Conquer Shijiazhuang, Yunpan Mountain shows heroes

Source: People's Liberation Army Daily WeChat, People's Liberation Army News And Communication Center Rong Media

In the afternoon of November 3, 1947, in accordance with the orders of Noji, the third and fourth columns attacked from the two main directions of attack in the southwest and northeast, and the jijin and jizhong military regions each from the southeast and northwest directions of assist, and marched separately to Shijiazhuang and engaged in the battle of sweeping the periphery. At this moment, the second column and the troops of the third and ninth divisions were massing north of Shijiazhuang, preparing to block the enemy who was reinforcing the south of Pingjin. The 30th Regiment was ordered to enter the northeastern suburbs of Shijiazhuang at dusk on the fifth day. That night, the first battalion took the Stronghold of Beizhai Camp directly; the Second and Third Battalions quietly entered the Shijingan Canal and surrounded the Yunpanshan stronghold on three sides. At dawn, all the village strongholds were uprooted except for Yunpan Mountain. The troops built fortifications in the front of the outer city ditch, densely packed, and really had the momentum of a large army pressing down on the city and trying to destroy it.

At dawn on the sixth day, Fu Chongbi, political commissar of the Tenth Brigade, conveyed the order of the column: The Thirty Regiment was equipped with three mountain artillery and four heavy mortars, and with the support of the brigade's artillery group, it captured Yunpan Mountain before the general attack.

Located in the northeast corner of Shijiazhuang, Yunpan Mountain is the only commanding height on the outskirts of the city and an important barrier in the northeast. The enemy said: "Lost the Yunpan Mountain, and lost half of the stone gate." The stronghold has its own independent defense system, the stronghold defending the enemy is a reinforced company of the guard police brigade, and the Shijiazhuang defender flaunts its "impenetrable" with "iron-hitting Yunpan Mountain".

At exactly five o'clock in the afternoon of the seventh day, our artillery group began to shoot at Yunpan Mountain, Waishigou, bunkers, and pillboxes, and destroyed the power plant. Suddenly, the Fortifications of Yunpan Mountain became dumb, and the power grid became barbed wire. The Ninth Company took advantage of the situation to launch an attack on Yunpan Mountain, and the demolition team rushed out of the trench and went straight to the tunnel entrance of the enemy's outer trench, detonating fifty kilograms of explosives buried in the tunnel in advance. The enemy's outer trench was blown open, and the assault group and the ladder group rushed into the trench with the smoke of the explosion. As the minutes passed, the enemy fire, which had just turned dumb, roared wildly again, suppressing the commandos of the Ninth Company in the first trench. At this time, an enemy ironclad car came from the outer city ditch along the circular railway, and used artillery and machine guns to suppress our troops attacking Yunpan Mountain.

As dusk grew thicker, the artillery fire supporting us lost its target, and nine companies suspended their attacks. That night, we decided to attack again at dawn the next day. In order to strengthen the suppression of enemy fortification fire and overcome the problems existing in the coordination of infantry and artillery, we have redefined the target and coordinated action of shooting, and repeatedly studied the method of mortar throwing explosives to pack bunkers. We further discussed the attack plan with the cadres of the Eighth Company: Deputy Company Commander Li Changyun led seven squads into the enemy's outer trenches, organized nine companies to build ladders, dug holes in the inner walls of the ditches on both sides of the ditch, each loaded with three hundred kilograms of explosives, and prepared to blast the inside of the ditch into a gap.

At exactly six o'clock in the morning of the eighth day, all the firepower on our position roared with anger, suppressing all the bunkers and bunker fire points on the top of the Yunpan Mountain and on both sides of the attack area. The demolition man hiding in the outer trench lit the explosives on time, and the first trench was blown open by a gap. Commander He Company and Instructor Zhu led the blasting team to blow up the power grid. The ladder group rushed to the second trench, put the long ladder under the ditch, and the commando team rushed down the ditch. The fighters Chen Xianggao, Wang Lianxue, and Zhang Linian first climbed the ladder, threw grenades, threw explosive packs, and used smoke to cover the assault platoon to quickly pass through the trench.

Deputy Company Commander Li in the ditch raised his shell gun in his hand and shouted: "Comrades, rush! The shouts of death immediately rang out. Using the effect of artillery fire, the commandos used explosive packs to blow up the bunkers and bravely rushed to the top of the hill with red flags. Eight companies surrounded the enemy's core fortifications, and the enemy was completely annihilated. The remnants of the enemy outside the fortifications fled along the Yunpanshan Tunnel to the outer city ditch. The battle lasted only ten minutes, and Yunpan Mountain was captured by our army.

After capturing Yunpan Mountain, Commissar Fu climbed to the top of the mountain, and the enemy defense line was exposed. The commissar said: "This fortification is indeed strong, but no matter how iron and steel it is cast, it is still vulnerable to our heroic warriors." He tapped his hand on the half-cut rail exposed outside the cement and said, "You see, isn't it just that we stepped on it in an instant?" The unbreakable myth turned into a joke. ”

After the war, Noji turned to Commander-in-Chief Zhu by telephone to praise the Thirty Regiments for "showing heroes on The Cloud Pan Mountain." The column also praised the "Battle of Yunpanshan as an example of careful planning, technology and bravery." "The whole regiment was deeply encouraged and had a high morale, and they expressed their desire to make new contributions to the people.

(Produced by the People's Liberation Army Daily WeChat and the People's Liberation Army News Communication Center)