On January 8, 1951, after the end of the third campaign of the "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea," the "United Nations Army" was repulsed by our People's Volunteer Army from the "38th Line" to the "37th Line."
Although the volunteer army won the victory, the lengthening of the front line brought great difficulties to logistics. Moreover, the troops have been fighting continuously, with heavy casualties and urgent need for rest. Therefore, the command made the decision to take a two- to three-month break.
On the other hand, the "United Nations Army" was driven to the vicinity of the "37th Line". However, in the retreat, relying on the advantage of strong land and air firepower, its main force did not suffer too much loss. Instead, taking advantage of superior transportation conditions, a ground force of 250,000 people was quickly assembled.
Even more detrimental to the Volunteers was that the cunning commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, Ridgway, discovered two major weaknesses of the Volunteers:
First, due to the limited transportation conditions, the volunteers could only carry food and ammunition for about seven days at a time, so the volunteers could only maintain 7 to 10 days per offensive, which is what the US military called the "worship offensive".
Second, the volunteers liked to attack on the night of the moon.
Based on this, the US military came up with the so-called "magnetic tactics" - every day with cars and a small number of tanks, in the form of multiple small groups of continuous attack on us, interfering with our rest, speeding up our consumption.
In addition, Ridgway also took a plane to personally reconnoiter over the volunteer positions. He concluded that the Volunteers would not be able to launch another offensive for a short period of time. Immediately afterward, he formulated for the "United Nations Army" the "Thunderbolt Operation" to push the volunteers back to the north of the "38th Line" and retake Seoul.
Faced with the counterattack of the "United Nations Army", the volunteers had to fight without rest and replenishment. Peng Dehuai formulated the operational plan of "putting the west to the east," that is, the western front must resist the enemy's attack at any cost on both sides of the Han River and not let the enemy advance one step; the eastern front will put the enemy in a planned way and seek opportunities to annihilate it in the movement.
On the western front, the 38th Army, the 50th Army, and the 1st Army of the Korean People's Army, under the command of Han Xianchu, deputy commander of the Volunteer Army, resolutely stopped the enemy's attack in the direction of Seoul.
On the eastern front, deng Hua, deputy commander and deputy political commissar of the Volunteer Army, commanded the 39th Army, the 40th Army, the 42nd Army, and the 66th Army to put the enemy in the area of Hengcheng and Pingli, forming a superior force and then dividing and encircling them, and striving to annihilate one of them.
Baiyun Mountain, a very important strategic location on the western front, is located on the south bank of the Han River. Occupying Baiyun Mountain, you can control the railway and two roads from Suwon to Seoul, and the strategic position is very important, and it is guarded by the 447th Regiment of the 50th Army of the Volunteer Army.
They were given the task of nailing it like steel nails on the Baiyun Mountain, and not to let the enemy move forward.
The 50th Army was originally a Kuomintang uprising unit, and during the Liaoshen Campaign, the commander Zeng Zesheng led his troops to rebel and surrender.
Before the uprising, their nickname was the 60th Army of the Nationalist Army, because it was a miscellaneous army, it was not exempt from discrimination by the troops of the Jiang Clan, and because they often lost battles, they were called "60 Bears" by the Jiang Clan.
After the uprising, although he was no longer discriminated against, he did not achieve much success. This time, General Manager Peng entrusted them with such a difficult task, and it was in cooperation with the 38th Army of the "Banzai Army" that made a name for itself in Korea, so the 50th Army was holding its breath and must fight for this breath!
Especially the 447th Regiment, after they received the most difficult task of guarding Baiyun Mountain, the soldiers were bloodied one by one, and they were eager to fly to Baiyun Mountain immediately.
On January 25, 1951, the two sides formed a confrontation at Baiyun Mountain. At dawn on 27 January, a battalion of the U.S. 25th Division, with the support of five tanks, attacked the positions of the Volunteer 447th Regiment in three ways, which was quickly repulsed by the Volunteers. On the 29th, under the cover of 30 aircraft and 30 artillery pieces, the Americans captured a high ground and the western peak of Baiyun Mountain, and in the afternoon, the 447th Regiment counterattacked the unstable American troops and recaptured the lost positions.
On the 30th, the embarrassed and angry US troops bombarded the position of our 447th Regiment with 50 aircraft and more than 30 artillery pieces for more than an hour. Bombs, napalm and shells rained down like a storm. After the bombardment, the US army was just preparing to charge, and the volunteers were shooting again like heavenly soldiers, once again repelling them.
The 6th Company of the 447th Regiment, which held the eastern peak of Baiyun Mountain, repelled eight U.S. charges in two days, and finally only the instructor and three soldiers remained, still holding their positions.
A small detachment guarding The 261.5 Heights fought fiercely with the enemy for more than four hours, all of which were heroically sacrificed.
The position was lost, lost, lost and retaken, and the two sides fought fiercely for 11 days and nights. After completing the blockade task on February 5, the 447th Regiment voluntarily withdrew from the Baiyun Mountain position. They annihilated 1,200 enemy troops at the cost of 344 casualties and accomplished the mission heroically.
What is even more incredible is that they completed the task in the cold weather, the extreme difficulty of building fortifications, the lack of clothing and food, and the difficult situation of "a handful of fried noodles and a handful of snow".
After the war, the 447th Regiment was awarded the honorary title of "Baiyun Mountain Regiment" by the Volunteer Army Headquarters, becoming the only formed infantry regiment to be awarded the honorary title by the Volunteer Army Headquarters.
epilogue
The same team, changing the door, exploded ten times, or even a hundred times the previous combat strength, which is probably the power of faith.
Under the national army, they fought for the pay of the army; When they came to the leadership of the Communist Party, they found that not only was there no military salary here, but they also often lacked food and clothing, and they understood that the army led by the Communist Party was fighting for the people. They began to believe that the Chinese Communist Party could lead the people to a better life, and they began to rejoice that they had become part of the people's army.
Therefore, they vowed to defend the country's hard-won peace to the death, whether the opponent is the United States or the 16-nation alliance, as long as it threatens national security, even if the last bullet is used, it will be defeated!