By the time the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was in the second half of 1952, the US military had already paid a huge casualty price on the battlefield, but victory was still out of reach. Therefore, when Clark succeeded Ridgway as the commander-in-chief of the "United Nations Army", the U.S. army no longer took the initiative to attack, but negotiated an armistice with the Volunteer Army in Kaesong. However, Van Vliet, commander of the US Eighth Army, still had illusions about the situation of the war, believing that with the superiority of firepower, the US military could still win in the local battlefield.
In addition, vanVleet's reluctance to cease war has a personal reason. His only son, Jimmy Jr., served as a bomber pilot, but was destroyed by volunteer anti-aircraft artillery during the "aerial strangulation" operation. Van Vleet, who lost his son in old age, was eager to retaliate, so as soon as Clark took office, he proposed a series of offensive plans, including "Big Stick" and "Homecoming", which were unexpectedly rejected by Clark. However, Van Vliet was still not dead hearted, and in early October proposed the "Operation Showdown" plan, preparing to seize the Shangganling position guarded by the 45th Division of the 15th Army.
Van Vliet's move was very fierce, completely unexpected by Qin Jiwei. Before the war, he judged that the direction of the U.S. army's attack was along the Pingkang River Valley, because the terrain here was flat and open, and the mechanized troops of the U.S. army could give full play to their advantages. However, Shangganling is a highland of hundreds of meters, the mountain road is rugged and difficult to travel, and the TANK tanks cannot go up the mountain at all, and can only be used as a fixed fire point. Based on this judgment, Qin Jiwei placed the main force and most of the artillery fire of the whole army in the Pingkang River Valley.
Unexpectedly, Van Vliet unexpectedly chose the battlefield in Shangganling, and invested hundreds of heavy artillery and thousands of aircraft to indiscriminately bombard the defensive positions of the 45th Division, and the firepower exceeded the highest level in World War II. After holding out stubbornly for seven days, the 45th Division was forced to abandon its surface positions and retreat into the tunnel defenses. After that, the US army exhausted all kinds of methods in a vain attempt to eliminate our tunnel troops in order to completely control Shangganling, but all of them ended in failure.
In the absence of water and food, our tunnel troops held out with great courage and perseverance for more than twenty days, and won sufficient preparation time for the counterattack troops. At noon on October 30, with Qin Jiwei's order, more than 150 large-caliber heavy artillery of the 15th Army roared in unison, and tons of steel projectiles smashed the 597.9 high ground occupied by the enemy, and suddenly there was a ghost crying wolf howl. Then the artillery began to extend, and the charge of my counterattack troops sounded loudly.
The enemy thought that the infantry of our army was about to start charging, and hurried out of the bunkers and fortifications to seize the position. Unexpectedly, the artillery fire that our army had already extended suddenly turned around and bombed back and forth, blowing up the US troops who had just entered the position. It turned out that our army had made a plan before the war, and after the artillery fire extended, the infantry pretended to charge, and after luring the enemy into the position, the artillery fire jumped back and bombarded the enemy for a second time. The AMERICAN TROOPS, which had suffered a heavy loss, became angry and gathered heavy artillery to prepare for a counterattack, but unexpectedly fell into Qin Jiwei's calculations.
22 Katyusha rockets, in just 8 seconds, poured more than 350 large-caliber rockets onto the enemy's artillery positions, destroying them in an instant. This destructive effect made Qin Jiwei very satisfied, if it were not for the shortage of stocks and the fact that this kind of shell was very expensive, Qin Jiwei really wanted the artillery to open the fight. After the Katyusha bombing, my 11 companies of counterattacks rushed like tigers to the already bombed enemy, and in less than two hours they all recovered 597.9 heights.
Captain Nikki of the US Seventh Division was blown off a leg by our artillery fire in this great counterattack, and he had followed the US Seventh Division to fight with our army many times before, but he had never encountered such fierce artillery fire. Years later, when he recalled the battle, he still had a lingering feeling, saying bluntly: "The artillery fire of the Chinese army is like rain, every second, it is terrible, we have no hiding place at all." In Nikki's view, the reason why the US army lost the Battle of Shangganling was because the volunteer artillery fire was too fierce.
But in fact, during the Battle of Shangganling, the firepower of the US army occupied a crushing advantage compared with that of the volunteer army. The planes were not to be said, because there were not a single volunteer. Looking at the artillery fire, during the campaign, the US army poured more than 1.9 million shells into our army's positions, with the highest density of firepower of six rounds per second; while the artillery fire returned by our army was only 400,000 rounds, and the firepower gap between the two sides was clear at a glance. The fundamental reason why the US military lost the Battle of Shangganling was that "more steel and less gas." After the battle, the American army was completely subdued and never took the initiative to attack again. Van Vliet also left his post due to the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Shangganling, ending his military career early.