On October 14, 1952, the Battle of Shangganling was launched, and I would like to commemorate the martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
After the Korean War entered a stalemate phase, during the Korean armistice negotiations held at Panmunjom, the US side, because of its superstitious belief in the strength of its military hard power, unilaterally announced the indefinite suspension of the armistice negotiations on October 8 and continued to exert pressure on the DPRK and China.
At the foot of the Five Holy Mountains, a small village with only a dozen families, named Shangganling, will go down in history because of this bloody war.
Responsible for the defense of the Five Holy Mountains, Douliu Peak, and Western Mountains was the 15th Army of the Volunteer Army. On October 5, a staff officer of the 2nd Division of the South Korean Army surrendered, saying that his regiment would cooperate with the U.S. offensive in the area.
At 5 o'clock in the morning of the 14th, the 31st Regiment of the 7th Division of the US Army, the 32nd Regiment of the 2nd Division of the South Korean Army, and the 1st Battalion of the 17th Regiment, a total of 7 battalions, were divided into six roads, and with the support of more than 300 guns of more than 105 mm caliber, more than 30 tanks, and more than 40 sorties of aircraft, they took a multi-way and multi-wave approach to continuously launch a fierce attack on the 597.9 height and the 537.7 highland North Hill.
The famous Battle of Shangganling was thus launched.
In one day, the US military fired more than 300,000 shells at Shangganling, and the aircraft dropped more than 500 heavy bombs. This is the highest record for firepower density per unit area in the Korean War! The elevation of the main peak of Shangganling has been cut down by a full 2 meters, and there is no grass.
Amid the thrilling explosions, the polemen on the two heights erected antennas at the mouth of the tunnel again and again, desperately calling for the battalion command post hundreds of meters away.
However, the enemy's artillery fire was too fierce. In just a few minutes, all the dozen antennas stored in the tunnel were blown up, and all the telephone lines were blown off.
In the rain of bullets, Niu Baocai, deputy squad leader of the telephone squad of the third battalion, rushed out, dodging the artillery fire while connecting the broken line, and the entire volume of telephone lines he carried with him was all used up, and there was still a gap! Niu Baocai, who was already physically injured, broke the line with his hands, disregarded the enemy's artillery bombardment, and exchanged his fresh life Chinese for a precious three-minute talk time.
The deputy commander of the 135th Regiment issued an urgent combat order to the forward tunnel troops in this precious three minutes.
Every night, the volunteers launched an offensive, and the task of counterattacking position 2 of the 597.9 Highland was the 7th Company of the 135th Regiment.
The 2 platoons that had just been replaced from here four days ago were led by Platoon Leader Sun Zhanyuan as the first commando team. Due to insufficient artillery fire from the volunteers, the enemy fortifications were not completely destroyed. Sun Zhanyuan personally led a squad to open a counterattack path, advancing while clearing the enemy bunker fire, and quickly captured two fire points.
When approaching Position 2, he was blocked by enemy fire, sun Zhanyuan was seriously wounded in both legs, his right leg was blown off, only a layer of skin was attached, and his left leg was also injured, exposing his bones. Sun Zhanyuan endured severe pain, set up machine guns to cover the explosion of his comrades-in-arms, and destroyed three fire points in succession, and after attacking Position No. 2, the troops continued to develop in depth.
At this time, an enemy force climbed up from the head of Shangganling Village, trying to encircle and sneak the position of the 7th Company from the rear of the flank. After Sun Zhanyuan found out, he used the captured two machine guns to take turns to shoot, repelled the enemy's two attacks in succession, and killed and wounded more than 80 enemy people.
The enemy launched a third attack. In the case of successive casualties and ammunition of his comrades, Sun Zhanyuan crawled in severe pain and removed his grenade from the enemy's corpse to continue the battle. When a large number of enemy troops swarmed into the position, he resolutely pulled the last grenade, rolled into the enemy group, died with the enemy, and heroically sacrificed his life.
After the war, Sun Zhanyuan was posthumously honored by the leading organs of the Volunteer Army for his special merits and the title of "first-class hero".
After a day of fierce fighting, the two sides fought a stalemate. During the day, the "United Nations Army" relied on its strong firepower superiority to occupy the surface positions of the two highlands; at night, the volunteers used their melee and night battles to retake the positions.
Before the battle began, Van Vleet had been quite optimistic about the "showdown" plan - if everything went according to plan, supported by 16 artillery battalions of more than 280 cannons and more than 200 sorties of aircraft, it would have been possible to achieve the goal at the cost of 200 infantry casualties, but the volunteers' defensive ability and tenacity were far beyond his expectations.
After a whole day of attack, the "United Nations Army" did not capture even an inch of position, but the casualties were as high as more than 2,000.
From the 15th, Van Vleet put in 2 regiments and 4 other battalions, under the cover of aircraft, tanks and artillery, and took turns charging at our position.
The volunteers also continued to pour in their firepower, relying on the fortifications of the tunnels, blocking during the day and counterattacking at night. The superficial positions of the two highlands were occupied by the "United Nations Army" again and again by the Volunteer Army.
On the evening of the 18th, the volunteers quietly sent support troops to the tunnel, preparing to carry out a major counterattack the next night and retake the heights.
However, it was not easy to send support troops, and several companies failed to rush through the main tunnel of Highland 597.9 through a U.S.-controlled artillery field on the way through the main tunnel of Highland 597.9. In the end, the 8th Company of the 134th Regiment created a "miracle" and successfully rushed through the blockade area into the tunnel. Before setting out, the officers and men of the 8th Company first memorized the terrain, roads, and the firing rules of enemy artillery and flares, and sent a sharp knife squad to blow up several enemy bunkers. After departure, more than 140 people in the whole company pulled away, suddenly rushed in and crouched down, and finally climbed up to the high ground.
On the night of the 19th, the volunteers launched a major counterattack.
In the fierce battle, a hero who has been praised by the Chinese generations - Huang Jiguang appeared.
Huang Jiguang joined the Chinese Volunteer Army in March 1951 and served as a correspondent in the 6th Company of the 134th Regiment of the 45th Division of the 15th Army.
After the battle to capture The 597.9 heights began, the Volunteers successively captured Positions 6, 5, and 4, but were blocked by Position 0, and organized three consecutive explosions without success.
Position 0 is the last step leading to the main peak of Highland 597.9. It is nearly dawn, and if the enemy's central fire point cannot be quickly destroyed and position 0 is seized, the entire fighter will be delayed.
At this time, the 6th Company suffered heavy casualties, and only 5 people remained. At the critical moment, Huang Jiguang stepped forward and asked to take on the blasting task and was appointed as the leader of the 6th squad.
Before leaving, Huang Jiguang put his mother's letter from September, his application to join the party, and a small handkerchief donated by the motherland's condolence group to the DPRK into a small red cloth bag, handed it to the instructor Feng Yuqing, and said: "The commanders of the battalion and the company are here, if I die in this battle, please first write a letter to tell my mother, tell her old man that her son has not failed to live up to her hopes and the hopes of the motherland." "
After speaking, Huang Jiguang led the soldiers Wu Sanyang and Xiao Dengliang to rush to the position.
The three bravely and wittily destroyed several enemy fire points in a row. Under the frantic strafing of the enemy, Wu Sanyang was unfortunately shot and killed, Xiao Dengliang was also seriously injured, and Huang Jiguang's left arm was broken. Enemy flares illuminated the position as if it were daylight, and several crossfire blocked the way forward. Huang Jiguang took advantage of the grenade explosion smoke to approach the enemy's central fire point and threw several grenades in a row, and the enemy machine gun stopped shooting.
However, when the troops took advantage of the situation to launch a charge, the machine guns in the bunker suddenly fired wildly, and the storm troops were once again blocked.
At this time, when Huang Jiguang was close to the perforation of the bunker, he struggled to pounce on it, blocked the machine gun that was shooting with his chest, and sacrificed heroically.
Inspired by Huang Jiguang's heroic feats, the volunteer army quickly captured Position 0 and completely annihilated the two battalions defending the enemy. After the battle, Feng Yuqing personally hugged Huang Jiguang back. The company commander Wan Fulai shone a flashlight and examined his body carefully: the cotton clothes on his body seemed to have been burned by fire, he had been shot in the head, his spine was broken, and his legs were broken. The leading organs of the Volunteer Army posthumously awarded Huang Jiguang the title of "Special Hero". The Permanent Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea posthumously awarded him the title of "Hero of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea" and the Gold Star Medal and the National Flag Medal of the First Class.
On 5 November, Syngman Rhee and Van Vleet personally went to the front to supervise the battle, and the "United Nations Army" launched the fiercest attack of the whole day.
At this time, the main peak of the 597.9 heights and its north and south positions were held by the 91st Regiment of the 12th Army. Hu Xiudao, a new soldier who joined the Chinese Volunteer Army in June 1951, and the squad leader, and another new soldier, Teng Tusheng, were responsible for holding Position 3 on Hill 597.9.
Under the command of the squad leader, they heroically returned fire, fought for 3 hours continuously, and repelled more than 10 enemy attacks. After the squad leader was transferred to support Position 9, Hu Xiudao and Teng Tusheng stayed behind to continue to hold.
Hu Xiudao recalled: On position 3 of 597.9, 24 enemy attacks had been repelled. Teng Tusheng and I grasped the gap between battles to prepare ammunition, and rows of uncovered grenades were placed next to us, ready to hit the enemy's head at any time. Although there were only two of us in this position, we could fight the enemy and top two platoons. The smoke from the position had just cleared, and the enemy's heavy artillery began to bombard again... What the enemy is doing? I hurried to the side of the position to observe, ah! It turned out that in front of Position 10, a large area of black pressure crawled over. ...... However, position 10 did not react at all, and no figure could be seen.
I was getting more and more nervous, was there no one in position 10? If there is no one, as soon as position 10 is lost, the enemy can dive into positions 3 and 9, and the 597.9 heights will be finished! Time passed minute by minute, but there was still no movement on position 10. Without further ado, Hu Xiudao immediately picked up the blaster and took the initiative to support teng Tusheng. The two braved the blockade of enemy machine gun fire and preemptively ascended to the high ground to repel the enemy who had rushed to the position.
Hu Xiudao recalled: After the enemy left the corpses all over the hillside, he rushed up again. Suddenly, a row of artillery fire hit the enemy, and before I could take a closer look, a cloud of fire flashed in the enemy pile.
Teng Tusheng shouted happily: The artillery has struck, and the artillery comrades should make a great contribution! Suddenly, someone behind me shouted, and I alertly grabbed a grenade, and when I looked back, it turned out that it was He Dacheng who had come to support us with two comrades.
I ran over happily, hugged this and hugged that, and excitedly said, "You're here!" The enemy has been repulsed, and position 10 is still ours! After a day of fierce fighting, the volunteer army that held the 597.9 height repelled more than 40 attacks of the "United Nations Army" and annihilated more than 280 enemy troops.
After the war, the leading organ of the Volunteer Army gave Hu Xiudao a special merit and awarded him the title of "Hero of the First Class". The Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea awarded him the title of "Hero of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea" and the Gold Star Medal and the National Flag Medal of the First Class.
The US press commented at the time that the Jinhua offensive had become a bottomless pit, and it had swallowed more military resources of the "United Nations Army" than any chinese army's general offensive.
In this campaign, the 15th and 12th Armies of the Volunteer Army repelled 25 attacks on the strength of the "United Nations Army" battalion and above, and more than 650 attacks of the troops below the battalion level, and carried out dozens of counterattacks, killing and wounding more than 25,000 enemy prisoners, shooting down and wounding more than 270 enemy aircraft, destroying and wounding more than 60 enemy large-caliber artillery pieces and 14 tanks, and inflicting more than 11,500 casualties on the volunteer army during the battle.
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