At 5 o'clock on October 14, 1952, after two hours of direct artillery preparation, the "United Nations Army" led by the US army dispatched the strength of 4 battalions of the US 7th Division and the 2nd Division of the South Korean Army, supported by more than 300 artillery pieces, 27 tanks and more than 40 aircraft, and launched a fierce attack on the 597.9 Heights and 537.7 Highlands North Hill (about 3.7 square kilometers) defended by the 135th Regiment of the 45th Division of the 15th Division of the Volunteer Army in the northeast of Jinhua. The world-famous Battle of Shangganling began.
On the first day of the battle, the "United Nations Army" fired 300,000 rounds of various shells at our army's positions, and nearly 500 bombs were dropped by aircraft, destroying most of the surface fortifications, and 2 reinforced companies of the 135th Regiment of the 597.9 Heights and the 537.7 Highland North Hill, relying on the tunnel fortifications in the absence of artillery support, resisted the enemy's repeated attacks, and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. By 17:00, except for the main peak of The 597.9 Plateau and the Northwest Ridge (position numbers 3, 0, 4, 5, and 6) were still stubbornly held by our army, the rest of the surface positions were occupied by the enemy, and the surface positions of the 537.7 Highland North Mountain were also occupied by the enemy, and our army retreated to the tunnel and continued to fight.
On the same night, our army, with a total of 4 companies of the 135th Regiment, divided into 4 lines of counterattack with the support of artillery fire, and all of them resumed their positions. The 1st Battalion of the 134th Regiment and the 1st Battalion of the 133rd Regiment were immediately transferred as reserves for The 597.9 Heights and the 537.7 Highlands North Hills respectively, strengthening the defensive forces of the two positions.
During the day on October 15, the enemy occupied another surface position on the North Hill of 537.7 Heights. In the evening, the 1st Company of the 133rd Regiment launched a counterattack to retake the position. By the early morning of the 16th, except for positions 1, 2 and 3. The remaining surface positions were again occupied by 2 enemy companies. In order to fully restore and consolidate its position, our army decided to counterattack again on the evening of the 16th with 2 platoons (1 platoon and 3 platoons) of the 9th Company of the 133rd Regiment.
After accepting the task, the 9th Company first gathered the backbone of the battle above the squad level, studied the enemy's situation and terrain, and then determined to annihilate the enemy and restore the position by means of small groups of troops, flank detours, defensive fortifications by ditch, and shungou development.
At 15:30 on October 16, company commander Liu Zuoyi led 3 platoons, and deputy instructor Wang Naiyou led 1 platoon, from The Kioting Nanshan Movement to the 537.7 Highland North Mountain Main Peak (Position No. 1) Tunnel Standby. At 16:50, our artillery launched a 5-minute fire attack, and the counterattack troops launched an impact following the barrage.
The 3rd platoon, with the 7th and 9th squads as the commandos, the 9th squad attacked from the front, and the 7th squad detoured from the flank to break through the No. 4 position in one fell swoop, and then the triangle formation quickly and bravely developed an attack on the depth of the enemy. The first 2 groups encountered the enemy's stubborn resistance, then alternately advanced, detoured behind the enemy, hit 1 bunker with 2 people, and blew up more than 20 bunkers in a row within 10 minutes, killing all the enemies in the bunker, and successfully occupying positions 4 and 5. At this time, the enemy in Position 6 was still stubbornly resisting, the commander of the 9th Company was wounded in the battle, and the chief of the division and the platoon leader of the division engineer led 3 people to quickly attack position 6 from the flank, annihilating more than 20 enemy and occupying position 6.
The 1st platoon took the 1st and 2nd squads as the commandos, 1 squad from the right flank, and 2 shifts from the left flank to attack positions 7 and 8, and then the triangular formation followed the barrage, and under the cover of machine gun fire, with flexible small group movements, 2 people as cover, 1 person attacked the bunker. After the first bunker was laid, more than 10 bunkers were continuously captured by the method of capturing the forts, and most of the defenders were killed in the bunkers. The enemy in Position 8 relied on fortifications to resist, and The 1st Platoon quickly advanced ahead of The 1st Squad with the 2nd Echelon Squad (3rd Squad) and attacked the enemy of Position No. 8 with 2 Squads, annihilating them completely.
At this point, the surface positions of the 537.7 highland north mountain were completely restored by our army. Immediately afterwards, multiple counter-attacks by the enemy with 2 platoons were repulsed, and the 9th Company firmly held its position. In this counterattack, a total of 2 companies of the enemy were annihilated, more than 320 enemy people were killed and wounded, 2 heavy machine guns were captured, more than 30 guns of various kinds were captured, only 8 casualties were inflicted on 9 companies, and the ratio of casualties between the enemy and us was 40:1.
The 9th Company underwent more than a month of counterattack training before the war, and the troops were relatively well prepared in terms of tactics, technology, and operational ideology. After accepting the task, according to the enemy's situation and terrain, the combat formation and tactical means were carefully studied, and the cadres and fighters were clear about their tasks and had firm confidence in victory. Therefore, the fight was crisp and clean, annihilating the enemy, recovering and holding the position.
The command is flexible, the timing of the impact is well mastered, and the action is fast and brave. At the same time as the firepower of our army was rapidly attacking, the company commander immediately commanded the troops to quickly rush out of the tunnel, followed the barrage, seized the fighter planes that the enemy's artillery fire did not have time to return fire, and decisively launched an attack. Casualties were thus avoided. When the artillery fire of our army extended, it rushed into the enemy position in one fell swoop, caught the enemy by surprise, and most of the enemy was annihilated when they were still hiding in the bunker to defend themselves against artillery.
The biggest feature of this battle is the use of small group combat actions. In the process of attack, the groups cover each other, alternately advance, 2 people cover 1 person to capture the fort, detour sideways, and seize the fort according to the fort, so that the enemy has not yet discovered where our army is attacking from, that is, it is killed in the bunker, and the casualties of our army are greatly reduced.
The infantry and artillery were closely coordinated, the long-range artillery support was timely and powerful, and the infantry seized the opportunity of the extension of the artillery fire and quickly broke into the enemy position. At the same time, the power of its own firearms was exerted, such as the light machine gun of 1 platoon, which strafed while impacting, making the enemy unable to look up and covering the group attack. When hitting the bunker, the enemy is annihilated in close combat with grenades and submachine guns, so that the enemy cannot escape.
The author is a master of history, a university lecturer, focusing on the history of the Sino-Vietnamese war.
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