"Battle of Shangganling" is an epic battle of national souls, why did the United States launch the Battle of Shangganling?
From October 14 to November 25, 1952, on the eve of the end of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, a battle that would never be forgotten by both Chinese and American participants took place in the area of a small village called Shangganling under the Wusheng Mountain in the southeast of Pyeongkang County, North Korea. This campaign lasted for 43 days, in a square inch of 3.7 square kilometers, Shuangshuang invested a total of more than 110,000 troops, fired as many as 2.3 million shells, and the entire position was cut by Qi Qi to a height of about 2 meters, and finally evolved from the battle, why would shuangshuang be so reckless, and finally paid a heavy price. What is the purpose of the campaign, what is the specific situation of the battle, and what is the final outcome?
VanVleet's wishful thinking
The U.S. military, which had suffered repeated setbacks in five battles, had no choice but to sit at the negotiating table, and after the first round of negotiations, the enemies finally reached an agreement on the military demarcation line of the Korean Peninsula. The ensuing negotiations on the prisoner of war issue were quite divergent, and until May 1952, the negotiations still failed to reach a satisfactory outcome for both sides, and the negotiations came to a standstill.
"War is the continuation of politics", as in the past, the problems that cannot be solved at the negotiating table can only be seen on the battlefield.
Van Vleet, then commander of the United Nations Forces in South Korea, made a wishful thinking. After nearly two years of fighting with the volunteers, no less than a hundred and ten battles, the Commander of the United States Army, who was once notorious for the "amount of vanVleet ammunition" and was notorious in the history of war, felt that he had learned the essence of the volunteer army's fighting, and this time he was ready to adopt the volunteer army's combat method, change the defensive-oriented mode of operation, plan to use the small-scale offensive mode as the mainstay, forcing the volunteer army to change roles and become the defender, so that the United Nations army can use the advantages of powerful weapons and equipment and sufficient ammunition to deal a heavy blow to the volunteer army. It was an attempt to reverse the decline of the UN forces since October 1951, to gain the initiative in the war and to win enough leverage for the negotiations.
After conducting a field survey of the positions around Shangganling, VanVleet drew up a "showdown operation" plan. Its core content is: 1 battalion of troops each drawn from the US 7th Division and the 2nd South Korean Division, accompanied by 280 heavy artillery, more than 200 aircraft to carry out air strikes at the same time, it is estimated that in about 5 days, at the cost of no more than 200 casualties, take the two highlands around Shangganling and open up the north-south passage.
The plan was quickly reported to the top U.S. leadership. At this time in the United States, the 34th presidential election is about to begin, and the 7th United Nations General Assembly is also about to be convened, and the United Nations army led by the US military urgently needs to use a victory to win the initiative in negotiations, end this seemingly indefinite war as soon as possible, and win the initiative for itself in politics.
Why is it the Five Holy Mountains of Shangganling
Here's the problem. Why did VanVleet choose the Five Holy Mountains near Shangganling?
This is based on the unique geographical location and strategic importance of the Five Holy Mountains.
On the Korean Peninsula, there is a very important hub city of Cheonwon, and the main railway artery through the Korean Peninsula is centered on it, connecting the whole of North and South Korea, because of its unique strategic hub location, Chewon was once a strategic reserve of volunteers.
Between Tieyuan and its nearby cities of Pingkang and Jinhua is an open triangular plain, which is a necessary place for the Un Army, which is good at mechanized operations, to advance from south to north, and the Wushengshan Highlands in Shangganling have become the best blocking point for the US military to pass through the area.
At that time, in the Shangganling area, the forward positions of the US 7th Division and the 2nd Division of the South Korean Army and the forward positions of the Volunteer Army were no more than 200 meters apart, and the activities of both sides were in full view of each other. If the Volunteers attacked and seized the American positions, the Americans would have to retreat about 1 kilometer to find a new position suitable for defense. If the Americans attacked and seized the positions of the volunteers, the position that served as the first line of defense of the Five Holy Mountains not only deprived the volunteers of an important barrier, but also had to retreat at least 2 kilometers to find a new position suitable for defense. If the Five Holy Mountains are completely lost, the consequences will be very serious, the volunteer army will not only lose the pass to hold the plains of tieyuan, Pingkang, and Jinhua, but the entire triangle plain behind it will fall under the iron hooves of the mechanized troops of the United Nations Army, and if the volunteers want to find a position that is dangerous to defend, they must at least retreat to the entire triangle plain 200 kilometers away.
It can be seen from this that the Five Sacred Mountain Highlands in the Shangganling area are important to the US military and more important to the volunteer army, and are a strategic place that both must compete for.
Ace duels, firing at me, playing the soul of the nation
Garrisoning the Shangganling position was the 45th Division of the 15th Army of the Volunteer Army, and the commander was the famous General Qin Jiwei.
Based on the importance of the Five Sacred Mountains of Shangganling, the defensive principle of the 45th Division was: not to give way to any land, and to strictly guard against death.
Before the battle began, the volunteers were aware of the actions of the American troops. At that time, on the five holy mountain heights in Ganling, it was constantly found that small units of the US army were attacking and harassing, and at the same time, it was found that the US military continued to concentrate a large number of heavy artillery on the forward positions of the five holy mountains, and the US reconnaissance planes appeared more frequently over the high ground of the five holy mountains. Although these changes in the US military have aroused the vigilance of the commanders of the volunteer army, judging from past experience, the commander of the volunteer army has analyzed that the US military will not give up the superiority of mechanized troops in combat, and will choose Shangganling, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, as a breakthrough. Therefore, the volunteer army still placed its main strength and firepower on the valley area suitable for mechanized troops to fight, while the US military planned Shangganling Five Holy Mountain Highlands was only arranged for 2 companies to be defended, and the firepower was equipped with less than 20 small artillery pieces.
On the morning of October 14, without warning, the U.S. army suddenly launched a fierce attack on the five holy mountains of Shangganling. According to the old routine of the past, they first concentrated their firepower and bombarded indiscriminately. Hundreds of artillery pieces were fired together, tanks and planes joined in, and for a time, the volunteer positions were filled with smoke, flames, mud and rocks. The volunteers, who had no idea that the enemy would launch such a massive offensive, soon lost most of their positions.
That night, the volunteers took advantage of the night to organize a counter-offensive, retake the position, and promptly reported the situation on the position to their superiors.
marvel! A company in Shangganling created a 1:7 annihilation myth and made a collective special merit!
The unusual strong offensive posture of the US army aroused the suspicion of the top level of the volunteer army, and the US military invested such a large combat force in the projectile highland of Shangganling, which seemed to be the main breakthrough point, intending to take the Shangganling Five Holy Mountain Highlands, and then control the triangle plain of Tieyuan, with an area of nearly 200 kilometers into the pockets of the US army.
Sensing the true intentions of the U.S. army, the 45th Division immediately changed its previous combat deployment and concentrated its forces to defend the Shangganling and Wushengshan heights with all its strength.
At this point, the fierce Battle of Shangganling entered a white-hot state.
During the day, the U.S. army relied on strong firepower and superior air superiority to pour shells onto the volunteer positions, and then dispatched troops to seize the positions.
At night, the volunteer soldiers organized a mobile and flexible counter-offensive, gave full play to their advantages in night combat, and then drove away the American troops on the position and retaken the position.
So repeatedly, the US military has never been able to truly occupy the Shangganling position, and it has paid a huge casualty price.
Faced with the pre-war expectation that it had been far more than 5 days to take the Shangganling Heights and the casualties did not exceed 200 people, VanVleet jumped back and forth like an ant roasted on the fire.
He once set a record for the "vanVleet ammunition volume", began to increase firepower, pouring more ammunition into the volunteer position, a few days later, the entire highland was cut down by 2 meters, the bunker on the position has been completely destroyed, the volunteer army had to turn into an underground tunnel to continue to hold the position.
This was the most difficult moment of the Battle of Shangganling, after a long tug-of-war, VanVleet, who had originally wanted to capture the five sacred mountain highlands of Shangganling with a small-scale battle, found that the troops and firepower he had invested had already turned a battle into a battle.
The situation of the volunteer army is also not optimistic, because of the excessive casualties, there are no formed troops in the entire position, some entire companies have only a few people left, and some companies have fought until the whole company is killed. Finally, in the case of urgent need for troops to reinforce the forward position, General Qin Jiwei and his own guard company of 96 people were all sent to the forward position for reinforcement, and only 24 people successfully reached the tunnel, and the rest all fell under enemy fire.
After the volunteers entered the tunnel, the US army and the South Korean army used heavy artillery to point fire at the mouth of the tunnel, threw grenades and grenades into the tunnel, and then lit the gasoline-poured cotton cloth and dry wood to smoke the tunnel.
The hidden tunnels of the volunteer soldiers were getting smaller and smaller, some of which had collapsed in half, and even the ventilation holes were blocked by earth and stones. The sweltering, crowded, and dirty air put the will and spirit of the volunteer soldiers to great test.
What's worse is that supplies can't be delivered in time. Planes in the sky can drop bombs at any time, there is a dense network of US military firepower on the ground, and the troops transporting supplies are going up in batches and sacrificing themselves one by one. At that time, on the Shangganling battlefield, the highest casualty rate was actually the troops transporting supplies, reaching more than 90%.
At that time, the most scarce thing in the tunnel was not food, but water. Because the troops stored a large amount of dry food in the tunnel in advance, but there was not enough water, and the water source was even less likely to be accessible. The lack of water coupled with the enemy's fire-smoked shells, the human body has fallen into a state of extreme water shortage, in the face of dry food, the soldiers can only watch dry, because there is no saliva wet digestion, dry and hard food can not be swallowed.
After research, the top level of the volunteer army decided to send a batch of apples to the tunnel. In the end, after the unremitting efforts of the supply force, a small number of apples were finally successfully sent into the tunnel, but because the number was too small, some of the tunnels were only assigned to one, so there was a touching story of an apple with a very high degree of spread.
The Battle of Shangganling is known as a heroic battle, and it is touching that there is more than an apple story, there are more and more shocking stories and heroic deeds waiting for each of our Chinese to learn, to remember, to move.
The 15th Army had a total of less than 50,000 people, and the Battle of Shangganling fought more than 12,000 heroes of various battles.
In the end, the US army, which originally planned to invest two battalions of troops, invested more than 60,000 troops in the entire campaign, and with nearly 3,000 aircraft sorties, more than 300 heavy artillery pieces, more than 170 tanks, launched more than 900 attacks, repeatedly seized positions 59 times, dropped more than 1.9 million shells, more than 5,000 bombs, suffered more than 25,000 casualties, and suffered a casualty rate of up to 40 percent, it still failed to take the Five Holy Mountains of Shangganling. At the cost of more than 11,000 casualties, the volunteer army held its position, defended the dignity of the country, played the national prestige and military might, stabilized the war situation on the Korean Peninsula near the 38th parallel north, and forced the US military to return to the negotiating table again.
After the war, some commentators said: Americans know Chinese from Shangganling, what do you think?