Author: Chen Guangwen
Source: Knowledge is Power magazine
"Majestic, exuberant, across the Yalu River"
In 1950
Chinese Volunteer Army marched to the Korean battlefield
Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, defend the family and defend the country
33 months of bloody battles in a foreign country
197653 martyrs
With life, i wrote a heroic history
Today(October 25)
Chinese People's Volunteer Army went abroad to fight in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
71st anniversary
Let's reminisce about the Battle of Shangganling
Hats off to the brave volunteer soldiers!
Hats off to the cutest people
In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, there was no place that made Chinese remember it more than Shangganling, because no battle could better explain the national spirit of Chinese than the Battle of Shangganling. In this battle, the two sides fought each other, and the fierceness was so great that the Chinese Volunteer Army invested more than 43,000 people, while the UNITED-ROK coalition army invested 63,000 people, and the two sides engaged in a rare duel in an area of less than 3.7 square kilometers. By the end of the battle, 40,600 casualties had been inflicted on both sides. It also made a small hill that was once unknown, and the corpses were all over the field. Initiated on October 14, 1951 and ended on November 25, 1951, the 43-day Battle of Shangganling will forever become a towering monument in the hearts of every Chinese. Now, through the lofty mountains of history, people can see at a glance the Shangganling Ridge that has no elevation on the ground.
A great war is imminent, and it is about to erupt
In the second half of 1952, after five battles, the Korean War entered a stalemate. In October 1952, in order to reverse the passive situation on the Korean battlefield, the United States and South Korea intended to seize power from the five holy mountains controlled by the volunteer army. At that time, the US-ROK coalition forces had successively captured the Blood Ridge and the Sadness Ridge, and although they lost thousands of people, the offensive momentum of the US army showed no signs of stopping.
The focus of the operation was the Five Holy Mountains, located in Kim Hok-gun, central Korea, and was the gateway to the Korean central front. To take the Five Holy Mountains, you must first take two small highlands (597.9 and 537.7) at the front of the mountain, which is Shangganling. Once the coalition forces have laid siege to Shangganling, then the volunteer army's defensive line will be completely passive, so Shangganling is also a defensive position for the volunteer army to block the advance of the US-Rok coalition army. The two heights were originally defended by two companies plus a platoon of the 135th Regiment of the 45th Division of the 15th Army of the Volunteer Army. At first, the battle was only battalion-sized from the perspective of the volunteers, but the attack of the U.S.-Rok coalition army put in 7 battalions, which was considered to be the size of a division and regiment.
The battlefield is mainly concentrated near the two highlands with an area of only 3.7 square kilometers, and with the gradual increase in the number of troops and weapons invested by both sides, it has developed from combat to campaign, from battalion and regiment size to division and army scale. Later in the campaign, the Volunteer Army gradually began to increase its troop input, successively investing in 3 divisions and 1 regiment of the 15th Army and the 12th Army, as well as 133 artillery pieces, engineering battalions, stretcher battalions, etc., with a total strength of more than 40,000 people, while the UNITED States and South Korea Joint Forces successively invested 3 infantry divisions in 8 regiments, 2 independent battalions and an airborne regiment, equipped with 324 artillery, 181 tanks, about 100 aircraft, with a total strength of more than 60,000 people.
General Qin Jiwei
It can be said that the Battle of Shangganling was a "big battle on a small hill." Admiral Qin Jiwei, the former commander of the 15th Army and later minister of defense, wrote in his memoirs: "At that time, the gunfire in other parts of the Korean battlefield was sparse, and both sides at the Panmunjom negotiating table were waiting for news from Shangganling. Whoever's troops fight hard in Shangganling will have a stiff waist at the negotiating table and have enough confidence to speak. The Corps, the Zhisi, the Central Military Commission, and even the highest command organs in The country have paid close attention to the gains and losses of Shangganling. "Since October 23, the Battle of Shangganling has become not only the focus of the Korean battlefield, but also a place of close attention by the United States, Europe, China and even the world.
It fought to the death and severely damaged the US-ROK coalition forces
At 3:30 a.m. on October 14, 1952, the Battle of Shangganling began. The 7th Infantry Division and the 2nd Division of the U.S.-ROK Coalition Army, each in charge of the operation, launched a charge against Shangganling with the support of 16 artillery battalions, 310 artillery pieces, more than 30 tanks, and more than 200 combat aircraft. After the attack began, the various firepower of the US-ROK coalition poured the steel torrent into the two small hills of 597.9 heights and 537.7 highlands with 6 rounds per second. The intensity is not overly described by steel rain. There is a reason for the intensity of firepower, on the one hand, it can cause maximum damage to the volunteer defense forces to ensure that the infantry can seize the high ground; on the other hand, the purpose of the US-ROK coalition is not only to seize the high ground, but also to achieve consolidation after the capture.
As a result, for 8 hours, the forward troops of the 15th Army of the Volunteer Army failed to receive strong artillery support, suffered more than 550 casualties in a day, and caused the telephone line to the front line to be completely interrupted. According to incomplete statistics, in one day, the enemy fired more than 300,000 shells and more than 500 aerial bombs at Shangganling, and the elevation of the main peak of Shangganling was cut down by a full 2 meters, and almost no grass existed. The heroic volunteer soldiers were fearless, and many of the fighters ended up either holding explosive canisters or carrying explosive packs into the swarm of enemies and dying with the enemy. Even so, after four days of holding out (October 18), the forward troops retreated into the tunnels due to heavy casualties, and the surface positions were completely lost for the first time. The first phase of the Battle of Shangganling, the scramble for surface positions, came to an end.
Volunteer soldiers braved the hail of bullets to deliver supplies to the forward troops
The second stage of the Shangganling Campaign was the tunnel struggle stage, which was more difficult than trench warfare. The enemy, who had seized the surface position with the support of strong firepower, took advantage of the favorable terrain to use poisonous means such as building fortifications and blocking the tunnels of the volunteer army, blocking the stone and soil, bombing and blasting, cutting off the water source, and casting poison and smoke, in a vain attempt to eliminate the volunteers in the tunnels. If the surface positions were occupied by the enemy during the day, the volunteers would take advantage of the night to retake them. In this way, the two sides formed a tug-of-war. However, the volunteer army relied on "creeping transportation," "relay transportation," and "night transportation" to continuously send ammunition, water, food, and other materials into the tunnels, and never let Shangganling fall into the hands of the enemy. The 8 companies, which held on to the No. 1 tunnel of the highlands, repeatedly fought with the enemy for 14 days and nights, and counterattacked more than 80 times, effectively attacking the enemy.
Until November 25, the fighting in Shangganling finally slowly fell silent, and everything returned to the original point. On this small position, both sides paid the price of 30,000 casualties. In this battle of great disparity in strength, the volunteer troops participating in the battle relied on the tunnel to repeatedly fight with the enemy 29 times, repelling 25 charges of the enemy above the battalion level and 653 charges below the battalion level. The battle also caused 11,529 casualties among the volunteers, with a casualty rate of more than 20%. The U.S.-South Korean coalition, which was originally planned to fight in 5 days at the cost of 200 casualties, fought for 43 days, and finally suffered 25,498 casualties, with a casualty rate of more than 40%.
The Volunteer Tactics were not man-sea tactics
When ordinary people depict the scenes of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, they will have this understanding: The poorly equipped volunteer army huddled together, under the guidance of small trumpets and red flags, braved the rain of bullets and bullets to carry out a dense charge, and the number of chargemen was so large that the machine guns of the US-ROK coalition army could not stop them. Obviously, this description is extremely exaggerated and imaginative. In fact, although the individual equipment of the volunteer army was backward, the infantry tactics were not backward at all. From a tactical point of view, tactics such as "three-three system" and "small group multi-way" have greatly diluted the enemy's firepower superiority and also caused enemy shooters a headache. Throughout the Battle of Shangganling, the scale of the volunteer army's attack was often company level, and a three-man team was the attack method. In contrast, the US-ROK coalition often launched a whole battalion of attacks, but the scale of their battles seemed to be more in line with the description of "man-sea tactics".
The 537.7 height of the 597.7 highland in front of the Five Holy Mountains was the main battlefield of the Battle of Shangganling
In fact, the volunteer army also summarized its own tactics. For example, Lieutenant General Wang Jinshan, commander of the 3rd Corps, pointed out when summing up the tactical application of the Shangganling Campaign: This campaign is two ways of fighting, one is to adopt a steady, continuous, and "small group" style of fighting in the later stages of the campaign. Another way of playing is more obvious in the early stages of war, characterized by impatience, eagerness, and the use of large troops, which will increase many unnecessary casualties in modern warfare. If the volunteers can adopt the "small group" method of fighting, they can reduce casualties by 3,000 people. For example, in the second phase of the campaign, the 91st and 86th Regiments of the Volunteer Army adopted flexible combat movements, close coordination with the artillery, and stubbornly resisted, repelling the enemy who had once burst into the position. At a small cost of more than 190 casualties, more than 1,500 enemy were annihilated.
Heroic volunteer soldiers fighting back
In particular, it is worth mentioning that after the subsequent Shangganling entered the scale of the campaign, the eyes of the world were focused on these two highland positions, and the intensity of the battle was rare, especially the artillery fire density, which exceeded the highest level of The Second World War.
Shangganling has made the world re-understand China
In the entire Battle of Shangganling, the Volunteer Air Force did not participate in the battle, for various reasons tanks did not have a record of participating in the battle, the maximum number of artillery involved in the battle was only 1/4 of the enemy, while the United States and South Korea combined forces fired a total of more than 1.9 million shells, more than 5,000 aerial shells, and the Volunteer Army only had more than 400,000 shells, and all of them were used later. Such a huge disparity in firepower has not been able to make the US-ROK coalition move forward by half a step, which is indeed a great miracle in the history of world war. After this battle, the U.S.-Rok coalition army never launched a battalion-sized attack on the volunteer army again, and the Korean war situation has since stabilized at the 38th parallel. The Battle of Shangganling not only laid the northern and southern boundaries of the DPRK, but also brought nearly 70 years of peace in Northeast Asia.
The shell casings left over from the war by the U.S.-Rok coalition are piled high
In the Battle of Shangganling, a large number of combat heroes and heroes emerged in the volunteer army. Among them, there was Huang Jiguang, a special meritorious hero and special hero who blocked the enemy's machine gun hole with his body and opened the way for the impact troops; Huang Jiguang, a special meritorious man and a special hero who insisted on commanding the battle when his legs were broken, pulled the last grenade at the last breath and rolled toward the enemy group, and died with the enemy; there was a new soldier, Hu Xiudao, a new soldier, who, in the case of the casualties of the whole class of comrades-in-arms, one person insisted on fighting in the position, heroically and cleverly repelled more than 40 enemy charges, killed and wounded more than 280 enemy troops, held the position, and Rong Lite and other meritorious service. Won the title of first-class combat hero; there were those who were seriously injured in battle, in the last breath of life, used their own bodies to connect the broken lines, to ensure the smooth communication of command, li te and other merits, won the title of second-level combat hero Niu Baocai... There are also many heroic deeds and heroic figures that can be sung and wept. At the same time, the "accidents" brought by the volunteers to the US-ROK coalition forces in the Shangganling Campaign were all-round, and in addition to the heroic and tenacious spirit of sacrifice, the US-ROK coalition forces also had three "unthinkable" evaluations of the volunteers in this battle: superb and superb tactical level, indestructible tunnel defense, and strong logistical support.
The commander of the Volunteer Army is studying the battle plan
The victory in the Battle of Shangganling completely smashed the enemy's "Jinhua Offensive" and dealt a heavy blow to the enemy. General Qin Jiwei, the frontline commander of the campaign, solemnly pointed out: In the Battle of Shangganling, the volunteer soldiers bravely died and their spirits swept through Changhong, and the heroic spirit of shocking the world and weeping ghosts inspired generation after generation, and forever recorded in the history of the war, becoming the "Shangganling Spirit" that the people's army has inherited for 70 years. The Battle of Shangganling not only militarily crushed the enemy's offensive, but also brought out the command art, fighting style, and unity spirit of the volunteer army, and played a role in the prestige of the country and the army. Some experts have said that the Americans really understand Chinese and began to take the Chinese army seriously, starting from Shangganling!