As of October 26, 2021, Chosin Lake today box office 8.635 million, the cumulative box office of 5.328 billion, quite a non-counting achievement, this movie scene is thrilling, let people reminisce endlessly, so there is such a good result. Speaking of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the front-line blockade battles of Jiaoyifeng and Park Dafeng were also quite difficult. No easier than the Battle of Chosin Lake. This battle was also the last time Marshal Peng Dehuai lined up in the DPRK. On May 27, 1951, Peng Dehuai took urgent remedial measures and urgently dispatched the 63rd, 64th, 15th, 26th and 20th Armies of the Volunteer Army, as well as the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Armies of the Korean People's Army, to carry out a defense along the line from Yeongjin River to Pole City.
Among them, Qin Jiwei, who was the commander of the Fifteenth Army, was the most important point, and he placed his troops in the Shibaura-ri area. This place is full of peaks and dense mountains, which is a natural barrier south of Tieyuan and Jinhua, and it is also a place where the enemy of the northern invasion must pass.
After the official order of the Volunteer Army Headquarters was issued, Peng Dehuai was still not at ease, and personally talked to Qin Jiwei on the phone, instructing him to quickly seize the key points of the front corner of Zhipuli, Yifeng and Park Dafeng. To overcome all difficulties and resolutely obstruct the enemy's northward advance, we must persist for 7-10 days no matter what.
Let us first talk about the situation in which the Fifteenth Army was deployed at that time: at this time, the Forty-fourth Division of the Forty-fourth Division of the Forty-fourth Division withdrew north to the north was more than 120 miles away, and the 134th Regiment of the Forty-fifth Division after the break was more than 30 miles away from Shibaura-ri. The troops were scattered and could not form a joint force, and after several days of fierce fighting, the Forty-fifth Division was reduced by nearly half, some companies were less than 40 people, and the grain and ammunition they carried were almost gone, and even the captured PRISONERs of war of the US and ROK troops also followed suit to fill the hunger with bitter artemisia and gray ash. The soybeans that swelled up in the horse dung on the side of the road were also taken out one by one and washed and eaten. It can be said that the environment at that time was quite unfavorable to the Fifteenth Army.
But Qin Jiwei still gritted his teeth and patted his chest on the phone to ensure: "Please rest assured commander, we will take all measures to resist for at least 10 days!" ”
This was the most arduous battle of the Fifteenth Army in the Fifth Campaign, the positions changed hands several times, the enemy and we fought repeatedly, and almost all the hills were fought in white-knife battles. Officers and soldiers stabbed, stoned, fisted, and some even used their teeth. Both divisions were exhausted, and the 44th Division of the Second Echelon was transferred by Peng Dehuai to the second line of defense, which made the difficult deployment even worse. For several days in a row, the defense lines of Jiaoyi Peak and Park Dafeng were crumbling and dangerous. On June 4, under the cover of more than a dozen tanks, the first unit of the US Third Division finally broke into the main position of Jiaoyi peak and quickly expanded its results towards The 477 Heights.
Peng Dehuai, who was paying close attention to the defense of the central region, learned of this news, immediately picked up the phone, and shouted angrily at Gu Jingsheng, the political commissar of the Fifteenth Army:
Zhang Xianyang, commander of the Twenty-ninth Division, under the orders of Zhiji's strong pressure, immediately organized artillery fire and counterattacked three times before resuming his position. The two divisions of the Fifteenth Army fought bitterly for 10 days and nights in the sea of fire, and at the cost of more than 1,200 casualties, not only did they accomplish the task of blocking the attack, smashed the enemy's attempt to exit Tieyuan and Jinhua in the north, and cut off the retreat of our volunteer army on the eastern front; the Twenty-ninth Division also played a famous infantry division defense battle in the Korean War- the Jiaoyifeng Blockade Battle; the Forty-fifth Division played a heroic group headed by a heroic group headed by special merit and first-class combat heroes on Park Dafeng.
As soon as the battle was over, Peng Dehuai sent a telegram excitedly: Qin Jiwei, I thank you very much! Peng Dehuai! It is also relatively rare in Peng Dehuai's life, which shows how hard this battle was fought!
In fact, the battle into the DPRK was not perfect, which was often mentioned by Peng Dehuai in his later years, especially for a long time after the fifth battle, Peng Dehuai's heart was filled with regrets and hidden pains that were difficult to resolve. Annoyed by the mistakes of others, he could not tolerate his own faults, and on many occasions, he reflected on many generals: he had an unshirkable mistake in the decision-making and guidance of the fifth campaign: the campaign was launched too hastily, and the Third and Nineteenth Corps and the Forty-seventh Army rushed into the DPRK, were not prepared at all, and fought when they were pulled up. Not only has there not been enough food and ammunition, but even the problem of clothing has not been solved, and some troops are still wearing large cotton jackets to fight in April and May. North Korea's mountains are narrow and long, just a few north-south roads, all at once crowded with nearly 700,000 people, catching the big market has not seen such a lively. The troops are crowded into a lump, the team cannot be expanded, and it is impossible to carry out interspersed division, which is bound to lead to parallel advancement. Moreover, the appetite was too large, and it was easy to annihilate 20,000 or 30,000 US and ROK troops, and it was difficult to eat five or six enemy divisions with an open mouth, and as a result, even a complete formation regiment of the US army was difficult to nibble down. The battle lasted for 50 days, annihilating 82,000 enemy troops and inflicting 85,000 casualties on their own, including the loss of a whole 18th O Division. At such a great price, instead of pushing the front line to the 37th line, the enemy was driven to the north of the front where the battle began. The fundamental reason for this lies in the backwardness of military concepts and old-fashioned tactical means. In fact, in such a narrow and long territory as North Korea, it is not suitable for such a big interlude, a big detour, a big division, and a big encirclement. As a result, the five battles were fought in a flat line, and the enemy and we were tug-of-war back and forth. As Chairman Mao Zedong gently criticized, the battle was fought "a little more urgently," "bigger," and "farther away." ”
However, the war history's evaluation of this battle is fair, believing that "the overall victory, but the ending is not ideal."
"Undesirable" means that the losses of the volunteers are slightly greater than those of the US army, and an incalculable gain of this campaign is that the volunteers have since shaken off the problems of traditional tactics, and a series of profound changes have taken place at all levels, from strategy to tactics, and finally made the strategic choice of canceling the sixth campaign plan and shifting from mainly mobile offensive warfare to position defense warfare, thus beginning a large-scale long-term defensive battle in the history of our army's war. This is the great sobriety and cleverness of the Chinese Communists once again at the critical moment of the Korean War.
Since then, on the Korean battlefield, the two hostile sides have begun a long process of intertwining political, military, and diplomatic struggles while talking and fighting.
In March 1952, Peng Dehuai convened a headquarters combat meeting at the headquarters of the Volunteer Army, and the central topic was on the issue of further strengthening the defense of positions, especially on the central front.
On March 25, the large wooden house at the entrance of the Hinokukura Gold Mine was filled with stars and a large room full of people. Peng Dehuai's speech went straight to the main theme: On the operational policy of our army under the current situation of confrontation between the enemy and ourselves, on the changes in the current enemy situation, on consolidating the existing positions and the cameras to occupy the positions, and on the readjustment and allocation of our army's troops...
One by one, the commanders looked attentive, but many people did not know that this was the last time Commander Peng Dehuai presided over a meeting of the volunteer army in the DPRK. Not long ago, when the doctor gave him a physical examination, he found that he had a small tumor on his head, and it was difficult to distinguish between good and evil, so he was worried that it was a cancerous lump. After the Central Military Commission learned of this, it was decided that Peng Dehuai should immediately return to China for treatment and at the same time preside over the work of the Central Military Commission, and the post of commander of the Volunteer Army would be represented by Chen Fenggeng.
At the Hinokurakura Operational Conference in March, Peng Dehuai made an important decision: to pull up the 15th Army of the Volunteer Army's Strategic Reserve and replace the 26th Army's defenses on the five holy mountains, Douliu Peak, and Western Mountains. This was Peng Dehuai's last platoon on the Korean battlefield, and it was also the last time he dispatched troops in his war career. Its extraordinary military significance was revealed after half a year.
After the meeting was adjourned, Peng Dehuai left Qin Jiwei alone.
Facing the large battle map on the wall, his eyes burned on the cobweb-dense contour line, and he said to Qin Jiwei, who was standing next to him: "The Five Holy Mountains are the gateway to the Korean central line, and if we lose the Five Holy Mountains, we will retreat 200 kilometers without danger." You have to remember that whoever loses the Five Holy Mountains is responsible for the history of North Korea. ”
Qin Jiwei was frozen.
Note: The pictures in the article are from the Internet. (The article is excerpted from "Deciphering Shangganling")