In January 1951, the 3rd Provisional Automobile Regiment of the Volunteer Army was ordered by its superiors to transfer from The town of Shandeng in Korea to Singye County.
The situation in New Creek County is much more tense than in Shandon, and the biggest trouble is that U.S. aircraft are too rampant.
Because the U.S. military decided that this area was the only way for the volunteers to transport supplies, they often sent planes to carry out bombing missions, sometimes even sending dozens of planes at a time, an average of hundreds of planes per day, and frantically dropping thousands of tons of bombs on this projectile land.
In March 1951, Zhao Baoyin, a soldier of the Third Provisional Regiment of the Volunteer Army, went out with the car and encountered a bombing mission carried out by US aircraft, killing 11 people in a squad of 13 volunteers, and of the 2 surviving people, one was seriously injured and one was slightly injured, and the scene was extremely tragic.
When Zhao Baoyin saw this scene, his heart was full of sorrow and indignation, and he was eager to immediately shoot down the enemy's plane and avenge his comrades-in-arms.
However, at that time, the Volunteer Army had neither an air force structure nor anti-aircraft weapons, and could not form a real deterrent against enemy aircraft. Because the air superiority of the US military was too great, in order to avoid exposing the target and incurring greater losses, the volunteer army could only stipulate that the troops should not use ground weapons to return fire against enemy aircraft, and those who violated the order must be dealt with in accordance with military law.
That is to say, at that time, for the US aircraft, the volunteers could do nothing but dodge.
As a result, enemy planes have become more unscrupulous, often flying at ultra-low altitudes in North Korea, sometimes only thirty or forty meters above the ground, and even flying in a showy manner against the treetops and drilling ravines.
What is even more infuriating is that the US military also sat on the plane and directly pulled out a pistol or rifle and shot the livestock, poultry and ordinary people on the ground. Some vulgar and shameless US troops actually chased north Korean women on the ground in airplanes, frightening them into crying.
Zhao Baoyin has witnessed the ugly deeds of the US military many times, and often cracks his fingers and grits his teeth in anger. He dreamed that one day he would be able to take down the US plane with a weapon and fight it painfully and happily!
I didn't expect him to really wait for such a good opportunity.
It was on March 20, 1951, when Zhao Baoyin went out on a transportation mission with the driver Lao Du and assistant Cao Xinren.
At four o'clock in the morning, the car drove to the foot of a mountain, and Lao Du said that this was Shibianli Village.
Just as they were about to move on, they suddenly heard the roar of an aircraft engine in the air. They counted, and four enemy planes were coming.
Fortunately, at that time, they strictly enforced the rules of the troops, although the car was driving in the dark and did not have headlights, only small lights, so the enemy aircraft did not find their car.
Zhao Baoyin's eyes were sharp, and after discovering the enemy plane, he immediately asked Lao Du to stop and turn off the fire, and the three of them quickly went down to camouflage the car with branches and other objects, and then hid in a nearby air raid shelter.
After the four enemy planes bombed the village once, they flew away triumphantly.
Zhao Baoyin and the others were preparing to re-enter the road, but they did not expect that four more enemy planes would fly towards them. Once the enemy plane dropped the bomb, the three volunteer soldiers, along with the supplies on the car, could not escape the disaster, and the situation was extremely critical!
Zhao Baoyin secretly made up his mind: Instead of sitting still, it is better to take the initiative to attack! Moreover, there are no troops nearby, and there is no target that will be exposed.
Thinking of this, Zhao Baoyin asked Lao Du to hide in the air raid shelter, but he walked out with Cao Xinren.
As he walked, he said, "Xiao Cao, anyway, it is a death, we will shoot and teach the enemy plane a lesson!" ”
Cao Xinren said hesitantly, "Isn't that a violation of the regulations of the troops?" ”
Zhao Baoyin said: "Chairman Mao has said that in combat, we must be mobile and flexible, and we must not be rigid and dogmatic. You see the enemy planes flying so low, just beat them up. In case something goes wrong, I'll take responsibility, and you can rest assured. ”
As soon as Cao Xinren heard this, he also went out: "Fight and fight, if something happens, we will carry it together!" ”
When the enemy plane flew over, the two did not hesitate to shoot at the enemy plane with the 30-type rifle in their hands, Zhao Baoyin fired seven bullets, and Cao Xinren fired six bullets.
After these thirteen bullets were fired, Zhao and Cao did not know whether they had hit the target.
Although the enemy planes found that they were attacked, they did not immediately return fire, perhaps because they had never encountered the situation of the volunteers fighting back, or perhaps because they were difficult to distinguish between the false and the real for a while, and it was not clear whether the volunteers were prepared. In short, these thirteen bullets blinded the enemy plane and flew away in a hurry without retaliation.
After a while, Zhao Baoyin and others learned through the air defense surveillance posts set up by the People's Army nearby that the thirteen shots they fired had actually shot down an enemy plane!
The reason is very simple, except for Zhao and Cao, no one in the vicinity has fired a gun by enemy aircraft.
This completely unexpected situation made Zhao and Cao, who were originally in a nervous mood, really feel happy to descend from heaven, and they did not expect that they had taken the risk of violating military orders and fired thirteen shots on their own initiative, and actually created an unheard of record -- shooting down a US military plane with a rifle, which can be called a miracle in the history of Chinese and foreign wars.
In order to verify this, they personally went to the place where the enemy plane fell to check, and sure enough, they saw the enemy plane that was badly damaged and still smoking.
The nearby crowds had all seen the US plane shot down for the first time, and they all cheered and even lifted Zhao Baoyin and Cao Xinren up and threw them into the air.
What Zhao and Cao did not expect at all was that the troops not only did not give punishment to the enemy aircraft because of their own initiatives, but instead held a special celebration meeting for them and gave them a special meritorious service once.
At that time, many domestic newspapers and periodicals sent reporters to interview Zhao Baoyin and Cao Xinren, and the relevant reports were numerous, and the domestic people also knew about these two volunteer heroes.
This incident also greatly stimulated the enthusiasm and confidence of all units in attacking enemy aircraft, so that enemy aircraft no longer dared to be so arrogant.