From October 14 to November 25, 1952, the 15th Army of the Volunteer Army and the first unit of the 12th Army fought fiercely with the American Army in the Shangganling area for 43 days. The U.S. army has mobilized more than 60,000 people, 300 artillery, more than 170 tanks, and more than 3,000 aircraft sorties to carry out fierce bombing of the Battle of Shangganling, and the volunteer army defeated more than 900 UN troop charges with rudimentary weapons, killed and wounded 15,000 enemy people, and finally won an unprecedented victory.
Many people know about the great victory of the Battle of Shangganling, but they do not remember that before the Battle of Shangganling, the 38th Army of the Banzai Army fought a defeat at Baima Mountain, and this battle was the Battle of Baima Mountain. Hakuba Mountain is located 10 kilometers northwest of Tieyuan, composed of a group of mountains dominated by Highland 395, the main highlands are Highland 394.5 and Highland 281.2, beyond Hakuba Mountain, south is the military supply base leading to Seoul, which can directly connect to The Iron Plains, an important U.S. military station supply base.
The geographical location of Hakuba Mountain was very important to the United States, and if this high ground was lost, the U.S. army would not be able to take advantage of the transportation network in this area, and the U.S. Ninth Army would have to retreat to another high ground south of the Stagecoach Valley. If the volunteers occupied this high ground, they could continue to advance deep into the American army.
In the autumn offensive of 1951, the US army sent heavy troops to attack the White Horse Mountain garrisoned by the 42nd Army, and due to the disparity between the strength of the enemy and us, the White Horse Mountain finally fell into the hands of the US army. After the U.S. military occupied White Horse Mountain, they built a strong reinforced concrete fortification on the mountain, and also pulled several barbed wire fences in front of the position and planted a large number of mines. When the 42nd Army lost the position of White Horse Mountain, it sent troops to counterattack and wanted to retake White Horse Mountain, but after paying the price of more than 400 casualties, only more than 30 enemy were annihilated, and the powerful ground and air fire network of the US army caused great casualties to the volunteer army.
In the autumn of 1952, the 38th Army and the 42nd Army of the Volunteer Army changed their defenses, and the 38th Army was reorganized from the first column of the former Northeast Field Army, which was the absolute main force in the Volunteer Army. During the second campaign, the 38th Volunteer Army, under the leadership of its commander Liang Xingchu, inflicted heavy losses on the UN army, the US 2nd Division suffered more than half of the casualties, and the Turkish brigade was beaten with two companies, annihilating 7,000 enemy and taking more than 3,000 prisoners. In March 1952, after Liang Xingchu became the acting commander of the 20th Corps of the Volunteer Army, The 113th Division Jiang Yonghuai served as the commander of the 38th Army.
Initially, the 38th Army decided to let the 114th Division carry out this mission, and the 38th Army attached great importance to this battle, and the 339th and 340th Regiments, which were the main offensive tasks, began to conduct exercises more than a month in advance. At this time, the 38th Army had just changed its Soviet armaments, and the 114th Division conducted tactical exercises and communications and liaisons with Soviet armaments and artillery, and coordinated infantry and artillery operations. In addition, the 38th Army also strengthened artillery and tanks, participated in the battle of various calibers of artillery up to 182 guns, 17 tanks, as well as 59 anti-aircraft guns and 122 anti-aircraft machine guns for air combat, at this time the 38th Army can be said to be strong and strong, in addition to aircraft, everything is equipped, at least in terms of firepower is still very powerful.
When the units were ready, an accident occurred, that is, the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 340th Regiment of the 114th Division of the 38th Army, who was serving as a deputy platoon commander and cultural instructor, surrendered to the enemy. Tanaka Jiao was a former Kuomintang officer who was elected to the 38th Army because of his certain cultural foundation, but this man was greedy and afraid of death, and after entering the battlefield, he has been evading combat. However, in order to defect, Tanaka Jiao has been active, pretending to be active in the battle, and finally was selected into the commando team.
On October 3, 1952, on the third day of the battle, Tanaka and some cadres went to the front line to check the offensive route. Taking advantage of the fact that everyone was not paying attention, Tanaka Jiao ran to the position of the Ninth Division of the Rokmen Army, and after Yanaka Jiao defected, in order to show his sincerity, he put the attack plan of the 38th Army of the Volunteer Army out of the tray.
Kim Jong-woo, commander of the Ninth Division of the ROK Army stationed at Baima Mountain, heard the news and quickly ordered his troops to enter a state of combat readiness, digging more than 150 bunkers overnight, reinforcing fortifications, reinforcing trenches, and continuing to dig deeper communication trenches. In front of the ROK position, the barbed wire was also added from three to seven, and the ROK army also planted a large number of mines in front of the position, the United Nations army also dispatched three artillery battalions of the ROK army, and six artillery battalions of the US army and two tank companies with 44 tanks to support Hakuba Mountain, and the US 73rd tank battalion also urgently reinforced Hakuba Mountain. After Tanaka's defection, the U.S. army quickly carpet-bombed the volunteer artillery positions he provided, causing heavy casualties to the volunteer artillery units.
Yan Zhongjiao's defection made The 38th Army's Yangtze River Yonghui feel very uneasy, and he asked his superiors to revise the battle plan, but was vetoed by the superior leader Wang Jinshan. On October 6, Jiang Yonghui had to command the troops to launch an attack on Baima Mountain, but it fought very fiercely, and after continuously increasing the number of troops to Baima Mountain, it was still unable to conquer it after paying huge casualties, and when the battle was most intense, there were hundreds of US fighter planes over Baima Mountain to bomb and shoot low-altitude strafing at the volunteer troops, and finally because the focus of the battle line shifted to Shangganling, the 38th Army had to withdraw in a hurry.
In the Battle of Baima Mountain, the 38th Army of the Volunteer Army successively invested four main regiments totaling 15,000 people, and the Ninth Division of the ROK Army successively invested four regiments and some supplementary troops with a total of 18,000 troops. In the end, the volunteer army had to retreat in a hurry after annihilating more than 4,000 enemy troops and inflicting more than 6,700 casualties on its own.