On December 24, 1950, the Volunteers successfully concluded the second campaign. The second campaign was the most crucial battle to turn the tide of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. In this battle, the volunteer army won an unprecedented victory on both the eastern and western fronts under very unfavorable conditions, repelled all the "coalition forces" led by the US army to the area south of the 38th line, and took advantage of the victory to occupy the Yan'an Peninsula and the Ongjin Peninsula south of the 38th Line, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent armistice negotiations.
This battle left the 14-hour mountain rapid march of the 38th Army of the "Banzai Army" to seize Sansoli and Longyuanli in 72 kilometers, and the bloody Songbone Peak desperately blocked the war miracle of the US 9th Army, and also left the immortal chapter of the 20th and 27th Armies completely annihilating the "Polar Bear Regiment" in the icy snow and snow of Chosin Lake, and causing the US 1st Marine Division to suffer "the most painful defeat in history".
However, the so-called few joys and some sorrows. Behind the great victory of the volunteer army, Wu Ruilin, commander of the 42nd Army, left a lifelong regret: the title of "Long Live the Army" was actually only one step away from the 42nd Army. But because of a series of yin and yang mistakes, he could only look at this supreme and glorious title belonging to the people's army and awarded it to the 38th Army. What's going on?
Lieutenant General Wu Ruilin
(1) Campaign planning, General Peng was determined to "double encirclement", and the 42nd Army had a heavy responsibility on its shoulders
In the initial campaign planning, Shijimoto advocated that the 38th and 42nd armies jointly carry out the task of dividing and encircling the US 9th Army, and that they jointly break through the Han 7th Division in front of Tokugawa, and then advance deep behind the enemy lines. However, the 38th Army was severely criticized by General Peng because it did not play well in the first battle. In order to enable the 38th Army to turn itself around in the second campaign, Liang Xingchu, the commander of the army, and Liu Xiyuan, the political commissar, implored Han Xianchu, the deputy commander of the Volunteer Army, who had come to take command, to attack Tokugawa alone by the 38th Army, without the cooperation of the 42nd Army.
After overall consideration, Han Xianchu thought that the 38th Army could single-handedly attack Tokugawa, so that the 42nd Army could attack Ningyuan at the same time, annihilate the Han 8th Division stationed there, and then attack deep from the left flank of the 38th Army. In this way, in addition to the 38th Army dividing the US 9th Army from the inside line, the 42nd Army can form another encirclement circle against the US 9th Army from the outside line, thus achieving the purpose of double encirclement and annihilation of the enemy.
Schematic map of the position of the 38th and 42nd Armies in the second battle
Han Xianchu's proposal was supported by Deng Hua, the first deputy commander and deputy political commissar of the Volunteer Army, and Xie Fang, chief of staff, so General Peng adopted this idea and ordered the 38th and 42nd Armies to capture Tokugawa and Ningyuan respectively, and then the 38th Army carried out a detour along the Yuli-Shunchuan Highway to penetrate the depth of the enemy, and the 42nd Army made a breakthrough along the Beicangli-Shunchuan Highway, completely blocking the retreat of the US 9th Army.
On November 26, 1950, only one day after the second campaign was launched, the 38th Army successfully took Tokugawa, and the 42nd Army successfully captured Ningyuan, and both armies won the first move. Although the 38th Army's record of killing and wounding 3,788 enemy prisoners was more than the 42nd Army's record of killing and wounding 3,249 enemy prisoners, the 42nd Army captured more: 28 vehicles of weapons and ammunition alone, and 50 truckloads of food and rest of the supplies. In this way, in the second step of operation, the logistical pressure of the 42nd Army was much less than that of the 38th Army.
(ii) The initial 42nd Army progressed smoothly, but then lacked stamina
In the following stage of deep breakthrough, Wu Ruilin's deployment in the 42nd Army was: the 125th Division attacked the 7th Regiment of the American Cavalry along the route of False Cangli and Yuepuli, captured Yuepuli and seized the important area of Shunchuan; the 124th Division followed up and was ready to enter the battle; the 126th Division responded on the left flank and advanced all the way through Songyuli, Longmenli, and Chonghuali to cooperate with the main force.
On the night of November 28, the vanguard of the 125th Division arrived at Wolpo-ri after a rapid march, and immediately launched a night attack, destroying a battalion of the ROK army. Sensing the danger, the 7th Regiment of American Horsemen quickly retreated and ran straight in the direction of Shunchuan. Due to the high degree of motorization of the US army, Wang Daoquan, commander of the 125th Division, decided to use the 373rd and 374th regiments to be responsible for eliminating the enemy in Yuepuli, while the 375th Regiment went into battle lightly and rushed forward at all costs, and must seize Shunchuan before the AMERICAN troops.
November 29 was the most important day of the second campaign. On this day, after 14 hours of rapid marching, the 113th Division of the 38th Army successfully seized Sanshouli and Longyuanli and blocked the US 9th Army from the inside line. On the outside, the 125th Division of the 42nd Army advanced at full strength towards Shuncheon. However, what the 42nd Army did not know was that shortly after the departure of the 375th Regiment, the U.S. Army adjusted its deployment, transferring the main cavalry regiments of the 1st Cavalry Division to Shunchuan, and the 7th Cavalry Regiment and the roon two regiments that had already retreated went forward to Xincangli to form a blocking position. Playing Shunchuan, Xincangli is a must-pass place. As a result, the 375th Regiment collided head-on with the 7th Regiment of American Cavalry.
At first, the 375th Regiment played quite well. The officers and men of the first company did not retreat in the face of the attack of the two companies of the US army, and destroyed 3 US tanks with grenades and captured more than 30 prisoners. But then, the arrival of American warplanes caused serious casualties to the volunteers. Although the volunteers eventually repelled the American army and annihilated more than 500 enemy troops, they suffered more than 730 casualties.
Originally, the volunteer army received information that the defenders of Shincangli were the remnants of the Han 6th Division, and the 7th Regiment of American Cavalry was shrinking towards Shunchuan. If this is the case, it is possible to attack Shinkura with a regiment and continue to kill Shuncheon. However, in the face of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, which was far more effective than the Roks, according to the experience of the 39th Army at Unsan, at least one division was needed to deal with a regiment of American troops. As a result, the 125th Division had to urgently dispatch the 373rd and 374th regiments to support the 375th Regiment. However, at this time, the 8th American Cavalry Regiment came to reinforcements. A multiple-choice question was placed in front of the 125th Division: Should it continue with the interspersed assault, or would it first defend on the spot to stabilize the front?
Tan Wenbang, political commissar of the division, believed that the two US regiments were not good at nibbling, and that a forced assault would suffer huge casualties, and suggested that they defend on the spot, and the division commander Wang Daoquan was a little hesitant. After deliberating, the two decided to ask Hu Jicheng, the deputy commander who had come to supervise the battle. Hu Jicheng thought twice, and by the early morning of the 30th, it was decided that the 124th Division and the 125th Division would jointly attack the 7th and 8th regiments of the US cavalry. Unfortunately, the artillery of the two divisions encountered an air raid on the halfway, losing more than 10 artillery pieces and almost all the towing vehicles. In the absence of heavy artillery support, the 125th Division's attack was frustrated, so it had to turn to the defensive first. The commander of the 124th Division, Su Kezhi, advocated continuing the offensive, but the division's political commissar Ji Tiezhong believed that the time to attack had been lost. Later, after Hu Jicheng made a decision, he finally decided to report the situation to military commander Wu Ruilin and military political commissar Zhou Biao for decision.
(iii) Fighters are fleeting and require a resolute determination to achieve their goals
In fact, just as Hu Jicheng and others were entangled, the 7th and 8th Regiments of the US Cavalry were instructed by Major General Hobart, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, that since the friendly forces retreating from their left flank had been blocked by the Volunteer 38th Army in Sansholi and Longyuanli, the 1st Cavalry Division had in fact become a lone army, and it was useless to hold out and must retreat immediately. So the Two Regiments of American Troops, together with the two regiments of the Rok army assigned to them, immediately discarded all their heavy equipment, quickly contracted to Shuncheon, and continued to retreat after destroying the city of Shuncheon, leaving the battlefield. If the 124th and 125th Divisions were determined to attack decisively, it would be possible to defeat the 7th and 8th Cavalry Regiments, which had already been determined to retreat, and then continue to advance towards Shunchuan. Regrettably, however, such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was missed by the hesitation of the commanders at the front.
Wu Ruilin received a telegram that it was 6 a.m. on the 30th, when the 7th Regiment of american cavalry was in retreat, and the 8th Regiment of Mounted Was still receiving the wounded and sick and preparing for retreat. When he saw the telegram, Wu Ruilin was so angry that he slammed the chopsticks he was planning to use for breakfast on the ground. He quickly sent someone to summon the military political commissar Zhou Biao, and the two of them sent a telegram in extremely harsh language to instruct the 124th and 125th Divisions to attack immediately. However, by the time the volunteers rushed into Xincangli, the 7th and 8th Regiments of the U.S. Horsemen and the Roks had joined the 5th Regiment of The Horsemen of Shuncheon and continued to retreat south, eventually escaping.
Admittedly, in the second campaign, the 42nd Army had better fighters than the 38th Army, because they were responsible for closing the last gate for Americans to flee south. But it is precisely because they are responsible for the outermost encirclement and the last blockade line, so their difficulty and pressure are also the greatest. Moreover, the 38th Army was able to receive timely support and cooperation from the 39th and 66th Armies when it intercepted the enemy on the inner line, while the 42nd Army, which was on the far left flank of the Volunteer Army on the western front, could only deal with all the situations on its own. In order to preserve Shunchuan, the last retreat channel, the US 9th Army did not hesitate to leave the best equipped and most powerful Cavalry Division behind, which also greatly surprised the 42nd Army.
Faced with the 7th and 8th regiments of the US cavalry and the two regiments of the ROK army with tanks, aircraft and heavy artillery, the 42nd Army, even if it could destroy its opponents, was bound to pay a considerable price. Of course, if the 124th and 125th Divisions attacked resolutely, or if they could contain the enemy in front of them with one unit, and the main force bypassed Xincangli and directly attacked Shunchuan, then only shunchuan, which was garrisoned by two battalions of the 5th Regiment (the other battalion was sent to guard the Datong River Bridge), might be taken in one fell swoop. Although history does not allow for assumptions, if the 42nd Army really gives it a go, even if it fails in the end, it will not leave a regret of lifelong peace.
Therefore, we can say that in the battlefield where opportunities are fleeting, the decisiveness and determination of the front-line commanders play a crucial role in achieving the objectives of the campaign. When the 113th Division of the 38th Army seized Sansholi, it was discovered by US reconnaissance planes. However, the division's Yangtze River Chao and political commissar Yu Jingshan vetoed the proposal to conceal on the spot, and immediately ordered the disguise to be removed, to continue to advance with all their might, and through boldly going against the grain, they successfully confused the US pilots and finally arrived at their destination on time; when Zhai Zhongyu, commander of the 114th Division, and Li Wei, political commissar, did not hesitate for a moment when they faced the Turkish brigade that had already preemptively occupied the commanding heights, and immediately deployed a sharp knife battalion to climb up from behind the mountain side to carry out a surprise attack and a frontal assault of the main force, and it took only 1 hour to crush the enemy. All this shows that the reason why the 38th Army was able to obtain the title of "Long Live the Army" was inseparable from the decisive decision of its division chiefs at a crucial moment.
Wu Ruilin later sighed in his memories: "If we can intersperse it in place, we will also be a long-lived army!" However, although it has nothing to do with the title of "Long Live the Army," the merits of the 42nd Army in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea are also unquestionable. Whether it is the Huangcaoling Blockade Battle or the breakthrough of the Linjin River-Han River defense line, the soldiers of the 42nd Army have played the prestige of the volunteer army with courage and enthusiasm, which is worth remembering forever!
(Note: The Forty Army in Korea states that Wu Ruilin issued a combat order that must seize Shunchuan; in Hu Jicheng's Memoirs, it is said that the order was to advance towards Shunchuan after occupying Xincangli))
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