preface
In October 1950, the first batch of volunteer troops on the mainland, under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai, began to fight in Korea.
It was not until July 28, 1953, that Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai officially signed the Korean Armistice Agreement, and the three-year-long Korean War finally came to an end.
Mr. Peng also witnessed the whole process of the Korean War in the past three years, and also witnessed how the volunteer army used its flesh and blood to resist the fierce artillery offensive of the US army under extremely difficult circumstances.
Mr. Peng (left) and Kim Il Sung (right)
In fact, as early as the beginning of the volunteer army's entry into the Korean War,
Peng Dehuai
The commander-in-chief knew very well in his heart that the huge differences in weapons and equipment between the volunteer army and the US army were a life-and-death contest of extreme inequality, and in his opinion:
"The enemy's tanks and artillery are temporarily superior, this is where the enemy is stronger than us", "Enemy fire is fierce, I suffered quite a lot of casualties"
。
He served as deputy commander of the Volunteer Army at the beginning of the Korean War
Deng Hua
The general, who also understood the superiority of the existence of American troops, once said:
"U.S. imperialism is a highly modern army, with the three armed forces of the army, sea and air force capable of joint operations, on the battlefield, at the same time, the air and sea control, and the ground troops have strong firepower and fast mobility."
Founding General Deng Hua
Li Zhimin, who served as the political commissar of the 19th Corps of the Volunteer Army in the early days of the Korean War, also believed: "The biggest advantage of the 'United Nations Army' led by the United States is that there are many planes, artillery, and tanks..."
In such a situation where the weapons and equipment of the two sides are extremely disparity,
If the volunteer army also adopts the frontal flat push combat method to meet the US army, it is bound to make the US aircraft, tanks, and artillery give full play to their artillery power, which is extremely unfavorable to the volunteer army
Founding General Li Zhimin
From the evaluations given by the above three generals, it is not difficult to find that they all mentioned the US military in unison
"Firepower" "Artillery Fire"
Only after understanding the enemy's superiority can it be more convenient for our army to formulate strategies and tactics to restrain the enemy's superiority.
Therefore, in the early stages of combat, volunteer units are usually used
Night battles, melee battles, quick battles
The mode of combat is mainly based on mobile warfare, and then general
Trench warfare
and
guerrilla warfare
combined,
Roundabout encirclement
，
Split cut
The enemy troops strive to annihilate the enemy army as much as possible in the movement war and grasp the initiative on the battlefield.
Volunteers on the positions
American artillery fire poured wildly
However, the US military troops, which are the pillars of imperialism, are not vegetarians, and they have their own set in both the political and military fields.
The same is true in the Korean battlefield, not conforming to the old rules, good at making corresponding changes according to the battlefield situation, and has always been known for its firepower, the US military has never spared its own ammunition consumption on the battlefield, implemented an extremely tight fire blockade against the volunteer troops, and frantically poured into the positions where the volunteers were located
"VanVleet Ammo Quantity"
U.S. troops on the Korean battlefield
How fierce was the firepower of the U.S. military throughout the Korean War?
The U.S. army alone was equipped with 14,210 artillery pieces, and the U.S. army had a ground strength of 230,000 people at its peak, which was organized into three armies: the 1st, 9th, and 10th armies
If calculated in this way, it is equivalent to the US military,
Less than 6 people can have a cannon
It has to be said that its firepower configuration is luxurious.
U.S. artillery
Not only that, but the various front-line field divisions of the US military on the Korean battlefield also have one under their command
The division belonged to the artillery regiment
It was equipped with 3 105 mm howitzer battalions and 1 155 mm howitzer battalion, each with 18 guns, for a total of 72 shells. There is one under its jurisdiction
The division was part of an anti-aircraft artillery battalion
, equipped with 32 40 mm self-propelled anti-aircraft guns.
Each division also has three infantry regiments, each regiment is equipped with a heavy mortar and an anti-tank artillery company, equipped with 12-16 shells, and each battalion is also equipped with a mortar and a 75 mm recoilless gun platoon, generally 3-4 shells; each company is equipped with a light mortar and a 57 mm recoilless gun squad, and the general shell is 2 to 3.
Heavily equipped into the U.S. Army's 57 mm recoilless guns
After November 1950, the U.S. army again strengthened the artillery configuration of the divisional units.
A tank unit was added to it, each with a tank company, for a total of 149 tanks
How arrogant was the armament of the U.S. military in the Korean War? I think that even with so much data as a basis, it may not be as good as in the Battle of Shangganling
1 Apple Story
It is a powerful shock.
According to the relevant military history of the 15th Army of the Volunteer Army,
During the entire Battle of Shangganling, the volunteer logistics unit prepared as many as 40,000 pounds of apples to be transported to the tunnel, but until the end of the entire battle, it was finally able to break through the American fire blockade.
There are only 1 apple that was successfully sent into the tunnel of the volunteer army
And this is not an exaggeration, it is exaggerated is the crazy artillery attack of the US army.
American artillery positions
Volunteer tunnel tactics
But even so, under such an artillery offensive of the US army, how did the volunteer army turn defeat into victory, and finally repulse the arrogant US troops beyond the 38th line?
Tunnel tactics
It is a great contribution, and to this day, it is very worth mentioning.
Be inspired
The first to discover the great strategic value of tunnel warfare was our army's unit
"Sanyang"
One of them
Yang Dezhi
During the Korean War, Yang Dezhi, then deputy commander of the Volunteer Army and commander of the 19th Corps, had mixed feelings and worries after seeing that the HUNDRED times the firepower offensive of the US army had caused heavy casualties to the volunteer troops on the position, and he was worried about the commander of the 65th Army
Xiao Yingtang
At this time, I was also very frustrated:
"These two days have not been well fought, and the losses of the troops are very serious."
After saying that, I almost burst into tears.
Founding Major General Xiao Yingtang
Yang Dezhi immediately comforted:
"If you hit me, I won't make you possible; if I hit you, I'm going to beat you to death." But the most important problem now is to first find a way not to let the enemy fight, and then to solve the problem of how to kill the enemy. ”
Sure enough, brainstorming and brainstorming can always get different inspiration and inspiration. In Yang Dezhi, he mentioned the first big city offensive in the Liberation War.
Battle of Shijiazhuang
After that, everyone's thinking seemed to be opened in an instant, and it was suddenly opened up and opened up.
Yang Dezhi recalled the battle:
"In that campaign, when our troops conquered large cities with strong fortifications, the way in which our troops adopted was precisely to construct offensive fortifications, to deploy and concentrate large forces in trenches and tunnels that the enemy had not yet discovered, and then to take the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on the enemy, and this method did achieve very good results."
At this time, military commander Xiao Yingtang also suddenly stood up and said:
"Recently, in order to resist the artillery fire of the US army, some fighters have begun to choose to dig anti-artillery holes in the back of the position, and the effect is really good."
Everyone present seemed to have rekindled hopes of victory, with Li Zhimin saying:
"How about digging deeper?" Dig it through and connect it to form a network of tunnels. Then make a few more perforations and lookout holes to cover yourself and destroy the enemy! ”
Dig through the mountain and use the reverse slope to resist artillery fire
Large-scale construction of tunnels
With intuition and years of battlefield experience, the generals of our army believe that they have finally found the right way to deal with the US artillery offensive, so Yang Dezhi immediately joined the soldiers of the 65th Army and started to use their pickaxes and hammers to dig tunnels and build fortifications.
Full of confidence in the way of holding the position and using the tunnels to strike the enemy
As a result, one anti-artillery hole after another, tunnel fortifications appeared on the positions of our army, and Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai also paid close attention to them, and in September 1951, all the participating units of the Volunteer Army actively adopted the method of general tunnel operations, and the volunteer positions carried out large-scale tunnel construction operations.
By March 1952, the positions of the various divisions and regiments of the Volunteer Army were initially formed
A complete set of defense systems combined with tunnels, trench bunkers, and traffic ditches
The volunteers in the tunnel broadcast the coordinates for the artillery
It can be said that throughout the entire history of world wars, it is difficult to see such a complete and extremely effective tunnel defense network.
I have to say that the volunteer army is simply a genius in building tunnels, the volunteer army takes a tunnel fortification as the support point and core backbone, and its internal facilities are complete.
Traffic arteries, side roads, traffic trenches, shooting fortifications
and other combat facilities are readily available.
Even for the soldiers' daily needs
Dormitories, canteens, toilets
There is also everything you need, and there is even a "tunnel library". Who would have thought that these facilities would have been moved by the volunteers into the mountains of the Korean battlefield?
The result is a breathtaking underground Great Wall in the true sense of the word
The library in the tunnel
According to post-war statistics,
The length of the tunnels built by the Volunteers during the Korean War reached 1250 kilometers, and the total length of various trenches and communication trenches reached 6240 kilometers, which was comparable to the Great Wall of the mainland
The earth and stone square it excavated is even as high as 60 million m, what is this concept?
If arranged in 1m, 60 million m is enough to orbit the Earth's equator for one and a half minutes
, forming another spectacle in the history of world war, and a work of pinnacle.
However, all this came only from the hands of the volunteers, and a simple steel chisel hammer, grinding hundreds of cross pickaxes into iron blocks, and after the completion of the tunnel fortifications, the hands of a volunteer army were spread at will, and we could clearly see the hard blood cocoon of the road.
Tunnel construction
"The Insurmountable Abyss of Death"
With the gradual completion of the tunnel fortifications, our army's defensive positions were basically stable and successfully resisted the artillery attack of the US army.
Under the cover of the tunnel, if you let the U.S. troops throw shells on it, we can sneak into the tunnels as soon as we slip into the tunnels, and the U.S. shells will be difficult to hurt our troops. When the U.S. army shifted its firepower and the U.S. infantry began to charge. The volunteers jumped out of the tunnel again and launched a counterattack against the Americans. At this time, if we want to talk about infantry combat effectiveness, the Chinese volunteer army, which is good at ground combat, has a better position.
The Volunteers attacked
In the course of the summer and autumn defensive operations, the US military originally fired 40 to 60 shells to easily kill and injure one of our volunteers, but after the tunnel, in the course of the operation from January to August 1952,
The U.S. military had to fire at least 660 shells to reduce the number of volunteers to one
For example, the volunteers of the 64th Army used a horseshoe-shaped tunnel to not only resist the attack of 30,000 shells and hundreds of bombs from the US army in just one day, but also repelled as many as 21 attacks by the US infantry, causing more than 700 casualties of the US and Rok troops, while our army only suffered 21 casualties.
The volunteers were inside the tunnels
Tunnel operations were not only an ideal defense for the volunteers, but also caused huge casualties among the U.S. troops, making the ammunition consumption of the U.S. troops more alarming than before.
At this time, the US military finally saw the strength of the volunteer army's tunnel combat, even if there were endless shells, it was difficult to break through a tunnel of the volunteer army, and the Americans finally tasted fear, the taste of failure, and called the volunteer army
"The Dragon in the Cave"
It is even more called the indestructible tunnel defense line of the volunteer army
"An insurmountable abyss of death"
Some tunnels provide access to drinking water directly from the rock walls
VanVleet's counterattack
In the face of the volunteer tunnels, it was also eclipsed. VanVleet began to feel anxious, and he tried every way to deal with the volunteer tunnels, and tried again and again, but still failed miserably, and in only 1 month, the US 8th Army made 247 ambushes, but in the end it was nothing.
So VanVleet began an experiment to destroy the barrels of the Volunteers, trying to concentrate the shells with a relatively straight trajectory to directly destroy the mouths and holes of the Volunteers, supplemented by heavy bombs, in order to collapse the Volunteers' tunnels in one fell swoop.
Volunteer soldiers relied on the tunnels to shoot
But the results of the test once again disappointed the U.S. military, which caused only minor damage to the Volunteer tunnels. Although it was only a slight loss, it also alerted our troops, and immediately improved the tunnel, the initial pit mouth was generally only 10 meters to 15 meters thick, after reinforcement,
The thickness of the top of the later pit opening has reached 50 meters
It was almost impossible for U.S. artillery shells to blow it up.
At the same time, each tunnel will be set up at least two pit mouths, and the requirements of the pit mouth are extremely high, which must be possessed
Air defense, bulletproof, anti-poison, anti-slip
A variety of functions, solid resistance to beating, even Van Vliet has to look dumbfounded.
The Volunteer Army's "Way of Life"
The existence of the tunnel is not only a solid fortification against the artillery fire of the US army, but also a way of life that has defended thousands of volunteer soldiers.
The existence of the tunnel allowed the volunteer army to receive a steady stream of troop replenishment and logistical supplies, and to recuperate. The existence of the tunnel also allowed the volunteer army to have the opportunity to launch a counterattack, and cooperate with the ground troops. In the fierce Battle of Shangganling, the volunteer soldiers' many counter-offensive operations were almost always successfully won with the cooperation of ground troops and foreign media of the tunnel detachment.
Victory at the Battle of Shangganling
So Commander-in-Chief Peng finally made up his mind:
"It seems that there is not much problem in holding the position, and the sixth battle can be cancelled"
And on October 29, officially ordered the volunteer troops,
From November until the end of the year, there will be no need for large-scale counter-offensive operations
。 At this point, in the battle with the US army, the volunteer army finally realized the transformation from a mobile war to a defensive position war.
The results of the tunnel operation also immediately reached Chairman Mao's ears, and he smiled and said to Premier Zhou Enlai, who was standing by:
"Our problem in this regard, at first, was whether we could fight, and then whether we could defend, and now it seems that we can solve it."
Volunteers deliver supplies to the front line
epilogue
Our problem was solved, the US military was going to have a headache, the battlefield was lost one after another, the US weapons were useless, and the US army had no choice but to lay down its guns and artillery, negotiate with the volunteers, and finally sign an armistice agreement.
The tunnel tactics have thus become famous in the First World War, and have become the object of learning and imitation by various countries, and to this day, it is still an ideal choice for guerrilla warfare and defensive warfare.
Therefore, we say that the victory of the volunteer army in the Korean battlefield is inseparable from the contribution of the tunnel, and this classic tunnel combat tactic has also been applied by the mainland
Self-defense counterattack against Vietnam
On the battlefield, but the scale of the tunnels on the Sino-Vietnamese battlefield is relatively small, and the form has changed, but it still achieves good results on the battlefield, and even has a resounding new name on the Sino-Vietnamese battlefield
"Cat Ear Piercing"