Many lovers of modern history will ponder the question: In the early days of the founding of New China, under the condition of 1:1 troop strength, could we use relatively backward weapons and equipment to annihilate the enemies of developed countries that relied on capital plunder?
This question is not meaningless, after all, the War of Resistance Against Japan has just passed, and the Japanese casualties in the eight-year struggle were only more than 1.3 million, while the Chinese army was more than 35 million, which is a staggering 27 times in comparison.
Here we will use a nameless highland offensive battle during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea to solve this confusion for everyone.
In November 1951, a year after the Chinese Volunteer Army crossed the Yalu River, after five major battles, our army has successfully entered the second major stage of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, "protracted combat and active defense." Although the overall tactics have changed from offensive to defensive, small-scale attacks will still be adopted in the local areas.
In South Korea, there are many winding highlands and mountains along the Rinjin River, and Mount Maliang is one of them, which is located west of the 280 Highlands, which was occupied by the "United Nations Army" as early as October 1951, and then transferred to the British, responsible for the garrison of the Fourth Company of the Royal Scottish Border Guard Regiment. After receiving the task of garrisoning, the British army actively built fortifications here, and built more than 20 bunkers in a month's time, with trenches and communication trenches as passages, closely connected with various scattered military pits, forming a circular bunker-type fortification.
During the period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, there was a popular saying that our army was a logistics personnel responsible for hundreds of volunteer soldiers, while the "United Nations Army" was a few logistics taking care of a soldier, which shows the gap in logistical support between the enemy and us. At that time, the British troops on Mount Maran had only stored food and drinking water for about 5 days, so why not reserve more? Because their logistics can keep up, the more reserves can not be eaten will be wasted because of spoilage or poor taste.
Looking at the enemy on the opposite heights, the Chinese Volunteer Army decided to launch a surprise attack with the strength of one company, and this task fell to the five companies stationed near Ma Liang Mountain.
After receiving the task, the company began to actively prepare for the battle, all the cadres of squad leaders and above went to the forward position to survey the enemy's situation and terrain, and together studied how to win the battle with the least losses; although the number of enemies and us was equal, the gap in weapons and equipment was very large, and it was difficult to gnaw down this hard bone without relying on tactical charging, and even if the position was laid, the casualties would be very large.
After some discussion, the cadres in the company decided that 2 platoons would be responsible for the frontal attack as a commando team, 3 platoons would detour back to the rear to cut off the retreat, and 1 platoon would follow 2 platoons, and after breaking through the enemy line, they would enter the battle. On the evening of 3 November, the Fifth Company officially entered the offensive starting position, and in addition to being equipped with sufficient ammunition, it also prepared more than 300 kilograms of explosives, 100 grenades, dozens of blasting canisters, plus 2 heavy machine guns and 2 rocket launchers.
At 15:00 on the afternoon of November 4, our army fired artillery fire on Ma liang Mountain, the enemy defenders hurried back into the fortifications, and the 2 platoons responsible for the frontal attack quickly broke the barbed wire under the cover of fire, and the 1st platoon attacked closely behind. The enemy in the bunker opened fire on our army, but the 3 platoons that did not want to detour back to the rear also threw themselves into battle, forming an encirclement of the enemy for a while.
The battle lasted until night, and our army successfully occupied the maliangshan heights, killed more than 80 enemy troops, and captured all its military supplies, more than 20 rifles and three light and heavy machine guns. The soldiers of our army showed great bravery in this battle, and the company commander was wounded in many places and still insisted on leading the charge, blowing up 4 bunkers of the enemy in a row, and a volunteer soldier named Meng Jianglin pounced on the bunker at a critical moment, and dragged the machine gun that the enemy was firing out of the machine gun muzzle of the bunker.