During World War II, the Two Great Participating States of the Soviet Union and Germany had 1,000 aircraft in combat. However, during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, as many as 1,700 us aircraft were put into combat, which was a staggering number at that time.
In a small country, the use of such a large number of aircraft can be imagined as a great threat to the volunteer army fighting in North Korea.
Relying on its large number of aircraft and first-class logistical supplies, the U.S. military not only often carried out wanton and indiscriminate bombardment of volunteer combat units, but also tried to cut off the volunteers' transport lines by this means.
Their approach was to dispatch reconnaissance aircraft to conduct 24-hour uninterrupted search and surveillance in areas wherever volunteers were likely to be present. As soon as they were spotted delivering supplies, they immediately dispatched fighter jets to bomb them.
According to statistics, the frequency of US aircraft dispatching aircraft in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was about 400 to 600 sorties per day. At the height of the war, the number was more than 1,000 sorties.
Such a frenzied air attack was bound to pose a huge challenge to the air defense capabilities of the Volunteers.
In fact, the Volunteer Army Command had already taken this into account before entering the DPRK, and let the participating units learn the relevant regulations and operational methods of air defense.
But fighting in a foreign country, the situation is different after all. It was not until a week after entering Korea that the troops had a real understanding of air defense in the night march.
After entering the DPRK, the volunteer army mainly relied on automobiles to complete the transportation of logistical supplies. During the day, as long as the car is dispatched, it will inevitably be attacked by Us military aircraft, so the volunteer car unit can only deliver supplies at night.
In order to prevent being detected by enemy aircraft, the volunteer drivers initially adopted the method of driving with lights off to complete the task.
However, as soon as the lights are turned off, the road surface cannot be seen clearly, and can only slowly grope forward, and can walk at most ten kilometers a night. Bad road conditions or bad weather are far from reaching this level.
The car drove too slowly, which inevitably led to a serious disconnect between the logistics supply and combat deployment of the entire volunteer army unit, so logistics became the most troublesome problem for the commanders of the volunteer army.
In order to speed up the transportation progress, many volunteer drivers can only risk their lives to turn on the lights at night, and once they find that the enemy planes are infested, they quickly turn off the lights.
However, this method of operation is easy to go wrong, and there are often cases where the car is damaged and blown up by enemy aircraft, and many drivers are sacrificed. Data show that before the fourth campaign, the average volunteer army had more than half of its cars damaged every month.
One night in January 1951, the Volunteer Army's automobile unit transported a shipment of supplies to the front, and due to the military emergency, an infantry unit of thousands of people also followed the car.
Suddenly, the roar of aircraft was heard in the air, and the advancing infantry team immediately stopped advancing, and the usual suitable terrain and features were camouflaged and hidden. However, the drivers were not so sensitive to the plane because the car engine was constantly ringing, and they still continued to drive with the lights on.
The planes were getting closer and closer, and the well-concealed infantry were anxious in their hearts: If the headlights of the car led the enemy plane to a wild bombardment, the consequences would be unimaginable!
There was a more impatient infantry soldier who saw that the car still did not stop, and he was immediately anxious. Because the situation was extremely urgent, he thought that it was too late to ask his superiors, so he decided to fire the gun on his own initiative.
At this critical moment, the soldier did not hesitate to raise his rifle in his hand and suddenly fired a shot at the top of the car's path.
With the sound of a gunshot, everyone was stunned, and the superior ran over angrily and asked the soldier why he had to shoot at the car without permission.
But before he could finish speaking, he saw that all the cars in the process of moving brushed off their headlights, and at the same time stopped advancing, some of them drove into the nearby shelter, and the other part stopped and camouflaged on the spot.
Fortunately, because the car turned off its lights in time, the whereabouts of the volunteers were not discovered by the American aircraft, and the thousands of troops escaped the disaster.
This could not help but make the volunteer soldiers very happy, and the soldier who made up his own mind and fired the alarm was not punished by his superiors, but was praised for his crooked beating.
So the question is, since the driver of the car can't hear the roar of the plane, why can he hear the soldiers shooting?
After some research, it was found that the main reason for this phenomenon is the frequency problem. The sound frequencies emitted by the car engine and the aircraft motor are very close, so even if the aircraft flies above the driver's head, it is difficult for them to detect.
However, the frequency of the gunfire and the sound emitted by the car engine is very different, so as soon as the gun sounds, the drivers can hear it immediately.
Zhou Chunquan, political commissar of the Logistics Department of the Volunteer Army, was overjoyed when he overheard about this incident, and immediately submitted it to Zhisi for approval to promote this method of firing guns and calling the police throughout the army.
During the fourth campaign, more than 10,000 such air defense posts were set up on less than 3,000 kilometers of volunteer transport lines.
As soon as the enemy plane appeared, the air defense post immediately fired a gun to alarm, and the volunteer transport unit immediately turned off the headlights, instantly turning the enemy plane blind. This has greatly reduced the damage rate of volunteer cars - from more than 50% of the original monthly damage to less than 5%, the effect can be said to be quite amazing.
So much so that Van Vleet, the commander of the US army, lamented to reporters in 1952: "We launched a 'strangulation war', using all our forces, hoping to completely cut off the transportation lines of the Chinese army." But they still have a way to keep the relevant supplies to the front line, which is an incredible miracle! ”
In short, the impatient infantry soldier fired a shot without permission at a critical moment, although he angered his superiors at that time, but found an effective and good way for the volunteer army to break the air blockade of the US army, and it can be said that he made a miracle of crooked beating. However, since the firing was only an accidental incident, there was no information to record the name of the soldier.