Beginning in 1952, with the continuous arrival of Soviet-style equipment, the volunteer army gradually gained the initiative on the Korean battlefield, and the US military also felt more and more uneasy. To this end, van Vleet, commander-in-chief of the United Nations Forces in South Korea, decided to take the initiative and fight a victorious battle to change this passive state, which he named "Showdown Plan".
VanVleet set his sights on two highlands in the Upper Ganling area, 537.7 and 597.9, which he believed were stuck in the throat of the Americans, and if they could capture these two heights, the Volunteers would have to retreat to another defensive position 1250 yards away. Although this operation is small, it has great significance for the US military and can also inspire the decadent military spirit of the UN army.
The U.S. military thought of the operation very simply, believing that only two battalions of the U.S. Seventh Division and the Rokse Second Division could successfully complete the mission. Commanders at all levels of the U.S. military were also optimistic, believing that it would take only six days, at the cost of more than 200 casualties, to take these areas. VanVleet's idea had its merits, because he was ready to bomb the area with 16 artillery battalions and more than 200 aircraft, and it was difficult for any troops to carry it down with such a strong firepower.
On the 597.9 high ground, there were a total of 12 positions, which were defended by a platoon of the ninth company and the eighth company of the 135th regiment of the 45th Division of the 15th Army of the Volunteer Army, with a total of one reinforced company. On the 537.7 high ground, there were nine positions, and the 135 regiment and a company were guarded here. On October 14, 1952, the U.S. army concentrated 320 large-caliber heavy artillery, 47 tanks, and more than 50 fighters to bombard the volunteer positions. The whole mountain was shaken by the explosion, and the garrison crouching in the tunnel to avoid enemy shells felt like a small boat jolting on the waves of the sea, many people's teeth, tongues, lips were broken, and even a 17-year-old young soldier was shocked to death.
After only a few minutes of bombing, the U.S. military destroyed all the antennas on the two high ground and could not communicate with the command. Niu Baocai, deputy squad leader of the battalion headquarters, risked his life to answer the telephone line, but in the end it was still a cut, and Niu Baocai, who had been injured in many places, could not think much about it, he used his body as a wire, connected the line, and exchanged his life for three minutes of talk time, and the deputy commander of the 135th Regiment issued combat orders to the troops in the tunnel in these three minutes.
On the first day of fighting, the first battalion of the 31st Regiment of the US Seventh Division, the three battalions suffered as many as 70 percent casualties, lost their combat effectiveness and retired to the battlefield, replaced by the 32nd Regiment. However, the losses of the volunteers were not small, and the US army sent more than 20 B26 bombers to throw napalm bombs at the volunteer positions, which were burned into a sea of fire, and the two companies of the volunteer army fired 400,000 rounds of ammunition a day, threw grenades, tens of thousands of grenades, and destroyed 10 Soviet turntable machine guns, 62 submachine guns, and 90 rifles.
After three days of fierce fighting between the two sides, the United Nations army was still increasing its troops, and the 45th Division of the 15th Army had also invested 15 companies in succession. Qin Jiwei, commander of the 15th Army, immediately organized the army, the division's artillery fire moved in the direction of Shangganling, and established a logistics organization, adding 8,000 grenades to each company on the basis of the original, three months of supplies, and actively organizing troops to deliver food, ammunition, and water to the tunnels.
After October 20, the Battle of Shangganling began to turn into a difficult tunnel battle, and cui Jiangong, the commander of the 45th Division, sent even division staff and cooks to increase the strength of the troops. Qin Jiwei, commander of the 15th Army, ordered the logistics department to purchase 30,000 kilograms of apples from Pyongyang, but he could not send them in, and finally he directly ordered: "Send an apple into the tunnel to make a second-class merit." "It was in this case that an apple was sent into the tunnel.
At the height of the fighting, Qin Jiwei ordered the military guard company to support the No. 1 tunnel of Highland 597.9 under the leadership of the company commander and the instructor. The 96-man company had only 24 men left when they reached the tunnel. Due to the tight blockade of U.S. artillery fire, Tunnel 7 on Highland 537.7 received no support for 11 consecutive days, and 17 people in the tunnel froze and starved to death. However, with the entry of the 12th Army of the Volunteer Army, the Volunteer Army gradually grasped the initiative on the battlefield and launched a large-scale counterattack to retake the Shangganling area.
The Battle of Shangganling lasted 43 days, and the US military tilted 1.9 million shells and more than 5,000 giant aerial shells on two high ground of only 3.7 square kilometers, and the hills of our position were cut down by two meters, and the hard soil and stones on the high ground were sent again, and some craters could fall into dozens of shells. During these forty-three days, the 15th Army of the Volunteer Army, like Huang Jiguang, pulled grenades, grenades, and explosive canisters to the death of the enemy, and as many as thirty-eight martyrs who sacrificed their lives to bomb bunkers and block gun holes left their names, not counting many unsung heroes who were not counted.