The recurved scimitar shaped like a "dog's leg" reflected a dazzling cold light under the sunlight of the plateau, and the Indian soldiers holding the knife looked disdainful and rushed towards the PLA soldiers in front of them with a cruel smile.
Seeing this, the PLA soldiers with submachine guns added a three-edged military thorn to their gun heads, and then they generously launched an ancient white-knuckle battle with the Indian army.
What was the background of this white-knuckle battle at the time, and what was the outcome of the battle?
In 1962, due to India's continuous encroachment on the mainland's Tibetan border, the PLA could not bear it.
Under the instructions of the central authorities, they advanced into southern Tibet in early October and took the initiative to launch a self-defense counterattack against the Indian troops who crossed the border.
At that time, after the battle began, the Indian troops on the front line were completely vulnerable and were quickly defeated under the fierce offensive of the People's Liberation Army.
All of a sudden, among the valleys and mountains on the southern Tibetan plateau, there were ghosts and wolves howling and fleeing in the Indian army.
Under such circumstances, the Indian army also knew that a catastrophe was coming, and hurriedly dispatched its elite ace 7th Brigade to southern Tibet in an attempt to redeem the defeat.
Speaking of which, this 7th Brigade of the Indian Army is actually very unusual, in addition to its well-equipped and experienced combat experience, more importantly, there is also a wing composed of Gurkha people in the brigade.
Although there is only one battalion within the Seventh Brigade of the Indian Army, this Gurkha unit has a very high status in the entire Seventh Brigade, and there are no other superiors on it, and the command is directly under the brigade commander of the Seventh Brigade of the Indian Army.
And the reason is very simple, if the 7th Brigade is the trump card of the entire Indian army, the Gurkha battalion is the trump card of the 7th Brigade.
In the Indian army, the Gurkha camp has a very long history, as early as the early 19th century, when the British invaded India, they suffered a great loss in Nepal, a gathering place for the Gurkhas.
At that time, the British colonial army, armed with advanced muskets, was defeated by the Gurkhas, who used cold weapons such as scimitars.
However, the British were strong at that time, and soon occupied the whole of India, and the Gurkhas, who lived in the corners of the plateau, although they blocked the guns of the British, but in the end they could not stop the British money offensive, and were gradually recruited into the British army.
The British naturally attached great importance to its combat effectiveness, not only treating the Gurkha soldiers far more than ordinary Indian soldiers, but even organizing a combat battalion for the Gurkhas in the British army alone.
In the days that followed, the Gurkha battalion carried their scimitars and followed the British army to fight all over the world, and its reputation for fighting bravely and fighting hard gradually spread all over the world.
Therefore, after India's independence in 1945, out of recognition of the Gurkha force, the Indian army's own Gurkha battalion was soon recruited and used as the main force of the absolute elite.
At this time, in 1962, the commander of the 7th Brigade directly transferred his Gurkha battalion to his command to serve as a garrison unit shortly after the start of the war, and asked them to be the general reserve of the 7th Brigade.
After the People's Liberation Army learned of the arrival of the Seventh Brigade of the Indian Army, the unit sent by the People's Liberation Army to meet this ace of the Indian Army was the 419 Tibet Border Defense Unit.
Although our Unit 419 does not seem to have a good reputation, since ancient times, there has been a saying on the mainland that "all border troops are elite", and Unit 419 has been stationed in the border for a long time, and there is no doubt that it is also the absolute elite of our army.
As a result, in late October of that year, the elite border army of the People's Liberation Army faced the ace brigade of the Indian army, and a huge battle of Kejielang began.
At the beginning of the war, the 7th Brigade of the Indian Army was indeed worthy of its trump card title, and the brigade commander actually went to the front line in person and sent a large number of engineers to build fortifications, fortresses, and defensive lines in many areas north of the McMahon Line.
All of a sudden, the main force of our army was limited by the terrain, and the main force was blocked by the 7th Brigade of the Indian Army on the opposite bank of the river valley.
On October 20 of that year, in order to open up the situation, the 419th Unit of the People's Liberation Army sent the 157th Regiment under it to intersperse the hinterland of the 7th Brigade of the Indian Army.
The 1st Battalion of the 157th Regiment touched the 4300 heights near the headquarters of the 7th Brigade in the early morning of a day later.
It was the Gurkha battalion that was stationed on the 4300 heights.
At 6 a.m. on 21 October, the 157th Regiment, after careful reconnaissance and taking advantage of the unpreparedness of the defenders, coldly went around the back of its defensive position and launched an attack, and soon seized the commanding heights, and then condescended to suppress the fire of the Gurkha battalion.
However, the Gurkha were indeed elite, and after being driven off the heights, they quickly regrouped and launched a counterattack against our troops on the heights.
The battle lasted until noon, the main force of the 157th Regiment arrived on the battlefield, and under the tight defense of our army, the Gurkha troops were never able to recapture the high ground as they wished.
But in the afternoon of the same day, the commander of the 7th Brigade of the Indian Army personally came to supervise the battle, and the Gurkha finally gave it a go, took out their scimitars, and viciously rushed to the high ground to start a white-knuckle battle with our army.
At this time, because of the previous long-distance intersperse, the amount of ammunition carried by the PLA was not enough, and seeing that the Gurkha people took out their scimitars, they simply put on the three-edged army thorns issued by our army, and generously launched a white-knives battle with the Gurkha battalion.
Speaking of which, before the start of the war, our army was not ignorant of the Gurkha troops.
It's just that even if the whole world is boasting about the scimitars of the Gurkhas, our army has always looked down on them.
This is because our troops have been poorly equipped since a long time ago, and whether they were fighting against the Kuomintang reactionary forces, the Japanese invaders of China, or the US troops on the Korean battlefield later, they were always under the disadvantage of equipment.
Therefore, in the past battles, our army has also engaged in countless white-knuckle battles with various opponents.
It can even be said that in terms of the experience of white-knuckle warfare, the Gurkha people are not even worthy of carrying shoes for the PLA.
In addition, although the scimitars of the Gurkha people look quite bluffing, the three-edged military spurs equipped by our army are also specially designed after long-term white-knuckle combat under the continuous feedback of front-line soldiers.
In terms of length, the triangular army spur is half a section longer than the Gurkha scimitar, and when mounted on the muzzle, it is an inch long and an inch stronger.
In terms of hardness, although the three-sided military thorn is bladed on three sides, the steel body in the middle has been forged through dozens of procedures, which is much stronger than the thin structure of the Gurkha scimitar.
On the whole, whether it is the quality of individual soldiers or the superiority of weapons and equipment, the Gurkha people cannot become the real opponents of the PLA.
Therefore, the Gurkhas, who were obviously rampant at the beginning of the war, were immediately dumbfounded when they really started a fight with the PLA.
The soldiers of the People's Liberation Army fought flexibly one by one, constantly stabbing the Gurkha people from various tricky angles, but after the first round of charges, most of the Gurkha battalion fell directly.
Later, a surviving Gurkha soldier recalled after the war: "The soldiers of the People's Liberation Army are simply not human, and I saw with my own eyes that a young soldier of the People's Liberation Army held a three-sided military spur, stepped over in a few steps, and actually stabbed five Gurkha soldiers armed with scimitars in a row......"
In the end, this white-knuckle battle was won by the People's Liberation Army in a way that was not suspenseful.
After that, the 4300 heights were also completely controlled by the 157th Regiment, and then launched an attack on the headquarters of the British 7th Brigade.
Seeing this, the commander of the 7th Brigade of the Indian Army fled in a hurry, but in the process of his escape, the main force of Unit 419 of our army chased after him, the 7th Brigade was completely annihilated, and the brigade commander was also captured by our army.
The Battle of Kejielang also ended in a complete victory for the People's Liberation Army.
Resources:
China-India Border Self-Defense Counterattack People's Daily Online
History of the Sino-Indian Border Self-Defense Counterattack
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