Author: I look at history
In late December 1950, a few days before the start of the Third Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the 38th Army of the Volunteer Army, which was responsible for the breakthrough of the right wing, was preparing to reconnoiter the enemy line at Hantan River, but it encountered a series of unexpected troubles.
Trouble 1: The enemy has learned to be obedient
Wang Yang, commander of the 116th Division of the 39th Army, who was on the task of making a frontal breakthrough with the 38th Army, saw such a scene from the mirror of the artillery: on the enemy's forward position, multiple barbed wire fences were erected. A large number of mines were planted around the barbed wire, and on the cliffs on the shore, the enemy built countless bunkers, and a heavy machine gun blocked the riverbank.
In the cold night, over the entire surface of the Linjin River, from time to time, THERE were US planes shuttling back and forth, and the flares thrown down illuminated the two sides of the Linjin River like daylight.
One night, the scouts of the 347th Regiment of the 116th Division of the 39th Army were discovered by the enemy when they crossed the river to reconnoiter, and as a result, they were not only suppressed on the ice and could not advance, but also sacrificed 4 people.
Just when the commanders and fighters of the 39th Army were busy with how to find out the enemy's situation, Zhang Kuiyin, deputy chief of the reconnaissance section of the 38th Army, led his reconnaissance detachment to the area north of Yongping on the banks of the Hantan River. Needless to say, Zhang Kuiyin's mission this time not only had to reconnoiter the enemy situation on the other side, but also inserted the enemy behind the enemy as in the second battle.
However, what Zhang Kuiyin did not expect was that they not only encountered the same situation as the 39th Army, but also the enemy troops on the other side of the Hantan River also sent patrol troops, and the enemy's artillery also fired intermittently in an attempt to block every intersection north of the Hantan River.
Zhang Kuiyin personally led the reconnaissance detachment and repeatedly conducted fire reconnaissance in the enemy's forward positions, thinking that they could insert themselves from the weak links of the enemy's two units, just like in the second battle. What was disappointing was that the enemy army at this time was no longer the situation in which the previous war was fought and only cared about itself and did not care about others, not only built a solid support point fortification in the joint department, but also increased the defense of the deep position.
What is even more astonishing is that while the enemy army is strengthening its defenses, it has even sent people to the forward positions of the volunteer army to conduct reconnaissance.
It is also easy to understand that after the defeat of the previous two battles, the enemy has also changed his mind to learn how to fight from the volunteer army.
Ridgway
Ridgway, commander of the US 8th Army, who has recently taken office, once said: "Our army cannot fight without the road, does not attach importance to seizing the commanding heights along the way, and is not familiar with the terrain and uses the terrain." Reluctant to leave the car, the result is that the car is destroyed with people. ”
After Ridgway took office, he criticized the officers and men and generals of the front-line defenders, which made the American troops realize that they must seriously study the tactics of the volunteer army and find corresponding countermeasures, otherwise, Ridgway would dismiss them all.
Trouble 2: The deputy company commander captures prisoners and plays a little clever, and then wears the crime and makes a meritorious contribution
Since the reconnaissance detachment led by Deputy Section Chief Zhang Kuiyin of the 38th Army could not insert itself into the enemy's rear before the war, it could only wait for a few days for the general attack to sound and then insert itself behind the enemy with the commando team, and the command post of the 38th Army at this time was also in a state of anxiety.
It was not a few days before the New Year's Offensive prepared on December 31, 1950, and if the 38th Army could not find out the enemy's situation and road before the general offensive, if there was an accident in the fight, the consequences would be unimaginable.
What to do?
The 38th Army ordered the 342nd Regiment to take on the task of "grasping the tongue", and The commander of the Sun Hongdao Regiment ordered Qiu Lihai, the acting deputy company commander of the 7th Company, to take a platoon from an opening in the Hantan River and take a prisoner back. Wang Pili, the political commissar of the regiment, said: "If you can't capture the prisoners, you can bring back two local people." ”
As a result, the deputy company commander, who was a reconnaissance staff officer with little experience in fighting, led a platoon to an encounter with the enemy patrol on the opposite bank just after crossing the Hantan River, and not only sacrificed two soldiers, but also failed to bring back the remains, and hastily withdrew from the battle. Deputy Company Commander Qiu was afraid of being held accountable afterwards, and he also found two ordinary people north of the HanTan River to indiscriminately fill the numbers.
The behavior of Qiu Deputy Company Commander made Wang Pi, the political commissar of the regiment, angry, and he loudly reprimanded: "Qiu Lihai, you are playing slippery!" Regardless of the loss of the sacrificial comrades after the gun is fired, do you still have a little comradeship? You say, is it a crime? Or dismissal? ”
As a cadre, Deputy Company Commander Qiu naturally knows discipline, and he knows very well that he did not complete the task by going out to "grab his tongue" and also discarded the remains of the wounded and martyrs, which was to be severely punished. He immediately expressed his position to the political commissar of the regiment that he must wear the guilt and make meritorious contributions. The next night, he successfully completed the task of "grabbing his tongue" and retrieved the remains of the two martyrs.
Trouble 3: The regimental commander leads the team to capture the prisoners, and almost becomes a prisoner of the enemy
A regimental commander of the 38th Army of the Volunteer Army, while leading 5 companies out to take prisoners, almost became a prisoner of the enemy.
One day before dawn, the regimental commander took 5 companies to an ambush in an area where enemy patrol posts were often active. The regimental commander, who had caught the captives several times, had not slept well for several days, and he was extremely tired, so he arranged a sentry and fell asleep.
Unexpectedly, this sentry warrior was also sleepy, leaned against the tree, and even fell asleep.
At this time, a platoon of enemy troops came down from a nearby hill. Seeing that there were volunteers, they simply did not do one after another, and directly surrounded them. After the enemy set up machine guns to occupy the favorable terrain, he also learned the method commonly used by the volunteer army, shouting for the soldiers of the 5 companies to surrender their guns.
The regimental commander was awakened by the enemy's shouts, and had just stood up when suddenly there was the explosion of a grenade outside, followed by the sound of gunfire and more explosions. What's going on?
It turned out that a clever squad leader of the 5th Company had quietly taken a grenade, and taking advantage of the fact that the enemy was not paying attention, he directly threw the grenade that had pulled the string apart and threw it at the enemy machine gunner, and the enemy was frightened and scattered.
With the explosion of the grenade, the soldiers of the 5th Company began to counterattack, and during the battle, one of the enemy soldiers was injured in the foot and could not walk, the soldiers of the Fifth Company lifted him up, pulled him back, and the regimental commander was busy with the task of capturing prisoners for several nights, and it was done.
So, how much of a role did the capture of prisoners by the 38th Army and other volunteer armies play in the third battle?
It was precisely because of a series of successful prisoner-capture operations before the war that the 38th Army clarified the enemy situation on the other side of the shore, and within 10 minutes of artillery preparation, successfully built a pontoon bridge on the side of the Hantan River, and the advance troops passed the pontoon bridge in only 10 minutes. In the ensuing battle, a rare record of more than 10 minutes was set for every enemy defensive high ground.
Schematic diagram of the Third Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
Among the volunteer troops who served as frontal assaults, except for the 352nd Regiment of the 40th Army, which suffered serious losses from the bombing of US aircraft because of the artillery units attached to the artillery units in advance, and before the general offensive, it was not clear whether the river surface of the Linjin River in the frontal breakthrough area was completely frozen, which once caused relatively large casualties and slow progressed half a beat, and the rest of the participating units progressed smoothly, and the battle was fought from 17:00 p.m. on the 31st to midnight that night, and the enemy's first line of defense on the 38th Line collapsed completely.
It was the turn of the new commander of the US 8th Army, Ridgway, who stayed up all night.
On the night of December 31, at the headquarters of the US 8th Army, the calls for help from the forward troops kept ringing, and the urgent telegrams flew like snowflakes, and Ridgway, whose eyes were covered with blood, suddenly fell into anxiety and panic.
He couldn't understand why, overnight, the volunteers had successfully carried out a full-line breakthrough on a front hundreds of kilometers from east to west.
Why is the forward position built by 100,000 laborers so vulnerable?
Why didn't the defensive plan that he personally audited and the defense system equipped with several layers of firepower positions play any role?
If Ridgway could examine it from the height of history, he would find that since the volunteer soldiers could grasp their tongues while he strengthened his defenses, it would not be surprising that they braved artillery fire in the bitter cold and broke through the ice in one fell swoop.
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