In the middle and late period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, two domestic units were merged and soon marched to the Korean front. This new force was the famous 54th Army, which later became a well-known top ace army. Prior to the merger in 1952, it was preceded by two units, the 44th Army and the 45th Army. Both of these armies were from the former Fourth Field Army, and they also had very good records and outstanding military achievements in history.
The predecessor of the 44th Army was the former Seventh Column of the Northeast Field Army, and Deng Hua, the second commander of the Volunteer Army, once served as the commander of the column; and the comprehensive strength of the 45th Army was slightly stronger than that of the 44th Army, and its predecessor was the Eighth Column of Dongye, which can be called the main male division, the old unit of the famous general Huang Yongsheng of the Four Fields, and a fist column of Dongye. During the Period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, due to the overall readjustment needs of our army's troops, the two armies needed to be integrated.
In October 1952, when the two fraternal units were combined, there was a big controversy. Because as the strongest field army during the Liberation War, The troops of The Four Fields have a strong sense of honor from commanders to ordinary soldiers. It is generally believed that if a unit cancels its number, it is psychologically difficult for commanders and fighters to accept. Although the combined units are also continuing the lives of the old units, the officers and men all hope to retain the original name of the unit, and it seems that the name is more justified. But a basic fact is that the two old divisions of the 44th Army and the 45th Army are going to be withdrawn in any case, and it is better to fail to achieve integration. What happened next?
If we look at the composition of the troops purely, the original 45th Army and two divisions are retained, the main body is the 45th Army, so from the common sense of judgment, the name of the 45th Army should be followed, and the 45th Army is a stronger unit than the 44th Army in history, and its achievements and strength are more outstanding. However, the 44th Army also fought the Liaoshen Campaign and the Pingjin Campaign, and its historical contributions were not small, and the officers and men had a deep affection for the old troops. In order to take care of the emotions of the commanders and fighters of the 44th Army, the prime minister proposed a very good solution: that is, the names of the two units were not used, but the blood of the two units was retained, leaving the "4" of the 44th Army and the "5" of the 45th Army to form a new unit, called the 54th Army of the People's Liberation Army.
In this way, the names of the two old units will survive in this way, the commanders and fighters on both sides will not have a knot in their hearts, and the newly combined units can be more united. This is a clever trick, and it also reflects the thoughtfulness and comprehensiveness of the prime minister's handling of the issue. Thus the 54th Army was born, and soon went to the Korean front, with the famous general Ding Sheng as the first commander of the 54th Army.
The 54th Army retained the 130th Division of the former 44th Army and the 134th and 135th Divisions of the 45th Army. Due to the good base of troops, although the 54th Army did not enter the DPRK for a long time, it participated in the last great war, the Battle of Jincheng, in which it annihilated more than 7,000 enemy troops and made outstanding achievements; and the real strength of the 54th Army was the 62-year counterattack against India. As the main commander of our army, General Ding Sheng led the 54th Army to attack the Indian army and successfully defended national sovereignty. Since then, the 54th Army has truly become an ace unit in the history of our army, which is not inferior to the previous four aces. General Ding Sheng later became the commander of the Grand Military Region because of his military achievements, and successively served in the Guangzhou Military Region and the Nanjing Military Region. The 54th Army also participated in the counterattack against Vietnam in 1979 and was one of the best units of our army, and it was precisely because it had outstanding performance in many foreign wars that the 54th Army became the rising star unit of our army.
In 1985, this ace army was upgraded to a group army, subordinate to the Jinan Military Region, and later became one of the only three heavily armored and rapid-reacting group armies of our army, and its strength was only slightly inferior to that of the upgraded 38th Group Army of the "Banzai Army", with a very high status, and the other was the 39th Group Army. Obviously, the 38th Army and the 39th Army are both veteran Siye first-class aces, which can be ranked among the three main army groups, which shows how fast the development of the 54th Army was in the later period, and the former Minister of National Defense, General Liang Guanglie, also served as the commander of the group army in the 1990s.
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