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Text: Peng Yibin
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With the release of the popular movie "Changjin Lake" series, people have a better understanding of the battle of Changjin Lake in the Central Committee of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. In an environment of minus 20 degrees, the fighters brought us surprises again and again.
Among them, the battle of blowing up the Watergate Bridge in the Battle of Changjin Lake let us see the perseverance of the volunteer soldiers. And the Battle of Watergate Bridge also made the U.S. military see that the Chinese volunteers are heroes who cannot be defeated.
(Watergate Bridge)
1. Blowing up the Watergate Bridge is the most important task of the mission
On November 29, 1950, Guo Rongxi, an operational staff officer of the 60th Division of the 20th Army of the Volunteer Army, received a special task. His superiors asked him to lead his team to blow up the Watergate Bridge and not allow the U.S. military to pass through. This is because the Watergate Bridge is located in the Hwangcholing Pass on the Gaema Plateau on the Korean Peninsula.
This is the only vehicle bridge from Changjin Lake to the outside world, it can be said that the strategic geographical location is very important, both the US military and the volunteer army hope to be able to guard the Watergate Bridge.
(Watergate Bridge)
After the U.S. Army was frantically surrounded and annihilated by our army, the 1st Marine Division of the U.S. Marine Corps saw that the situation was wrong, and the 5th and 7th Regiments fled directly to Gutuli, and then continued southward to approach the location of the Watergate Bridge. Previously, the U.S. military reinforced the Watergate Bridge, so that its load capacity reached 50 tons, and at that time, more than 1,400 U.S. troops had to evacuate.
At that time, it was the 9th Corps that was fighting in the Changjin Lake area, and Commander Song Shilun found that the US troops were more mobile, so they relied more on bridges, and he decided to blow up the Watergate Bridge directly, so that the US troops would lose the possibility of leaving. The 20th Army received this task and began to carry out the blasting mission.
(Watergate Bridge)
Second, the bridge was continuously bombed, and the US military repaired it extremely quickly
Guo Rongxi, as a former demoman, his first reaction when he received the task was, "No matter how hard it is, even if it is sacrificed, I am not afraid, and I will ensure that the task will be completed!" So he took the reconnaissance team, about a platoon of soldiers, and one person tied fifty or sixty pounds of explosives, and took advantage of the night to quietly touch the vicinity of the Watergate Bridge to investigate.
At this time, they were interspersed on the road, and they could encounter enemy strafing at any time, and the outside temperature had reached minus 40 degrees, and all the soldiers' hands were frozen stiff and black. After observing the terrain, Guo Rongxi chose the best location, that is, to determine the bridge head and the connection between the bridge deck and the road.
(Guo Rongxi)
After the installation was completed, he ordered the rest of the fighters to evacuate first, and then pulled the fire pipe of the explosives himself. A huge explosion suddenly sounded on the Watergate Bridge, and after the bridge deck was blown up, the US military immediately sent troops to investigate. Guo Rongxi was strafed by US troops during his hasty escape, and his left leg was injured and fractured, and he was later transferred back to China for treatment.
Unfortunately, although the first bombing of the bridge successfully blew up the bridge deck, just two days later, the American engineer battalion arrived at the scene and quickly repaired it into a wooden bridge. The mission continued, the U.S. military increased the defense of the Watergate Bridge, and on the evening of December 4, the volunteer soldiers set out again, and their goal was still to take advantage of the night to blow up the Watergate Bridge.
(Blown up Watergate Bridge)
This time, the volunteers detonated the bomb again, almost the entire bridge deck was blown up, and all the wood that the volunteers used to repair around it was destroyed. In the end, the Watergate Bridge was blown down to the pillars, and the volunteer soldiers were hit even more by the explosion.
In this bridge bombing mission, some platoons sacrificed the soldiers of the whole platoon, and some soldiers were frozen to death, and when the bodies were found, they still maintained the posture of holding the trigger.
(Volunteer Monument)
Originally, everyone thought that the US military would definitely have no choice but to blow up the bridge deck this time, but as a result, the engineering unit of the US army quickly built a proposed bridge made of steel and wood on the remaining bridge pillars, and at the same time there was a battalion of troops and as many as 40 tanks to guard it.
But what is even more distressing is the sacrifice of our volunteer soldiers, who paid such a tragic price, but did not succeed in stopping the American army.
(Watergate Bridge)
Third, the three bombed the Watergate Bridge, and the US troops fled in a hurry
As the main forces of the US army got closer and closer to the Watergate Bridge, the Volunteers decided to organize a death squad, consisting of a reinforced platoon and a heavy machine-gun platoon, which was bound to blow up the Watergate Bridge this time. The soldier recalled that at that time, Song Shilun told them that even the bridge piers had to be blown up.
The commander of the 240th regiment gave all the captured canned beef to the death squad composed of the 3rd battalion and the 7th company, and asked them to eat a few more bites before going on the mission. Jiang Qingyun, the commander of the seventh company, did not agree, but told the regiment commander that the seventh company would definitely complete the task, and if it could not be blown up, he would be buried there.
Then Jiang Qingyun was ordered to lead 40 soldiers to the front line, and they wore cotton clothes one by one, using the white lining of the cotton clothes as a cover to integrate themselves into the snow. When they took advantage of the interspersed in place, the fighters of the 7th company had been hungry for 2 days, and they could only eat snow to relieve their hunger.
(Watergate Bridge)
At that time, the U.S. military was even able to drink a cup of hot coffee in the barracks, so you can imagine how difficult the combat conditions of the volunteers were. Jiang Qingyun led the soldiers to rush forward, and was discovered by the enemy at a distance of about 40 meters, and the US troops immediately launched fire suppression, which soon caused 3 dead and 4 wounded in the 7th Company.
But the attack of the US army was not over, and the rain of bullets followed, and Jiang Qingyun was also directly hit by the bullet and passed out. Jiang Qingyun's injuries at the Watergate Bridge were shocking, with one bullet piercing his right arm and another piercing his collarbone, leaving a wound of nearly 8 centimeters.
(Jiang Qingyun)
Another soldier of the 7th Company, Shen Jinshui, later recalled that at that time, the members of the death squad were dying in batches, and there were fewer and fewer people. He and two other fighters immediately went to plant the explosives pack, but were spotted by enemy searchlights. So the machine gunners knocked out the searchlight, and in a cloud of gunsmoke, the soldiers rushed forward desperately, and everyone had only one idea, that is, to blow up the bridge!
After paying a huge price, the explosives were finally placed on the bridge foundation again, and this time the fire was so bright that the Watergate Bridge was almost completely blown up. Shen Jinshui said that none of the fighters planned to return alive, and they had to complete this mission.
(The bridge deck is bombed)
At that time, according to the judgment of our army, it would take at least half a year for the US army to rebuild the bridge and build the bridge. What is surprising is that the US military sent eight large transport planes and directly pulled eight sets of bridging equipment directly from Japan. In less than three days, a bridge with a load of more than 50 tons was built again.
The huge industrial gap between China and the United States has also made the sacrifice of our soldiers even more sad. In the Battle of Watergate Bridge, the perseverance of the volunteers shocked the US military.
Even after the bridge was built, the U.S. troops quickly fled south, and the corpses killed by the volunteers were hung on the cars all the way, and this bombing of the bridge greatly delayed the escape of the U.S. troops.
(U.S. Army Fleeing South)
In these three battles of bombing bridges, our soldiers became more courageous and fearless of sacrifice each time. In every battle, countless fighters died, and some platoons were all killed. But it is precisely because of the bombing of the bridge and the sacrifice of the volunteers that a solid foundation was laid for the later victory of Changjin Lake, and it also brought us to the greatness of the volunteers who were not afraid of sacrifice.
Resources
The hero of the first bombing of the Watergate Bridge recalls the battlefield: three bridge bombing missions, and all the soldiers of a platoon were sacrificed.The Paper,2022-02-03
Jiang Qingyun, commander of the 7th Company, recalled the three bombings of the Watergate Bridge in 6 days.Cover News,2022-02-01