In the Fourth Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, after our army won the Hengcheng counterattack, in addition to the eastern front of Pingli and the garrison of the "United Nations Army", the enemy troops in other places have withdrawn as far as Wonju and Ninh Yue. Later, in order to further expand the results of the battle, our army prepared to do so
From 13 to 16 February 1951, an attack was launched on Tohei-ri
Unfortunately, because of the enemy's wrong situation, the battle was finally defeated, and the number of losses of our volunteers was more than twice that of the enemy army. As deputy commander-in-chief, Deng Hua also made a review of his mistakes after the war, and was determined to learn the painful lessons from his failures and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. What kind of mistakes will cause the volunteers to suffer heavy losses?
On February 12, 1951, at the end of the Battle of Hengcheng, deng hua headquarters around the strength of 8 regiments can attack the enemy in Pingli, and later due to an inaccurate information, "Deng Zhi" decided to attack Pingli with the 5 regiments that were currently serving as reserves, and when Xu Guofu, the commander of the 119th Division, came to the headquarters to accept the task, he was deeply anxious. After all, the Battle of Hengcheng has not yet completely ended, the soldiers have not rested after winning the battle, the tacit understanding of the newly formed 5 regiments and teams has not yet been cultivated, the enemy situation and the enemy situation are temporarily unclear, and the attack is really a bit too hasty at the moment.
Then, after careful consideration, he asked "Deng Zhi" to suspend the attack time, and Deng Hua's attitude was very resolute, saying that the time for launching the attack on the 13th could not be changed, and once the best time was missed, the enemy might flee, and no one could bear such a responsibility. Deng Hua solemnly said to Xu Guofu:
Now there are at most two enemy battalions in Pingpingli, and with your rich combat experience, you will be able to quickly catch and annihilate them, please be sure not to delay
。 Under such a situation, Xu Guofu had no choice but to say that he would annihilate the enemy army in accordance with the instructions of his superiors.
From the beginning,
The volunteer army assigned by "Deng Zhi" to Xu Guofu, the commander of the 119th Division, had only 5 regiments, namely the 356th and 357th regiments of the 119th Division that Xu Guofu had previously brought, and the 359th Regiment of the 120th Division, the 375th Regiment of the 125th Division, and the 40th Artillery Regiment of the 120th Division
During the operational meeting, Deputy Regiment Commander Li Wenqing said: He had just come down from the front line of Tongpingli not long ago, and now the enemy is no longer one or two battalions, they have also built fortifications, and there is no trace of escape.
Xu Guofu attached great importance to this information and made a report to his superiors, but because he had not received new instructions for a long time, he could only prepare to launch an attack on Pingli at 4:30 p.m. on February 13 in accordance with the requirements of the first battle plan of "Deng Zhi".
Before the artillery regiment of the 40th Army began to prepare for the attack, the target was exposed due to the fright of the horses, and it was attacked by enemy aircraft, resulting in heavy losses and could not be put into battle, coupled with the sudden inability to contact the 375th Regiment of the 125th Division of the 42nd Division, so only three regiments were left to launch an attack this time.
In fact, if the enemy army really only has one or two battalions, this will not have much impact, with the heroism of the volunteer soldiers, there is no problem in annihilating the other side, unfortunately, later facts have proved that all this was a misjudgment, it can be said that the final fiasco in the Battle of Pingli has a lot to do with the lack of understanding of the enemy's situation.
It turned out that the information was wrong at the beginning, and the Un army in Tongpingli was not a deserter, but was stationed here for defense on the orders of its superiors, which was actually an important stronghold of the enemy
The 23rd Infantry Regiment, the 1st Ranger Company, the 37th Artillery Battalion (105 howitzers), the 503rd Artillery Battalion B Company (155 howitzers), the 82nd Automatic Anti-Aircraft Weapons Battalion B Company, the 2nd Engineer Battalion B Company, etc., total numbered about 60,000 people
。
Previously, because of the victory of the Chinese volunteer army, Almond, the commander of the US 10th Army, had made preparations for the advance withdrawal, but because the superior Ridgway seriously stated that if the retreater did not need to come back, Almond had to abandon the retreat plan and prepare to start strengthening the defense of the position.
A very important strategic point in Tongpyeong-ri is an ordinary village from southern Korea, located in the basin, Ridgway has always been worried that once it is taken by the volunteers, it will easily expose the right wing of the 9th Army, if our volunteers are inserted, it will easily cause the entire front to tear apart, so it will order the US 23rd Regiment to hold out.
Under the arrangement of The Commander of the 23rd Regiment, Fairman,
There were multiple barbed wire and minefields such as bunkers, bunkers, and communication trenches, and where the volunteers might attack, they also built cliff ice areas, and equipped them with dense firepower everywhere, such as tanks, anti-aircraft guns, and so on
, ready to wait for the volunteer army to attack and deal a hard blow to it.
On the night of February 13, 1951, the Battle of Tongpingli was completely fought
，
Xu Guofu ordered the 357th Regiment to attack Fengwei Mountain from north to south, and the 356th Regiment and 359th Regiment to attack from east to southwest
At the beginning, the battle was relatively smooth, but by about 11 o'clock that night, the volunteer army had suffered a relatively heavy fire attack from the enemy.
Because the enemy had built fortifications before, so the volunteer army became more and more difficult on the way forward, like the 357 regiment, stumbling on the enemy's cliff ice area, it was really difficult to stand up after taking a step and falling, the US aircraft were bombing, the anti-aircraft guns had been projecting, there were many volunteer soldiers who were injured, and the deputy platoon commander who led the 7 company to attack the front was still desperately participating in the battle when he was seriously injured, determined to fight with the US army to the death.
Yin Kaiwen, commander of the 7th Company of the 357th Regiment, led the soldiers to attack like the deputy company commander
Although too many soldiers had been sacrificed in the cliff ice area, the soldiers were still not afraid of life and death, and after repeated efforts, the volunteers finally occupied the forward positions of the American army. However, it did not take long for the US fire attack to cover up again, and the shells fell on this hill one by one as if they did not need money.
Yin Kaiwen was unfortunately blown to the abdomen by the bomb, and then fell to the ground, and the soldiers were busy bandaging him, but he waved his big hand and shouted: Leave me alone, give me a hard beating! After that, Wang Yuzheng, the instructor of the 7th Company, came to support with the soldiers, bandaged the company commander, and ordered the soldiers to take him down to rest, and before he reached the bandaging station, Yin Kaiwen did not breathe.
Then the instructors of the 7th Company began to formally command the battle, because the enemy's artillery fire was too fierce, the battle situation began to enter a stalemate, during the battle, Wang Yuzheng's instructor was accidentally wounded in the leg, but still fought bravely to fight the enemy, and finally sacrificed on this position.
Although the 7th Company of the 357th Regiment has bravely been trying to rush forward, the volunteers have never penetrated into the core circle of the American army, and their troops in Tongpingli are very tightly fortified, and every hill is heavily guarded. In this war, guan Degui, the instructor of the 3rd Battalion and 9th Company of the 359th Regiment, is a very famous blasting hero, after the completion of the blasting operation, his hands and feet were burned by the gasoline solidification bombs of the US army, and every time he attacked a hill, he would have more wounds on his body, and then his legs were shot again, but in the end he never gave up on the advance, there is no doubt that this war was really made of blood by the volunteer soldiers.
After a night of fighting, the volunteer army still did not occupy the core area of the United States, which can be said to be not only a problem that the enemy situation was not clear, but also had a lot to do with the volunteers' own firepower equipment and the absence of artillery regiments. After dawn, the US military began to use the superiority of troops to fight with the volunteers, in the battlefield where the two sides of the troops fought, the US army repeatedly used fighters to bomb the volunteers, according to the later anti-US and aid to Korea soldiers recalled, the sound of aircraft projecting shells did not stop all morning, because the place where the two sides fought was not large, the land was basically blown up into scorched earth, and as almond asked Ridgway for help, they launched a more fierce attack on the volunteers.
Because the 3rd Battalion of the 359th Regiment has been pressed into retreat, there is no way to use the telephone to contact the superiors, and the soldiers of the 3rd Battalion are more and more sacrificed in front of this position.
Despite the attempts of regimental commander Li Linyi, no one could be found, and the telephonemen sent out were also sacrificed on the positions to the three battalions
The soldiers had always been like this, and they would never retreat until the last step, and although the situation was already very unfavorable, they persevered until dark. As night came, the volunteer troops once again heroically attacked, wave after wave of charge, one effort after another, against the enemy's artillery fire, the volunteers have been bravely charging forward, they are almost stepping on the remains of their comrades in front of them. Later, the war gradually became white-hot, the United States also began to launch a counter-attack, the two sides have been tearing, in the case of such a disparity in firepower, the volunteers began to take a stick tied to the explosive package forward, in front of the comrades sacrificed, the soldiers behind will follow, do not think anything, it is not important, complete the instructions of the superiors, blow up the trenches of the US army is considered successful.
In this case,
Almond had to ask Ridgway for help again,
I hope he can send troops to support, it can be said that the situation at this time is very dangerous, the volunteer soldiers have paid so much for this battle, the comrades who sacrificed so much, not to take Pingli is really no one is sorry, and the US army, listening to the orders of the superiors to garrison here, do not dare to retreat easily, is really going to fight to the death.
Once again, the latest reinforcements from the American army had reached the mountain village near Tongpingli, where the volunteers could only give them a more fierce attack, because once the tanks entered the enemy area, the probability of our victory would be greatly reduced, so the rescue must be blocked. As if the volunteers were not afraid of death or pain, they rushed forward desperately, but how could the flesh and blood resist the artillery attack, on the 15th, the American reinforcements broke through the defense line of our volunteer army, and under the cover of the air force, more than 20 tanks of the 5th Wing of the US 9th Cavalry 1st Division broke into The Pingli.
afterwards
Commander of the 40th Army, Wen Yucheng
Xu Guofu, commander of the 119th Division, successively arrived at the front line position in Pingli, analyzed the battle situation, and believed that under such a situation, it was necessary to retreat, so he applied to "Deng Zhi", and then, with the consent of General Peng, all the officers and men of the Volunteer Army stopped attacking and withdrew from the battle.
The evacuation order of the headquarters arrived,
The commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 359th Regiment of the 120th Division of the 40th Army of the Volunteer Army did not have any intention of retreating, the soldiers of the three battalions had almost all sacrificed themselves, leaving only themselves to live, it was impossible, in the front position, Niu Zhen thickly exposed his bloodshot eyes, smeared a face blackened by cannon fodder, carried a submachine gun, two or three bullets pinned to his waist, he was ready to fight with the American army to the death.
Just use such a little guy, you can bring a few more American cubs, anyway, you would rather die one step forward than retreat a point. The few remaining soldiers watched the battalion commander rush forward desperately, quickly held him down, and dragged him down the position, this is the situation of the 359th Regiment of the 120th Division, it can be said that this is the most serious loss they have suffered since the Korean War, how can the regiment commander not be heartbroken?
In fact, not only the 359th Regiment of the 120th Division, but also other regiments, when they carried out the battle situation and casualties to their superiors, the 357th Regiment Commander looked very sad, and in the Battle of Pingli, the 3 regiments of the 40th Army actually fought, killing less than 800 American troops, but losing at least 1800 people themselves.
It can be said that it was an important turning point in the Korean War, so the US military even found a tactic that could effectively oppose the Chinese volunteer army, before in the Korean battlefield, the volunteer army was almost invincible, the United States has always had a great fear of our army, after this war, the fear basically disappeared, and the determination to continue fighting was also firm.
For the volunteer army, this battle was extremely painful, not only did it not achieve the purpose of returning from the west to the east in the fourth campaign to resist the United States and aid Korea, but also exposed its weaknesses, such as weak firepower, insufficient logistical supply, etc., which is likely to cause a very adverse impact on the subsequent Sino-US war.