This article is the eighth in the series "Past of the Vietnam War", written by Gu Huai (pen name), a veteran of the People's Liberation Army's self-defense counterattack against Vietnam. Without permission, any media or self-media shall not reprint, and violators will be investigated for legal responsibility, and readers will forward at will.
In the early morning of February 17, 1979, when the counterattack battle against Vietnamese self-defense began, the 115th Regiment of the 39th Division of our 13th Army, heroic and tenacious, sacrificed its life and forgot its death, fought with blood, and successively conquered the support points of the Vietnamese Army's heavy fortifications, including 191, Dou Ge, 248, 194, Bo Guang, 215, 223, 305, 387, 369, and 402 Heights, and broke through the three lines of defense of the Vietnamese Army. A total of 642 Vietnamese were killed, 72 were taken prisoner, and a large amount of weaponry was captured.
Liu Company Commander of the 2nd Company who swept the graves of Liu Zengwu, a close comrade-in-arms and deputy instructor of the 2nd Company of Combat Heroes
Later, the 1st Battalion of our regiment was awarded the honorary title of "Heroic Battalion for Attacking Tough Problems" by the Central Military Commission; the 3rd Company and the Communications Company's Telegraph Service Class were awarded the honorary titles of "Heroic Company of The Mighty Enemy" and the "Heroic Telegraph Class" by the Kunming Military Region and the Chengdu Military Region, respectively; Liu Zengwu, deputy instructor of the 2nd Company, was awarded the honorary title of "Combat Hero" by the Kunming Military Region. Many units and individuals of the whole regiment have been honored and commended for their military merits.
From February 22, after completing the first phase of combat tasks, our regiment was ordered to transfer to the reserve and garrison the first line of the 369th and 387th Highlands for defense, preparing to block the reinforcements of the 316A Division of the Vietnamese Army and carry out combat tasks such as searching for mountains and clearing the mountains.
One day, Liu Yunhua, deputy regimental commander and chief of staff, walked up to the nameless heights next to the 369 heights where my company was stationed and said to me: "Go, Deputy Instructor Su, let's go for a turn." "I saw that the deputy regimental commander was carrying a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle on his shoulder in addition to his pistol. So I, like him, in addition to carrying a pistol around my waist, I also took a Type 56 submachine gun from a soldier and responded to him: "Go, deputy regimental commander!" He followed him along the ridge one by one to inspect the positions of the battalions.
When the two of us had not gone far before, the deputy regimental commander shook me with a dashing and unexpected move! Only to see him suddenly stop, a half-turned and a semi-automatic rifle bayonet provoked a green Vietnamese disc cap in the bushes on the side of the road, and after the tip of the gun drew a graceful arc in the air, the rifle fell back on his shoulder. The shot is accurate and capable, and the action is completed in one go. Then he picked up the Vietnamese military hat and walked again with a small hum.
I smiled at his back a few steps away from him, and suddenly flashed in my mind some stories about him that I had heard in the regiment just before the war:
The deputy regimental commander was not very tall, but his straight body, agile hands, deep eyes, and the wise smile that often hung on his face were born to look like a general. His skillful staff work and superb tactics from individual tactics to squad, platoon, company, battalion, and regimental tactics were admired by the whole regiment. But the most talked about is the legend about his approaching shooting. It is said that the deputy regimental commander did not need to aim at all when shooting at tens of meters, but only held the gun in front of his chest with both hands, turned his back to the target, jumped on his feet in place for a 180-degree turn, and hit the bullseye with a pull of the trigger in the air.
However, these are all rumors, I have not seen it, until this time in this counterattack against vietnamese self-defense, I witnessed his excellent skills, and since then I have deeply admired. It is precisely because of Deputy Regiment Commander Liu's excellent military quality that there are so many rumors of having tea after dinner.
It was February 17, the first day of the war, when the regiment's forward command post and the main force of the regiment were blocked by the Vietnamese army before advancing to The 248 Heights in Vietnam. A remnant of the Vietnamese bunker frantically strafed us, and the main advance of our regiment was blocked. This Viet Cong bunker was located on a narrow ridge that our regiment's main offensive passage had to pass through, and the terrain was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the position angle was extremely sharp, completely blocking our way forward.
At that time, I was lying on the slope of the path like everyone else. At this time, I saw about a squad of people, the front of the people holding a light machine gun, the rest of the personnel holding submachine guns, escorting a strong man wearing a raincoat and carrying a pistol around his waist. I saw the chief hurriedly walk up, scolding and grinning as he walked: "Old Ke (that is, the leader of my regiment), can you do it?" No, I'm on! ”
The commander of the regiment commanded loudly: "82 nothing, give me a blast!" "(i.e., the 82nd Recoilless Gun of the Regiment, go up and blast off this remnant of the bunker) Later I heard that this commander was the commander of our division.
This photo is the Moment when the Remnant Bunker of the Vietnamese Army on The 248 Heights was frantically strafed, and the main force of the regiment was blocked, but the regimental commander loudly ordered the 82 recoilless gun. The second warrior on the left side of the picture who rushed up the path to this day is still vividly remembered, he is relatively tall, and he has a lot of pimples on his face. At that time, he saw one of our compatriots and wanted to say hello to him, but when he just looked back, the officer of the propaganda unit of our regiment rushed to the front of the line and fixed the moment with his camera. Lying on the ground on the right were my comrades in the 5th Reconnaissance Squad of my Special Service Company, and I was lying on the side of the 6th position (just showing my head).
However, because of the problem of angle, the firing of the recoilless gun did not work, and the method of manual blasting could only be adopted. However, on the 248 heights, the Vietnamese army bunker had a large elevation angle, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and two fighters rushed up successively to explode, and both were shot and killed.
At this time, Deputy Commander Liu jumped out of the command post, came to the side of the attack detachment, and snatched the explosive canister from a soldier's hand. Only to see him move left and right, or roll in or crawl, using the terrain on the mountain to avoid the machine gun fire of the Vietnamese army, and actually entered the bottom of the Vietnamese bunker unharmed. When the deputy regimental commander rushed toward the Vietnamese bunker, the regimental commander's face turned white and he shouted urgently: "Pull the deputy regimental commander down!" ”
We also watched with bated breath, only to see the deputy regimental commander under the Vietnamese bunker suddenly jump up, accurately throw the blast canister into the Vietnamese bunker, and then he rolled down quickly and quickly. Finally, the Viet Cong bunker was destroyed.
This was the only time in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam that a plausible regimental-level cadre of the People's Liberation Army with a blasting canister blew up the Vietnamese fire point. From that moment on I understood that the stories I had heard before about the deputy regimental commander were true.
In the picture, the first person on the left in the front row is Liu Yunhua, who was the deputy regiment commander and chief of staff of the 115 regiment at the time, and the person standing in the back row is the commander of the ke regiment
After the war, Deputy Regiment Commander Liu successively served as the commander of the 115th Regiment, the chief of staff of the 39th Division, the commander of the 38th Division, and the commander of the Neijiang Military Sub-district.
Recalling the fierce and beautiful scenery of deputy regimental commander Liu blowing up the Vietnamese army bunker on the 248 high ground, he was quite touched by the memories of the past military camps and wars: We love peace and oppose war; but on the battlefield filled with gun smoke, we are not afraid of bloodshed and sacrifice. Time flies, and in the process of China's rise, rejuvenation, and realization of the Chinese dream, although it is far from here, the motherland will have orders and will be called back. Although I have retired, my mentality and spirit are still there, maybe this is the bloodiness of the soldiers, this is the military soul of the soldiers!