarded a "Royal Army" hat insignia by the Emperor with the record of breaking through the siege and turning defeat into victory, and has since become the "Royal Army Double Emblem Battalion" wearing a double hat emblem.
However, the strong are even stronger, and in the encirclement of the volunteer army, although the "Double Emblem Battalion" has done everything in its power and trapped the beasts, it is still unable to get rid of the fate of rational annihilation.
On the morning of the 25th, 1 artillery unit and 1 heavy tank company of the battalion were completely annihilated by the volunteers.
Subsequently, the volunteer army successively occupied the areas of Wenshan, Michiji, Naokawa-ri, Zhongpaili, and Qifengshan, and annihilated more than 4,000 people in the 1st Division of the ROK Army and most of the British 29th Brigade.
The breakthrough of the Linjin River was the first time that the 63rd Army engaged the enemy. Under extremely difficult conditions, the commanders and fighters of the volunteer army carried forward the heroic and tenacious fighting style, dared to fight close combat and night combat, boldly interspersed with detours, and broke through the "steel defense line" that the enemy boasted in one fell swoop.
The 187th And 188th Divisions were commended by the Corps General Order and awarded a "FierceLy Planted Divide" award flag. Xu Xin, commander of the 187th Division, commanded flexibly, decisively, and bravely, and was awarded the second class meritorious service once.