On his deathbed, General Wei Jie instructed the chief of staff of the 60th Army to investigate the real cause of the 180th Division's war losses
Testimonials:
Time is constantly passing, and the past history has become more and more distant from us. But the truths buried in time will one day be revealed, no matter how long it takes.
For those SOLDIERS, everything they have done for our country is worth remembering for life, and the piles and pieces that have occurred in this process also need us to investigate clearly.
Before his death, General Wei Jie instructed the chief of staff of the 60th Army to investigate the real cause of the 180th Division's losses.
When more than a hundred senior volunteer generals sat in the shelter of the Empty Temple Dongzhi division, Peng Dehuai roared and said, "The 180th Division can obviously break through, why do you always say that you are surrounded, why do you burn the password and smash the radio?" To this end, Peng Dehuai shouted loudly, asking Wei Jie to stand up and explain all this. At that time, General Wei Jie looked up and said: "It is unjust to hit the 180th Division with all the boards."
He held on to this view until his death.
Wei Jie wanted the chief of staff of the 60th Army to investigate the real cause of the 180th Division's battle losses
In 1987, when Wei Jie was dying, he instructed his wife to write a letter to Deng Shijun, the former chief of staff of the 60th Army, in which Comrade Wei Jie expressed his urgent wish in his later years, that is, to accurately review the real reasons for the losses suffered by the 180th Division in the 5th Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea of the 60th Army.
The 180th Division was formerly known as the 24th Brigade of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu District, and before 1947, among the anti-Japanese guerrilla forces, this unit had participated in the Battle of Taiyuan, the Battle of Yuncheng and the Battle of Linfen under Xu Xiangqian.
This unit had severely attacked Yan Xishan's personal trainer, and had also captured the Japanese regimental commander Jia Gangyi alive, and later went west to the southwest into Sichuan with the large troops, and in December 1950, the 180th Division went out of The River to stand by the Order of the Central Military Commission in Cangzhou, Hebei Province, and was later incorporated into the Volunteer Army in February 1951, and on March 21, it went with the large troops to the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
The 180th Division had just entered the country just in time for the start of the 5th campaign, and in the first phase of the campaign, the 180th Division did not fight as an army reserve, which also upset the commanders and fighters of the 180th Division.
At that time, the commanders of the three regiments to which he belonged all wrote blood letters to ask for battle
。 After seeing the 180th Division's petition, Commander Wei Jie said that he would let them go on the mission immediately, and it was not long before the 60th Army decided to let the 180th Division take charge of the main offensive task of the second phase of the 5th Campaign.
The use of the 180th Division was a no-brainer
In fact, when choosing the 180th Division as the main offensive task, Wei Jie still had some other ideas in his mind, he believed that although the troops who entered the Korean war were all iron-blooded troops in China, the 180th Division was only upgraded from local guerrilla forces to field units in 1947, and it has always been fighting on the internal front.
Like the Battle of Yuncheng and the Battle of Taiyuan, these were fought without worries, and the conditions for the main offensive task taken this time were no better than those in China, and in case of unexpected danger, the consequences would be unimaginable
。 At first, Wei Jie actually wanted to give the main offensive task to the 181st Division.
Compared with the 180th Division, the troops of the 181st Division can defend and attack well, and they are very tough, which can be said to be invincible and dragged out. Compared with the 180th Division, the 181st Division is more experienced.
However, just one day before the full-line offensive of the second phase of the battle, the 3rd Corps telegraphed the 60th Army, the 179th Division and the 181st Division as the mobile units of the corps, and the 180th Division was given the task of directly containing the American troops, after which the 3rd Corps telegraphed the 60th Army to assign the 181st Division, the 12th Army to fight, and the 179th Division to the 15th Army to fight, and immediately set off. Then, in the nearly 30-kilometer frontal combat area of the 60th Army at that time, only the 180th Division remained.
This task was not easy, and Wei Jie actually had an opinion on this order, but as a professional soldier, he had developed the character of obeying orders as his duty over the years, and he did not object.
At the moment, someone reminded Wei Jie that with his old relationship with Wang Jinshan when he was in the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Military Region, if he said his opinion, he should be able to accept it, but at the moment, the chief of staff of the 3rd Corps said that "it is not useful for Wang Jinshan to give advice."
Previously, because the 12th Army was withdrawn and placed under the command of the 9th Corps, at the Joint Meeting of Sha Jinhe, Wang Jinshan almost had to fight with the commander of the 9th Corps.
In fact, at that time, Wei Jie originally wanted to reflect his opinion, but later he thought about it and still felt inappropriate, he thought that he could not let his superiors feel that the 60th Army did not dare to face difficulties.
He then told the chief of staff that the liaison with the 180th Division should be inflationary, but also take into account the situation of the 179th and 181st Divisions, and on May 16, the battlefield was filled with smoke, even overshadowing the sunset, and the second phase of the 5th campaign was officially launched, and after the 180th Division launched an attack, the American army quickly retreated.
The 180th Division collapsed
By the 18th, the 3rd Corps sent a telegram to the 180th Division directly under the command of the Corps, holding back the US First Marine Division and the US Seventh Division, and by the afternoon of the 19th, the 538th Regiment and the 539th Regiment of the 180th Division had successively entered the highlands, and on the 20th, the US Army, under the cover of aircraft artillery, carried out a crazy attack on the 538th Regiment and the 539th Regiment, and it was at this time that the US Army organized three divisions to launch an attack on the Volunteer Army, and the situation on the battlefield was changing rapidly, and the current volunteers could not receive food, grass and ammunition. On May 21, the Log Division announced the temporary end of the 5th campaign.
On May 22, the corps of the Commander of the Zhi Commander prepared to retreat on the evening of the 23rd. Because at that time, the 3rd Corps ordered the 60th Army to cover the main force of the Corps behind the palace, and on the evening of the 22nd, the main force of the 3rd Corps retreated a day in advance.
This arrangement made Wei Jie angry, first, it was already late at night on the 22nd when they received the order of the corps, and the 15th Army withdrew on the evening of the 22nd according to the order of the corps, which made the situation of the 180th Division more dangerous.
However, the order was the order, and in the early morning of the 23rd, the 60th Army ordered the main force of the 180th Division to the south of the North Han River to cover the main force of the Corps to move, and it was the 63rd Army that was transferred according to the order, and the left and right wings of the 180th Division were completely exposed, and later the enemy found that the two wings of the 180th Division were empty, so they ordered two regiments to launch a frontal attack on the 180th Division, when the enemy's encirclement against the 180th Division was formed, so the most worrying thing happened.
Summary: As later generations, we do not have the right to comment on these heroes, for whom we can only have admiration, because they helped us build such a beautiful country, without their generosity, there would be no good life for us today, and as for whose fault it was in this battle, it should be left to history to answer.
Some people feel that it is the responsibility of the former political commissar in charge of the command, because he failed to deal with the bad situation correctly, so his responsibility is the greatest, and at the same time, the commander and the corps also have a great responsibility in the mutual coordination of the platoon and the division, in fact, we have not personally witnessed the original history of these, so we have no right to evaluate.
What else do you know about the story of the 180th Division? Welcome to share the discussion in the message area, the progress of the times and the changes in history, I will be with you!
References "The Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea"