The Battle of Shuangduiji was the second phase of the Battle of Huaihai, in which the Central Plains Field Army concentrated all its forces to encircle the most elite 12th Corps of the Kuomintang Army. The 12th Corps was not an ordinary unit, and several of the units under its command were elite units of the Nationalist Army, especially the 18th Army, which was one of the five main forces of the Kuomintang Army.
After Huang Wei was surrounded, he quickly deployed his four armies, a rapid column shrunk into a regiment, built a ring group fortification, and organized layers of firepower networks with tanks, artillery, light and heavy machine guns and flamethrowers, so that our army could not divide and annihilate them. Huang Wei also ordered the troops to renovate several village houses in the Shuangduiji area and build thousands of bunkers of different sizes, posing a great threat to our army.
During the Battle of Shuangduiji, the most tragic battles were the Battle of Dawangzhuang and the Battle of Jiangudui, which was the final stage of the Battle of Shuangduiji, and the People's Liberation Army faced the 18th Army, which was the most powerful fighting force of the Nationalist Army, which was the all-American ordnance unit, and also the unit started by Chen Cheng, Huang Wei, Hu Lian and others.
On December 4, 1948, the main force of the East China Field Army trapped the enemy's 2nd, 13th, and 16th Corps near Chen Guanzhuang. At this point, all four regiments of the enemy's main force on the Xu Beng battlefield were trapped. The Central Plains Field Army had completed its preparations for an attack on the enemy's Twelfth Corps, and while besieging Chen Guanzhuang, the East China Field Army divided its troops to support the Central Plains Field Army in encircling and annihilating the enemy Twelfth Corps.
On December 6, 1948, the 7th Column of the East China Field Army (hereinafter referred to as the 7th Column of Huaye) was ordered to join the attack sequence of the 12th Corps of the enemy and prepare to attack the enemy's front-line positions of Dawangzhuang, Jiangudui and Xiaowangzhuang.
Dawangzhuang was located in the plain area, about one kilometer south of the Shuangduiji, and was the barrier to the core position of the enemy's Twelfth Corps. More than 250 meters on the east side is the commanding height of the battlefield, the sharp valley pile, on which the enemy regiment artillery observation station is set up. Responsible for the defense of Dawangzhuang is the 33rd Regiment of the 118th Division of the 18th Army of the Nationalist Army, although the 33rd Regiment is subordinate to the 118th Division, but it was first from the 11th Division, which is the Concubine of the Yan Clan, this unit is known as the "Tiger Regiment", the whole regiment has more than 3,000 people, and the officers and men of the regiment have veterans who have actual combat experience, and their combat effectiveness is very strong.
Yang Botao, commander of the 18th Army, and Hu Lian, former commander of the 18th Army, paid great painstaking efforts to this unit; in accordance with the rules laid down by Chen Cheng, the 18th Army practiced economic openness, openness in personnel, openness in ideology, and good internal relations; in addition, Yang Botao trained troops very strictly, and these veterans still maintained strong energy and strong combat effectiveness under the predicament of the time.
On December 9, the 58th Regiment and the 60th Regiment of the 20th Division of the 7th Column of Huaye took the lead in attacking Dawangzhuang. The 58th Regiment and the 60th Regiment drew three battalions of troops to launch a surprise attack on Dawangzhuang, and before the battle, they carried out half an hour of artillery preparations, blowing up the surface position of Dawangzhuang into ruins, and the soldiers also dug the traffic trench forward by more than one hundred and fifty meters, and completed three horizontal trenches in order to configure a multi-level attack formation.
After Dawangzhuang was occupied by our army, Huang Wei and Hu Lian quickly adjusted their deployment and prepared to retake Dawangzhuang. Before the counter-offensive, Yang Botao, commander of the 18th Army, summoned the backbone of more than 33 regiments to mobilize. The 33rd Regiment, spearheaded by tanks, launched a counterattack under the cover of artillery fire against the position of Dawangzhuang defended by the 59th Regiment of the 20th Division of the 7th Column of Huaye.
Our army did not take them seriously at first, but soon realized that something was wrong, and the enemy 33rd Regiment not only shot accurately, but also fought with bayonets. After our army repelled 15 charge attempts by the 33rd Regiment, the officers and men of the 33rd Regiment still rushed forward without a fight, the People's Liberation Army used broken walls and trenches to block the attack, and Zuo Sanxing, instructor of the first battalion of the 59th Regiment, led the troops to fight repeatedly with the enemy, changed eight correspondents in one day, and the three companies of the first battalion were the old meritorious companies, and in this battle, from the company commander to the cooker, all were sacrificed.
The enemy 33rd Regiment had been occupying most of Dawangzhuang, and the 59th Regiment of the 20th Division of the Seventh Column of Huaye had to retreat to the southwest corner of Zhuang. Wang Bicheng, commander of the Nakano Sixth Column, ordered the Nakano 46th Regiment to reinforce Dawangzhuang, and Hu Lian also organized the 18th Army's automobile troops, logistics department, gangfu, and groom to rush upwards, and the sound of grenades, submachine guns, machine guns, rocket launchers, and mortar shells on both sides was never stopped.
At the critical moment, Cheng Jun, commander of the Seventh Column of Huaye, also sent his own guard company, this 150-man guard company was well-equipped, and the main and deputy squad leaders were all carbine guns, and carried out round after round of counterattacks against the enemy, and finally completely defended Dawangzhuang, but this guard company only had 17 people left. After the battle of Dawangzhuang, there were several broken walls left in the entire Dawangzhuang.
Xiao Wangzhuang's enemy was a regiment of the 85th Army, which, after watching this fierce battle, surrendered to the Seventh Column of Huaye. The commander of the 33rd Regiment of the 18th Army was seriously wounded, and with the support of several wounded, he broke out desperately and walked towards the headquarters of the 118th Division, Hu Lian was also at the headquarters of the 118th Division of the 18th Army at this time, and the commander of the 33rd Regiment did not say anything after seeing Hu Lian and shot himself.
After the conquest of Dawangzhuang, there is also a commanding height called The Jiangudui behind it, which is a mound of earth only 25 meters high. Relying on this mound, the 12th Corps was condescending and restrained the attacks of our army many times. Guarding here is the 54th Regiment of the 114th Division, an ace unit of the former reorganized 11th Division, known as the Mighty Regiment.
The offensive units of our army are the 1st Battalion (Xiangyang Battalion) of the 49th Regiment of the Sixth Column of the Nakano Ande And the 1st Battalion (Luoyang Battalion) of the 23rd Regiment of the 3rd Column of the Huaye 3rd Column. At this time, Huaye's heavy artillery units had arrived, and Huaye Chief of Staff Chen Shiyu transferred one field artillery company and two mountain artillery companies of Huaye's third column artillery regiment to Huaye's third column 8th Division, and formed two artillery groups together with the mountain artillery battalion and two mortar companies of the eighth division, and Chen Shiyu directly commanded the column artillery regiment and the Huaye heavy artillery regiment.
At six o'clock in the afternoon of the 14th, Chen Shiyu and Wang Jinshan commanded the powerful artillery fire of the Southern Group to carry out a devastating bombardment of the enemy's positions, hundreds of cannons to carry out fierce bombardment of the enemy's positions, and nearly an hour of artillery preparations destroyed all the enemy's surface fortifications, and a large part of the defenders were forced to flee the fortifications.
After the battle began, the Xiangyang Battalion and the Luoyang Battalion attacked side by side and entered the enemy position. After two hours of fierce fighting, the mighty regiment was completely annihilated. At the same time, the 21st Division of the 7th Column of Huaye and the 47th Regiment of the 6th Column of Nakano also joined the battle and launched an attack on the depths of the enemy. The 18th Army was also transferred to the special service battalion, artillery battalion, and engineer battalion to counterattack the Jiangudui, but our army firmly controlled the Jiangudui and blocked the enemy's attack.
After the capture of the Jiangudui, the headquarters of the 12th Corps of the Kuomintang Army, the artillery positions, the vehicles of the rapid column and the temporary airfield were completely exposed to the positions of our army. Hu Lian and Yang Botao lined up more than 200 trucks, piled up dirt, and built city-walled fortifications in an attempt to continue to block our army's attack, but at this time, our artillery fire could directly hit the headquarters of the Huang Wei Corps, and Huang Wei had to order the troops to break through in batches.