Author: Tai Shi Xiaosheng
November 28, 1950 at 10:00 a.m. 1221 Heights between Phuoc-dong and Shuiwan.
A battalion of the Volunteer 81st Division captured the high ground the night before and ambushed a company of American troops there. The battalion commander Sun commanded the soldiers to build strong fortifications overnight, preparing to block the Reinforcements from the direction of Hagaru-ri, and the occupation of this high ground had actually divided the 31st Regiment of the US 7th Division into two sections.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="3" > the 1221 highlands are fiercely contested</h1>
At about 10 o'clock, the rumble of tanks driving was heard from the road to the south. Through the telescope, Commander Sun saw a long group of tanks heading towards the 1221 heights in a menacing manner.
It was the 31st Tank Company assigned to the US 31st Regiment. The company commander was Drake. They set off from Fudong in the morning. Drake collectively gave him 3 platoons with 15 tanks, and he also had 1 command tank with 105 mm howitzers on it. Drake left his 4th platoon in Fook Dong to protect the rear headquarters of the 31st Regiment there and the accumulation of military supplies. Drake tried to use his tanks to open the way to open up the connection between the southern forces and the Water Clearing Americans.
Highland 1221 is actually only more than 100 meters high. The road to The town of Chosin runs along the lake. Not far behind the highlands, the northwestern region is the inlet.
Commander Sun immediately ordered the rocket artillery of the battalion headquarters to move to the east end in front of the position. When the enemy tanks traveled to about 400 meters from the position. Howitzers on tanks began to bombard the 1221 heights. Chen Dayou, the commander of the rocket artillery platoon, braved the smoke and opened his eyes, and fired 9 rocket shells at the enemy tanks in a row. He was such a sharpshooter that two of the enemy's tanks were immediately destroyed and one collapsed on the road. The other taxied into a ditch on the side of the road, and the enemy soldiers in two tanks fled in a hurry, and were again shot by the volunteers.
By this time, some volunteer soldiers had rushed down from the high ground, jumping on the tanks approaching the enemy. Dozens of volunteer fighters rushed onto the road, climbed onto the tank from the dead end of the tank's fire, and threw grenades into the tank. Two more tanks were reimbursed.
Derek had no choice but to order the tanks to retreat in the afternoon.
Throughout the day on the 28th, the volunteers observed the movement of the American troops in the inlet camp from the surrounding highlands. They saw the M16 and M19 deployed to the battalion's positions and carefully recorded the specific locations of these terrible weapons. They also noticed the movement of artillery positions and the combination of infantry in forward positions.
The main positions were still facing east, lined up along a ridge that extended to the side of the bridge. The position of the 3rd Battalion extended from the side of the bridge along the ridge to the right for about 800 meters. Then, higher and steeper ridges on their right, to The Heights of 1456, were the positions of the Chinese. During the day, soldiers of battalion 3 could often see volunteer soldiers operating on higher ridges on the southeast side of their positions.
The Volunteers resumed their attack on the Americans at Inlet Camp on the evening of the 28th, trying to annihilate the Americans who had failed to annihilate the night before. The battle began with infantry positions on the eastern flank. There the Volunteers laid out a machine gun position and at one point broke through the K Company's defensive line. The men who came down from the machine gun position ran to the position of Company K.
That night, some volunteer soldiers broke through to the artillery formation, but the American artillery, supported by the nearby M19, repelled the volunteer reports that rushed over. The fighting lasted all night and was often fierce. By dawn, the entire U.S. defense line was crumbling.
A few hours before dawn, the Volunteers began to attack the Americans in the bay from the west. They came along roads and rail lines. Their attack lasted the longest, and by dawn they had occupied the strip between the inlet and the 3 battalions before they retreated.
The Volunteers had always made the M16 and M19 their main targets and were constantly trying to destroy these hated weapons from close range. The M16 and M19 were extremely fierce in the fighting that night, causing considerable casualties to the volunteer soldiers.
After midnight, the Volunteers launched an onslaught with mortars and other light and heavy weapons against the anti-aircraft automatic artillery defending the artillery positions. The volunteer soldiers successfully rushed to the vicinity of the enemy position. An American soldier was bombarding a hill to the south with his double-barreled gun, which fired 240 shells per minute. As a result, he was killed.
For the battle on the evening of the 28th-29th, each survivor has an unforgettable experience of a lifetime. An American soldier named Swift described the situation this way:
"Before dark on the 28th, we dug a pit for the reinforcements and drilled into it. The enemy launched an onslaught every few moments, and this lasted overnight. There were 3 jeep drivers who were hit outside their craters, two of them fell on the top of our tunnel, and just at this moment, a burning bullet hit a Hawaiian lad next to me, and he was burned on the spot. ”
At dawn, the volunteers attacking the positions of the 1st Battalion began to retreat to avoid air raids by American aircraft. But the fighting in the southwest corner is still fierce.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" > On the night of November 29, the volunteers finally broke through the American defenses</h1>
The breakthrough of the 80th Division of the Volunteer Army against the besieged enemy was achieved on the night of the 29th. The location was Feith's 1st Battalion of the U.S. 31st Regiment, the forward position of the entire American defense line.
About two regiments took part in the siege of the U.S. 1st Battalion. In order to give full play to the special skills of our army in close combat and night combat. Avoiding weaknesses in firepower and armament, the commander of the 80th Division set the attack time at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night. Until then, the positions of the two sides had been quiet, and several hills stood quietly in the darkness.
At midnight, the tranquility of the valley ditch was broken again, and the two armies resumed the war. The troops of the 80th Division launched several tentative attacks, and then a large number of men and horses were killed in a flood of enemy positions. The U.S. 1st Battalion was in a precarious position and line of defense on all sides, just like the candles in the rapid rain and wind.
In the first assault, the 3rd Battalion of the Volunteer Army successfully broke into the enemy position, and they captured the hill defended by a platoon of enemy platoons on the left flank, killing the platoon leader. This meant tearing a hole in the enemy line. Subsequently, the enemy quickly organized a company-sized counterattack in an attempt to retake the hill, but was repulsed by the fighters of the 3rd Battalion. Now the Volunteers could detour westward from the enemy's left flank back to their rear flanks, and could attack the enemy battalion command post and the enemy's 81 mm mortar positions about 500 metres away.
Two other battalions of volunteer fighters attacked enemy positions along the east side of the road. The American fire was fierce, with two machine guns and a recoilless gun suppressing the 80th Division's fighters. The two sides were deadlocked for a while.
At this time, on the 1475 high ground occupied by the 1st Battalion of our 238th Regiment, the battalion commander ordered the mortars to bombard the enemy positions to the west from a commanding height, and the shells accurately exploded on the American fortifications. The soldiers of the 1st Battalion rushed down from the top of the mountain, Du Shujun's four machine guns fired at the same time, and the snipers constantly aimed at the enemy from a high place to shoot. A few minutes later, they captured the right flank of the enemy position.
Almost simultaneously, all positions of the 1st Battalion of the U.S. 31st Regiment were strongly attacked by the Volunteers. After midnight, the volunteers had made up their minds not to let the besieged enemy live the night again. Various hills. The sound of the volunteers' trumpets and shouts of death terrified the American troops. The interweaving of guns on both sides is even more shocking.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" > the command post of the 1st battalion of the US army, the atmosphere was unprecedentedly tense, and the critical situation made the US officers extremely uneasy</h1>
The fear of imminent annihilation made them dizzy like night. It was so long that I couldn't make a choice.
On this night, almost all the weapons on both sides were shooting beyond the limit, and when the battle was over, people found that the ground was covered with thick shell casings and magazines. As the Volunteers hit harder, U.S. casualties increased. It is clear that there is only one way to continue to resist.
At two o'clock in the morning, the enemy position began to waver. The various volunteers who participated in the attack judged that the enemy might flee, so they accelerated the pace of the attack. The enemy was overwhelmed. At about 4:30 a.m., Fath, commander of the 1st Battalion of the U.S. 31st Regiment, ordered the retreat to begin. The destination was camp of the U.S. 3rd Battalion in The Inlet. It's a short distance from the inlet, but two miles away.
Curiously, when the Americans on the front lines began to retreat, the volunteers did not follow in pursuit. At this time, heavy snow fell in the sky, snowflakes flew everywhere, the cold wind was like a knife, the chill was stronger before dawn, and the temperature suddenly dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius. The American soldiers stumbled and retreated from the mountain to the road at the foot of the mountain, the car motor had long been frozen, and the Americans took great pains to start some vehicles. They could no longer get all their supplies away, so they abandoned some vehicles, food, and firearms, and retreated to the water in the snow and wind.
Soon they were in the inlet. Only then did it become clear why the Chinese troops did not pursue: the inlet was also full of volunteer soldiers. They blocked a cement bridge leading to Battalion 3 from the north, and when the remnants of the 1st Battalion of the 31st Regiment were still about to cross the bridge, the intense fire immediately set several trucks on fire.
The fleeing American soldiers pushed the vehicles off the bridge, they had no morale, and the only thought in their minds was how to escape the vast net laid by the volunteer soldiers in the mountains, and the volunteer soldiers took the time to shoot at the American troops from the high ground on both sides. Dozens more americans were killed and wounded before they crossed the bridge, and in this battle, the commander of the US 31st Regiment, Colonel McLean, did not know the end.
When the U.S. army reached the ring defense circle of the 3rd Battalion. The news received from the 3rd Battalion made the dismay of the enemy who had just escaped from death even more depressed: the volunteer soldiers had occupied the southern end of the 3rd Battalion's position, blocking their way to the south.
In the afternoon, U.S. air dispatch directed Pirate fighter jets to launch an aerial attack on the volunteer forces besieging them. Subsequently, two transport planes airdropped food, guns and ammunition to the U.S. military. The pilots also seemed to be infected by the tragic situation of the American troops on the ground, and some of the guns and ammunition that were hastily dropped almost all fell on the volunteer positions. The volunteer soldiers opened their bags and were pleasantly surprised, full of all the new American M--1 submachine guns and carbines, as well as tons of ammunition and food. The U.S. military watched all this and felt even more cold and discouraged.
The volunteer soldiers besieged but did not attack, and they monitored the enemy. They had to wait for this fierce prey to be exhausted in the dying struggle. The officers and men of the 80th and 79th Divisions have laid ten ambushes, and the US troops are doomed to escape. From Xinxingli to Hagaru-ri, they still have to take a road that can never be completed, although the wind and snow are full of snow, they have to pass through the sword mountain and fire set up by the volunteer army.
About the author: Taishi Xiaosheng, a lover of history, is especially passionate about reading and writing party history and military history. I have always wanted to look back at history more clearly, look at history more rationally, and write history more fluently.
The majority of history buffs are welcome to exchange axes.