Text/Editing
Beginning on January 25, 1950, the 50th Army and the 1st Division of the 38th Army of the Chinese Army were deployed on the north and south banks of the Han River. 40,000 men fought against 230,000 men, and they fought fiercely for more than 50 days against the enemy's planes, artillery, and tanks. Successfully stopped the offensive of the United Nations forces and covered the safe transfer of the main force of the Volunteer Army on the Western Front.
In this battle, the 50th Army fought very hard, with seven whole companies, 31 whole platoons, and 138 whole squads coexisting with the position, and all of them were wiped out. Of the 33,000 troops, only 10,000 remained.
After the war, Mr. Peng went to the front line in person and found that the 50th Army defending the Han River was about to be defeated, so he asked Zeng Zesheng, the commander of the 50th Army, bitterly: "The battle is so hard, why don't you call for reinforcements?" ”
After the conclusion of the Third War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, at the joint meeting of senior leaders of China and the DPRK, Mr. Peng had just finished his report on "Summary of the Three Campaigns and Future Tasks." The staff officers hurriedly delivered a stack of telegrams. The smile on Mr. Peng's face disappeared in an instant: the enemy's counterattack came unexpectedly!
Mr. Peng expected that the enemy might counterattack, but he didn't expect it to come so quickly that the volunteers were even a little caught off guard. In Peng Dehuai's battle plan, this period was a period of recuperation in preparation for the spring offensive, and now he could only be forced to face it.
Through the study of the enemy's situation, Mr. Peng and his team soon discovered the enemy's strategic intention, that is, to focus on the attack of the US troops on the western front and lead the south Korean army on the eastern front. With the current strength of China and North Korea, comprehensive defense cannot be resisted, so Mr. Peng has made a final decision: release the west to the east! The first line of the Western Front used a small number of troops to block the enemy's main offensive group, gain time, cover the Eastern Front, and our troops first lured the enemy into the depths, and then concentrated the main forces to carry out a counterattack.
However, difficulties were made in the selection of blocking troops. First of all, the depth of the position on the south bank of the Han River is only more than 20 kilometers, and the movement defense is simply not feasible, and the only way is to defend the position with flesh and blood. In the face of the powerful superior firepower of the United Nations forces, the positional defensive battle will undoubtedly be very difficult, and non-backbone troops will not be able to fight. Second, the volunteer army is not only short of supplies, but also short of reinforcements. At that time, the first six armies to enter the DPRK were exhausted and suffered huge casualties. The front-line troops could not fight, and the troops that followed into the DPRK could not come up for the time being.
In the end, Mr. Peng set his sights on the 50th Army, the only unit that was not included in the Volunteer Army. The command felt that Mr. Peng's idea was a bit risky, mainly because it thought that the 50th Army might not be able to handle a battle of this intensity.
The 50th Army is a very young people's army, before the uprising, it was the 60th Army of the Kuomintang, and it was heavily damaged three times in one and a half years during the War of Liberation, and has the title of "60 Bears". After the uprising, the 60th Army was reorganized into the 50th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and although it completely annihilated the British Royal Heavy Tank Battalion in the third battle after entering the DPRK, it did not have much eye-catching performance overall.
Mr. Peng still tried his best to overcome public opinion and firmly chose the 50th Army. He said to the staff officers: "Although the 50th Army is a young unit, you must not forget that it has also fought a tough battle!"
Back in 1938, after the Battle of Taierzhuang began, the 60th Army, which was regarded as a miscellaneous army by Chiang Kai-shek, was thrown into the blocking battle in a relatively hasty way.
At that time, the 60th Army did not even have a position to rely on, and the officers and men could only fight their own. Only 3 days after the start of the war, the 60th Army had suffered heavy losses, and the 60th Army had to shrink the scope of defense, taking Yuwang Mountain as its central position, resisting stubbornly, and repelling many attacks by the enemy, and also severely inflicting heavy losses on the Japanese invaders.
Although the battle was won, 7 of the 8 regiments fighting on the front line of the 60th Army were killed or wounded. Two divisions of the 60th Army fought so hard that only one regiment remained, and the battle was very tragic.
Mr. Peng saw this. Although the 60th Army was divided and reorganized many times, and was even called the "60 Bear", he believed that the reorganized 50th Army had a tenacious and tenacious style.
Moreover, after entering the DPRK, the structure of the 50th Army was still relatively complete. Considering the problems existing in the reality of the 50th Army, Mr. Peng still dispatched a division of the 38th Army to assist in the garrison.
In the end, Mr. Peng said to Zeng Zesheng, who was standing at the back: "I think it's okay to hand over the task to you, and I believe you can complete this task well." ”
Zeng Zesheng, who received the order, understood what Mr. Peng meant, and made up his mind that even if he tried all his troops, he would complete this important mission and correct the name of the 50th Army.
The total annihilation of the British Royal Heavy Tank Battalion in the third battle gave the 50th Army vigorous confidence. The 50th Army quickly prepared defensive arrangements south of the Han River and prepared to meet the enemy.
As soon as the battle began, the intensity and density of the firepower of the United Nations forces were completely beyond the imagination of our defenders, and each attack was extremely ferocious, and the shells that came were like rain, and there were tens of thousands of rounds every day.
Our army is poorly equipped, there are no anti-aircraft weapons, and the enemy's planes fly unscrupulously at low altitudes, and sometimes the pilots in the cabin can be seen. When you dive down, you sweep with a machine gun, and then as soon as you raise your head, you drop a few bombs with your ass at the position, which is as accurate as shit. More than 10 napalm bombs were dropped every day.
There are few artillery pieces, and there are no anti-tank weapons. The enemy swaggered their tanks a few hundred meters in front of our position to cover the infantry charge. The tank did not make any maneuver to evade, and stopped there with one shot on the left and one shot on the right. There is no inaccuracy.
Under this intensive artillery fire, our troops suffered heavy casualties in less than half a month, and some positions began to be lost. But the position was lost during the day, and at night the team was organized to retake it.
After fighting for more than half a month, the surface of the Han River began to thaw, and the troops retreated to the north of the Han River to continue the attack. When the front-line companies were almost finished, they sent the guards, cooks, and drivers of the division headquarters, the staff officers, officers, and assistants of the organs, and the artillery that had run out of shells to replenish them. In this way, the sharp front of the US army was blocked by the 50th Army on the Han River for more than 50 days, and it failed to advance half a step.
Mr. Peng wondered, why didn't the 50th Army ask for help once during the entire battle?
After the war, Mr. Peng came to the front line in person and saw that the 50th Army was almost exhausted, so he knew that the 50th Army was fighting so badly. It was much worse than he imagined. Mr. Peng asked Zeng Zesheng, the commander of the 50th Army, bitterly: "The battle is so hard, why is it never called for reinforcements?" ”
Zeng Zesheng said with tears in his eyes: "Boss! I'm sorry for you! More than 20,000 good men were left on both sides of the Han River by me. But our 50th Army has been able to raise its head among the fraternal troops from now on. ”
After Mr. Peng heard this, he said: "In our army, there has never been a stepmother, and I, Peng Dehuai, am also from a miscellaneous army like you." You go back and tell the officers and men of the 50th Army that I, Peng Dehuai, bow to them and salute them! ”
After speaking, Mr. Peng really bowed deeply to Zeng Zesheng. As the commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army, bow and salute a military commander, this is the only time!