To fulfill the requirement of "fighting a good battle," commanders and fighters closely monitored the enemy as soon as they took up their positions.
The first good news came from the direction of the 6th Company of the 542nd Regiment of the 181st Division.
On October 25, 1951, the 542nd Regiment began to take over the defensive task of the 608th Regiment of the 203rd Division of the 68th Army, and the defense was completed on the 28th. Regiment commander Wu Zhankui observed the enemy's situation and terrain on the side of the regiment for a long time; the enemy's terrain was above 800 meters, and most of the regiment's positions were at a height of about 500-600 meters. The enemy's firepower is strong, which is easy to cause casualties to us. He also found that the enemy's reconnaissance was frequent and the shelling was increasing, and judged that the enemy might take advantage of our change of defense and gain an unstable foothold and make a surprise attack on the 510 or 662.0 heights. Therefore, the forward detachment was urgently ordered to strengthen its defense and carefully observe the enemy's movements: it quickly drew up a plan for counterattacking the enemy's surprise attack, designated the howitzer artillery under the command of the regiment and the regimental 120 mortars and 82 mortars for test firing, monitored the direction in which the enemy might attack, and made preparations to support the infantry to resist the enemy.
Wu Zhankui's culture is not high, he fights bravely, has rich experience, and is thick and fine. This time his foresight was quickly confirmed. At 12 o'clock on October 31, the enemy bombarded the 510 heights held by 6 companies and 1 platoon with artillery, and more than 1,500 shells fell on this small hill, destroying all the field fortifications and seriously damaging the fortifications. At dusk, the enemy did not launch an attack, and Wu Zhankui ordered the forward detachment not to let down its vigilance, and ordered the regimental observation station to carefully observe the enemy situation.
Just after midnight, at 0:30 a.m. on 1 November, the 3rd Division of the South Korean Army dispatched two more companies of troops to attack the 1st platoon position. Wu Zhankui ordered the artillery to fire quickly and concentrate on the enemy's attacking formation.
The 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion calmly responded to the battle, suddenly firing when the enemy was placed at thirty or fifty meters, repelling wave after wave of enemy shocks and holding the position. At dawn, the 6th Company and 1 Platoon repelled 12 enemy attacks, killed and wounded more than 200 enemies, captured more than 40 American-made carbines (semi-automatic rifles), and 2 machine guns. The first battle of the 60th Army was successful, and the commander of the army immediately sent an order to the General Jia to give the 1st platoon a collective third-class merit.
After the squad leader was injured, the new soldier Tan Yuanshen took the initiative to command the whole squad to repel the enemy's attack four times, and honored the second class merit once.
In the direction of the 540th Regiment, as soon as they stepped on the position, they were attacked by 1 company of the 28th Regiment of the South Korean Army, and they used close combat firing, fire pursuit and other tactics to annihilate more than 50 enemy troops and hold the position.
Commander Zhang Zuyu came to the military headquarters with the trust of his superiors and the expectations of his comrades. Each division sent a responsible cadre to the military headquarters to bid farewell to Commander Wei Jie and welcome Commander Zhang Zuyi. Yao Xiaocheng, chief of staff of the 179th Division, as the representative of this division, lived in an air defense bunker with Zhang Zuyu after arriving at the military headquarters.
Zhang Zuyu inquired about the situation of receiving defense, and Yao Xiaocheng said: The defense has been taken over, the deployment has been readjusted, the fortifications are being strengthened, and cold guns and cold guns have been launched. Zhang Zuyu said, how to fight next? Yao replied, I haven't studied it yet. Zhang said: In order to fight out, we must not hold our positions, fight out to annihilate the enemy, and train our troops. Yao Xiaocheng said, yes. Zhang Zuyu talked to many comrades, learned about the situation in all aspects, and worked humbly and meticulously. Regarding the losses suffered by the 180th Division in the Fifth Campaign, he did not judge the problem, but led the troops to fight a good battle in the spirit of looking forward. When he took office, his superiors had already sent telegram instructions to change the 180th Division into an independent division of the Volunteer Army and to transfer the 33rd Division to the 60th Army.
The members of the military party committee and the leading comrades of the 180th Division have an indescribable feeling that the morale of the whole army is now high and they are eager to fight, especially the momentum of the 180th Division's determination to turn around has been fully drummed. If this matter spreads, the number of the 180th Division will be gone, and any turnaround battle will inevitably dampen their enthusiasm and even have an impact on the whole army. Li Zhongxuan, commander of the 180th Division, Wang Zhenbang, chief of staff, and Yuan Benhui, director of the Political Department, did not convey it downward after studying. Zhang Zuyu believed that it was right not to convey it for the time being, and he once told the chief of the Volunteer Army and the head of the 3rd Corps that this unit was doing well in China and had a good foundation. The reasons for not doing a good job in the fifth campaign are very complicated, and in the future we will be modest and prudent, work with one heart and one mind, and ensure that we will do a good job. After understanding and studying the basic situation of the whole army, he proposed to the head of the corps to retain the 180th Division, and won their support. He personally reported to the headquarters of the Volunteer Army. He said that the cancellation of the number of trumpets would have too great an impact on morale, and now the whole army is united in unity and determined to fight a good battle. He suggested that the number of the 180th Division should still be retained and that it be guaranteed to be done well in the future. The head of the Volunteer Army agreed with him.
Zhang Zuyu announced the decision of his superiors at the military party committee: "The 33rd Division is temporarily returned to the 21st Army structure, and the 3 divisions of the 60th Army will not change. When the leading comrades of the 180th Division heard this news, their mood was even higher, and they mobilized and organized everyone to fight for breath, win glory for the motherland, add glory to the volunteer army, add new honors to the 180th Division, and must fight a good turnaround battle.
After investigation and study, Zhang Zuyu listened to the opinions of all quarters, and studied with Wang Chenghan, Deng Shijun, and Zhao Lantian on many occasions how to fight a good battle. In accordance with the general intentions of their superiors, they finally decided to start with "small" battles, train troops in positions, gain experience, and gradually expand the scale of operations. In terms of specific tactics, we should first carry out cold gun and cold artillery activities, and carry out "shooting live targets" in the entire front of our army.
The principal leading cadres of the army and divisions have all gone down to the grass-roots level and have found specific guidance at the forefront, and each regiment is responsible for the specific organization and implementation of cadres. The defensive positions of the 60th Army are staggered with the enemy positions, about 2,000 meters away from the enemy's front, the nearest 100 meters, and generally around 500 meters, facing the enemy across the mountain. Relying on the superiority of artillery and aviation firepower, the enemy deceived the volunteers with few artillery pieces and the close firing distance of weapons, so the enemy moved more on the position during the day, looking at the terrain, repairing fortifications, transporting materials, and even drying clothes, playing basketball, and turning over horizontal bars on the position. Therefore, the first echelon regiments, battalions, and forward companies were organized to shoot experts, machine guns on duty, and artillery, and to hide in places that were easy to observe and easy to carry out firepower, select 2-3 firing positions, and suddenly open fire after the enemy came out to destroy the enemy. In order to prevent retaliation from enemy fire, a shot (cannon) is fired to change places.
In the beginning, some comrades lacked understanding of the role of "shooting live targets," believing that if we fired one shot, the enemy would still shoot ten shots, we would fire 10 shots, and the enemy would fire up 100 shots. After the pilot project and the specific guidance of the leading cadres, the forward company carried out this activity very effectively, and the enemy did not dare to move easily, and shrank into the fortifications. Zhang Zuyu and Wang Chenghan went to various units to sum up experience and gradually raise the level of "hitting live targets." Since then, the enemy has been less active in the position, but some things must come out, such as defecation, communication, supplies, and other activities that must be exposed, but the movement is faster and the time is shorter. Therefore, all units have also improved the method of "shooting live targets", designating shooters, machine guns, and artillery to monitor the enemy's inevitable path and the place where they must come out, calibrate the firing elements, and immediately open fire as soon as the target is found, thus effectively improving the shooting technology and providing an excellent opportunity for the shooters to practice shooting.
A group of sharpshooters have emerged in the "live target". Yang Chiwen, a soldier of the 5th Company of the 540th Regiment of the 180th Division, who was guarding the 572.4 heights, was one of them. After he was selected as a company sniper, he closely monitored the enemy. In early November, he spotted three enemies west of the Bukhan River moving north along the ditch, and when the enemy was about 300 meters away from him, he aimed at the enemy running in the front, pulled the trigger, and the enemy fell down with a gunshot. Observers reported that "hit". Yang Chiwen observed, but it was not the one in the front who hit, but the last enemy; it turned out that the direction he was aiming at was right, but the mountain angle shooting was easy to mistakenly approach and far, which was an error in measuring the distance. He summed up the experience, and then looked for battlefield objects for test firing and practice, and felt the law. Soon, he found that one of the enemy cooks was delivering food, Yang Chiwen aimed at the enemy's waist and shot, and the bullet point was displayed in the enemy's rear, shooting more than 20 bullets in a row, and using "bullets" to send the enemy nearly 200 meters. So he quickly changed the firing method, took the advance amount, found a tree in front of the enemy's march to aim at the standby, when the enemy entered the gap in the sight, he decisively fired, knocking the enemy down; then another enemy came up, and he used the advance amount of aiming and shooting, hitting the enemy again. Soon, two enemies came out to pull corpses, yang Chiwen used his experience in shooting at moving targets, hit an enemy again, this day, he "hit a live target" on the moving target, knocking down 5 enemies.
Later, with the cooperation of his comrades-in-arms, he constantly changed positions and changed shooting methods, and for fixed targets, he adopted precise aiming and shooting; for moving targets, he used standby shooting and follow-up shooting; he also skillfully dealt with the enemy's retaliatory shooting, and later developed to block the enemy's fire point. Yang Chiwen summed up his experience while fighting, improved himself, and also introduced his experience to his comrades-in-arms. In 40 days, he hit 103 enemies by himself "hit a live target" and trained 39 counter-attackers. Their snipers also cooperated with the duty artillery of the 60 guns, 82 mortars, and recoilless artillery detachments, shooting at distance and gunfire at close range. Group target gunfire, single target gun shooting. The results of the battle are getting bigger and bigger. In order to lose the cold gun and cold artillery activities, the military party committee trained more snipers and gave Yang Chiwen a first-class merit.
The commanders of all divisions and regiments carefully organized the "shooting of live targets." Wu Zhankui, commander of the 542nd Regiment, specifically explained the tasks and summed up the experience. Li Yuangui, deputy platoon commander of the mortar platoon of the 1st Artillery Company, killed and wounded 25 enemy soldiers with 28 shells. Rifleman Jia Hanmin, killed 4 enemies with 5 bullets. Wu Zhankui summed up their experience in a timely manner, and the regimental party committee separately gave them meritorious deeds and promoted the whole regiment's activity of "hitting live targets."
In addition to the small artillery participating in the cold artillery shooting "live target", the 76.2 field artillery of the later military artillery regiment also participated in the battle of "hitting the live target". Regiment commander Zhang Liankui personally organized experiments, gained experience, and promoted them in the legion. By the end of 1952, a total of 16 enemy tanks, 6 artillery guns, 10 machine guns, and 7 cars had been destroyed or wounded by the end of 1952.
The whole army's "shooting of live targets" is unfolding on all fronts, which is not only a battlefield training, but also a battle to gain the initiative and effectively strike at the enemy. The more skillful everyone is, the more lively the tactics are, and the higher the mood. In the two months of November and December 1952 alone, snipers of the whole army used cold guns to annihilate 1,437 enemies, an average of 23.6 enemies per day; cold artillery annihilated 1,678 enemies, killing and injuring an average of 25.8 enemies per day; this activity accounted for 75.7 percent of the total number of enemies annihilated by the whole army in the same period. It also destroyed and damaged 7 enemy tanks, 13 cars, and 13 artillery pieces of various kinds, which effectively dealt a blow to the enemy's arrogance, and the price paid by himself was extremely small. If analyzed from the principle of consumption ratio, this method of warfare is much more economical than the ratio of results and consumption of offensive or defensive battles.
On Yuyin Mountain, the anti-aircraft machine gun company of the 536th Regiment was deployed, and as soon as they took up their positions, they launched live shooting at the air. On October 28, 1952, the second day of the high-altitude machine company's position, they used this thousand-meter high mountain to form a crossfire network of anti-aircraft machine guns. Soon 4 enemy planes attacked, and the shooters took advantage of the terrain to open fire. The shooter Li Zhenmin shot 1 enemy plane at one point. In November and December they shot down another 16 enemy aircraft. The high mountains, the firing range was wide, and made up for the shortcomings of the anti-aircraft machine guns with a short range, they played to their advantages, improved their tactics, and suddenly opened fire. By April 1953, the company had shot down 24 enemy aircraft and wounded 29. They are known as the "Orion Village" on Yuyin Mountain.
The second method of warfare adopted by the 80th Army was to carry out small detachment combat activities. It's a special style of combat, and it's a method of warfare created under specific confrontational conditions, which is different from attack, defense, and attack. It is a combination of various combat specialties, and relying on a stable defense system, to send small detachments of varying sizes, or three or five people, or more than ten to twenty people, to intercept and annihilate the enemy who attacks and disturbs our positions by adopting the tactics of setting up ambushes in front of the front and waiting for work.
Soon after the whole army changed its defenses, the enemy's reconnaissance detachments and small groups of infantry often went to the front to attack and harass, and some even inserted themselves into the flank of our forward positions and attacked and harassed them. According to the characteristics of the enemy's activities, they first intercepted and annihilated the enemy in front or behind our side and captured the enemy scattered troops. Several interceptions in November worked, and the enemy was intimidated and narrowed the range of activities. The military leaders studied various battle situations and asked all departments to gradually push the activities of small detachments to the front of the enemy. Thus, the second step is to move in the buffer zone between the enemy and the enemy. The third step pushes the focus of the struggle to the enemy's front, and also attacks the enemy's forward targets at a favorable time. This method of warfare is very effective, there is no ordinance, let alone special teaching materials, and it is a creation that proceeds entirely from reality. According to statistics from November and December, the whole army went out to carry out 234 detachment activities, fought with the enemy 42 times, annihilated 348 enemies, and captured 34 enemy. Compared with the requirement of the superiors on the Korean battlefield for one army to annihilate the goal of annihilating 1 battalion of the US army and 1 regiment of the South Korean army in a monthly battle, although it was not met, the number of annihilations of the enemy combined with the cold gun and cold artillery activities and the activities of the small detachment was a victory. At the same time, it has created conditions for gradually expanding the scale of annihilation of the enemy in the future.
The third method of warfare they adopted was to carry out a political offensive, which must be based on the victory of the battle and interact with the battlefield.
In accordance with the instructions of the General Political Department and the Political Department of the Volunteer Army on "isolating the US army and disintegrating the puppet army (South Korean army)", the party committee of the 60th Army attaches great importance to the work of dismantling the enemy army. The military chief divided the work to lead the work, and the military political department and the headquarters analyzed the characteristics of the 7th Division, the 3rd Division, the 5th Division, and the 20th Division of the South Korean Army and the 1st Company of the US 10th Army in front of the army, and launched a political offensive. At that time, the enemy was in a state of attrition and war weariness grew. Our army's positions have been consolidated, our artillery has increased, logistics supplies have been guaranteed, morale is high, tactics are flexible, and the time is ripe to launch a political offensive. If we cooperate with active combat, we will certainly be able to achieve good results.
The Military Political Department drew up two sets of plans for dismantling the enemy under the conditions of confrontation and disintegrating the enemy in offensive battles. It also formulated the basic content of "isolating the US military and disintegrating the puppet army." Under the conditions of confrontation, it was mainly carried out in the form of distributing propaganda materials, returning enemy corpses, releasing prisoners, and broadcasting propaganda. The disintegration of the enemy army in offensive battles is mainly carried out in the form of shouting in combination with military strikes, preferential treatment of prisoners, and increased influence.
The Military Party Committee and the Political Department launched three large-scale political offensives specifically aimed at the characteristics of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring festivals, combined with regular uninterrupted offensives, distributing a total of 600,000 copies of leaflets and other propaganda materials, transmitting 1,946 letters, sending 750 peace badges, 1 self-made "Santa Claus" by soldiers, 684 slogans, 189 cartoons, 1154 calendar cards, 63 peace mailboxes, 1748 propaganda gift bags, 408 pounds of fruit candy, 121 fish, 400 pounds of rice cakes, and 82 bottles of wine , apple 176 pounds. Return 5 corpses of enemy troops. A number of wounded and sick prisoners were released from the positions. At that time, the means of broadcasting were backward, and all levels tried to combine "foreign" broadcasting equipment with "soil" broadcasting equipment, broadcasting 1,028 times, about 1,173 hours. There were 1475 shouts before the battle, about 1440 hours. They also organized some people to conduct social investigations and do a good job in the work of puppet military dependents. These activities have reduced the fighting spirit of the enemy army, so that some enemies do not resist in battle, some find that our army does not report or take the initiative to shoot at the activities of the position, some take the initiative to surrender their weapons in battle, and some surrender, thus shortening the battle time and reducing the casualties of our army. In January and February 1953, dozens of South Korean troops surrendered on average every month on the front of the 60th Army, which was greater than the results of offensive battles on the scale of a company or battalion. In three cases, after being captured, after being released through education, they still felt that the volunteers were good to them, so they returned to surrender. Some people use half-baked Chinese words as soon as they meet: "Yours, Mao Zedong's, is good!" Some of the surrenderees took the initiative to point out the enemy's fire points and hidden fortifications, and some taught the volunteers to use the captured American weapons and equipment.
Battlefield shouting also played a great role, on January 5, 1953, the 9th Company of the 535th Regiment attacked the unnamed highlands northeast of the 883.7 Highlands, conquered the enemy bunkers, and used the shouts to win the surrender of 6 enemy troops.
The work of dismantling the enemy has further boosted the morale of our army and clarified many vague understandings. In the beginning, some comrades believed that "modern warfare is more useless than steel and technology, and the work of dismantling the enemy army is useless." "Foreigners are useless to us, and it will cause trouble to capture or surrender." "If you let the prisoners go for fear of exposing military secrets, it is better to kill them to save trouble." "The battle is so intense, it is difficult to bring down their own wounded martyrs, but they can really take care of the prisoners." These incorrect understandings, through patient and meticulous education and the achievements of the work of dismantling the enemy army, were successfully resolved, so that this work was done better and better, and effectively cooperated with the progress of the battle.
They held their positions, "hit live targets," disintegrated the enemy, resisted the enemy's attacks, vigorously carried out the activities of small detachments, achieved gratifying results, became familiar with the enemy's situation and terrain, summed up actual combat experience, and created some new tactics for defeating the superior enemy with inferior equipment.