In the course of our army's operations, there have been many examples of anti-tank warfare. This is mainly because our army has not had armored units for a long time, and the enemy's weapons and equipment are much better than ours, and in the face of the enemy's tank armored units, it is natural to carry out anti-tank operations.
Initially, our combat mission was to destroy and damage the enemy's tanks, but as our army grew larger and larger, the combat tasks were also diverse, and the tank was also a weapon that we needed very much. Therefore, capturing tanks in battle and using them for my own armored units was on the agenda.
At that time, the tank was a very advanced land combat weapon, its armor could withstand the attack of many weapons, and it was also loaded with artillery and machine guns, and the firepower was very strong, and even this iron guy was not easy to deal with by just rampage. It wouldn't have been easy to take down a tank, let alone be able to use it after it was captured.
During the Liberation War, the armored units of the Nationalist army were organized into 3 tank regiments, and the tanks were divided into battalion companies, and then merged with infantry divisions and brigades, artillery, automobiles, etc. into rapid columns, trying to exert the surprise power of tanks to defeat our army.
In the combat units of the Nationalist Army, the armored troops are as arrogant as the Air Force, and Shi Zuhuang, the commander of the Armored Corps Teaching Corps, does not even pay attention to Bai Chongxi, the defense minister of the National Government. For the opponents who are about to fight, the armored troops of the Nationalist army generally believe that even the Japanese army is not their opponent, and there is naturally no problem in using tank mechanized troops to deal with the "TuBa Road" that has almost no anti-tank weapons.
As a result, our army's combat methods are very flexible, and the fast column of the nationalist army not only cannot grasp the main force of our army, but on the contrary, it is constantly defeated under the strategy of our army concentrating superior forces to fight the war of annihilation.
The strongest of these, the 1st Rapid Column, was annihilated by our East China troops in the Battle of Lunan in January 1947, capturing 24 tanks, 48 105 mm howitzers, and a large number of cars and American weapons.
After the great victory of Lunan, Commander Chen Yi wrote down with a stroke of his pen while happily:
The rapid troops flew like flying, and the Indo-Burmese returned from the propaganda; Lunan mud could not be carried, and the tanks were all piled up in scrap iron. The rapid column is now gone, what is the Twenty-sixth Division? Xue Yue of Xuzhou covered his face and cried, and Jiang Thief of Nanjing should weep.
It should be noted that the tanks of the 1st Rapid Column were mainly organized by the 1st Battalion of the 1st Regiment of the Armored Fighting Tanks of the Nationalist Army, which was formerly known as the 1st Battalion of Combat Vehicles of the Indian Army, which was the best equipped, the most effective combat effectiveness, and the most experienced combat vehicle battalion of the Nationalist Army at that time.
After Lunan's victory, our army immediately organized the construction of the battlefield, in which artillery, tanks and other technical equipment were cleaned up and recovered by the artillery brigade of East China Military and Political University, and the 3rd Squadron collected tanks.
At that time, a total of 24 tanks were found on the battlefield, but some were planted in deep ditches, some were trapped in mud pits, some were damaged by our army, and some were destroyed by the nationalist army itself, and the distribution range was very wide and the situation was also very bad.
We didn't know tanks and didn't have enough tools, and it took a lot of effort and mobilization of liberation fighters to finally repair 6 M3A3 tanks and drive away. Due to changes in the enemy situation, the remaining tanks were destroyed after removing as many parts as possible.
In the past, it was all the tanks of the Nationalist Army that hit us, but this time we also had 6 American tanks ourselves, and the newly established East China Field Army attached great importance to this. Wang Chongguo and other technical personnel who had studied the operation of tanks and armored vehicles in Xinjiang were specially transferred, and some company and platoon cadres of the Dongjiang Column were transferred, and then some personnel of the 3rd Squadron of the Artillery Brigade and liberation fighters who knew how to understand tanks were drawn from various units to form the Special Branch School Tank Team of the Special Forces Column of the East China Field Army.
At that time, the whole team had only 93 people, divided into 3 district teams and 1 equipment storage group, the 1st and 2nd district teams were each equipped with 3 tanks, and the 3rd district team was responsible for repair tasks, and the establishment of the tank team marked the beginning of the armored unit of the East China Field Army.
At that time, the head of Huaye asked the tank team whether it could participate in the battle after 3 months, and the tank team instructor Zhao Yi said that he did not understand tank technology at all and strived to join the battle in 6 months. In fact, due to difficulties in all aspects, the real participation of the tank team in the Battle of Jinan in September 1948 was a year and a half since the establishment of the tank team.
Here we mention the plot in "Chosin Lake", in the movie, Wu Jing played the 7th company commander Wu Qianli and others operated the US army's M26 tank to fight the US army's own tank. In order to emphasize the rationality of this operation in the film, the background is that the 7th Company has captured tanks in the Battle of Lunan, so it will be used.
In fact, similar plots appear in "The Melting Pot of War" and "Meritorious Li Yannian", and the background is also the tank of the National Army, so it can operate the US tank.
For the average audience, this explanation seems to make sense, but it is actually more difficult.
Because the M3A3 tank captured in the Battle of Lunan was almost the strongest tank used by the Nationalist army at that time. However, the U.S. army used the M26 and M4 in the Chosin Lake area, and these tanks were not equipped with the Nationalist army (except for a small number of fragments of the M4), so the Volunteers had never seen these American tanks at that time. Tanks are not the same at all, and this thing is not a direct start to operate.
For example, in the Battle of Chosin Lake, the 242nd Regiment of the 27th Army of the Volunteer Army destroyed/captured 6 American tanks, some of which were not largely damaged, but it was not said that anyone could manipulate them directly. Because there were no armored units in the volunteer army at that time, almost none of the ordinary infantry units could even drive cars, and even if the tanks were captured, it was really difficult to operate.
Tank technology can not be learned by directly taking two clicks, after the Battle of Lunan we spent so long cleaning the battlefield, using almost all the technical forces, and finally only 6 vehicles were driven.
If any infantryman could have the technology to start directly, he would have been transferred to the tank team a long time ago. Even if you don't know tanks at that time, even if you understand cars, you will not stay in the infantry company, and you will have been transferred away long ago.
Further, some company-level cadres themselves do not know much about technology, but their cultural attainment and talent are better, and they will also be transferred to the special forces to learn technology.
At that time, the leader of the tank team was Wang Chongguo, a Cadre of the Red Army, who had studied tank armored vehicles in the "New Barracks" after the Western Route Army broke through to Xinjiang, which was a very small number of armored technical talents cultivated by our army itself.
After learning to drive a car, the next step is to learn to drive a tank. The tanks here are just a few old cars left over from the First World War, and the weapons are installed in three layers and cannot be started for half a day. Sheng Shicai's armored brigade has more than 200 people, equipped with light and heavy armored vehicles.
The light armored vehicle had two Dectrava machine guns and one more 75 mm gun (actually referring to the BA-6/27 armored vehicle and the FAI armored vehicle, of course, the memory of many years later will be somewhat different from the specific technical parameters), which is considered the tank school at that time.
At that time, our four platoons were assigned to study armored vehicles equipped with light machine guns and small guns, which aroused the envy of his comrades in the platoon, who saw us in the barracks every day and came back from studying, and always joked with us: Look, the armored brigade of the Red Army is coming. We are naturally happy to hear it, but sometimes we also feel uneasy in our hearts, and we always feel sorry for our comrades if we don't study well.
According to the recollections of other old comrades, at that time, the study of armored vehicle technology, engine structure, tactical technology must be learned, drivers, weapons operators and observers are required to be all-powerful, and some instructors do not have much patience and care to teach us, Wang Chongguo they made notes separately, and then when they rested, they referred to and supplemented each other, and studied and solved difficult points together.
After learning armored vehicles at that time, there were plans to learn new tanks, but as the situation changed, this possibility obviously did not exist. In early 1940, the "new battalion" returned to Yan'an, bringing back 4 DT tank machine guns and 40,000 rounds of ammunition (another said 4,000 rounds).
However, we obviously did not have tanks or armored vehicles at that time, so the cadres were sent out. Wang Chongguo was sent to serve in the New Fourth Army, and before the formation of the tank team, Wang Chongguo served as the deputy commander of the automobile brigade of East China Military and Political University. Before joining the tank team, Wang Chongguo had not been exposed to armored equipment for seven or eight years, and Soviet armored vehicles were not the same thing as serious American tanks.
In addition to captain Wang Chongguo, the backbone of the tank team when it was first established were more than 30 cadres and soldiers of the 3rd Squadron of the Artillery Brigade of East China Military and Political University.
When collecting tanks, it was the instructor Zhao Yi who took some of the soldiers of the 3 Squadron to find it, and later most of the members of the 3 Squadron continued to engage in artillery, which was a higher priority at that time, because the artillery was more widely used at that time, and it was relatively easier to form combat effectiveness, while Zhao Yi and others began to engage in tanks.
Of course, they were artillerymen before, they had never built tanks, so there was nothing they could do about these dozen tons of iron guys.
According to Han Zhen, a cadet of the 3rd Squadron at the time (the leader of the 3rd District When the Tank Team was founded), the No. 33 car was found while collecting tanks, and there were more than 20 captured soldiers guarded by infantry nearby. At that time we used to ask, who are the tank soldiers? These soldiers of the National Army have been deceived and publicized before, and no one dares to admit it. Because there were many prisoners in liangguang, Comrade Meiqi in the team went to talk to them in his hometown dialect and talked about our army's capture policy.
The captives understood and took the initiative to lean up and speak, and one of the captives said in an accent, "The one in the corner of the wall may be a tank soldier, so you should go and ask."
We went over and asked the prisoner, are you a tank soldier? If you voluntarily join the revolutionary army to serve the people, we are most welcome; if you must go home, we will pay for the way and open a letter of attestation. The prisoner was still very active, and said: I drove the No. 33 tank, let's go see it together after dawn!
After dawn, we ate first, our soldiers ate sorghum pancakes, and the prisoners ate white flour cakes, and after seeing the tanks, they said that there was nothing wrong with them, that is, there was no oil. After this situation was reported, Commander Chen Yi attached great importance to it and ordered the collection of captured tank fuel throughout the army, which finally solved the problem.
Then the instructor Zhao Yi came with the repairman and the driver of the car, and everyone started the tank with the mobilized liberation fighters, and later dragged another tank out of the ditch.
When the tank team was established, the more than 30 cadets who collected tanks were the initial backbone, of course, more than 10 liberation fighters who specifically understood tanks.
Among them, the co-pilot Zhao Baocheng was arrested by the Nationalist army and forced to join the army in the name of "Kang Hongqing". When Chen Yi, Zhang Yunyi, and other commanders inspected the battlefield, they saw Zhao Baocheng, who was helping to repair the situation, and then said: You come to drive a tank, and I will sit down, okay?
Zhao Baocheng drove the tank around in place. Later, Zhang Yunyi asked him if he would like to stay in Huaye's troops. Zhao Baocheng chose to stay, and explained his real name and being arrested as a soldier for others. After that, Zhao Baocheng became a liberation fighter and made many meritorious achievements in subsequent battles.
Of course, it is obviously not enough for this small number of people to form a tank team, we still need more backbones. But the technician is just a little bit, what to do? Direct culture.
When the tank team was formed, more than 40 people were company-level cadres and party cadres from the Dongjiang Column.
The Dongjiang Column, whose full name is the Dongjiang Column of the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Force, was established in December 1943, the predecessor of the two guerrilla groups established in 1938. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, this unit was active in South China and fought bravely and tenaciously against the Japanese army. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the main force of the Dongjiang Column withdrew north to Yantai, Shandong, and was later expanded into the famous Liangguang Column.
At that time, the cadres of the Dongjiang Column were studying at the East China Military and Political University, and when the tank team was established, more than 40 young, talented, well-educated, or technically advanced cadres were selected to join. Although everyone did not understand tanks, they all became the backbone of the original armored corps of the People's Liberation Army in their future learning and progress.
Among them, shen Xu, the commander of the famous "meritorious tank", was the backbone of the Dongjiang Column and was one of the two typical figures of the first generation of armored troops of our army.
Judging from the above situation, at that time, the formation of our army's tank team was to select and transfer elite soldiers, and in this way, less than 100 people were gathered. If the captured tanks in the infantry could be directly used, they would have been transferred to the tank unit long ago! Therefore, the plot in the movie is actually just artistic creation, which everyone must understand.
Of course, the movie is not a documentary after all, and some plots can be exaggerated, so there is no need to talk about it. However, when we talk about this, it is necessary to mention the real situation at that time, otherwise everyone thinks that the tank is so easy to operate, and there will be no deep understanding of the difficulty of the initial stage of our army's armored corps and the efforts and efforts of the first generation of armored troops.
In the case of the tank team of the East China Field Army, it is not possible to transfer capable personnel to play at once, and everyone needs to learn. Who do you learn from? To the captured nationalist technicians and liberation fighters who knew tanks.
The captured technicians of the Nationalist army were arrogant at first, thinking that where would the Tuba Road drive any American tanks? Most of the liberation fighters only understand the operation, but they do not understand the principle, and it is difficult to tell a reason. Therefore, on the one hand, everyone mobilized the captured personnel, on the other hand, they studied and practiced diligently, studied tanks with a mass spirit, and overcame difficulties.
In addition, these tanks are collected on the battlefield after all, many parts are missing, fuel is insufficient, and it is not easy to maintain good condition. Moreover, at that time, it was also facing the siege of the nationalist army and the air raids of the aircraft, and the transfer of tanks was also very difficult.
From the formation of the tank fleet in early 1947 to the beginning of 1948, 6 tanks had lost 2 during training and transfer. Fortunately, with the concerted study of the tank team, the theoretical and technical knowledge has grown rapidly, and the minds of the liberation fighters have been completely liberated, and everyone can form a joint force.
With the change of the battlefield situation, the tank team also has a stable training ground, which can carry out tactical training, which gradually begins to form a real combat effectiveness.
As tanks gradually developed combat effectiveness, the size of tanks also continued to expand. In the Battle of Eastern Henan in 1948, tank captain Wang Chongguo led some cadres and fighters to snatch out 2 M3A3 tanks, which were later organized into tank 2 teams based on this, and the previous tank team was called tank 1 team. Not long after the reorganization, Tank 1 team is still commonly referred to as tank team.
By the time of the Battle of Jinan in 1948, the Huaye tank team, which had formed combat effectiveness, finally entered the battle and played a major role in the battle.