In the spring of 1947, in the northeast battlefield, when the "three lower Jiangnan, four bao Linjiang" campaign ended, the northeast nationalist army was forced from strategic offensive to strategic defense. According to the arrangements of Du Yuming, commander of the Northeast Security Command, the Nationalist army will carry out key defenses of various strategic points and major railway trunk lines, and wait for the reinforcements in Guannei to arrive outside Guanwai before launching an attack.
Now that the nationalist army has retracted, it is the turn of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army to attack. Thus, there was the Northeast Summer Offensive, which took place from May to July 1947. To this end, the headquarters of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army has formulated a meticulous battle plan.
According to the operational plan, the summer offensive will dispatch the 1st, 2nd, and 6th columns of the Northern Manchurians, as well as the 3rd and 4th columns of the Southern Manchurians, and with the cooperation of the independent divisions, carry out a strategic counteroffensive against the Nationalist forces along the two sides of the Medium-Long Railway and the Jincheng Railway (Jinzhou to Chengde), with the aim of opening up the connection between the north and the south and fundamentally reversing the situation in the northeast. The summer offensive is divided into two phases. In the first stage, the units of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army annihilated the scattered and isolated Nationalist army in front of them and recovered small cities and vast rural areas. In the second stage, the forces of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army will concentrate their forces on destroying part of the main force of the Nationalist Army and seize the medium-sized city.
On May 8, with the cooperation of the independent 1st and 2nd Divisions, the 1st column and the 2nd column of the Northern Manchurian Army set out from the Buyeo area in northern Jilin Province and launched a long-distance attack on the west side of the Changchun and Siping sections of the Medium-Long Railway, launching a summer offensive.
After 9 days of fierce fighting, the 1st and 2nd columns of the Northern Manchuria occupied the strongholds of Huaide, Gongzhuling, Taojiatun and Changtu, annihilated the 1st regiment of the 30th Division of the New 1st Army and most of the 71st Army, controlled most of the railway between Changchun and Shenyang and the vast area on both sides, and the strategically important siping became an isolated city, creating favorable conditions for the next attack on Siping.
At the same time, the 3rd and 4th columns of the Southern Manchurian Army, with the cooperation of the local troops of the Liaodong Military Region, took the initiative to attack on the Shenji (Shenyang-Jilin) railway. On May 14, the 3rd and 4th Columns captured two strongholds of Shancheng and Caoshi, and annihilated 1 regiment of the 184th Division and part of the provisional 20th Division of the newly reorganized 60th Army. Du Yuming sent 6 divisions to counterattack fiercely, but was resolutely blocked by the 3rd and 4th columns of the Southern Manchuria, and the soldiers were damaged.
On May 28, the 3rd and 4th columns of the South Manchuria advanced to the middle section of the Shenji Railway and the areas on both sides of the railway, and met the 1st and 2nd columns of the North Manchuria.
During this period, the 6th Column of the Northern Manchuria was not idle, but with the cooperation of the Independent 3rd Division, the 4th Division, and the East Manchuria Independent Division, it was active in the Eastern Manchurian region, annihilating 1 regiment of the New 38th Division of the New 1st Army of the Nationalist Army, the main force of the Provisional 2l Division of the 60th Army of the Nationalist Army, and occupying the northeast of Siping and the vast area south of Jilin and Changchun. The three independent divisions of the Western Manchurian Liaoji Column and the Jicha Reliao Military Region also attacked Shuangshan in the north-east of Shuangshan and Glass Mountain, Jincheng Railway and Beining Railway to the north.
In early June, the various armies of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army ended the first phase of the operation. Subsequently, our army continued to carry out the second phase of operations.
In the second phase of the operation, the focus of our army's attack was on Siping. This was the third battle between our army and the Nationalist army in Siping. Our army dispatched 3 independent divisions of the 1st Column, the 6th Column and the West Manchurian Column, totaling more than 100,000 people in 9 divisions. The nationalist defensive force consisted of only about half of the 71st Army, plus a number of security forces that were not strong in combat effectiveness.
On 11 June, the Western Manchurian Column took the lead in the battle on the periphery. This is the first large-scale urban offensive in the history of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army. Chen Mingren, the defender of the Nationalist army, led his troops to resist stubbornly, and every step forward of our army's siege troops had to pay a great price. At 20:00 on June 14, the siege forces of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army launched a general offensive and broke through the defensive line at 2:30 a.m. on June 15 and entered the city. However, the fighting in the urban area became more intense, resulting in greater casualties of our army. On 19 June, the 1st Division of the 1st Column was forced to withdraw from the battle due to heavy casualties.
Just when our army was besieging Siping with all its might, Du Yuming mobilized 9 divisions from Changchun and Shenyang to reinforce Siping. The Northeast Democratic Coalition Army immediately changed its strategy and adopted the tactic of "besieging the city to fight for reinforcements" to block the enemy's reinforcements in the area south of Siping.
On June 29, the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army annihilated 1 regiment of the 14th Division of the New 6th Army of the Nationalist Army at Lotus Street. The New 6th Army is one of the five aces of the Nationalist Army, all equipped with American guns, the combat effectiveness is very strong, once in the Battle of Shaling with 1 regiment to repel the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army 1 column, the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army once shouted out the slogan of "eating vegetables to eat cabbage hearts, fighting to fight to fight the New 6Thren".
However, as the Nationalist reinforcements arrived on the outskirts of Siping, in order to prevent them from falling into the enemy's attack, the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army withdrew from Siping on July 1, ending the offensive and ending the summer offensive.
In the summer offensive, the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army annihilated a total of 83,200 nationalist troops, of whom 60,000 were captured, 23,200 were wounded, 36 towns were recovered, the connection between the north and the south of Manchuria was opened, the liberated areas were expanded to 160,000 square kilometers, and more than 1,250 kilometers of railway lines were controlled.