Whenever I recall the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, how can I be "miserable"?
Among them, again
Battle of Shangganling
The most famous, the Battle of Shangganling is also known as the most tragic battle on the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, but in addition to the Battle of Shangganling, the fifth battle
Iron Plains Blockade Battle
In fact, the fierceness of its battle is no less than that of the Battle of Shangganling, and the Tieyuan Blockade Battle should also be remembered by us.
Upper Ganling Position
A life-and-death battle
63rd Army, 19th Corps, Volunteer Army
The Tieyuan Blockade Battle is undoubtedly a life-and-death battle for our volunteer army, and if the Tieyuan cannot be defended, then the Korean Peninsula may be a different situation now, rather than the 38th Line as the dividing line today.
How fierce was the Battle of The Iron Plains? To this day, many volunteer veterans still dare not remember it, because it has become a lingering nightmare and pain in their hearts, which is difficult to forget. Its participation in the war
63rd Army
The volunteer soldiers also created many heroic feats that can be sung and wept in this battle, and their hardships are enough to be remembered in the history of the military and will be famous for eternity.
In the Battle of Tieyuan Blockade,
Chinese 63rd Army of the 19th Corps of the People's Volunteer Army
It is the most important combat force in this battle. Its predecessor is
Jin-Cha-Ji Field Army JiZhong Column
Its first commander was the founding general of the mainland
Yang Chengwu
It was later reorganized into the 3rd Column of the North China Military Region.
It was not until 1949, when our army was reorganizing the whole army, that the 3rd Column of the North China Military Region was officially reorganized into the 63rd Army of the 19th Corps of the Chinese Volunteer Army. On February 15, 1951, the 63rd Army, as the second group of troops, went to the Korean Battlefield to fight, and its commander of the 63rd Army was the founding major general of the mainland
Fu Chongbi
。
The fifth battle began
On April 11, 1951, MacArthur, who had previously been commander-in-chief of the United Nations Army, was dismissed from all positions by President Truman and succeeded by Ridgway as commander-in-chief of the United Nations Army. On April 22, 1951, only 11 days after Ridgway took office, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
The Fifth Campaign
The gunshots were fired.
Compared with the always arrogant MacArthur, Ridgway may be the real enemy of the volunteer army, he is meticulous, cautious and more perceptive. After the first four battles with the Volunteers, the United Nations Army had a general understanding of the offensive characteristics and tactical play of the Volunteers.
So after analyzing the previous war situation, Ridgway quickly grasped the weakness of the Volunteer Army in the great depth of penetration tactics, that is, the Volunteer Army
Logistical replenishment
issue.
Magnetic tactics
After combining the superiority of the United Nations forces, Ridgway developed a project called
"Magnetic Tactics"
The way of playing. Commonly used for volunteers
Roundabout interspersed tactics
He changed the previous practice of dividing the US army into advances and changed it to
Gather with each other, fight steadily, all parties echo, all parties support,
Maintain line coherence.
At the same time, because the volunteer army often likes to act at night, Ridgway decided to deliberately create chaos at night, and give full play to the superiority of the US military in weapons and firepower, and carry out artillery onslaught to avoid the US front being disrupted and interspersed and hindering the action of our army.
Ridgway always had a grenade hanging from his chest
On the other hand, due to the lack of heavy firepower weapons in our army, logistics are difficult to supply, so Ridgway has also taken corresponding countermeasures, that is
Using the installed units to carry out rapid raids, the airborne troops were strangled in the air, and the main forces were assisted on the side, in an attempt to control the main traffic routes, cut off the logistics of our troops and the supply lines of the support troops, encircle our army, and force our army into a war of attrition.
The U.S. military's crazy "aerial strangulation"
In the early stage of the battle, Ridgway's tactical play did achieve certain results, so that the volunteer army fell into a passive situation for a while. Existing combat materiel was gradually depleted, logistical supplies were cut off, and it was difficult to support the front line in a short period of time. The ammunition and food available to our troops are only enough to sustain a week of fighting, and after a week our army will be in a desperate situation of running out of ammunition and food.
In this situation, Ridgway continued to adopt the tactic of enticing the enemy to go deeper, and he ordered VanVleet,
Only 32 kilometers back every day, and the battle and retreat
。 Avoid night battles and hand-to-hand combat with our army, after all, this is where our army has always had an advantage, and instead use long-range artillery to attack and fight with the volunteers
War of attrition
VanVleet
Because he knew that the volunteer army at that time could not be exhausted, and still had to face the threat from the United Nations army at all times, there were absolutely superior fighters in the air, carrying out endless bombardment, and there were sophisticated armored troops on the ground. They were watching intently and launching a fierce offensive against our army.
Faced with such a dilemma, the only way left for the volunteers was to retreat. However, retreating is naturally not a wise move; marching and fighting, and retreating in front of the enemy, which is most taboo, will disrupt the original combat formation and shake the morale of the operation.
The 57 mm recoilless gun widely used by the U.S. army
The disparity in strength
remove? advance? At such a critical moment of life and death, Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai issued an order to all the volunteer soldiers of the 63rd Army:
Don't take a step back and act on the spot
So there was this later
！
The defensive terrain of the entire Tieyuan Blockade Battle was mountainous, about 25 kilometers wide and 20 kilometers deep, and the volunteer soldiers of the 63rd Army were ordered to garrison the Tieyuan for 15 days to carry out blocking operations against the enemy. The 63rd Army had three divisional units, respectively
187th Division, 188th Division,
and
189th Division
During the blockade operation,
The 187th Division was responsible for the defense of the right flank, the 189th Division was responsible for the defense of the left flank, and the 188th Division was supplemented as a reserve force, with the entire 63rd Army unit totaling about 24,000 to 28,000 men participating in the battle
。 However, in terms of armament, the 63rd Army had only one artillery regiment and one rocket artillery battalion, no tanks, and no aircraft.
On the United Nations side, there are more than 50,000 people in the 1st Cavalry Division, the 25th Division, the 28th Brigade of the British Army, and the 29th Brigade of the British Army. In terms of weapons, then
It is equipped with more than 1450 guns of various types, more than 220 tanks, and of course, a strong air support department
team.
U.S. 105 mm howitzer positions
It can be said that our army units do not have the advantage in terms of troop strength, weapons and equipment, and ammunition supplies, so in the view of Yang Dezhi, commander of the 19th Corps, it is unlikely that it will win a victory in the Tieyuan blockade of the enemy, and it is bound to be a battle for the volunteers of the 63rd Army
Hard, bloody
U.S. M-26 Pershing heavy tank
The war crisis did not leave much time for them to prepare, but Yang Dezhi still said such a bold sentence:
"Even if the 63rd Army is wiped out, it will still hold on to The Iron Plains for 15 to 20 days."
Fu Chongbi, then commander of the 63rd Army, said the same thing after receiving the order:
"Even if the 63rd Army fights to the last man, it will never let VanVleet take another half step forward."
It can be said that when Tieyuan blocked the first battle, all the volunteer soldiers of the 63rd Army had already participated in the battle with the determination to die.
The vanguard of the 63rd Army crossed the Linjin River and seized the commanding heights of Mount Cyan yue
After referring to the terrain of the battlefield and the tactical play of the United Nations Army, the 63rd Army decided to adopt one in the tactics of the Iron Plains Blockade Battle
Defensive tactics supported by mountainous terrain have reorganized troops into detachments and deployed in key positions for defense, creating multiple threats to the United Nations forces, disrupting their offensive plans, and making it impossible for front-line troops to carry out offensive operations with peace of mind
And it was this that created the possibility for the success of the Tieyuan Blockade War.
Volunteer soldiers in the Battle of Iron Plains
"Iron is burning"
VanVleet ammo quantity
On June 1, 1951, a tragic and tragic Battle of The Iron Plains was officially launched. As with the usual combat habits, the U.S. army never skimped on its own ammunition consumption, artillery bombardment, artillery bombardment, artillery bombardment, tanks rushed, so on the first day that Van Vliet led the U.S. army to participate in the Battle of Iron Plains, a terrible concept on the Korean battlefield was created:
"VanVleet Ammo Quantity".
In just one hour, the US army frantically poured 4500 tons of shells into the volunteer army, the battlefield was full of smoke, the smoke of gunfire was filled, and the Battle of Tieyuan was really iron burning, iron was burning.
American artillery frantically pouring ammunition
Due to the powerful destructive power of the "VanVleet ammunition volume", the position was in a mess, the water source was also seriously polluted, and many volunteer soldiers had no choice but to lick the dew on the leaves to drink when they were thirsty, and once the US army found which tree the volunteer army was licking, they immediately went to shell which tree
The volunteers who went to drink the dew never returned
Volunteer soldiers fought bravely against the enemy
In the face of the strong firepower offensive of the US army, the frontal response to the enemy is equivalent to taking the initiative to "send people's heads", so the volunteers of the 63rd Army began to disperse into more than 200 combat units and dispersed to all parts of the battlefield, so that the US artillery could not find the main target of the attack. Therefore, after losing the main attack point of the US army, it began to fight a war of attrition with the volunteer army, which was three days and three nights, so that the US army, which was originally crushed by strength and equipment, could only look at the nearby Tieyuan City and be anxious.
Shell casings on U.S. artillery positions
On 2 June, the UN army began to attack the position of the 189th Division, and the volunteer soldiers of the 189th Division fought with the UN army to the death and struggled to resist.
With the support of the American tank troops, the volunteers who were the first to face the American army also suffered heavy losses:
In those three days of bitter fighting, almost every few tens of minutes there will be news of the death of the squad, the first squad is killed, all the comrades are killed, the second squad is killed, all the comrades are killed, the third squad is all killed, the fourth squad is killed.......
At this time, the volunteers in the rear position could watch their comrades in the front position fall one by one, but they could not save, and to save was equivalent to death, and there was almost no chance of survival.
In this case,
The volunteers of the 189th Division were able to hold out against the Americans for three days, buying valuable time for their comrades in the rear to build fortifications.
The Type II-4 Maxim heavy machine gun used by the Volunteers
See death as homecoming
On June 4, the 188th Division, which was initially a reserve force, began to replace the 189th Division in the position of the battle, but they had a windfall, because there were many trench bunkers and fortifications left by the ROK army, which undoubtedly made the volunteers who were already good at fighting tunnel warfare suddenly have confidence and enthusiasm for fighting
Trench defense net
U.S. 155 mm self-propelled howitzers opened fire
This trench defense network of the volunteers has also become the nemesis of the AMERICAN armored forces, and even a nightmare existence.
Tanks, tanks, where uneven, I will conquer
However, in the face of the trench defense network of the volunteer army, the US tanks completely lost the prestige and combat effectiveness of the past, and from time to time they were planted in the trenches, fell to the bottom, could not move for half a day, and tried to move out.
Volunteer soldiers holding their ground
At this time, the volunteers organized artillery fire again, and when they went up, they fired a fierce bombardment of American tanks, resulting in the whole process
A total of more than 100 tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed by our army
In the course of the 14-day blockade battle, the volunteers used almost all the existing troops that could be used on the battlefield.
The communication soldiers, the cooking soldiers all rushed to the front line of the battlefield,
The oath of death is also to stop the PACE of the UN army from continuing to march.
During the Battle of Tieyuan, the volunteer soldiers launched a charge
Before the war, Li Qiwei had calculated everything and thought about the strategies that various volunteers would adopt to deal with the enemy, but he had not calculated the perseverance and strong will to fight of the volunteers
Battle belief. The 63rd Army, a 14-day battle, the volunteers did it, they defeated, defeated the powerful opponent of the American army, and ensured the smooth withdrawal of the large troops of the volunteer army to the vicinity of the 38th Line.
Shell casings discarded by the U.S. army after the fierce battle
salute
The volunteer soldiers of the 63rd Army also paid a heavy casualty price.
As many as 22,000 casualties were inflicted, and even the commander of the army, Fu Chongbi, was seriously wounded. The number of casualties on the U.S. side was also as high as 15,000
With the support of reinforcements, the remaining strength of the 63rd Army was safely withdrawn to the rear. Four days later, Fu Chongbi, commander of the 63rd Army, who was lying on a hospital bed, finally woke up, and he looked at Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai in front of the window, with tears in his eyes, and the first sentence was nothing else
"I want soldiers"
。 Commander-in-Chief Peng replied:
"Twenty thousand for you"
A short two sentences of dialogue, seemingly simple, but it is really poignant,
"Twenty thousand"
Those were the 20,000 volunteers of the 63rd Army who died on the battlefield. Just a week later, more than 20,000 recruits were added to the 63rd Army.
Salute to the 63rd Army, to the soldiers of the Chinese Volunteer Army!