After the founding of the People's Republic of China, there was a martyr who lived in the home of General Su Yu. In the 1960s, after graduating from the martyr's orphan military school, he visited General Su Yu at his home, and General Su Yu asked him a question: "Why is our army still called 'People's Liberation Army' instead of 'National Defense Force'?" ”
Presumably, most people will not be able to answer this question for a while. During the period of the agrarian revolutionary war, our army was called the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and it highlighted the purpose of the workers' and peasants' revolution.
After the Kuomintang-Communist Cooperation in the War of Resistance, on August 22, 1937, our army was renamed the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army. On September 11, according to the order of the Military Committee of the National Government, it was renamed the Eighteenth Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army.
General Su Yu
During the same period, the Red Army and guerrillas in fifteen guerrilla zones in eight provinces were renamed the Newly Organized Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army in accordance with the agreement on cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. Our army officially joined the sequence of anti-Japanese forces of the National Government.
In 1944, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression entered the counter-offensive phase. On August 20, Comrade Liu Shaoqi proposed at a meeting of senior cadres of the Central Military Commission: "The regular army and guerrillas together are called the People's Liberation Army, or the National Revolutionary Army People's Liberation Army." "This is the first time that our army has the name "People's Liberation Army" in the archives.
At that time, our army's intention to change its title should have two reasons: First, to restore the Japanese-occupied areas, and second, to strengthen the independence of our army. In order to continue to maintain the cooperative relationship with the Kuomintang, the title of the People's Liberation Army was used at that time, and the geographical name was added to the front.
During the Chongqing negotiations, in order to show its sincerity for peace, our Party did not use the name of the People's Liberation Army against our army. It was not until the outbreak of the civil war in June 1946 that the name OF was revived. In the meantime, the "Liberation Daily," Xinhua News Agency, and Chairman Mao's articles all began to use the name of the People's Liberation Army.
General Su Yu
On October 3, 1946, the name of the People's Liberation Army officially appeared in the editorial "Struggle for the Realization of the January Armistice Agreement and the CPPCC Resolution" published by the "Liberation Daily".
On October 10, 1947, Chairman Mao drafted the "Declaration of the People's Liberation Army of Chinese" for our army, and our army was completely renamed the People's Liberation Army.
On November 1, 1948, the Central Military Commission issued the "Regulations on Unifying the Organization of the Whole Army and the Number of Troops", and all units above the regimental level were renamed the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
There is no doubt that during this period, our army called the People's Liberation Army ,— that is, to liberate the people in the areas under national unification. When Su Yu asked this question, Taiwan was still under the rule of the Kuomintang, and the martyr orphan thought for a moment and replied: Because Taiwan has not yet been liberated.
This answer made Su Yu feel very pleased, and he was glad that the martyr orphan knew the duties of the soldiers. In addition to national defense, military personnel must also accomplish the great cause of the reunification of the motherland.
On July 20, 1949, Su Yu was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the liberation of Taiwan, but the preparations were not yet completed, and the outbreak of the Korean War, the liberation of Taiwan was postponed indefinitely, which became a major regret of General Su Yu.
Su Yu's eldest son, Su Rongsheng, said that until Su Yu's death, a map of Taiwan Province was still hanging in his room. The landing of the People's Liberation Army in Taiwan was Su Yu's lifelong wish, which made him pay special attention to landing operations.
In 1970, Su Yu, then vice minister of defense, led a Chinese military delegation to end his visit to the Congo and returned to China to visit the Normandy landing site via France.
General Su Yu, who was looking out over the beach in Normandy, was talking with Major General Duan Suquan and Deputy Military Attaché Han Kaihe, and suddenly called a French tour guide who accompanied him and asked three questions:
Why did the artificial port built by the Normandy landings float?
——What is the volume of cement piers in artificial ports? Are they all the same size?
——Artificial harbor can float, but how to fix it?
Normandy rushed to land on the beach
The French tour guide was directly confused and could not answer at all. No wonder, the vast majority of tourists do not ask these questions, how can the French tour guide, how can he think of encountering a Chinese general who is difficult to let go of the landing operation.
Su Yu passed through France, and had no interest in the romantic capital of Paris, the resort town of Cannes, or the wine country of Bordeaux, and only had a special love for Normandy.
Holding the complex of landing on Taiwan, Su Yu naturally had a more detailed understanding of the Normandy landing operation, and the questions raised to the French tour guide were only to get some more detailed information on the ground.
Seeing that the tour guide could not answer, Su Yu took his entourage directly down to the beach and looked for traces of the artificial port along the seashore.
When he was in Beijing, Su Yu had proposed to visit the Normandy ruins in France, and when he really arrived in Normandy, he walked around like an ordinary tourist, how could he be satisfied.
After walking two or three kilometers along the coast, Su Yu found some broken cement piers left over from the artificial port, and he immediately measured and calculated the cement piers, confirmed the records of the artificial port on the ground, and looked back at the world's largest landing operation.
The most powerful weapon of the anti-landing was the sea, and with the strength of the German army at that time, with the natural danger of the English Channel, concentrating on defense, it was difficult for the Allied landing to succeed.
In August 1942, at Stalin's repeated request, Churchill, who had thought that the landings would be defeated, had to launch a small landing operation of 6,000 men in the small french town of Dieppe, mainly the Canadian Second Infantry Division.
This tentative landing operation was not prepared to invest heavy troops, and the landing site chosen was not suitable for large-scale troop deployment. The landing force was besieged by the Germans as soon as it landed, but it also accumulated some experience in landing operations.
The Normandy landing was a decisive battle that could only succeed but not fail, and tricking the Germans into staying away from Normandy became a crucial step in the campaign.
To achieve such a strategic goal by opening up a second battlefield with the Soviet Union's east-west attack on Germany, there were two landing points with their own advantages to choose from.
Calais in northwestern France has a deep-water port for the successful landing, follow-up large troops and massive military equipment and materials. The straight-line distance to the UK is the shortest and also facilitates transport. It was also close to the heavy industrial areas of Paris and Germany, which made it easy for the landing forces to directly penetrate the key points.
These superior Germans, of course, also knew that they had long since built strong fortifications in Calais and stationed heavy troops for defense. If Calais were to be attacked, even if the landing was successful, the Allies would suffer heavy losses, and the subsequent offensive capabilities would be greatly weakened.
Normandy, on the other hand, is slightly further ahead of the British mainland, and the distance from the British port to the landing point is closer than calais. Judging from the tidal situation, the sea drop is also more suitable for landing, and it will not have much impact on the continuity of landing operations.
Moreover, Normandy has a wide landing field, which is very suitable for the deployment of super-large troops. More critically, the German defense in Normandy was weak, and if the German army maintained the status quo in Normandy, the chances of the Allied landing operation would be quite large.
Before asking the French tour guide three questions, Su Yu also commented to the entourage: "Marching operations must be unexpected, and the use of troops sometimes goes against common sense. The Bay of Seine, where Normandy is located, is actually not suitable for landing operations, because there is no port to supply here, and the sea is extremely unstable. Therefore, Hitler would be easily deceived, because the Allies would land in the port of Calais with better hydrological and port conditions. ”
Su Yu
It was not easy for the Germans to always believe that the main allied landing point was chosen in Calais, and the Germans would not turn a blind eye to normandy's favorable conditions for the landing. Su Yu also commented:
"But the soldiers are not tired of deception, and despite all the unfavorable conditions, the Bay of Seine is within the combat radius of the Allied air force, and the Allies also have absolute naval superiority, so the advantages are far greater than the disadvantages."
And the day the Allied landings were June 6, which was the time when visibility was the best, the tide was the highest, and the easiest time for landing craft to dock and clear obstacles.
Due to the different times of high tide in different sections, the landing time is also different, that is, from 6:30 on the west side to 7:45 on the east side, the difference is 1 hour and 15 minutes, which is a normal phenomenon that the combat plan and the actual combat situation are likely to merge, and the commander needs to respond to the situation. ”
The Normandy landings brought Su Yu's words to the extreme. The Normandy landings became one of the most famous big scams in history. In neutral countries, the British bought all the maps of Calais, radio communications between allies, and also a large density of points to the Calais region.
British and American film companies were commissioned by the Allies to make a large number of landing craft and other props, stopping in the river near the British port pointing to Calais.
A brigade of rubber inflatable tanks, placed in the wilderness, is in a position that can be concluded to be transported to Calais. Even more so, a three-square-mile, fake-real, giant oil tanker dock appeared on the beach in Dover Harbor.
The dock has a breakwater, anti-aircraft guns, oil storage tanks and so on. This "fake" designed by a famous British designer, if you don't go deep into it, you will definitely mistakenly think it is true.
In the southeast, the British forged an army group of fifty divisions with a total of one million troops, commanded by General Patton. Marshal Montgomery, the commander of the Army who landed in Normandy, was flaunted by a stand-in in place unrelated to Normandy.
The espionage campaign code-named "Operation Perseverance" is also unfolding at the same time. A German spy in Yugoslavia was actually a British MI5 agent.
Montgomery
He had made fourteen trips to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, to send false information to the Germans about Allied landing operations, and British agents generally sent intelligence by radio, only this code-name "tricycle" double-sided spy, who was allowed by MI5 to risk sending intelligence in person.
The double-sided spy "artist" who recruited the "tricycle", aroused the suspicion of the Germans, and was kidnapped from Spain to Germany. He kept his secret under torture and was later killed for escaping from prison, paying for "Resolute Action".
The Normandy landings could not be completely without a trace, and the Allies simply wanted the Germans to think that the Normandy landings were a feint and that the real landing direction was in Calais.
The Normandy landings had already begun, and the Allied deception still did not stop. Churchill, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower all hinted in their speeches on the day of the landing that there was a larger landing, which caused the German army in Calais to continue to wait in a tight position and did not quickly reinforce Normandy.
If the deception succeeds, the port problem must be solved. The Allies eventually had 2.88 million men, 170,000 vehicles of all kinds, and more than 600,000 tons of munitions delivered through Normandy to the battlefields of continental Europe, without sufficient throughput ports, all of which would not be completed.
On June 6, 1944, the Allied surprise landings in Normandy were successful, but the Germans did not collapse, the resistance was still stubborn, and the counterattack was fierce. It was only with the support of artificial ports that the Allies could keep the follow-up troops coming and advancing outward from the landing field. Su Yu was therefore particularly interested in the artificial port.
Of course, the artificial port could not be built in the war, and the module could only be prepared in Britain and transported to Normandy for rapid assembly. The main body of the artificial port is a breakwater, which consists of 146 concrete caissons.
The caisson was hollow, which could hold soldiers, towed from England to the landing site by ship. There are 8 sizes of caissons, the size is determined by the depth of the seawater at the sinking point, the maximum displacement is 6044 tons, and the minimum displacement is 1672 tons. The port enclosed by the breakwater is about five square kilometers, which can berth seven large warships, more than 1,000 small boats, and more than 400 other small and medium-sized ships.
The artificial port floating of Su Yuwen refers to the straight wharf in the port and the boat bridge connecting the wharf and the shore. The steel floating box of the straight dock is 61 meters long, 17 meters wide and more than 18 meters high, fixed to the pile that has been driven into the seabed and connected to the dock, which can float up and down with the waves, and also has the crew's living room and storage room, and generator.
What is more ingenious is that the floating dock is equipped with a side oblique springboard, the landing craft boat headboard is lowered, which can be docked with the springboard, and soldiers and vehicles can go directly to the dock without getting wet, and arrive at the beach along the boat bridge.
From the first day of landing, the artificial port began to be assembled and began to be used in less than ten days. Before the artificial port is put into use, it takes 10 to 12 hours for the landing craft to unload on the beach, and it only takes more than an hour to use the artificial port.
The vehicle unloading speed reached thirty-eight minutes and unloaded seventy-eight vehicles. After the use of artificial ports, the unloading speed of materials was also increased from 600 tons per day to 1,500 tons, and the abundant logistical supply greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the Allied forces.
Half a month after the landing, Normandy suffered a rare major storm, and an artificial port was basically destroyed and lost its effect. The other is also damaged and the effect is reduced.
The artificial port cost more than 30,000 tons of steel, as well as a lot of manpower and financial resources, and some Allied people believed that the value of the artificial port was much lower than its cost, and even said that the value of the artificial port in the landing campaign was only fifteen percent.
The British general Razim, who was in charge of the industrial port, said: "In the case that the landing operation has not yet decided the victory or defeat, it was the 'mulberry' artificial port that saved the defeat." ”
Eisenhower, the commander-in-chief of the three armed forces who landed in Normandy, also affirmed the role of the artificial port, saying: "Even if the 'mulberry tree' is only fifteen percent worth, it is still fifteen percent decisive." In the absence of a large port in the early days of the Allied landing, the artificial port played a non-negligible role in solving the initial material landing, stabilizing the morale of the army, and boosting morale. ”
General Su Yu and the two Allied generals who affirmed the artificial port LinkedIn Xiong saw a little bit the same. The troops of Sanye under Su Yu's command suffered a crushing defeat during the landing operation against Kinmen because the follow-up troops were blocked.
Eisenhower
On October 25, 1949, the 28th Army of the Sanye 10th Corps of the People's Liberation Army, with more than 9,000 people from three regiments, launched a landing operation on Kinmen Island. The Kuomintang garrison in Kinmen was probably more than 20,000 people, and because they were chased and beaten by the People's Liberation Army, most of the defenders were newly replenished recruits, and their combat strength was far inferior to that of the People's Liberation Army that seized the island.
The People's Liberation Army was originally ready to throw six regiments of troops to seize the island, but when three regiments landed on the island, the ships were destroyed by the Kuomintang Navy and Air Force, the PLA of the three regiments on the island lost its support, and the Kuomintang defenders, under the supervision of Chiang Kai-shek, fought to the death with all their might, and finally the PLA army on the island was completely destroyed, more than 5,000 people were captured, and more than 3,800 people were killed.
In this battle, the commander of the Sanye Ten Corps under direct command was seriously light on the enemy, and when he was not fully prepared, he hastily launched an landing operation, and did not have enough understanding of the difference between landing operations and land battles.
Su Yu put forward the principle of three no-fights for the Kinmen landing: no ship that could run 6 regiments at a time did not fight; the enemy did not fight when it had reinforcements; and there were no 6,000 tried-and-tested shipwrights who did not fight.
In order to guarantee the victory of the Gate Landing Battle, Su Yu had arranged to recruit experienced shipwrights along the coasts of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong, and required at least five hundred ships to be recruited for landing operations.
It can be seen that although su Yu's previous battles were pure land battles, he still had a deeper understanding of the key role in the follow-up of landing operations.
The Tenth Corps did not take the landing operation seriously, and the People's Liberation Army marched all the way, taking Xiamen Island, which was heavily defended by Tang Enbo, and it was easy to go, and it did not pay attention to the small Kinmen Island with only 20,000 defenders.
The Commander, Political Commissar, Chief of Staff, and Director of the Political Department of the Twenty-Eighth Army, which was responsible for attacking the island, were all absent from the army, and the task was singled out by Deputy Commander Xiao Feng.
When Ye Fei, commander of the corps, gave Xiao Feng the task, he said it as simple as eating a meal: "There will be no big battle to fight, you 28 army sweep the tail."
Fei
However, the Tenth Corps forgot that Xiamen was surrounded by the mainland on three sides, only one or two kilometers away from the land, and the heavy troops of the Kuomintang had no intention of sticking to it, and immediately withdrew as soon as they made contact with the People's Liberation Army, in an effort to preserve their living forces.
The little Kinmen is six kilometers away from the mainland, and the greater Kinmen is nearly ten kilometers away from the mainland, and this distance difference makes the Kinmen island seizure difficulty real.
Moreover, chiang kai-shek issued an order to hold on to the closest counter-offensive base to the mainland, and did not take the attack on the Golden Gate seriously, and the Tenth Corps had already committed the taboo of arrogant troops and defeat.
Su Yu's three non-fights did not attract attention, and the Tenth Corps did not wait for Su Yu's arrangements to be in place, and only three hundred ships were recruited and ordered to seize the island, planning that three hundred ships would first send three regiments to the island and then return to transport the remaining three regiments, completely without considering the possible variables.
Battle of the Golden Gate
What is even more fatal is that the three regiments are not one division, they cannot command a unified command for their own battles, and no one organizes the return of the ships after landing on the island, and as a result, the ships ran aground at low tide and were all blown up by the Kuomintang navy and air force.
Reinforcements from the island's defenders also arrived, and the strength of 20,000 troops increased to 50,000, and the Platon army on the other side could only look at the Golden Gate with tears in their eyes, and they could not do anything to watch their comrades perish.
When Su Yu's "three no fights" situation appeared, the Tenth Corps fought, and the result was defeated. Chairman Mao did not shake his confidence in Su Yu as the commander-in-chief of the attack on Taiwan because of the defeat at Kinmen, and Chairman Mao still believed: "To liberate Taiwan, you cannot do it, nor can I, and we must rely on Su Yu." ”
Chairman Mao's trust came from his knowledge of Su Yu. Su Yu is the top general of our army who commands large corps of soldiers, and he has a great appetite for fighting, but he does not fight uncertain battles.
Chairman Mao
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek was anxious to launch a civil war, and Chairman Mao wanted to bring Chiang Kai-shek back to the negotiating table and propose a three-way army to attack the Kuomintang area.
Su Yu believed that at that time, he did not have the conditions for large-scale development to the outside world, and suggested to Chairman Mao that the Kuomintang army should be led to our base areas to fight.
Chairman Mao adopted his advice, and this tactic proved to be more favorable to our army.
In the early days of our army's counteroffensive, Chairman Mao proposed that Hua Ye advance into Jiangnan and directly attack Chiang Kai-shek's old lair. Su Yu also suggested that Hua Ye was not suitable for fighting in the Jiangnan water network area, and the popular base in Jiangnan was not as good as that in the Central Plains, and that the main battlefield for fighting the Kuomintang army was still in the Central Plains.
This suggestion was adopted, laying the foundation for victory in the Huaihai Campaign.
Su Yu and Chen Geng
In the Battle of Jinan, Su Yu was more inclined to attack the city and provide reinforcements, and at that time, Su Yu's troops exceeded the Kuomintang troops in Jinan and Xuzhou, and the conditions for Su Yu's appetite would not be small.
At first, Su Yu proposed that most of the troops be used for reinforcements, and a small number of troops attacked jinan airport to attract reinforcements from Xuzhou, and then returned to the division to capture Jinan with all their might.
Chairman Mao basically agreed to this plan, but only proposed that a feint attack might not attract reinforcements, or it would be better to focus on both the siege and the reinforcement. Su Yu was very convinced of Chairman Mao's instructions, and immediately deployed 180,000 troops to reinforce, and 140,000 troops to attack the city.
At this time, it reflected the steadiness and decisiveness of Su Yu's use of troops, he laid out 180,000 troops, waiting for the Kuomintang reinforcements, did not lure the enemy to use cleverness, the purpose of the battle was adjusted to deter the Kuomintang reinforcements, to buy enough time for the capture of Jinan.
There was no reinforcement in this battle, but for the first time, our army captured a large city with heavy defenses. Seeking undefeated first was Su Yu's consistent style, as was the case with Meng Lianggu and the Huaihai Campaign.
Strategic map of the Battle of Jinan
Being fully prepared, being good at judging the situation, and seizing the opportunity are the basis for Chairman Mao's trust in Su Yu. In the Taiwan landing war, preparations were arduous and time-consuming, and the grasp of the fighter plane was also the key to success or failure, and It was very suitable for Su Yu to serve as the commander-in-chief.
Su Yu served as the commander-in-chief of the attack on Taiwan, and his calculations were very delicate. In view of the fact that the Kuomintang has a strength of 400,000 troops in Taiwan, he plans that the strength of our army should not be less than 500,000.
The mobilization of 500,000 combat troops, as well as the ships needed to transport 500,000 troops, as well as the cooperation of the navy and air force, were not something that Sanye could undertake, and it needed to be coordinated by the central authorities and the strength of the country to be completed, su Yu modestly proposed that Liu Bocheng or Lin Biao should be the commander-in-chief.
The central authorities agreed to increase troops and ships, and also prepared to use 300 million US dollars to import aircraft and other weapons and equipment for attacking Taiwan, but did not agree with Su Yu's request to change the commander-in-chief of the attack on Taiwan, and Su Yu threw himself wholeheartedly into the preparations for the liberation of Taiwan.
Unfortunately, the Korean War broke out, the U.S. Seventh Fleet sailed into the Taiwan Strait, and plans to liberate Taiwan ran aground. Many years later, General Su Yu could only express his thoughts of liberating Taiwan on the beaches of Normandy.