In an important document on the Study of the Korean War in the West, the Who's Who of the Korean War published in Japan, a regimental officer of the Volunteer Army was included, which was also the only regimental commander shortlisted for this book.
He was Fan Tianen, commander of the 335th Regiment of the 112th Division of the 38th Army of the Volunteer Army. The reason why Fan Tian'en was able to "win this honor" was because he led his troops to defeat his opponent ten times his opponent in a fierce blockade battle, making him famous in the first battle. This battle, this is the Flying Tiger Mountain Blockade Battle.
Van Tien
(1) To stop the enemy army, the 335th Regiment bravely shouldered the heavy burden
In the first battle, the 38th Army, which had high hopes from the volunteer headquarters, failed to complete the task of detouring behind the enemy and cutting off the enemy's retreat on time, resulting in most of the US 8th Army being able to escape. To this end, at the beginning of the second battle, the 38th Army was full of strength up and down, vowing to fight a good turnaround battle. At that time, according to the battle plan of the commander of the Volunteer Army, Peng Dehuai, to lure the enemy deeper, the various units of the Volunteer Army were retreating to the designated areas in order to lure the US 8th Army into the ambush circle. However, the US military is a highly motorized force after all, and its forward speed is extremely fast. In order not to advance too quickly and thus affect the campaign build-up of the volunteers, it was necessary to resolutely block it at Flying Tiger Mountain, where it had to pass, in order to slow down its advance.
Flying Tiger Mountain is located in the northeast of the Price River, controlling the Pyongyang-Manpo Railway, although the elevation is only 622.1 meters, but its mountain is very steep, and overlooks the 8th Army's advance and retreat, it is really a place where soldiers must fight! Since the mountain had been occupied by the 335th Regiment of the 112th Division of the 38th Army during the first battle, the heavy responsibility of blocking the attack naturally fell on the shoulders of the 335th Regiment. The regimental commander Fan Tianen and the political commissar Zhao Xiaoyun were well aware of the importance of this task, so they immediately led their troops to arrange the defensive affairs at Feihu Mountain. At this time, the peninsula has entered a cold winter, and most of the soil and stones on the mountain are frozen. However, the 335th Regiment was carrying a lot of ammunition and grass, and the officers and men threw away heavy shovels and pickaxes. There was no way, everyone had to build fortifications on the frozen mountains with their bare hands. When the cultural instructor Dai Dubo braved the enemy's dense blockade artillery fire to transport dozens of small shovels up the mountain, many soldiers with bloodied hands actually cried.
On November 4, 1950, before the 335th Regiment had completed the construction of the fortifications, the 7th Division of the US 8th Army, with the support of one part of the US 2nd Division and the 25th Division, launched an attack on Feihu Mountain. The position at the forefront of Flying Tiger Hill was defended by 2 battalions, 5 companies, and 3 platoons. At dawn, more than a dozen planes dropped more than 200 bombshells, sweeping away all the trees and stones on the three platoon positions. In this way, the 3rd Platoon fought bloody battles with the enemy on the bare, uncovered hill, repelling six onslaughts of the enemy. After nightfall, the Rok army used white phosphorus bombs to ignite all the dry grass around the 3 platoon positions, and then rushed up again under the cover of smoke screens and flames. Platoon leader Ma Zengkui led everyone to stand still in the thick smoke, pretending to lose combat effectiveness. Just when the ROK army felt that there was no longer any resistance and swung into the position, suddenly a dense number of bullets shot over, causing the ROK army to hold its head and go.
The volunteers held off the enemy
On the 4th, the 3rd Platoon repelled 7 enemy attacks at the cost of half the casualties of officers and men.
(2) In the midst of the fire, the volunteer soldiers roared and rushed toward the enemy
The 5th Company fought hard, as did the 4th and 6th Companies, both belonging to the 2nd Battalion. The commander of the 6th Company had just been wounded and was carried down, followed by the instructor.
The instructor took the hand of the battalion instructor and cried, "It doesn't matter if the 6 companies are exhausted, but the position cannot be lost!" The instructor listened, rolled up his sleeves, and said sharply: "Don't cry, our volunteer army has no position that cannot be defended!" ”
With that said, the instructor took the messenger to the position of the 6th Company. At this time, on the position, it was really a living person who could not see it, and all they could see was the fire caused by the napalm bomb dropped by the US aircraft. The instructor touched left and right in the fortifications, and only found 8 officers and men, including the deputy company commander, who were still angry, but all of them were already injured. Just then, the enemy came up again.
The instructor pulled the shell gun out of its holster and shouted, "Comrades, follow me!" "Say it and disappear into the vast sea of fire." The Korean army thought that under the sea of fire, nothing would remain, so it walked up the mountain very leisurely, and some people even lit cigarettes and smoked. Suddenly, I saw the instructor and 10 other volunteer warriors rushing out of the fire like tigers descending the mountain. Their cotton coats were on fire,
There was a rattling sound, which frightened Han Jun, and they shouted, "This is not a person, it is a ghost!" ”
Then drop your weapon and turn around and run. The Roks' offensive, supported by more than 80 sorties of aircraft and more than 60 artillery pieces, collapsed in front of 10 warriors.
(iii) There was no food, and the warriors filled their hunger with stones
Seeing that the absolute superiority of firepower and strength could not help Flying Tiger Mountain, the commander of the 8th Army, Lieutenant General Walker, was annoyed. While ordering the Air Force to intensify its air raids, he gave a death order to the commander in the front: 24 hours cannot attack the mountain, and the military law is engaged. Under high pressure, starting on the 6th, the offensive of the US and South Korean forces was significantly strengthened. The two sides repeatedly fought for positions on Feihu Mountain 16 times, many of which entered a state of hand-to-hand combat.
Li Xingwang, a soldier of the 5th Company, was wounded in the head, and just as he was bandaging his wounds, three American troops rushed up. Li Xingwang was quick in his eyes, raised his gun and killed a man, and kicked a U.S. soldier down the hill with one kick.
The third U.S. soldier raised his bayonet and stabbed it, and Li Xingwang shrank into hiding, and incidentally pulled the grenade on the AMERICAN troops, only to hear a "boom", and the US troops were blown to pieces by their own grenades.
Li Yonggui, who had won the honorary title of "LoneLy Hero" in the Liberation War, braved a dense rain of bullets to collect a machine gun and a dozen grenades from the enemy's corpse after the ammunition ran out. The U.S. army poured more than 1,200 shells on his position, his left leg was blown off, and all his comrades around him were killed or injured. This young man from a poor peasant family never stopped fighting until the blood at the broken leg ran out...
The volunteers fired captured American machine guns at the enemy
No matter how fierce the enemy's firepower and offensive strength, it could not defeat the volunteer army. However, the physiological limits of the human body cannot be overcome. Due to the blockade of the supply line, the officers and men of the 335th Regiment did not enter the water meter for many days.
The machine gunner Liang Renjiang was so hungry that he simply picked up a stone and held it in his mouth.
When the comrade-in-arms saw the situation, he was surprised and said: "Spit it out, are you crazy?" Liang Renjiang smiled and said, "You try, once you have a lot of saliva, you won't be so hungry." ”
November 8 was the last day and the most tragic day of the 335th Regiment's attack on Feihu Mountain. The U.S. army concentrated more than 100 aircraft and more than 160 howitzers for 40 minutes of fire coverage, and then the entire company and battalion poured up the mountain. The volunteers, who had run out of ammunition, were caught in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy in every position. The enemy knew that the volunteers had no ammunition, so every time they fought for a period of time, they retreated more than two hundred meters to rest, and then killed them after resting.
The M2A1 105mm howitzer is the most heavily relied upon ground artillery firepower of the U.S. military
By dusk, Fan Tianen received orders from the division headquarters to retreat thirty kilometers and abandon Flying Tiger Mountain. Fan Tian'en did not understand: "Withdraw? Until now, we have not let the enemy occupy half of the position, so how can I tell the soldiers? ”
Division Commander Yang Dayi drank the order: "Execute the order!" ”
In the night, Fan Tianen, Zhao Xiaoyun and others tearfully buried the remains of the martyrs and led their troops to withdraw from Feihu Mountain. For five days and nights, one regiment faced the siege of nearly 30,000 people each of the ROK 7th Division, the US 2nd Division, and the 25th Division, and under the extremely unfavorable situation of 10:1 in the ratio of enemy and enemy strength, they repelled 57 attacks by the US army and the ROK army's company and above, killed and wounded more than 1,800 enemy prisoners, and inflicted more than 700 casualties on their own.
The US military never understood why they could not take down a small hill held by a group of opponents who were already out of food and ammunition. But years later,
When summing up that period of history, the Japanese conscientiously wrote the following paragraph, which can be regarded as a solution to the confusion of the US military:
"They are not afraid of death, and insist on fighting to the will of the last man, as if they were martyrs. The American officers and men across from them were also amazed at their bravery, but they were also very frightened. What is the source of this brave fighting spirit and stoicism of this army? That's probably not simply coercion and command. Probably because of the hatred of imperialism and the conviction that the war now being waged is a just war, these have penetrated into the hearts and minds of the officers and men of this army — no, they have penetrated into their marrow. ”
Resources:
1. Wang Shuzeng's "Korean War"
2. Jiang Yonghui, "The Thirty-eighth Army in Korea"
3. Yang Di, "In the Years of the Volunteer Army Headquarters"
4. The Korean War, Japan's Association for the Popularization of Land War History
About the Author:
Lin Sen, Zi Tianjun, is a cutting-edge popular history writer on the Internet, who currently lives and works in Beijing. His main research interests are the history of the Five Dynasties and the Two Song Dynasties, the history of the Second World War and the history of the Chinese Revolutionary War, and the representative works include "The Smoke Clouds of the Two Song Dynasties of Jinge Iron Horse" and "Comparison of the Soviet Tank Army and the German Armored Army in World War II".