On February 1, 1950, the Guangdong Military and Political Commission held an emergency military meeting, which was presided over by the second-in-command of the political commissar of the Central South Army at the timeDiscuss the liberation of Hainan Island
Because of the importance of this battle, on January 10, before the meeting, ***, who was visiting Moscow, sent a telegram to ***, setting the tone for the meeting:On the premise of postponing the Hainan Island campaign, we must discuss specific deployment matters
At that time, New China had been established for several months, and only some areas of the mainland had not yet been liberated
On the evening of October 24, 1949, only one week after the liberation of Xiamen, our army launched the Battle of Kinmen across the sea. In this battle, our army was full of confidence, and the 10th Corps of the People's Liberation Army, which was in charge of the attack, had not tasted defeat since crossing the river, and the officers and men all believed that this would be a great victory, just like before.
Then, in the end, the battle ended in a crushing defeat for our army, and the defeat at Kinmen made our army "talk about the color of the sea" for a while, and the top level of the party also believed that the time was not yet ripe for the troops to enter the sea to fight. And ** originally planned to liberate Hainan Island before the Spring Festival in 1950, and the "shadow" of the defeat of Kinmen made *** have to change his original plan, and he asked the 15th Corps of Siye:Postpone the offensive and fight inIt is solved in spring and summer.
Now that the tone has been set, this meeting has actually become a "transmission of instructions", at which all units were strictly ordered to comply with the instructions and specific arrangements were given: First, the campaign should be postponed until June;Second, the method of crossing the sea in batches by small units was adopted to gradually strengthen the strength of our army on the islandThird, the campaign requires the use of motorized sailing ships to cross the sea, so all departments must urgently build sailing ships and purchase landing ships from Hong Kong and Macao.
**After speaking, Deng Hua, Hong Xuezhi and others all agreed, but Han Xianchu, who was the commander of the 40th Army at the time, disagreed, he believed that our army was too conservative and did not need to postpone the battle at all, relying on wooden sailing boats, with the help of the monsoon, the troops could successfully cross the sea. But this was only his idea, and it was not tested in battle, so he did not openly oppose it at the meeting.
After the meeting, he returned to the barracks of the 40 th Army and conveyed the instructions of the meeting to the officers and men, but he deliberately omitted the most crucial issue; he did not say a plan to delay the operation, but still asked the troops to hurry up preparations for war.
At first, Han Xianchu planned to take one step at a time, so that the troops were always in a state of readiness so that they could attack at any time. But an incident happened not long after that made Han Xianchu decide not to be silent anymore.
On 9 February, the headquarters of the 15 th Corps sent a telegram to the ** Military Commission, saying that it "hoped that the task would be completed in 1950," which in fact meant that the campaign would be postponed until the end of the year. In addition, the 15th Corps also proposed to change the original plan to use motorized sailing boats to cross the sea and use landing craft instead, but landing craft are expensive, and the 15th Corps will need a lot of time to raise funds.
At that time, our army's Qiongya column on Hainan Island had already appeared huge because of the lack of assistanceThe April monsoon across the Qiongzhou Strait is also approachingAfter the Battle of Kinmen, the Kuomintang had a fearless plan to ** the mainland. The situation was already very critical, and seeing that time was dragging on again and again, Han Xianchu, who had been advocating a quick victory, couldn't sit still.
On March 20, Han Xianchu called the 15th Corps and the Siye Headquarters and took the initiative to ask for battle. However, this telegram was unanimously rejected by ** and Deng Hua, who still thought that it was too hasty to attack Hainan at this time. Ten days later, Han Xianchu sent another telegram to his superiors, saying that "the time is ripe for a large-scale sea-crossing operation, and the main force can land for operation." But the telegram was still rejected by the Corps.
As a last resort, Han Xianchu could only call in person on April 7. He knew very well that this move was of great importance, and that if he was defeated, he would be severely punished, so when he signed the telegram, he did not follow the usual practice of asking the political commissar of the 40th Army and others to sign it with him, but drafted the telegram in his personal capacity. In the telegram, Han Xianchu said with a firm attitude in addition to asking to cross the sea againIf the 43rd Army is not ready, it is willing to lead the main force of the 40th Army to cross the sea and fight
In more than two weeks, three telegrams were sent in succession, and even if they were rejected, they still had to ask for war, and Han Xianchu's strong desire to fight had reached the point of being "aggressive."
After receiving Han Xianchu's telegram, he immediately submitted it to Chairman *** He had already learned of the controversy within Siye on the issue of liberating Hainan Island, and he attached great importance to this matter. The chairman carefully reviewed Han Xianchu's battle plan, and when he saw Han Xianchu recounting a battle, his heart suddenly moved. It turned out that on March 6, Han Xianchu had sent the 119th Division of the 40th Army to attack Weizhou Island. **Realize that Han Xianchu's idea is correct, and the time to liberate Hainan Island is at this time!
However, there were plans to postpone the battle, and this hasty order was given, and the soldiers were well prepared?** It was proposed that "at least the main forces of an army should be transported across the sea". To this question, Han Xianchu replied to *** again: "The entire army of the 40th Army is ready to cross the sea at any time."
** It is also neat and neat, and immediately weighed with the Military Commission, and issued an order on April 10: The whole army crosses the sea and liberates Hainan!
On April 16, the campaign to liberate Hainan officially began, and the first military commander to land on the island was Han Xianchu, and 14 days later, our army annihilated more than 30,000 enemies and completely liberated Hainan Island.
When we stand today and look back on that period of history, we will find that Han Xianchu's actions have brought great significance to our army, our party, and even the whole country. Because on June 25 of the same year, the Korean War broke out;On June 27, the U.S. Seventh Fleet broke into the Taiwan Strait. If the Hainan Campaign is postponed, the Kuomintang will inevitably use the hands of the United States to strengthen Hainan's defense forces, and Hainan Island will most likely be like the island of Taiwan, and it will not be able to return to the embrace of the motherland so far.
Han Xianchu deserves to be a great hero in the history of the Liberation War!