In the second campaign to resist THE UNITED States and aid Korea, after the heroic battle of the 38th Army of the Volunteer Army to capture Tokugawa, the commander of the US Eighth Army, Walker, was not willing to accept defeat, and in order to plug the gap in the campaign and restore the situation in the Tokugawa region, he urgently dispatched the reserve Turkish brigade from Gacheon in a vain attempt to seize The gazhi ridge in order to restore Tokugawa and block the passage of the 38th Army to the west. Unexpectedly, the heroic battle of the 38th Army strangled the "United Nations Army" in the encirclement circle, and bought a lot of time for the main force of the Volunteer Army to surround and annihilate the "United Nations Army".
Commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, Walker
Preempting The Gari Ridge
In order to prevent the enemy from escaping and developing victory in the campaign, Peng Dehuai decided that the 38th Army of the Volunteer Army would carry out a detour in the battle on the evening of November 27, 1950, and the main forces of the 38th Army (112th Division and 114th Division) would go west along the Gakugawa and Tokugawa Highways from the north road to the south of junyu-ri and Gakugawa, cutting off the retreat route of the enemy's 2nd Division, 1st Cavalry Division, and 25th Division. Jiang Yonghui, deputy commander of the 38th Army, took command of the front and accompanied the 114th Guard Division. At that time, the 38th Army was searching the scattered troops of the South Korean 7th Division throughout the mountains, and in the future, it gathered a regiment and set off for a regiment. Before leaving, Han Xianchu, commander of the volunteer army's front-line command post, explained to Jiang Yonghui: Whether or not you can annihilate the US troops north of the Qingchuan River depends on whether you can insert yourself south of the Qichuan River on time and cut off the enemy's retreat. He also pointed out that the key is to take The Gari Ridge tonight and occupy yakou to create conditions for the whole army to capture Junyuli and Gachuan.
Volunteer fighting
Located 20 kilometers west of Tokugawa and 20 kilometers east of the Gazhi River, at an altitude of more than 700 meters, Gari Ridge is located between highlands 814 and 805, forming a pass less than 50 meters wide. The terrain here is precarious and the mountains are densely forested, and the Road from Tokugawa to Gakugawa winds up the mountain from the east side, passes through the yakuza, and snazes down the mountain on the west side to the Price River. Local people call this section of the highway "Eighteen Plates". At the top of the mountain, there is a pass that is only more than 10 meters wide, and the road is cut out from a whole cliff, lined with rock cliffs, very sinister, which can be regarded as a dangerous pass of "one husband and one pass, no one can enter", and it is the main road that the 38th Army must pass through to the west.
The 3rd Battalion of the 342nd Regiment of the 114th Division was a vanguard, marching all the way to the west of pingdiyuan at 21:00 on the 27th, only 2 kilometers away from The Gari Ridge. But the vanguard of the Turkish brigade had already seized the pass at the top of the hill by car, and a dozen bonfires were built next to the yakou road to keep warm. These Turks were so confident that they didn't even put up their sentries.
Turkish brigades on the Korean battlefield
The situation is extremely urgent, and it is necessary to seize the time, the second, and seize this fortress, otherwise the volunteer army's campaign plan will be "in vain". Therefore, Zhai Zhongyu, commander of the 114th Division, immediately decided to take advantage of the darkness of the night and take advantage of the enemy's main force to adopt sneak attack tactics to seize this dangerous pass in one fell swoop.
Regiment Commander Sun Hongdao and his 8 companies climbed up the cliff from the side and detoured back behind the enemy; political commissar Wang Pili led 7 companies to approach the enemy from below along both sides of the road. In order not to make a noise in the snow, Wang Pili took the lead in taking off his big boots. Wearing only socks, the troops quietly approached the enemy. The 7th Company approached until it was only about 20 meters away from the enemy before launching an attack on the enemy. The volunteer soldiers threw grenades at the fire, and the flames of the explosions reflected the red of the mountains. The enemy was caught off guard, and before they could turn back, a dense stream of bullets rained down on them. At this time, the 8th Company had climbed above the Gari Ridge and immediately rushed down to form a pinch attack on the enemy. The vanguard of the Turkish brigade, despite being beaten in the abdomen and back, retreated to the east side of the pass in an attempt to resist. But under the combined efforts of the 7th and 8th companies, the battle was over in just 20 minutes.
Immediately afterward, the 342nd Regiment intercepted the other units of the Turkish Brigade who had fled by car from both sides of the Gazhi ridge at the lower end of the "Eighteen Plates", ending the battle in a storm; on the west side of the Gazhi ridge, it also quickly annihilated another enemy force and completely occupied the Gazhi ridge.
Captured Turkish brigade
At the Battle of Gazhiling, the 342nd Regiment annihilated 1 battalion of the Turkish Brigade and 1 company of combat engineers, opening the passage to the Gajeon River and opening the door to victory. The main force of the 114th Division took advantage of the victory to cross the Gari Ridge and occupy the Peide Station and Wayuan area, only 10 kilometers away from the Price River.
At this time, the 112th Division, which was advancing westward with the 114th Division, also repelled two battalions of the Turkish Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division at Yukou Station southwest of The Ridge, and Walker's attempt to restore the Tokugawa posture was completely bankrupt, and it was impossible to block the westward advance of the Volunteer Army.
Roundabout three miles
Immediately after Han Xianchu gave Jiang Yonghui a task, he immediately issued an order to the 113th Division's Yangtze River Tide: advance from the Tokugawa southwest direction of Sansholi, cut off the us 9th Army's retreat to the south, and cooperate with the frontal forces of the Volunteer Army (40Th Army, 39th Army, 66th Army, 50th Army) to encircle and annihilate the "United Nations Army" north of the Cheongcheon River.
Peng Dehuai
Before the 113th Division set out, Commander Peng Dehuai personally called and ordered Han Xianchu: We must insert it into the Three Institutes and cut off the connection between Valechuan and Pyongyang; if it is inserted, cut off, it is victory! Time is strength, victory, and the life of the army, and it is necessary to explain clearly to the 113th Division! Therefore, Han Xianchu issued instructions to the 113th Division very seriously: first, it was necessary to ensure that it departed from the present place (Tokugawa) before 6 p.m. on the same day (27th); second, no matter how much difficulties and casualties were encountered on the road, there was no right to stop; third, after reaching Sansholi, no matter what the cost, the enemy must be intercepted.
When the 113th Division received the order, it felt a heavy responsibility on its shoulders. Sansoli is a small village located in the hinterland of the US 8th Army on the Western Front, about 13 kilometers south of the Price River, bordered by the Datong River in the south and rolling hills in the north. A Pyongyang road to Gacheon passes through the west of the village, which is the only way for the main forces of the "United Nations Army" and the South Korean Army to advance northward, and it is also a "floodgate" for the main force of the "United Nations Army" to escape south. Whether or not it was possible to insert itself into the three houses on time as planned, close this "floodgates," and block the enemy who fled as a result was the key to the success or failure of the volunteer army's campaign. If the interception is not successful here, the goal of annihilating the enemy cannot be achieved, and it can only become a defeat war. After discussion and study, the 113th Division determined that the troops would advance lightly, and if they encountered a small group of enemies in the detour, they would be annihilated or expelled by a sharp company or a vanguard battalion; if they encountered a large enemy, they would be contained with a force, and the main force would bypass and not be entangled.
Volunteer soldiers
At 5:00 p.m., under the leadership of The Division's Yangtze River Chao and Political Commissar Yu Jingshan, the 113th Division embarked on a journey with the great trust of the head of the volunteer army and all the soldiers, with the trust of the people of the motherland, and with the confidence of victory. From south of Tokugawa, through Ansan-san, Funa-gachi, and Ryunumari, they braved the bitter cold along the mountain path and scurried up the snowy fields toward Sansho-ri. Since he was ordered to leave 2 battalions to clean up the battlefield in Tokugawa and 1 battalion to bomb the bridge in an ansju south, only 2 regiments of the whole division were actually inserted into Sanshori. The warriors, who had been fighting for two days and two nights in a row, endured extreme fatigue, wearing sweat-soaked cotton coats and carrying a large amount of ammunition, dozing off as they walked.
In the middle of winter in North Korea, there is ice and snow everywhere. Between the lofty mountains and mountains, there are cobweb-like sheep intestine trails. In order to compete for time and to facilitate concealment, the 113th Division did not take the main road, because the road was too far away to arrive first. So they chose a route that went straight into the three houses.
Volunteer soldiers
This is a route on the map, and there is actually no decent road that leads directly to Sansholi. The trail covered with snow and mud is very slippery and you will fall down if you are not careful. At this time, although it was the eighteenth lunar calendar, the moon was empty, but between the lofty mountains, the moonlight appeared dim and dull, and there was black grunting everywhere, and this brown-yellow team braved the cold of more than minus 30 degrees in the darkness, climbing steep cliffs on the rugged mountain road, groping forward in the deeper and deeper streams, hungry to swallow a few fried beans and raw bud rice to fill the hunger, thirsty to smash the ice in the river in the mouth to quench thirst, the feet of the bubble at this time forgot the pain. When they encounter the enemy on the road, they will attack quickly and unexpectedly; if the enemy is entangled, they will be covered by small detachments of resistance, and the large troops will continue to advance. They were using their two legs to compete with the enemy's car wheels for physical strength and willpower.
In the war room of the Volunteer Headquarters, the red arrow representing the 113th Division on the map was like a sharp arrow straight into the enemy position. Commander Peng Dehuai was moving anxiously indoors, and he had not closed his eyes for three days and three nights. His anxiety came from the 113th Division, as Shiji lost contact with the 113th Division's radio station. Was the radio station broken, or was there an accident with the 113th Division? It turned out that the 113th Division had long considered that the enemy's radio direction finding technology was very high, and was afraid that the enemy would detect our army's intentions, so it deliberately turned off the radio station and practiced radio silence along the way to achieve the suddenness of the battle.
Volunteer soldiers
At dawn, when the 113th Division reached Songdong, which was more than 30 miles away from Sansuo, a very comedic scene appeared: Dozens of US aircraft flew from the direction of the Datong River, and it was too late to conceal it. The move worked, and the low-altitude circling, reconnaissance U.S. Air Force mistakenly believed that the 113th Division was a South Korean army that had escaped from Tokugawa and flew away without bombing. These "careless" American pilots also had to be stationed in the South Korean Army security team in Sansho, and prepared salted fish, rice, and boiling water for the "National Army."
The soldiers of the 113th Division could not help but cheer, their emotions were greatly enhanced, and they rushed to Sansholi with a single blow, and finally entered the 145-mile ice thorn sword wall sword peak in 14 hours, and entered Sansholi at 7 o'clock on the 28th. The 338th Regiment of the 113th Division's vanguard immediately launched an attack on a security company of the South Korean Army and the advance detachment of the 5th Cavalry Regiment belonging to the 1st Cavalry Division of the US Army that had just arrived here, completely annihilated it, occupied the highlands in and around Sansho-ri, closed the "gate" where the enemy troops fled south from Junyu-ri to Shuncheon, and shook the enemy's entire position in one fell swoop.
Blood Bath Three Houses
After the 113th Division captured Sansholi, it was like a sharp sword, piercing into the heart of the US 8th Army, causing the American, British, and Tuqi (Erqi) armies crowded on the western front to panic suddenly, like ants on a hot pot. The remnants of the U.S. 2nd, 25th, and 24th Divisions, the British 27th Brigade, the South Korean 1st Division, and the Turkish Brigade, which were trapped near the Cheongcheon River, were all shaken.
Volunteer soldiers held their ground
At 9:00 a.m., the US 2nd Division went from north to south, and the US 1st Cavalry Division, supported by aircraft, artillery, and tanks, stormed the position of the 338th Regiment of the 113th Division, which occupied Sanshouli, in an attempt to break through a gap and open a road to escape south. Under the command of regimental commander Zhu Yuehua and political commissar Xing Ze, the regiment ignored the extreme fatigue and hunger and thirst of the night-long battle, and was not afraid of casualties, and continuously repelled more than a dozen round attacks by the swarming US troops, and still held its position despite the serious casualties of cadres and fighters. With the exception of those killed and wounded and those with whom it was difficult for the seriously wounded to take up arms and enter the war, all the lightly wounded continued to fight. The regiment's battle slogan was: "For the sake of the motherland, for the sake of Korea, for the sake of the victory of the whole battle, even if only one Communist Is alive, we must occupy the three schools and nail them in the three houses!" ”
After a tenacious struggle throughout the day on the 28th, the 338th Regiment, although suffering serious casualties, still fought bravely and fought bravely, completely thwarting all the enemy's attempts to break through from sansholi.
Divide the troops in the Dragon Source
That night, the commander of the 113th Division found that there were fewer and fewer enemies withdrawn from the north, and the military map showed only one road in the military map. The division's leaders were alert to the fact that the map had been printed by the Japanese occupation forces in the past and that a new road might be built after the liberation of Korea. After reconnaissance, more than 10 miles to the west, a north-south highway with a railway was found, and Longyuanli was located at the intersection of railways and highways from Gakugawa and Junyu-ri to Shuncheon and Pyongyang. At this time, although the division still had only 2 regiments, the road in the three houses had shown that the strength of the troops was too small, and the task given by the superiors was to block the attack in the three houses, but after the AMERICAN army found that this road was blocked, it was bound to flee south from the direction of Longyuanli.
Accordingly, the telegram sent by the commander of the 113th Division to the military headquarters on the night of the 28th said: "For the victory of the entire battle, we are prepared to pay the greatest price, and we have the determination and confidence to block the enemy..." It was immediately decided to send pang Tan, chief of staff of the 113th Division, to lead the 337th Regiment to attack Longyuanli overnight, leaving only 1 battalion of the 338th Regiment to hold on, and to maneuver between the two roads. At the same time, according to the original plan, Pei Fei, deputy commander of the 339th Regiment, was sent to advance with 1 battalion of troops to Anzhou and Suchuan to complete the tasks of blowing up bridges and breaking roads, so as to delay the speed of the enemy's escape to the south.
Geographical location of Longyuanli
At 6 p.m. on the 28th, it was already dusk, and the 337th Regiment went west along the winding mountain road straight into Longyuanli, and the team was extremely sleepy. Many warriors dozed off while walking, often bumping into the warriors in front of them. Some soldiers fell asleep as soon as they fell, and marching cadres often woke up tired sleeping soldiers from ditches on both sides of the road.
At 4:00 a.m. on the 29th, the 337th Regiment occupied the areas of Ge Da and Longyuanli. The 337th Regiment was only 5 minutes faster than the retreating vanguard of the US 2nd Division, and before the soldiers could choose the blocking position, the enemy's vanguard arrived here by car and was attacked head-on by the 1st Battalion of the 337th Regiment. Originally, the enemy saw that Sanshouli had been occupied by our army, and tried to take a detour to Longyuanli to retreat, not wanting the 113th Division to go to the top of the chess game, preemptively occupying Longyuanli, and blocking this retreat route of the enemy. After the long run and the fierce battle, the warriors did not have time to rest, and immediately began to build fortifications and arrange formations in the dark.
Volunteer soldiers
When Commander Peng Dehuai was pleased to learn the news that the 337th Regiment had occupied Longyuanli, he immediately instructed Yu Jingshan, the political commissar of the 113th Division: You must be stuck in the enemy's retreat and stick there like steel nails. Now the enemy fleeing south is pouring into you, and the main force of our army is moving closer to you and annihilating the enemy, and the key is to see if you can block the enemy's retreat!
Yu Jingshan immediately spread commander Peng Dehuai's care and encouragement to the trenches of war at all levels, which further summoned the confidence and courage of the soldiers to win a decisive victory. They stood like a huge steel gate in front of the U.S. military, making tens of thousands of U.S. troops tremble and helpless.
The four frontal armies had also advanced to the south of Bocheon, Yongbyon, and the stadium, so that the U.S. 2nd Division, the 25th Division, the Turkish Brigade, the 1st U.S. Cavalry Division, and the 1st South Korean Division, which belonged to the U.S. 9th Army, had been surrounded by the Volunteer Army in an area 30 kilometers north of Junyu-ri, Gaecheon, and Fengming-ri, and 30 kilometers north of Samso-ri and Yonggyuan-ri, and was surrounded by the Volunteer Army on three sides. Only the road that fled south along the west coast through Anzhou to Suchuan has not yet been blocked.
MacArthur
By this time, the arrogant MacArthur had woken up and exclaimed to Washington: the elite troops of the Chinese Communists have sent troops in a big way. On the morning of the 29th, it was declared that the "general offensive to end the Korean War at Christmas" was bankrupt: "Due to the large-scale southward advance of the Chinese communist army, it is difficult to expect an early end to the Korean war." "And formulated a retreat plan, trying to fortify Pyongyang and Wonsan." As a result, the U.S. 8th Army on the Western Front began to flee north of the Cheongcheon River in the direction of Junyu-ri and Gakugawa.
After that, a large-scale fierce battle to annihilate the US army is about to begin...
The heroic battles of the 113th and 114th Divisions of the 38th Army bought a lot of time for the main forces of the Volunteer Army to encircle and annihilate the "United Nations Army" in the future, and also completely broke MacArthur's illusion of "the general offensive to end the Korean War at Christmas". Since then, most of the "United Nations Army" has been surrounded and annihilated, and the 38th Army has also made outstanding achievements in the Second Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, which has been praised by Peng Dehuai and enjoyed the reputation of "Long Live the Army"!