In December 1949, after the Battle of Guangxi, Lin Biao set his sights on Hainan Island. On December 16, after a detailed study with other leaders of Shino, he reported to the Central Military Commission the plan to liberate Hainan Island.
On December 18, Shiye's report was delivered to Chairman Mao, who picked up the pen again and again and put it down again and again.
It was not that Chairman Mao did not want to liberate Hainan Island, but was considering how to succeed in the first battle and avoid losses from a rash attack.
The liberation of Hainan Island is fraught with difficulties for the Platon. In addition to a series of difficulties such as the lack of ships and the lack of combat experience of the troops, time is also very tight for the PLA.
The Platon Army mainly relies on sailing ships, and its dependence on wind and wind direction is very high, if the troops do not take Hainan Island for a long time, wait until the seasonal winds pass and the wind direction changes, and if they want to liberate Hainan Island again, they can only wait for the next year.
After months of preparation, the PLA is faced with two choices as the season draws to a close. The first is to immediately launch a large-scale attack on the island, and the second is to continue to carry out the submarine crossing, and send troops up like a long stream of thin water.
Han Xianchu analyzed that although small-scale submarines have been carried out on the island every time and lurked, the number is after all a minority, and it will take a long time to form a force that can resist the enemy on the island.
Now the seasonal wind is about to pass, the time is not waiting for anyone, it must be implemented as soon as possible. Moreover, there are also a certain number of fighters who sneak up, and combined with the guerrilla team on the island, it can cause a lot of trouble to the enemy's rear when a large force attacks the island.
After study and consultation, the People's Liberation Army decided to immediately carry out a large-scale operation to cross Hayden Island and quickly liberate Hainan Island.
When determining the time of the operation, the PLA not only consulted a lot of meteorological files and materials, but also communicated with the local old fishermen to learn about the situation, and finally, the combat time was set for April 16. The intended landing area of the 40th Army was Fupu Port, northeast of Lingao.
On the same day, in order to ensure that they could set sail on time, the troops boarded the ship two hours in advance, and the soldiers were full of excitement and high morale, waiting for the arrival of this day. But before the fleet could leave, the sky was covered with black clouds and the wind was blowing, but it was unfortunately not the east wind that the PLA wanted.
This really gave the PEOPLE's Liberation Army a way out of the way, and the command contacted meteorological experts, and the reply was that it was impossible to determine when the wind direction would change to the east wind. This made Han Xianchu and others very anxious, if they did not change the direction of the wind for a long time, once the seasonal wind passed, if they wanted to attack again, they could only wait for the next year, moreover, whether the warriors on the island could hold on was still a big problem, they had already begun to rush to the rear area of the enemy according to the plan.
In a hurry, Han Xianchu found the old boatman and asked when he would be able to start the east wind, and the old boatman looked at it and said firmly: "After dark, the east wind will definitely rise, and the east wind will cut off my head!" Hearing these words, Han Xianchu's brow stretched a lot, and there was no other way at the moment, he could only wait.
The old shipwright is worthy of the living weather, and as soon as night falls, the wind direction has changed, and the east wind has risen, blowing the sails of the ship.
"Soldiers are fast". The command immediately issued an order to set sail, and the fleet rushed to Hainan Island. Some ordinary people standing on the shore saw the scene of thousands of sails racing in front of them and could not help but sigh: "It is really spectacular." "
It was only a matter of time before such a large number of troops were acting at sea and were discovered by the Kuomintang, and before they had gone far, the Kuomintang patrol planes found them and frantically strafed and dropped bombs at our fleet. Many sailboats were swept away by the columns of water stirred up by the bombs.
Even so, the troops remained in formation and rushed towards their destination. Subsequently, they encountered the enemy's fleet on the road, and the enemy launched a fierce attack on our army with the large warships and fierce artillery fire. Not to be outdone, our escort brigade rushed out from both sides of the convoy and directly approached the enemy ships.
The Kuomintang troops were very jealous of our army's gunboats; they had suffered heavy losses, so they wanted to pull away and fight again, but where our soldiers were willing to give in, they braved the rain of gunfire and bullets to rush straight away, bombarding the enemy warships one after another, opening up a passage for the fleet to land on the island.
In the early morning of April 17, the People's Liberation Army reached the vicinity of Hainan Island, when the enemy attack was the most intense. The sea, land, and air were fired in unison, the enemy warships were chasing and blocking at sea, there were artillery and heavy machine guns counterattacking on the positions, and enemy planes flew over from time to time in the sky and dropped a few bombs.
The soldiers of our army are not afraid, and after countless baptisms of war, they have all understood that when the narrow road meets the brave, the brave one wins, and only by repelling and fearing the enemy is the best defense and the safest. They counterattacked the enemy while driving their sailboats toward the island.
After disembarking from the ship, the warriors stepped on the ground, the sense of solidity in the past returned, the combat effectiveness became more fierce, the sharp knives even slammed and attacked, and quickly maneuvered to break through, and the enemy had no way to take them. In less than 20 minutes, they came to the enemy's artillery position, and after eliminating the enemy defenders, they put the cannon for our army. Some of them blocked the enemy's counterattack on the periphery, and some of them began to turn the muzzle of the gun and "attack the enemy's shield with the enemy's spear." At one time, many positions of the Kuomintang army were bombed beyond recognition, the fortifications were destroyed, and some enemies did not understand what was going on, and they were bombarded to the ground by the shells of their own troops.
In some places, the soldiers on the island encountered the crazy counterattack of the defenders, many of the soldiers who rushed in front fell in the enemy's gunfire, in order to cover other comrades, some fighters were fearless, jumping forward with a bungee belt, attracting fire, heroic sacrifice, with their help, the enemy's defense line was quickly broken.
Xue Yue on Hainan Island thought that this time it was the sneak troops of the People's Liberation Army that attacked again, and the 43rd Army, which led the troops to attack from the other direction, was counter-encircled, and when Han Xianchu learned of the situation, he immediately ordered the main force of the 40th Army to march to the area and encircle Xue Yue's troops, so that a situation of encirclement, counter-encirclement, and counter-encirclement was formed between the enemy and us, layer after layer.
After being surrounded, Xue Yue knew that this was the main force of the People's Liberation Army attacking, and immediately ordered the troops to frantically counterattack and break through. Since many layers of encirclement had been formed between the enemy and us, the enemy's artillery units had also lost their role, and the two sides fought to the end and began to engage in fierce hand-to-hand combat.
In this regard, how could the Kuomintang be an opponent of the People's Liberation Army, and in the face of the mighty PLA fighters, the Kuomintang army was slowly defeated. Xue Yue knew that the general situation had gone, and after issuing the retreat order, he immediately rushed to the airport and fled by plane, leaving the Kuomintang troops to break through on their own.
The defeat was overwhelming, not to mention that the manager had already run. The Kuomintang army frantically broke through and fled to Wanning and Yulin Ports, hoping to board a ship here and cross the sea to escape. The soldiers of our army knew the enemy's thoughts, and the troops rushed to several ports while clearing the remnants of the enemy on the road.
Along the way, countless Nationalists were caught up, and they raised their hands and surrendered after a little resistance. After several days of pursuit, the PLA caught up with the enemy at wanning and Yulin ports, and many Of the Kuomintang soldiers who did not have time to board the ship became prisoners, while some other enemies fled in a hurry with warships when the PLA arrived.
Our army lacks large warships and aircraft, and can only watch them slip away from under our noses. However, this can hardly hide the great victory of the fighters in liberating Hainan Island.
After hearing this news, Chairman Mao ate three meals of braised pork in a row, which shows how great a victory the liberation of Hainan Island was.
Text/tls