In the impression of many people, the main opponent of the Volunteer Army to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea is the US army, and the armies of other countries such as Britain, France, Canada, Austria, and Turkey are just here to make up a number, and as for the LI Puppet Army, a vassal of the US Army, it is even less worth a damn, because their combat effectiveness is the level of "five scum of war", which is not a level with the US army, let alone comparable to the volunteer army.
As we all know, the South Korean army is notoriously "afraid of death". In the confrontation with our volunteer army, the South Korean army often collapsed at the touch of a button, and in order to escape, they could throw away their guns, unload bullets, take off their steel helmets, and run with their feet and run with great strength. In this regard, the second commander of the "United Nations Army" Ridgway once sarcastically said:
"The South Korean military tends to have a very strong fear of the Chinese military, and almost regard these people as natural soldiers." If Chinese soldiers with rubber-soled shoes suddenly appeared on the positions of the South Korean army, they always frightened many South Korean soldiers and fled for their lives without looking back."
In fact, the performance of the South Korean army in the early days of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was indeed as Ridgway said, and their military discipline was corrupt, their work style was lax, and their will to fight was weak, and they could not fight at all. This is because the early South Korean army was temporarily recruited into the army by Syngman Rhee, who worked in the fields in the morning and were dragged to become soldiers in the afternoon, mixed with gangsters, hooligans, old officers and other rabble-rousers, coupled with a very short training time, many people were sent to the front line to fight with the volunteer army without even a gun, and such an army was simply a group of lambs to be slaughtered in front of the volunteer army.
Although the initial combat effectiveness of the South Korean army was very scummy, it should be pointed out that in the middle and late period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the combat effectiveness of the South Korean army under the tutelage of the US army continued to rise, and a number of units capable of conscripting good warfare appeared.
In addition to the combat effectiveness of the First Division in the South Korean army, the combat effectiveness of the Sixth Division should not be underestimated. The commander of the South Korean Sixth Division was Kim Jong-go, a man who fought bravely and mentally, inflicting heavy casualties on the elite Korean People's Army at the Battle of Chuncheon, and later inflicting heavy casualties on the 38th Army at the Battle of Hakubasan.
This unit is fully armored and equipped, personally trained by the US military, and is good at combat commanders and rich combat experience, so when the "United Nations Army" marched north in the Korean War, it did not pay attention to the people's army that had collapsed, and it was even more unexpected that the Chinese Volunteer Army would enter the Korean Peninsula.
They vainly hoped to respond to MacArthur's "Thanksgiving Offensive" to fight early on the banks of the Yalu River to end the Korean War, and added a dazzling gold star to their epaulettes to earn a lot of money politically. Therefore, the Second Regiment and the Seventh Regiment of the Sixth South Korean Division raced each other to run a "marathon" in order to reach the banks of the Yalu River before anyone else, and as a result, a gap of more than 90 kilometers was opened between the two regiments, and at the same time, the rear troops were left more than 50 kilometers away.
The arrogance of the South Korean Sixth Division provided a great opportunity for our volunteers to eliminate this unit.
Just as two regiments of the South Korean Sixth Division were frantically scurrying north in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, on the night of October 19, 1950, 260,000 volunteers began to cross the Yalu River into the Korean Peninsula, and Peng Dehuai led several men to join Kim Il-sung before the large army. Just as Peng Dehuai was rushing to the Road to Dayudong, the Seventh Regiment of the South Korean Sixth Division passed him by, fortunately it was not discovered, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.
Shortly after Peng Dehuai arrived at Dayudong, the 118th Division of the 40th Army rushed to the cave, and the division commander Deng Yue and the division's political commissar Zhang Yuhua rushed to Dayudong.
Peng Dehuai saw the tense face of Deng Yue, who was 32 years old at the time, and smiled heartily: "Good, I finally look forward to you!" Don't be vain Chen Geng to use the pony tail to pull you out of the grass! ”
Peng Dehuai's reference to Chen Geng pulling Deng Yue out of the meadow with a ponytail refers to the fact that during the Long March, Deng Yue could not continue marching with the troops due to malaria, and because of the military emergency, there were soldiers behind the enemy's rear, and according to the regulations at that time, if they were physically ill and could not keep up with the troops, the troops would take out some funds to restore them to the people.
But Deng Yue resolutely refused to do it, still gritting his teeth and marching forward with difficulty, until one day Deng Yue had a malaria attack and lay on the ground convulsing. At this critical juncture, Chen Geng was passing by on horseback, and seeing the young Deng Yue's painful appearance, Chen Geng was distressed and asked with concern: "Isn't this Xiao Deng?" Hurry up and get on my horse! ”
At that time, Chen Geng was injured in the leg, and it was difficult for him to march without a horse, deng Yue saw this and insisted on refusing to ride up, so Chen Geng had to ride on horseback and drag Deng Yue out of the grass with a horse's tail. This is the allusion that Peng Dehuai said that Chen Geng dragged him out of the grass with a ponytail.
I just didn't expect that, for decades, Deng Yue, the "red little devil" who had never been childish, had now become the commander of the 118th Division, and after sighing, Mr. Peng lang laughed and patted Deng Yue's shoulder: "The red little devil has become the commander of the division, it's good!" ”
The military situation was too urgent to recount the old Peng Dehuai, so he single-handedly deployed the combat mission to Deng Yue:
Your Fortieth Army is the vanguard, and you must take the lead. The first battle abroad must be fought beautifully, to show prestige, to smash the arrogance of the enemy, and to cover the assembly and development of the main force of our volunteer army. At present, it is also necessary to strive to rush to the predetermined area for defense according to the original plan. If the situation changes, you must be independent and decisive, and use various means such as blockade, attack, and ambush to annihilate the enemy without losing no time.
According to Peng Dehuai's deployment, the 118th Division led by Deng Yue had to seize Wenjing, 17 kilometers away from Beizhen, in front of the South Korean Sixth Division, which was advancing alone, and it was no problem to arrive in a few hours with the iron feet of the whirlwind troops.
But the crux of the matter is that the enemy is a highly mechanized march, and under the cover of air force, day and night, soldiers will also get excellent rest in the march. And our volunteer army has no air defense force, not to mention day and night, and the personnel who just run down with two small footboards are exhausted, not to mention the construction of fortifications after the troops arrive at the predetermined location. If the troops, in the face of poor manpower, engage in an encounter with the South Korean army, which is waiting for work, our army will probably have to pay an unnecessary price even if it wins.
Therefore, Deng Yue, who had rich combat experience and was accustomed to using the tactics of "stopping the head, cutting off the tail, and cutting off the waist," decided to slow down the marching speed, not to compete with the enemy for time, and to deploy the 118th Division on the high ground north of the road between Beizhen and Wenjing with the attitude of anticipating encounters, camp in advance, recuperate, wait for work, and beat the enemy who attacked.
After Deng Yue, the commander of the division, put forward his views, he was agreed by Political Commissar Zhang Yuhua, Chief of Staff Tang Jingzhong, and Director of the Political Department Liu Zhenhua. Therefore, Deng Yue readjusted the deployment and deployed the 352nd Regiment of the 118th Division in Beizhen; the 353rd Regiment and the Reconnaissance Company of the Division were arranged near Liangshuidong; the division headquarters was located in Liangshuidong; and the 354th Regiment was deployed to rest in the area of Fengxiadong and Fuxingdong north of Wenjing and occupied favorable terrain to build fortifications to prepare to block the enemy's northern attack.
Since it was necessary to carry out the divisional headquarters's method of "blocking the head, cutting off the tail, and cutting off the waist," Chu Chuanyu, commander of the 354th Regiment, deployed the 3rd Battalion of the 354th Regiment to the south of the Two Water Caves north of FuxingDong to be responsible for blocking the head; the 1st Battalion of the 354th Regiment was located in Fuxingdong to be responsible for beheading; and the 2nd Battalion of the 354th Regiment was placed in Fengxiadong to be responsible for the tail cutting.
The line of Fengxiadong and Fuxingdong, which was ambushed by the 118th Division of the Volunteer Army, is a river valley running north-south from Wenjing to Beizhen. On the east side of the river valley are rolling hills with lush pine forests and dry grasses, making it easy to hide large armies, and as long as the fire is fully open, no living creatures can escape. Below the mountain is the highway, and to the west of the road is a 20-meter-wide Jiulong River, and to the west of the river is a continuous mountain.
Two mountains sandwiched between a river, the highway runs through the north and south of the central, and it is an excellent place to set up an ambush here, as long as the enemy retreats are cut off, the pockets are tightened, and then the high swoop is cut off, even if the enemy has thousands of troops and horses, it will be slaughtered by our army under the horses in a few rounds!
All that had been decided was to wait for the South Korean Sixth Division to throw a net.
In fact, while Deng Yue's 118th Division was intensively laying out the battlefield, the 360th Regiment of the 120th Division, which also belonged to the 40th Army, was also deployed by Peng Dehuai on the front line of Jiandong, Chaoyangdong, and Yunufeng in the northeast of Yunshan Mountain. It was a few points, and it was blocked there to block the enemy of Yunshan City southwest of Wenjing, making it impossible for it to go north to meet the enemy of Wenjing, and Deng Yue's 118th Division could fight this crucial battle of national prestige.
Compared with Deng Yue's ambush of the South Korean Sixth Division, the task of the 360 Regiment was not easy. The target of their ambush was the South Korean First Division. The South Korean First Division is known as Syngman Rhee's most elite army, this unit is fully armed with American equipment, trained by the Americans, unlike other Troops of Lazhuangdin, the soldiers who enter this unit are basically voluntary, so in the sense of honor of the soldiers and the attitude towards combat, they dare to fight and dare to fight. Therefore, such an enemy army is not easy to fight.
It was just that the South Korean First Division was unlucky, and they met their nemesis----- Xu Rui, the leader of the 360 regiment.
Who is Xu Rui? He was the deputy commander of the Liaoshen Campaign in the movie "Armageddon" who took a battalion and directly took the headquarters of the enemy's Liao Yaoxiang Corps in the midst of thousands of troops and horses. This man fought bravely and fiercely, fighting "sharply, accurately, and fiercely", and the 40th Army to which he belonged was known as the "Whirlwind Column", which was the main force of the Four Wild Heads and others.
If they knew the strength of Siye and the overall fighting style of the South Korean army in the early days of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, they would probably not dare to face the "sharp knife regiment" under The "Sharp Knife Regiment" under The Ten Courage of the South Korean Army.
At exactly 7:00 a.m. on October 25, when the South Korean First Division entered the ambush area of the 360 regiment, the guns and cannons were fired in unison, the flames burst into the sky, and the tongues of fire spewed out by the volunteer guns were like long-handled scythes and brushed and harvested a vote of wheat-like heads. The South Korean army desperately resisted and called on US bombers to bombard the commanding heights of the 360 regiment's ambush, and a large number of tanks charged at our army; countless shells fell violently on our positions and exploded to pieces, and the entire battlefield was suddenly filled with flames and smoke.
Without the support of air power and heavy artillery fire, the 360 Regiment, with its extraordinary tenacity and amazing will to fight, was stunned to repel wave after wave of enemy attacks. When the warrior Shi Baoshan saw that the position was about to fall, he resolutely picked up the explosive canister and pulled the fuse and rushed into the enemy position to die with the enemy.
The volunteer soldiers fought bravely, and they used their flesh and blood to make up for the lack of firepower caused by the difference in weapons. Under the fierce blows of our army, the so-called elite South Korean First Division was beaten to the head and fled.
Just an hour after the fierce blockade battle of the 360 regiment began, the 2nd Regiment of the South Korean Sixth Division pounced on it headlessly. This group of extremely arrogant soldiers, chewing gum and nibbling on apples, humming small songs in their mouths, leisurely passed under the eyes of the 354 regiment.
The officers and men of the Second Regiment of the Sixth South Korean Division probably thought that the regular north Korean army had been beaten into guerrillas, and that all that was to be done now was to sweep north and rush to the Yalu River as soon as possible. Not only do the South Korean troops see it this way, but the U.S. military also believes that there is no suspense in ending the Korean War before Thanksgiving, and now as long as it rushes north, everything will settle. As for the Involvement of the Chinese Army in the war, it is simply impossible. MacArthur was not ashamed to say:
There is no possibility of full involvement of the Chinese army, and the Chinese army that appeared in late October is a courtesy aid to neighbors with the same beliefs, with a maximum strength of only about 70,000 troops, and it will run away after a fight...
It was precisely on the view that New China would not send troops to Korea that the South Korean army maintained a high degree of agreement with the US army, and the Second Regiment of the Sixth Division of south Korea was like a caged bird frantically scurrying north in the mountains of northern Korea. At this moment, how could they believe that there were countless pairs of eyes on the mountains next to the highway staring at their every move?
The arrogance was far more than the loose discipline of the Second Regiment of the Sixth Division of South Korea. In terms of the layout of the march, the Second Regiment of the South Korean Sixth Division, full of blindness, not only did not send forward search and reconnaissance sharps, but they actually let the artillery truck drag 12 howitzers to charge in front of the infantry. As a result, due to the excessive speed of the artillery vehicle, coupled with the mountain ring road and the forest shading tree barrier, the 3rd Battalion of the 354th Regiment, which was responsible for tightening the pocket, did not find in time that the enemy army had broken through the "pocket" and was about to hit the 118th Division headquarters stationed in Liangshuidong by mistake.
Although Deng Yue, commander of the 118th Division, knew that the vanguard troops would encounter the enemy, he did not expect that the enemy army would come so quickly and went straight to the division headquarters. At this time, Deng Yue was eating breakfast, and before he could move his chopsticks, he heard the sound of popcorn-like gunshots outside the house.
When the South Korean army saw that the number of the 118th Division headquarters was small, they all drew their guns and fired, and for a time the gunshots were loud, the enemy's bullets pierced through the command car of the division headquarters outside the house, and the driver who was sleeping in the car hurriedly ran back to the house, and the division commander Deng Yue ran up the hill with the operator and the radio, and muttered to himself as he ran: "How did this Chu Chuanyu do it, and put the enemy here." ”
The sound of gunfire at the division headquarters quickly alarmed the nearby reconnaissance company, and Geng Wenbiao, the commander of the reconnaissance company, rushed to the scene, and seeing that the chief had evacuated to safety, he raised his shell gun and raised the bayonet in his hand. ”。
The South Korean army could not understand Chinese, and when they saw our army rushing forward with great courage, they had no choice but to fight in horror and face the volunteer army. Geng Wenbiao, the commander of the reconnaissance company, saw that the enemy was stubbornly resisting to the end, so he shouted: "Pick with a bayonet!" The words fell silent, and the reconnaissance company rushed toward the enemy like a flood that broke the embankment. At this time, the 353rd Regiment, which had heard the news, also attacked the South Korean army like a tiger descending the mountain. Under the offensive of the volunteer army's three strokes and five divisions, the South Korean army was suddenly picked to death, and the frightened person who was not dead sneaked into the bottom of the car to hide from it, and no matter how the generals of our army persuaded them, they did not dare to squeak and cooperate, and the volunteer soldiers had no choice but to drag the captives out of the bottom of the car.
It was also at the time when fierce gunfire broke out from the division headquarters that the 354th Regiment realized that it was the South Korean army that had escaped from the "pocket" and sneaked into the division headquarters, and the regimental commander Chu Chuanyu was horrified and quickly ordered the entire 354th Regiment to "close the door and fight the dogs" with bayonets, and a wolf-like sudden burst down, and in less than 20 minutes, the third battalion of the second regiment of the Sixth South Korean Division was completely destroyed.
After this battle, the 118th Volunteer Division destroyed a battalion and an artillery squadron of the South Korean Sixth Division in less than two hours, killing 325 enemy soldiers, capturing 161 enemy, capturing 38 cars, 12 artillery pieces, and 163 guns of various kinds. The first battle of the founding of the People's Republic of China was thus a full house, and Peng Dehuai learned that he praised happily: "Come! Give the old man an order to commend, send a telegram to praise the 118th Division of the 40th Army, and win two consecutive battles on the first day of the war. ”。