The famous German philosopher Schopenhauer once said: The will is a strong blind man, leaning on the shoulders of a blind cripple. He may never have imagined that in the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in 1952, two soldiers perfectly interpreted these two sentences. One of them had his legs blown off during the battle, the other had lost one of his own eyes, and the earth-shattering battle the two of them had fought together, which was a manifestation of the will of the volunteer army to defend the country.
On July 10, 1951, after five major battles, the Volunteer Army pressed the Americans to the negotiating table, after which the two sides fought and talked about every inch of land. By the beginning of October 1952, they found that the Volunteers seemed to have taken full advantage of the initiative, and that if no further measures were taken, the United States would most likely lose the war outright. On October 6, Van Vleet, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Eighth Army, sent a letter to Clark urging the country to adopt the Ninth Army's battle plan as soon as possible, that is, to allow the launch of all effective targets, believing that only in this way could the current situation be reversed, and now the losses of the troops due to defense were too great.
After that, VanVleet decided to carry out a showdown operation, the main targets are 597.9 highlands and 537.7 highlands, which is known as Shangganling, once the US army successfully takes two highlands, then they can rely on mechanized advantages to further attack the jincheng and northern areas of Pingkang defended by our army, which will greatly alleviate the current passive situation. Although Clark had previously resisted the scramble for high ground, he also saw Operation Showdown as a good opportunity to capture most of the important heights, at least with a small loss of troops. If the showdown went well, it would be enough for the U.S. Seventh Division plus two Battalions of the Roks, and it was also confident that the battle would end in just six days, since the Americans had not only sixteen artillery battalions in the rear, but also more than two hundred aircraft to support the operation. So on October 8, Clark officially approved the showdown operation, but they probably never imagined that they would be broken with two front teeth this time.
On October 14, 1952, the Battle of Shangganling was officially launched, and the two sides engaged in an unprecedented life-and-death contest in an area of less than 4 square kilometers. The battle, which was originally planned to end in 6 days, lasted for 43 days and caused nearly a hundred times more casualties than expected, and even though more than 1.9 million shells were fired, the battle was not won. To ask why the volunteers were able to win the battle against them, look at the battle between Wang Heliang and Xue Zhigao, two heroes, and you may get the answer to the question.
Wang Heliang was born in Santai, Sichuan in 1929, and has lived a poor life since childhood. After Santai was liberated in December 1949, Wang Joined the local militia. By May 1951, when the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea had been fought for almost a year, he had the ambition to serve the country and became a soldier in the 15th Army after successfully signing up for the army. Although Wang Heliang was relatively thin, he never dragged his feet and successfully went to fight in Korea after successfully completing arduous training. Xue Zhigao was born in 1930 in Jianyang, Sichuan, he joined the Armed Squadron of Longquanyi District at the age of 20, and then worked with his comrades-in-arms to suppress rebellion and bandits, because of his outstanding performance during this period, he was recommended by the squadron to the People's Liberation Army, and later as a deputy squad leader to fight with the 15th Army, while Wang Heliang and Xue Zhigao belonged to the same company.
On October 20, 1952, the United Nations army, with strong artillery superiority, successfully occupied the surface position of Shangganling, and the volunteer soldiers could only retreat to the tunnel for the time being. However, this period was more difficult than frontal combat, many tunnels were blown up by shells, some tunnels were directly blocked, and the enemy completely blocked the positions, and the soldiers were trapped in a harsh environment of lack of water and food. But even so, they still rely on the tunnel to counterattack, not only will sneak attack the enemy on the surface position at night, but also find a way to break the enemy's blockade of the tunnel, and Wang Heliang, because of his small stature, often goes out to fight with his comrades at night, and is one of the sharpshooters in the army who attacks at night.
At 10 o'clock in the evening of October 30, the volunteers finally sounded the horn of a full-scale counterattack, and Wang Heliang's squad joined the assault platoon, responsible for attacking the North Mountain of Highland 537.7, and he also became the leader of a combat group. The battle lasted for 5 days, and the assault platoon once again launched a three-way charge, encountering a frantic counterattack of enemy machine guns and grenades, and from time to time a large pit would be blown out of the side. Wang Heliang led his comrades-in-arms to raid left and right, and when he saw that he was about to achieve certain results, more than a dozen grenades suddenly exploded at the same time, and the two comrades-in-arms were seriously injured and one heroically sacrificed, Wang Heliang's left eye was also torn open by shrapnel, and his eyeball was hanging straight outside, and the touch of his hand was a pain in his heart. Now his right eye was covered with blood and he couldn't see clearly, so he could only shout out to his comrades-in-arms, but unfortunately he didn't receive any response.
But at this moment, Wang Heliang suddenly heard a familiar voice, which sounded like deputy squad leader Xue Zhigao. He crouched on the ground and crawled over a little, and after a brief exchange, he learned that Xue Zhigao's left leg was blown off and his left arm was seriously injured by the enemy, and Wang Heliang also quickly took out the first aid kit on his body and first gave Xue Zhigao an emergency bandage. At this time, Wang Heliang said to Xue Zhigao: Deputy squad leader, I will carry you down first, and then come back to avenge you. After hearing this, Xue Zhigao expressed his resolute opposition: This is not okay, even if I have one breath left, I will fight to the end. At this time, Wang Heliang replied: The deputy squad leader should not be in a hurry, let me deal with this eyeball first, it is a bit of an obstacle to dangling around, and then we will go to fight with the enemy. After that, Wang Heliang found a first-aid kit from a sacrificial comrade-in-arms, although he only dealt with the left eye, but the right eye basically could not see anything. Thinking that Xue Zhigao had been blown off his leg and could not fight, and that he could not see the enemy and could not fight, he suggested that he carry Xue Zhigao on his back and let the deputy squad leader become his own eyes, and he would use himself as a forward leg. Xue Zhigao was very excited after hearing this, and an extremely tragic scene appeared on shangganling: a thin little warrior carried his deputy squad leader on his back, walking on the position looking for the remaining enemy.
But then both of them walked to the top of the hill, and not only did they not find an enemy, but they did not even see the shadow of their comrades-in-arms. The hill was now bare, the fortifications had been largely flattened, and the ground was covered with blasted loose soil. Since there was no cover here, Wang Heliang could only pull over some enemy corpses and pile them up to cover Xue Zhigao's battle, at this time the bullets on both of them had also been exhausted, leaving only two grenades and two explosive canisters, so Wang Heliang later found a lot of ammunition from the battlefield. Seeing that the "fortifications" were almost done, he instructed Xue Zhigao to stay here and not to move around, but to go to other places to see if he could find his comrades-in-arms, and then he crawled into the distance. In the following time, Wang Heliang shouted while climbing, and finally found the 6 surviving comrades-in-arms, of which the company commander and the correspondent still held their positions in front. At this time, Wang Heliang hurriedly returned to pick up Xue Zhigao, and when he climbed to the position, he found that the deputy squad leader was ready for battle, but there was no response to how he shouted, he thought that the deputy squad leader had been sacrificed, and when he got closer, he found that his ears seemed to have been deafened.
At this time, Wang Heliang suddenly heard that there seemed to be people around him, but he couldn't understand what he said, and suddenly turned back to find that it was definitely the enemy, and then picked up a blaster and threw it over, and then he heard the sound of gunfire coming from Xue Zhigao's side, which meant that there was definitely not only one enemy along the way. Because Wang Heliang could not see clearly what was in front of him, he could only touch what to throw, and finally touched a gun and fought, although the two of them fought back with difficulty, but there were too many enemies coming up. At this time, Wang Heliang heard a loud noise coming from around him, and he quickly climbed over to find the deputy squad leader Xue Zhigao, but no matter what, he couldn't touch anyone, only a pile of enemy corpses that had just fallen. It turned out that when the enemy rushed to the position, Xue Zhigao resolutely pulled away the only remaining grenade and died with the enemy around him.
Now wang Heliang was the only one left in this position, and he was exhausted from fighting until the end, and he could only lean on the hillside and could not stand up. At this time, he only had two magazines left in his hand, and after Wang Heliang stuck one of them on the gun, he pressed it to death under his legs, thinking that if the enemy came up and fought with them, maybe he could kill one or two more enemies. Time passed by minute by minute, the footsteps around him became more and more dense, and the foreign languages that could not be understood became more and more noisy. Suddenly Wang Heliang's hand was pulled a little, it may be that the enemy wants to see if he has a watch on his wrist, Wang Heliang did not shoot at this time, he thought that the enemy has not yet gathered, and now the attack can only kill the enemy in front of him, so he will lose a lot, so he has been waiting for the opportunity after this. When he saw the enemy gathered together in the haze, he drew the gun pressed under his leg and fired at the enemy, and then he heard a wailing sound, and after a while there was no movement around him. But at this time, Wang Heliang could no longer hold on, and he fainted as soon as his eyes went black.
I don't know how long later, Wang Heliang vaguely heard someone calling him, and after struggling to keep himself awake, he found that it was his company commander who appeared next to him. At this time, the company commander was also seriously injured, and one arm was almost broken by the enemy, but the company commander did not care about his own injury, and quickly let the soldiers around him carry Wang Heliang down, and when he opened his eyes again, he found that he had been lying in the hospital for a week.
Later, someone asked Wang Heliang, his eyeballs were all punched out by the enemy, why did he persist in fighting with pain? After listening, he said very firmly: If this war takes place in New China, will his hometown not be the same as here? The mother did not have a house to live in, and the children could be blown to pieces, and since the comrades could sacrifice their lives, so could I, who was also a volunteer. So even if I die, I will die on the ground.
After the battle, Wang Heliang was awarded the title of Special Meritorious And Second Class Hero. Xue Zhigao was also posthumously recognized as a martyr, awarding him the titles of Meritorious Service and Second Class Combat Hero.
In the following time, Wang Heliang was sent back to China because of his injuries, and during the careful treatment of the doctors, the vision of his right eye was restored somewhat, but there was still a shrapnel in the eye socket that was not removed, and the left eye was successfully fitted with a false eye. At the end of 1953, Wang Heliang returned to his hometown in Sichuan to study cultural knowledge at the Invalides School, and then he devoted himself to himself in obscurity until his death in 1991, when he was only 62 years old.