The Battle of Huaihai was one of the largest and most casualty armageddons in the Liberation War. In this battle, the elite of the Kuomintang and the Communists were combined, and hundreds of thousands of troops were invested in catching and fighting on the Huaihai Plain.
In the first phase of the battle, the East China Field Army, after a bitter battle, completely annihilated 120,000 people of Huang Baitao's corps. Subsequently, the Central Plains Field Army led by Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping surrounded the 120,000 people of Huang Wei's corps in a double pile, and a large-scale annihilation war was about to erupt.
The Huang Wei Corps is the trump card of Chiang Kai-shek's millions of troops. It consisted of 4 corps and 11 divisions, of which the 18th Army was Chen Cheng's army, which was one of the few all-American armament units in China at that time. Others, such as the 10th Army, the 14th Army and the 85th Army, are also elite units equipped with Japanese, American and national weapons, and their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.
It is worth mentioning the 18th Army, the commander of this unit is the famous general Yang Botao, who is a famous expert in mechanized operations. The army has a large number of tanks and chariots, which can be said to be good at attacking and defending.
Although Huang Wei's corps was extremely strong in combat, Commanders such as Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, and Chen Yi were still very optimistic. This is because although Huang Wei has strong troops and advanced equipment, he has not occupied any geographical advantages. At that time, the area where the Huang Wei Corps was located was a plain, with no cover and no danger to defend. At the same time, the people in the area have long run out of food. As a result, not only was huang wei's corps unable to find food, but even drinking water, fuel, and livestock feed were quite difficult to find. It can be said that Huang Wei's situation can be described as a real soldier Jedi.
Just as the so-called leaky house was raining overnight, just as Huang Wei was preparing to break through, Liao Yunzhou, commander of the 110th Division, the dark line under our army's early subordinates, played a key role. At that time, Liao Yunzhou volunteered to declare that he would lead the troops as the vanguard to break through the siege. Huang Wei did not know what the plan was, handed over a large number of chariots and cannons to Liao Yunzhou, and began to dream of a breakthrough. Who knew that Liao Yunzhou led the 110th Division to revolt, so that Huang Wei lost his wife and folded his troops. As a result, Huang Wei gave up his plan to break through, but stuck to waiting for help.
After the Liao Yunzhou uprising, the morale of Liu Deng's army was greatly boosted, and both Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping were very optimistic about the future war situation. On November 27, 1949, Liu Dengchen sent a telegram to the Central Military Commission, saying that "all battles can be resolved by tomorrow at the latest."
However, when Liu Deng's army launched a general attack, it found that things were not as simple as they thought. Because Huang Wei had already used chariots to form a "strange array".
It turned out that Huang Wei's 18th Army had fought with our army many times and was very experienced. Huang Wei is well aware of our army's disadvantage, that is, the lack of ability to tackle tough problems. Therefore, Huang Wei deployed four armies and a rapid column to shrink into a regiment. Then tanks, self-propelled guns, and dirt-filled trucks were formed in a circle outside, and machine guns, bazookas, and flamethrowers were arranged to lay out layers of fire nets, so that our army could not be divided and annihilated. This tactic, called "hard walnut" tactics by the Nationalist army, makes the PLA unable to move, cannot eat, and must also support the PLA to death.
On the other hand, as the main attacking party, the equipment is really unsatisfactory. In 1947, during the approach to Dabie Mountain, the Central Plains Field Army discarded most of its heavy weapons in pursuit of the speed of the march. In the Battle of Huaihai, although Nakano's equipment was replenished, the heavy firepower was still insufficient, and the column with the strongest combat effectiveness had only three mountain guns. Attacking without the cover of artillery fire simply could not suppress enemy fire.
That is to say, our army has the heart to eat "walnuts," but it lacks the tools to open "walnuts." If you break it hard by hand, you will naturally not be able to find good fruit to eat.
At that time, Nakano thought that Huang Wei was unstable in the double pile and it would be difficult to build a strong fortification, so he was assured and bold to concentrate his superior forces for a surprise attack. What they faced, however, was a long wall of steel. When our soldiers rushed to the front, the enemy immediately resisted with light and heavy machine guns and flamethrowers. Among them, the flamethrower is extremely deadly to our infantry, and a single spitfire can even ignite dozens of PLA soldiers.
Therefore, our army attacked for several days, but the progress was not great. As the lessons learned later by the Four Columns:
"First, the enemy's positions are relatively well equipped, forming a crossfire network. When our army is preparing for fire, enemy firearms and troops enter the hidden area to take shelter. When the fire of our army stopped shooting or extended fire, the enemy entered the position to carry out shooting, and often blocked our assault intersection with several machine guns, and when my commando team entered the vicinity of the enemy's antlers, all the firearms opened fire at the same time, and killed and injured our commandos in front of the position with a short crossfire counterattack. Its flamethrowers also spewed fire at our commandos, such as the battle of Li Weizi, the enemy used flamethrowers to burn more than 50 of our 10 brigades. ”
At the same time that our army launched a decisive onslaught, the enemy also showed unexpected tenacity under the supervision of strict military discipline. For example, the 14th Army ordered all units to coexist and die with the positions, otherwise they would be punished by the military company sitting law.
Therefore, the enemy army stubbornly resisted from ditch to ditch and fort, and did not dare to give up its position easily. Even if some of the enemy troops fled, the enemy troops in other positions were not allowed to enter the village. As a result, the effectiveness of our army's offensive was very small, but the casualties were very large.
The soldiers on the front line were bleeding and dying, and Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, and Chen Yi, whom Xiao Lizhuang had pointed out before, were also impatient. Chen Yi has always been quick talking, he said:
"I think we still have to find the root cause, some commanders underestimated the depletion of the combat effectiveness of the Huang Wei Corps, the chaotic situation of the troops and the defensive capabilities, and always thought that Huang Wei was the turtle in the urn, and the mood of a quick battle and a quick decision was too urgent, so that they carried out too fierce a surprise attack. Some cadres even said: "Can you still not die in a war?" Life is public, even if it is spelled out, "What is this?" Therefore, the casualties are large and the results are minimal. ”
In Chen Yi's view, we must not take the political slogan of "desperately fighting for our lives" as tactical thinking, and we must not let martyrs make senseless sacrifices; cadres at all levels must cherish the lives of soldiers, fully mobilize the masses, seriously study tactics, and use courage to add command and chop up the enemy's "hard walnuts."
As the old saying goes, "If a worker wants to do a good job, he must first use his weapon." To smash a "hard walnut," you have to have a hammer. Even if you don't have a hammer, you can actually take a stone. Although our army lacks heavy artillery, there is no shortage of gasoline barrels. And the clever soldiers of our army actually used these gasoline barrels to invent a powerful emergency weapon- flying thunder cannons.
Speaking of taking off the thunder cannon, we have to mention Chen Geng's four columns. In the 11th Brigade of the Fourth Column, there was a company commander of engineers named Nie Peizhang. He was originally a national army sapper, and when he was young, he studied in the Northeast Wutang Engineer Section. He was particularly good at making dirt weapons because of ugliness. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he invented a stone mine and blew up 3 Japanese cars at a time near Jiaokou Town, Qinyuan County, Shanxi.
During the Liberation War, Nie Peizhang was captured by our army and became a liberation fighter. For this skilled soldier, the commander of the sub-district, Li Jukui, was very caring, specially instructed him to be equipped with horses, and also gave special care in life, becoming a "special" company commander in the Taiyue Military Region. You must know that in the case of our army's relatively backward weapons, sappers who are good at making indigenous weapons are a treasure.
After many battles, Nie Peizhang had completed the task of blasting the enemy fortress many times. Our army's explosive method is mainly to use manpower to place explosive packs and explosive canisters on the edge of the enemy bunker, and then pull the lead to blow up and destroy them. However, this method had to withstand the test of enemy fire points, and the warriors often died before they could get close to the enemy bunker. Even when the explosive packets were sounded, the warriors were often affected by explosions because they could not dodge. In this regard, Nie Peizhang has always looked in his eyes and the pain is in his heart. The lack of direct firepower has made our army lame in attacking tough problems.
Nie Peizhang believes that as a company commander of engineers, he has the obligation to overcome this problem. Our army once used mortars to fire propaganda bombs and throw stones from stone pits to kill and injure the enemy, so can't we use this principle to throw explosive packs out?
First, Nie Peizhang dug a trapezoidal earth pit, and then dug a powder chamber in the lower part of the back wall of the pit, loaded it with projectiles, installed detonators and fuses, covered the medicine room with a square wooden board, stacked with earthen bags instead of explosive packs, and then lit the fuse index to ignite the projectiles, using the energy generated by the explosion of the projectiles to launch the earthen packs.
The first experiment worked well. But in the second experiment, there was a problem. This is because although the explosive pack can be thrown out, its flight posture cannot be controlled, and the explosive pack cannot explode after touching the ground.
After careful consideration, Nie Peizhang set his eyes on the waste gasoline barrels. Looking at the wide caliber of the gasoline barrel, he suddenly thought, "Why can't I transform the gasoline barrel into a cannon?" ”
So he modified the gasoline barrel, reinforced it with iron hoops, installed date wood at the bottom, and dug out the medicine room. After experiments, this gasoline barrel can indeed throw the explosive package more than 300 meters, all of which hit the intended target. Therefore, this weapon is also named "flying thunder cannon" and "explosive launcher". Some fighters also refer to it as a "dirt plane."
On the surface, the "flying thunder cannon" has many defects, the range is too close, the accuracy is insufficient, and it is dangerous to operate. But in terms of power, it is not covered. After repeated tests, the best charge of the flying thunder cannon is 6 to 8 kg, the projectile drug is 0.5 to 0.6 kg, the longest range is more than 300 meters, and the best range is 100 to 150 meters. After the explosive pack explodes, although it does not produce fragments like shells, it can produce a great shock effect, can destroy and destroy all kinds of obstacles within a radius of 10 meters, and can make the enemy with a radius of 20 meters completely lose its combat effectiveness.
Later, Nie Peizhang also installed a sight, gun mount, tripod and mechanical firing system for the "flying thunder cannon", and the accuracy of the head was also greatly improved.
Later, the Central Plains Field Army held a military training and debriefing exercise, and Liu Bocheng, Chen Yi, and Li Da watched with great interest the test firing of the flying thunder cannon. After the exercise began, the sappers fired three consecutive "flying mines" at three pre-set targets of about 300 meters. These three flying thunderbolts were all tied into balls with ropes by the warriors. Hit the ground, it will also be like a basketball, bouncing and then exploding.
Seeing the excellent lethality of the flying thunder cannon, Chen Yi said with a smile:
"I've stayed in the Ocean and haven't seen such a weapon yet. Your flying thunder cannon can hit so far, so big for you, I think, it will have an unexpected effect on combat. ”
Liu Bocheng also said: "Flying thunder cannons can not only open up passages in the obstacles in the enemy's front, but also destroy the enemy's shallow and deep fortifications, make up for our army's deficiencies in artillery fire, and will improve our army's ability to attack strong points." ”
It is true that in the history of previous wars, mankind really did not have such a native weapon as a flying thunder cannon. But there are types of such weapons. The so-called flying thunder cannon is actually a kind of mortar cannon.
Mortar gun is a large-caliber artillery, it has a short body, large angle of fire, low initial speed, short range, but powerful, mainly used to attack strong targets. As a result, many mortar guns are surprisingly large in caliber. Among them, the German World War II "Dora" giant gun, with a caliber of more than 800 mm, can even drill into a person. The power of its launch can be described as earth-shattering. The flying thunder cannon modified with gasoline barrels is actually a variant of the mortar cannon, which exists specifically for offense.
In the Battle of Huaihai, this rudimentary weapon finally played its part and made up for the lack of heavy firepower of our army. First of all, our army first used the way of tunnel operation to avoid the enemy's firepower, approached the enemy step by step, and tied the Rope of the Pigs tightly to the Huang Wei Corps.
Subsequently, our army engineers began to lay out hundreds of flying thunder guns in the trenches, just waiting for the moment when the attack began.
At 16:30 on December 6, with the roar of various firearms, the general offensive began, and the three groups of our army launched an offensive against the enemy from the east, west and south.
At the same time, the main attack troops concentrated artillery and flying thunder artillery and launched a carpet bombardment of the enemy positions. When the watermelon-shaped bomb pack fell onto the enemy position, it triggered an earth-shattering explosion. The explosion was so powerful that it shook the enemy guarding behind the fortress and chariot to pieces, and bled to death. Even if you survive, you are not crazy, you are scared silly.
Taking the Li Weizi position, which was boasted to be "impregnable," as an example, the area was almost blown into scorched earth by flying thunder cannons, many prisoners were frightened by the artillery fire of our army, many people's cotton clothes were blown into pieces, and some prisoners were dug out of the collapsed fortifications. It was a terrible fight! ”
A wounded soldier of the special service company of the enemy's 10th Division said: "When your cannons were discharged, the village was beaten like a boat, shaking wildly!" "There were more than 100 people in the enemy's special service company, and more than 80 people died in front of the powerful flying thunder cannon.
Because the enemy did not know the details of the flying thunder cannon, it was named "super powerful cannon" and "conscienceless cannon", especially "conscienceless cannon"
Gao Wenkui, a 22-year-old young sapper, made more than 80 flying mines and used more than 850 kilograms of explosives in the battle to annihilate the Huang Wei Corps. In the three battles to capture Li Weizi, Shen Zhuang, and Yang Weizi, his flying thunder array was set more than 140 meters away from the enemy, and he personally saw more than 10 kilograms of flying thunder fly up into the sky like a large watermelon, and then land on the enemy's fortifications. After a series of earth-shattering explosions, he watched with his own eyes as the enemy army was blown up like a drifting leaf.
In Shenzhuang, he commanded three flying thunder cannons and fired 22 shells, of which 21 directly hit the enemy fortifications, and the soldiers saw the divine power of flying thunder and shouted happily: "Good flying thunder, good flying thunder!" ”
At Yang Weizi, his superiors ordered Gao Wenkui to go to the flying thunder platoon to cooperate with the brother troops to bombard the enemy position at the east end of the village, and their flying thunder constantly bombarded the enemy bunker group. Suddenly, an instructor from the right traffic trench jumped out and shouted anxiously:
"Comrade Gao, how did you do it, you have to make a surprise attack, hasn't a big bunker in front of you been blown up yet?"
It turned out that he had only noticed the bombing of the bunkers, but had forgotten the bunkers at the front. At this time, the machine guns of the enemy bunkers were constantly spewing tongues of fire, and our various artillery had turned to the depth of the enemy. When Gao Wenkui saw it, he immediately shot the remaining flying thunder cannon at the enemy's bunker. Hearing only a loud noise, the fortified bunker was half blown up, and the machine gun was muted. After cleaning up the battlefield, the enemies in the bunker were all shocked to death.
Gao Wenkui's flying thunder cannon is only the epitome of the double-stacked combat flying thunder cannon. Admittedly, during the general attack on the Huang Wei Corps, Nakano's weapons were greatly improved. However, without the addition of the flying thunder cannon, it is impossible to easily break Huang Wei's "hard walnut skin".
In the earth-shaking explosion, the shell of the Huang Wei Corps was shattered piece by piece. Now that the hard bones are finished, it is time to eat meat. In the face of our bayonets and grenades, the enemy army was distracted, and began to surrender the entire platoon and the whole battalion, like water breaking the dike, and could not be stopped at all. On December 10, Huang Zihua, commander of the 23rd Division of the 85th Army, led the division and the remnants of the 216th Division, totaling about half a division, to surrender to our army. The Huang Wei Corps is at the end of its rope.
Eventually, the enemy was compressed into an area of less than 1.5 kilometers. Here, everything that can be eaten, burned, and usable has been wiped out, and tens of thousands of horses and horses can only rely on airdrops to help. There is no food and grass inside, no reinforcements outside, the weather is cold, the wounded cannot be treated, and the dead can only be violently killed.
In an emergency, Huang Wei once dreamed of breaking through the anti-human gas bomb. Who knew that this so-called poison gas bomb was only a tear-inducing elasticity, which could be restored by a few tears, and could not stop the pace of our army's siege at all.
At this time, the brother unit, the East China Field Army, also sent three columns and some artillery to join the battle. The arrival of the East China Field Army added the last handful of soil to the coffin of the Huang Wei Corps. Our army concentrated flying thunder artillery and more than a hundred artillery pieces, launched an hour-long artillery preparation against the enemy's elite "weiwu regiment" positions, and turned the enemy's fortifications into huijin.
The defending enemy fled the fortifications in a panic and basically became prisoners of our army. On the 15th, Huang Wei and Hu Lian decided to break through, and they fled in two tanks. Among them, Hu Lian escaped by chance. Due to the failure of the tank, Huang Wei had to run away in the rout, and was identified and taken prisoner. And Yang Botao? In desperation, he decided to jump into the river to commit suicide, but because the river was too cold, he had another attempt to survive, and was eventually captured by our army.
In this way, the 120,000 elite troops of the Huang Wei Corps were completely destroyed, and the second phase of the Huaihai Campaign ended in victory. In this bloody battle, Nakano paid more than 30,000 casualties, one for every 4 people, which shows how fierce the battle was. Without the thunderbolt as a secondary wing, the sacrifices of the warriors would only be more.
After the end of the War of Liberation, the equipment of our army was quite improved, but the flying thunder cannon did not leave the stage of history. In the Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the flying thunder cannons continued to exert their power, causing the Us and British troops to cry wolf and cry out, shouting that "the Chinese army used large-caliber artillery."
Nowadays, our army has long been equipped with all kinds of advanced artillery, and its power, range and accuracy are much higher than those of flying thunder cannons. But we must not forget the contribution of the flying thunder cannon to the victory of the people's army. Therefore, it records the journey of our army's blue wisps of the road, and records the wisdom and courage of our army. The victory of the people's army is no accident.