The new account is calculated together with the old account
The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 attracted worldwide attention, and the United States, which did not want to participate in it, did not forget to gather 15 other countries to participate in the war in the name of the so-called "United Nations Army" when sending troops to the Korean Peninsula.
Among them, in order to closely follow the United States, the British sent a large number of troops, and sent out their own famous 3 ace armies. They represent britain's strongest fighting force, and in addition to responding to the call of the United States, they also carry the purpose of promoting national prestige.
And when peng Dehuai, the commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army, learned the news that the three ace armies of the British army had entered the war, he immediately shot the case and said: "Great! This time, let's calculate it with the new and old accounts of the British army! ”
So, what does Mr. Peng mean by "new accounts and old accounts"?
How did the Volunteers settle accounts with the three British aces?
The three aces of the British army
The old accounts between China and the British army began with the Opium War that broke out in 1840.
At that time, Britain set its sights on China, launched the First Opium War under the pretext of selling cigarettes at Humen, and forcibly opened the door of China with artillery fire, thus beginning China's century-long history of humiliation, and China gradually degenerated into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
Pictured: The British fleet during the Opium War
Afterwards, however, the predatory British were not satisfied.
They first launched the Second Opium War with France in 1856, invading Beijing all the way and looting the Yuanmingyuan and setting it on fire. Later, in 1900, together with 8 other countries, they invaded Beijing again, which not only brought unbearable suffering to the Chinese people, but also completely reduced China to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
During the Liberation War, the British did not sit idle, ignoring the warnings of the People's Liberation Army, and openly sailed two warships, the Purple Stone and the London, into the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, intruded into the section of the river that the People's Liberation Army had prepared to cross the river in advance, and identified that the People's Liberation Army did not dare to fire at their warships.
These injuries caused by the British, until the founding of New China, although the Chinese people did not hang on their lips, they never forgot. Some old accounts are compensated in advance, not because they have forgotten or let go, but because the time to settle accounts has not yet come.
Although the two Opium Wars were not won, at least when British warships broke into the Yangtze River, the People's Liberation Army, with its firm determination and great courage to defend national sovereignty, fired at the Ziyingshi, and finally made the Ziyingshi have to flee at night, which also marked the end of the "gunboat diplomacy" of Western countries.
Pictured: The British ship Purple Quartz
The old accounts have not yet been turned, and Britain has participated in the provocation against China.
During the Korean War, the British sent a total of 3 brigades, a total of 14,000 people to fight, although the overall number was small, but all of them were elite.
Veterans of the Volunteer Army who participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea recalled that on the Korean battlefield, the US military was actually not the most terrible, because as long as there were casualties, they would collapse. British soldiers were the most difficult, many of them had fought in World War II, were battle-hardened bearded soldiers, and also possessed advanced weapons and equipment.
The three ace units sent by the British were the Royal Rifle Regiment, the Royal Heavy Tank Battalion, and the Gloucester Battalion, each of which was the "star" of the British Army. Even Ridgway, the commander-in-chief of the "United Nations Army" at the time, was full of confidence in these three ace units.
Pictured: Ridgway
However, it was the three units that had a great reputation abroad, and when the news of their participation in the war reached the ears of Peng Dehuai, the commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army, instead of being afraid of this, he was highly motivated and shot up: "Great! Since they dare to come, let's calculate it with the new and old accounts of the British army this time! ”
"Chinese Funeral"
The first British army to engage the Volunteers was the Royal Rifle Regiment.
This unit belonged to the British 29th Brigade, and its top commander was Montgomery, a famous British general who had participated in the Normandy landings, and the British 29th Brigade, as one of the first British troops to participate in the war, came to the Korean battlefield in November 1950.
The Royal Rifle Regiment has a long history, formed in the late 18th century and early 19th century, which requires the individual ability of each soldier to be extremely high, and the marksmanship is accurate, which can be called "sniper per capita". Their regimental commander Ulster was so proud that he did not take the volunteer army seriously from the very beginning, and shouted: "We can fight a division or an army in China with one regiment!" ”
Obviously, Ulster believes that the strength of the Chinese army is still stuck in the Opium War period, but it is not clear that after more than twenty years of war baptism, the unit composed of Chinese soldiers is far stronger than he imagined, and it is tenacious and unyielding.
On December 31, 1950, in the third campaign launched by the Volunteer Army, the American troops in the area of the Linjin River were defeated by the Volunteer Army and could only choose to retreat in a hurry. However, it was not so easy to retreat, and the volunteers were in hot pursuit, and the American army had to call the British Royal Rifle Regiment for support.
On January 3, 1951, while pursuing the enemy, the 347th Regiment of the 116th Division of the Volunteer Army learned from a local compatriot that an enemy unit was stationed in the town of Pugu-ri in front. In view of the importance of the geographical location of Pugu-ri, the 347th Regiment, upon learning of the intelligence, immediately made a decision to eliminate the enemy troops stationed in the town.
It was only because of the translation problem that the regimental commander and others mistakenly heard what he called "company" as "company", thinking that the enemy in front of him had only one company, so he ordered Fu Xuejun, deputy battalion commander of the 1st Battalion, to take 3 companies and launch an attack on Puguli. But after Fu Xuejun led the men to open fire, he soon realized that the number of enemies here was far more than a company.
Fu Xuejun hurriedly asked someone to reconnoiter, and it turned out that it was the British army that was guarding here, and there was almost a regiment of troops. At this time, the 3 companies brought by Fu Xuejun already had a lot of casualties, but Fu Xuejun's first reaction after learning the truth was: This piece of fat meat can't make it run!
Therefore, Fu Xuejun disregarded his own safety, ran down from the position occupied by the 3rd Company, pulled out his leg and ran towards the headquarters of the 347th Regiment. When the British spotted his actions, they turned their guns at him. Fu Xuejun limped back to the regimental headquarters with his injured arms and legs and reported the news to the regimental commander.
After that, the 7th Company was sent to reinforcements, and it was forced to withstand the 6 attacks launched by the superior British army until the ammunition was exhausted, and there were still 7 volunteer soldiers left on the position, still not taking a step back, holding the position, waiting for reinforcements.
After the company commander was also killed, the 19-year-old correspondent Zheng Qi took over the command of the position, he patiently led the other soldiers to hold the position, and when the British army launched another charge, the soldiers raised their bayonets, and Zheng Qi raised his military trumpet, with the last psychological preparation, and used his last strength to blow a loud horn.
Pictured: Zheng Qi's signature with Chairman Mao
At this moment, the British army that heard the charge horn turned around and ran, not one or two people, but all the members of the British army. This surprised the surviving 7 companies of fighters.
It turned out that although the British Army's Royal Rifle Regiment was accurate in marksmanship, it was very afraid of close combat, and the Volunteer Army was the best at melee and hand-to-hand combat. After the British army rushed to the position, as soon as they heard the charge horn, they thought that the volunteer army was going to launch a charge, so they were frightened to retreat.
A trumpet not only frightened the British, but also bought time for reinforcements, and finally the large volunteer troops arrived and killed the first battalion of the British Royal Rifle Regiment, and the remaining British soldiers had to flee in a hurry.
Later surviving British soldiers recalled the incident, and even called the trumpet the "Chinese funeral" of the Royal Rifle Regiment.
Pictured: Zheng Qi's trumpet
Wash the shame of snow
Shortly after the first battalion of the Royal Rifle Regiment was annihilated by the Volunteers, the British Royal Tank Battalion was also confronted by volunteer units.
This British Royal Tank Battalion had participated in large battles such as the Normandy landings, using the "Captain Hundred" tanks that had been feared by the Germans, and when they came to the Korean battlefield, their arrogance was very arrogant.
At that time, the Chinese army was very poorly equipped with weapons, and most of the troops only had light weapons. However, in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, the soldiers were very clever, and when facing the enemy's heavy tanks, they decisively used explosive packs and explosive canisters as weapons to blast enemy tanks.
The explosive packs and blasters had little effect on the tank's hard tin, but by making reasonable use of the detonation time of the explosive packs and the blast canisters, the Volunteers successfully blew up the tracks of the British tanks.
In nearly 3 hours of fierce fighting, the British Royal Heavy Tank Battalion had 31 tanks, and the destroyed tanks blocked the road in front, and the tanks in the back could not be evacuated, so they were surrounded by volunteers and annihilated.
In such a short period of time, two of the three ace armies of the British army have been taken down, and Mr. Peng, who heard the news, was also very happy.
When the same news reached Brigadier General Brodier, commander of the British 29th Brigade, his heart was full of worry. Brodier did not have the arrogant style characteristic of the British soldiers, and he soon realized the characteristics of the Chinese army's combat bravery and tactical proficiency, and was full of respect for the Chinese army.
Therefore, after receiving the news that the volunteer army might launch a fifth campaign, he immediately ordered his troops to turn to the defense, make a tight layout near the riverbank, and rely on the favorable terrain on the riverbank to form a solid defensive position.
But even so, Brigadier Brigadier's worries did not diminish, and he had to resort to religious belief to alleviate this worry.
April 23, 1951, is The Christian Day of St. George, a day of worship that believers need to pray with devotion. Brodie prepared a solemn ceremony in the army to pray for the protection of the gods.
These vain prayers, of course, did not make them come true.
The three aces of the British army now have one Gloucester battalion, which also has a long history, not only with Montgomery in the conquest of North Africa, but also in the neutrality of World War I and World War II, and even earlier, it also invaded China, India and Egypt, which is the pride of all British soldiers and civilians.
Even such a strong army was still defeated in front of the volunteer army.
As early as the evening of April 21, the Volunteer 63rd Army, which was good at night marching, had arrived near the river, and the US reconnaissance planes did not know about it. In the early morning of the 23rd, the 63rd Volunteer Army crossed the nearby river and launched a frontal attack on the British army, and soon the Gloucester Battalion was surrounded by the Volunteer Army.
Upon learning of the British siege, other "United Nations troops" came to the rescue, and Ridgway, who was the commander-in-chief at the time, rushed to the headquarters of the coalition army to take command, and said that no matter what the cost, the Gloucester battalion must be evacuated safely.
The first to arrive to the rescue were the Filipino troops, but before they could reach them, their troops were repulsed by the volunteers. Later, the troops from Belgium and other countries had not yet met with the British army, and had already been stopped by the volunteers.
The Gloucester battalion insisted bitterly, but could not wait for the rescue of friendly troops, and had no choice but to save themselves. Their commander decided to lead his troops to force a breakthrough.
What the coalition forces did not know was that the volunteer army sent the 581st Regiment of the 194th Division to sneak into the nearby forest at night when it was fiercely fighting with other reinforcements, and only the regimental commander took the flashlight to check the compass and map from time to time, just under the eyes of the enemy, around the back of the British army.
At this time, there were only about 300 people left in the Gloucester battalion, and when they desperately tried to break through, there was the 187th Division of the Volunteer Army as the main attack, and the 581st Regiment that quietly touched it in the back, except for the 30 or so people who finally forced the breakthrough, most of the soldiers of the Gloucester Battalion were accounted for here, and this 150-year-old unit also "died".
By this time, all three aces of the British army had suffered defeats at the hands of the Volunteers. After the war, the British army almost fell out with the American army.
For all the Chinese, this is a moment of raising eyebrows, the old and new accounts of the past are added together, so that the volunteers can fight back in one breath, and the humiliation encountered by the British a hundred years ago has since been completely washed away.