In the course of our historical revolution, there are two points in time when war is the most prominent. One was the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which created the necessary conditions for the survival of the Chinese nation; the other was the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, which played out the dignity and momentum of the Chinese nation.
The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea is certainly no stranger to everyone. China gave birth to countless heroes during the period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and because of this war, it also played an international discourse!
Oil painting of the Battle of Shangganling
At that time, New China had just been founded, the social economy brought about by the War of Liberation and the depression of the country were being rebuilt, and the decision to resist US aggression and aid Korea was also the conclusion reached by the central authorities after many meetings and discussions -- it was the wish of all the volunteers to resist US aggression and aid Korea not to let the imperialist war spread to China's land.
However, at that time, our volunteer army was facing the world's number one power- the United States, and the US military far surpassed our volunteer army in terms of military equipment, material supply, and combat superiority. But even with such a huge advantage, why did the U.S.-led coalition army end up in a crushing defeat in the Korean War?
This has to mention a battle - the Battle of Shangganling! In this battle, more than 100,000 people participated in the battle between China and the United States. The casualties of the two sides were heavy, the number of casualties in China exceeded 11,500, and the number of US casualties exceeded the 15,000 mark.
Why did this so-called "decisive battle" of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea end in the victory of the Chinese volunteer army, which was inferior in all aspects? Or maybe it should be asked: Why did the U.S. military lose?
Battle Curtain
In October 1952, since the entry of Chinese volunteers into Korea, the operations of the U.S.-led Coalition Army in Korea have been greatly restricted. They were no longer an invincible Imperial army, and several three-fold defeats had greatly demoralized the entire army.
American soldiers
At the same time, the US domestic election is imminent, and the American people are increasingly resistant to this nearly year-long campaign. In North Korea, the US military and our volunteer army have been deadlocked near the 38th Parallel, and they are in a dilemma.
In such a situation, the US military decided to launch a "golden offensive" to break the deadlock on the battlefield, reduce the dissatisfaction of the American people, and pave the way for the follow-up march.
The U.S. military targeted Shangganling, a small village located south of the Five Holy Mountains. Why choose this place?
Because on both sides of Shangganling, there are two hills, which are named 537.7 highlands and 597.9 highlands by our volunteer army. Although the combined area of the two is not more than 3.7 square kilometers, it is an important defensive position of our army in the Five Holy Mountains.
Marshal Peng Dehuai, the commander of the Volunteer Army at that time, once said:
"The Five Holy Mountains are an important mark on the korean central line, and if we lose the Five Holy Mountains, we will retreat two hundred kilometers without danger." If the US army defeats Shangganling, it will be equivalent to reversing the current battle situation! Whoever loses the Five Holy Mountains is responsible for the history of Korea! ”
Obviously, the US military also knows the defensive significance of Shangganling for the Five Holy Mountains. They were commanded by Van Vleet, commander of the U.S. Eighth Group, who had made a name for his strategy of fighting in the Areas of Mt. Dôu and Tsukushi Mountain with 100 large-caliber heavy artillery and 360,000 shells in 9 days during the summer 1951 offensive.
U.S. Army General
During the Normandy landings in 1944, he was also the first American general to lead an army group into the Utah beachhead. In the Pacific War, he has made great achievements and even won the reputation of "mountain warfare expert". Van Vleet was a typical fire suppression theorist, so in the Battle of Shangganling at that time, he was the commander selected by the US army specifically for our volunteer army.
Before the battle began, Van Vleet was full of confidence, and he vowed in front of all American soldiers: with 200 casualties, he would take Shangganling in 5 days and drive the Chinese army out of North Korea.
However, he did not expect that on the first day of his army attacking Shangganling, he was hit in the head by the volunteer soldiers.
The battle broke out
At 3:30 a.m. on October 14, 1952, Van Vleet led a coalition army of nearly 70,000 people led by the US Army, concentrating more than 300 heavy artillery, 40 aircraft and 120 tanks, and marched to our army's Shangganling position.
For a time, the entire night was illuminated by artillery fire, and the 597.9 heights and 537.7 heights of our army were covered by the US army with 6 rounds of fire per second. Countless planes roared through the sky, and dense aerial shells were thrown at our volunteer army.
bomber
At this time, the volunteers had not yet found a good cover, and were caught off guard by the sudden shells. The entire fortification was blown to pieces, shangganling was devastated, and the ground shook the mountains and burst into flames.
After several rounds of bombing, the U.S. army with sophisticated combat equipment and tanks launched an attack on Shangganling. At that time, most of our volunteers were infantry, and without the blessing of the air force, the equipment and artillery they carried were not as good as those of the US army. In the sudden bombardment that will fall at any time, our soldiers will also face a frontal attack from the US army and hold the fortifications, which is a very fatal combat blow to any army except the Chinese army.
However, our volunteer army, under the condition that such numbers and equipment were inferior, fought a bloody battle with the US army to the end in the repeated bombardment and fire suppression of the US army, and forcefully blocked them from the Shangganling position.
On the first day of the battle, the 8th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 134th Regiment of the 15th Army of the Volunteer Army, under the leadership of company commander Li Baocheng and instructor Wang Shigen, always adhered to the no. 597.9 highland tunnel in Shangganling, and under the unbearable situation of 14 days of water and food cuts, the officers and men of the 8th Company always kept their mission in mind, and annihilated nearly 2,000 enemy troops at the cost of 254 casualties.
In the end, only 6 people remained in the entire company, and 381 bullet holes were left on their battle flags, which showed how fierce the battle was. After this battle, the 8th Company was awarded the honorary title of "Shangganling Tegong Eighth Company".
Like the 8th Company, the front line of the Battle of Shangganling was the 2nd Platoon of the 7th Company of the 135th Regiment of the Chinese Volunteer Army, and under the leadership of Platoon Leader Sun Zhanyuan, it suddenly counterattacked Position 2 of Highland 597.9 to open up a counterattack road for the Volunteer Army.
Sun Zhanyuan's platoon leader continued to advance under the enemy's dense artillery fire, and he was still reluctant to leave the front line of the battle when his legs were broken by enemy shells. Dragging his broken leg and holding a machine gun to cover the warrior Yi Caixue to continue fighting, and finally in order for his comrades to retreat safely, he rolled into the enemy group with a grenade and died with the enemy.
War spreads
On the first day of the Battle of Shangganling, both the Combined Army and the Volunteer Army suffered heavy casualties, but under the desperate resistance of our Volunteer Army, the attack of the United Army did not gain much benefit, and the casualties even reached 2,000 people.
On 15 October, Van Vleet brought in two more regiments and four battalions, and once again, under the cover of heavy artillery fire, began a series of attacks on the two volunteer positions of Hill 597.9 and Hill 537.7.
Under such a fierce enemy offensive and artillery pressure, the volunteer positions changed hands several times. The 6th Company of the 135th Regiment, which was tasked with counterattacking on the 597.9 heights, carried out a continuous attack when it broke through to position 0, and the three demolition teams were quickly killed and wounded.
Just when the entire 6th Company fell into a desperate dead silence, a messenger stepped forward and took the initiative to request his superiors to take on the task of blasting. He was the special hero we later knew- Huang Jiguang.
From October 14 to October 20, for seven days, these two low-slope-like highlands in Shangganling were subjected to even firepower attacks that exceeded that of World War II, and the battle was extremely fierce.
These seven days of tug-of-war made Van Vleet' heart, which was full of confidence, begin to waver. The U.S. army has invested a full 9 battalions of troops plus 8 battalions of the South Korean army, but it has only temporarily taken the surface positions of the two highlands of Shangganling.
At that time, although Van Vleet felt that the situation was deviated from what he expected, he definitely did not think that he planned to take the oath of Shangganling in five days, and gradually became a complete joke.
Between October 21 and 29, the Battle of Shangganling entered its historic second phase. By this time Van Vleet had been battered by repeated attack failures.
He urgently adjusted the deployment and withdrew the US Seventh Division from the battlefield and replaced it with the 2nd Division of the South Korean Army. Previously, the US Seventh Division had repeatedly attacked our two high ground in Shangganling, but it also suffered heavy casualties. Van Vliet replaced them with new troops, but he never imagined that the South Korean army would not necessarily be in line with them.
Under the attack of the US Combined Army, our volunteer army has urgently adopted the measures of tunnel warfare, which has greatly frustrated the us army's vigor. The time to adjust the deployment at Van Vleet got a brief respite.
The US military in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
When the South Korean Second Division reached the battlefield, Van Vleet ordered them to launch a new round of attack. They used mortars to shoot at the mouth of the tunnel and set fire to smoke in an attempt to drive the 45th Division of the Volunteer Army's 15th Army out of the tunnel.
The 45th Division, on the other hand, clings to the tunnel and stands still. Van Vleet never imagined that the Chinese volunteers had such a strong will, after all, even he himself was smoked away from the smoke of the fire.
However, the 45th Division overcame unimaginable difficulties in the tunnels, and even continued to deal severe blows to the South Korean troops who came to block the tunnels. Seeing that there was no way to force the 45th Division out of the tunnel, Van Vliet thought of a non-humanitarian tactic of releasing poison gas into the tunnel.
Since there was no way to force the volunteers out, they simply buried them in the tunnels. It can only be said that Van Vliet vividly embodied the sinister cunning and anti-humane behavior of the US military.
The 45th Division of the Volunteer Army resisted many poison gas attacks in the tunnel, so that even the surviving soldiers later fell into permanent disease.
Van Vliet was confident in his tactics, but he looked down on the iron will of our volunteers. During the fifth attack of the South Korean Army on the tunnel, the 45th Army gave them another head-on blow. The attack lasted for several days and nights, and finally ended with the 45th Division of our volunteer army attacking 158 times, annihilating nearly 2,000 enemy troops.
The U.S. Combined Forces not only did not gain any benefits, but even lost the 7 positions they had recently laid, and Van Vleet's plan failed again.
Launch a counterattack
Faced with many attacks by the US Combined Army, the Volunteer Army held its position and stubbornly resisted, achieving amazing results. This also demoralized our army, and after the commanders met unanimously, it was time to counterattack.
Marshal Peng Dehuai, commander of the Volunteer Army, told every soldier:
"If we win this battle, we will be able to chase after the American devils and drive them out of Korea completely!" We have to take our best form and fight this battle! Don't forget that behind us is our motherland, and we are protecting not only the country and land of the Korean people, but also the safety of China's borders! It's our own home, our own wives and children's parents! ”
Peng Dehuai's words made the soldiers very excited, and everyone had a belief in victory in their hearts.
On October 30, 1952, the Shangganling Counterattack of our volunteer army began. The soldiers were orderly, the regiments and divisions cooperated with each other, and after 5 hours of fierce fighting, the strength of more than one battalion of the enemy's surface position was annihilated by our army.
The counterattack lasted for two days and two nights, and Van Vliet once again showed the firepower superiority of the American Combined Forces. On November 1, the U.S. Combined Forces launched a fierce attack on the Volunteer positions with 100 aircraft and more than 300 cannons, this time with only a lot more full fire coverage than The initial Van Vleet had invested.
On the same day, the U.S. Combined Army fired a total of 120,000 shells, and after launching 23 consecutive large-scale group charges, Van Vleet's attack once again failed.
On that day, the US Combined Forces continued to attack all day, with a total of more than 1500 casualties, and there was no gain.
Van Vleet withdrew to his internal position at Heights 597.9 with his troops, thinking that he would be able to regroup after the rest and launch another attack on our volunteers.
Unexpectedly, our volunteers did not give them a chance to breathe, and that night under the cover of night, two companies of the 86th Regiment of the 29th Division of the 15th Army of our volunteer army launched a thorough counterattack, sounded the horn of attack, and attacked the rest of the positions on the 597.9 heights while the American army was still dim.
The U.S. Union Army reacted quickly when it was caught off guard. A fierce exchange of fire ensued with the 15th Army, which was repeatedly cornered in the face of well-equipped American troops.
At such a critical juncture, Wang Jinshan, deputy commander of the 3rd Regiment in the Volunteer Army Headquarters, could not sit still, and he sent 6 regiments of the 12th Army to attack Shangganling.
The arrival of reinforcements gave the 15th Army a chance to breathe. However, the US military is attacked internally and externally, and their tactics rarely appear in this way of knowing that hard power cannot be fought, but still attacking one after another.
On the night of November 1, the 135th and 134th Regiments of the 45th Division of the 15th Army of the Volunteer Army, which were at the forefront of the Battle of Shangganling, withdrew from the main battlefield to the rear to supply supplies. From the beginning of the US combined army's attack on Shangganling, the two regiments successively rushed to various battlefields to fight and kill the enemy at the forefront.
At that time, they had only one thought in their minds: We must defend Shangganling, this battle is not only to win so simple, but also to fight the military prestige of our Chinese soldiers, so that the United States and even the world can have a good look at what is called the Chinese volunteer army!
Get the win
After receiving orders to rush to the front, the 34th Division of the 12th Army experienced nearly four days of artillery fire. But they became more and more frustrated, in the words of Xu Jack, the head of the reconnaissance section of the 34th Division at that time.
"Our troops are all united, and now that we have taken over the position of our comrades-in-arms, we must learn from them and hold this position."
As soon as they reached the front, they fought from dawn on November 2 until sunset, when the U.S. United Army, with the idea of annihilating the volunteers while our army was not yet fully integrated, sent more than 5 battalions of troops to attack.
Hu Xiudao, a soldier of the 91st Regiment, recalled:
"In two days and two nights on the mountain, I alone wiped out 280 enemies. In my heart, I have no fear of the enemy, and to be afraid of the enemy on the battlefield is to give the enemy a chance. At that time, all I thought about was to hold this position and destroy the enemy. ”
On November 25, the so-called Jinhua Offensive and Showdown campaign of the US Combined Forces had to be terminated.
The final victory of Shangganling belongs to the Chinese Volunteer Army! This is also another setback for the US military at the hands of our army, and Shangganling has also become a sad history that the US army is still unwilling to look back on.
There are even US majors who have fabricated in front of the international media that there are 9,600 people in a single regiment of our volunteer army, which is twice as many as the number of US troops. We have criticized our country's use of inhumane tactics against the sea of people, but is this really the case?
Let's not talk about the huge disparity in equipment between our army and the US army's combined army, as we all know, let's talk about our volunteer army. Although most of them are veterans who have walked through the War of Resistance Against Japan, more are the eggs of recruits who have just come out of the military academy. At that time, under the general environment that the entire new China was being rebuilt, the Actions of the Chinese Volunteer Army to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea were more temporarily convened.
Even if the commander of the volunteer army was Peng Dehuai, who had experienced hundreds of battles, he could not stand the new soldiers in the troops who had not even been on the battlefield and did not necessarily touch the real gun several times. In addition, most of the troops were selected from the Southern Military Region, and many of them, who had never even seen snow, had to run through the snowy mountains of North Korea overnight to fight the US army.
Our volunteer army, under multiple pressures, still fought a victorious battle in such a harsh environment. How can this be summed up lightly by the US military with the four words "man-sea tactics"?
Reasons for winning
In the Battle of Shangganling, the total number of our troops participating in the battle was only 43,000, while the US army had more than 60,000 people. How big a face does this have to be for the US major to be able to distort the facts in front of the international media and say that our army uses man-sea tactics?
On the first day of the battle, the fierce artillery fire of the American army blew up Shangganling beyond recognition. The entire campaign lasted 43 days, our army casualties reached 12,347, while the US army has invested more than 60,000 troops, 300 artillery, 200 tanks, 3,000 aircraft, fired 1.9 million shells, and dropped more than 5,000 bombs.
It should be known that the entire Shangganling position is only 3.7 square kilometers, and the intensity of firepower in conversion is even far more than that of World War II. Both highlands were cut down by a full 2 meters by artillery fire, and this way of attacking was simply to directly submerge our army with artillery shells.
If, as the major said, our army adopts the tactic of man-sea, the "artillery shell tactic" of the US army alone can easily solve the volunteer army, right? It can be seen that the major is just making a reasonable excuse for his failure.
The victory of our volunteer army stems from the fighting spirit of our army that is more and more courageous, as well as the strong and indomitable will and the tactics of adapting measures to local conditions.
Even if they only have one person left, they must defend Shangganling, even if the bullet is finished, they must be bayoneted, even if they only have the last breath left, they must drag the enemy to death!
Long Shichang, a 19-year-old warrior, was counterattacked by the enemy's machine guns when he blew up the enemy bunker, and he did not hesitate in the slightest, but took the blast canister and stabbed the machine gun in the eye. When the enemy tried to push the machine gun out, he used his body to resist it, and finally he was blown to pieces with the enemy.
We are all familiar with the Huang Jiguang warrior, he was originally a signal soldier in the army. When the breakthrough of the troops was blocked, he stood up, took the initiative to undertake the task of blasting and opening the way, and used his body to provide time for his comrades to break through in the case of multiple wounds and no ammunition on his body, and finally died heroically!
The phrase "the same end" is vividly embodied in this battle, and it is impossible for the army of any country in the world to fight such a battle.
However, in Shangganling, it has become a "common phenomenon" for our volunteers to pull the US troops to the same end! This is incredible, but Chinese People's Volunteer Army, with actions to explain to us what is the soul of the Chinese army and what is a Chinese soldier!
We have such a group of warriors, what opponent can not be defeated? What positions will not be defended? What battle cannot be won?
In addition to the iron will of the volunteer soldiers, our army also has the most adaptable tactics to the battlefield and the most powerful logistical support. The rear command and the people all gave 100,000 points of spirit to support the troops forward, so that they did not have to worry about tactics and did not have to worry about ammunition and materials.
After our army adopted the tunnel warfare method, solid ground fortifications became the core of the campaign defense system. The volunteer army must not only stick to the tunnels, but also seize all the time to repair the fortifications of the surface positions. As long as the position is still there, the soldiers will take advantage of the gap between battles to repair the defense.
There are often cases where the US army blows up in the morning and our army rushes to repair it at night. This gave the soldiers another layer of support in the position, avoiding the sacrifice of one more soldier.
While the volunteers were fighting in the front, logistical support was also constantly working hard, and a network and relay support system were established to ensure the material reserves on the front line as much as possible.
Even under the strong blows of the enemy army, the logistics department still used the blood of countless transport comrades to exchange a glimmer of life for the front line. With the joint efforts of such people and soldiers, the volunteer army won the final victory in the Battle of Shangganling, which is actually traceable.
The Battle of Shangganling, which is known as one of the most tragic battles in the history of modern warfare, not only successfully nailed the korean boundary to the 38th Line, but also a brilliant example of our volunteer army defeating the strong with the weak.
This battle has made China wake up many self-deceptive voices in the United States and the world, and let them truly realize what kind of country China really is! Let them know that Chinese people have since stood up!