On October 14, 1952, in the Korean battlefield, the U.S. military launched the largest offensive in a year in Shangganling.
The total area of Shangganling is only 3.7 square kilometers. In one and a half months, the U.S. military fired an average of more than 24,000 shells a day (at most 320 large-caliber guns and 27 tanks fired at the same time, more than 300,000 rounds a day and night, more than 12,500 rounds an hour, and 210 rounds a second), and carried out destructive fire.
On the positions of the two companies of the Chinese army, the shards of stone chips flew everywhere they fell, and the steel flakes rained down; more than a hundred bombers and powerful strikers bombed in the sky in turn, and the heavy bombs roared down and blasted the granite into powder, and the napalm bombs burned into flames on the mountain.
The soil and stones of the two highlands of Shangganling 597.9 and 537.7 were all blown up by one to two meters, and walking on it, the loose soil was kneeless, as if walking into the soil ash. Ground positions were completely destroyed, and many rocky tunnels were blown three to four meters shorter.
However, the Chinese Volunteer Army relied on the tunnel fortifications, held its position, and constantly counterattacked.
Huang Jiguang, the people's hero, died here.
Deng Hua, Wang Jinshan, Qin Jiwei, and other generals of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army made up their minds that they would have to defeat the Americans in this battle and lose face in front of the whole world.
In 43 days, the volunteers repelled more than 900 attacks on the other side, annihilating more than 25,000 enemy troops, and the positions remained standing.
The Battle of Shangganling shook the world.
The defeat on the battlefield forced the United States to return to the negotiating table once again. In April 1953, armistice negotiations, which had been interrupted for more than half a year, were finally resumed at Panmunjom.
In July, Clark, who succeeded Ridgway as commander-in-chief, had to formally sign a military armistice agreement with North Korea and China at Panmunjom.
Clark later said: "I became the first commander of the U.S. Army in history to sign an armistice without victory." I felt a pain of disappointment, and I thought that my predecessor, MacArthur, and General Ridgway must have felt the same way. ”