The Sino-Vietnamese self-defense counterattack in 1979 was the last large-scale war experienced by the squadron in modern history, and it was also a battle that attracted much attention.
In this battle, the artillery of the squadron "bayonet" at a distance of 200 meters from the enemy, and quickly destroyed the enemy with cannons, which greatly shocked the Vietnamese army, because they did not expect the squadron to be able to use artillery so flexibly, just like using machine guns.
The war is both familiar and alien to the hearts of the Chinese, and although the historical record is often obscure, it is certain that it was an extremely brutal war. The capture of Cao Ping was an important battle in this campaign.
In 1979, the 42nd Army of the Chinese Army set out from the Layout Pass and Shuikou Pass, and the task was to intersperse and encircle Dongxi, capture Gaoping, and occupy the two compounds. The terrain of Vietnam is mostly karst, with a large number of natural karst caves. Taking advantage of this, the Vietnamese army placed a large number of fire points in the caves on the hill to block the advance of the 42nd Army.
In the face of this hard bone, it was believed that the fire coverage of the howitzer was not ideal, and after large-scale preparations, it was impossible to bombard the enemy in the cave. Only the use of direct-fire artillery can effectively kill the enemy.
However, the terrain was difficult to transport large-caliber artillery up the mountain, so the infantry had to rely on recoilless artillery, rocket launchers and 85-mm small-caliber cannons for attack. On the evening of February 16, 1979, the artillery unit of the 152nd Division was ordered to occupy the front-line firing position, and the 7th Company commanded the artillery unit to advance step by step.
Everyone worked together to push the artillery to less than 300 meters from the Vietnamese position. At dawn the next day, the general assault began, and the whole company immediately launched a heavy artillery bombardment, which caught the Vietnamese off guard. They did not expect to encounter the artillery positions of the PLA at such a close distance.
Under intensive artillery bombardment, the Vietnamese army suffered a heavy blow and began to retreat. During the Vietnam War, our infantry launched an offensive, and the Vietnamese army hid in caves and tried to stop our army from advancing with machine gun fire.
Our soldiers quickly used cannons to suppress the enemy's firepower, destroyed 19 enemy fire points, opened a channel for friendly troops to advance, and helped the infantry break through the enemy's defense line. Subsequently, the 7th Company was ordered to continue to advance and support the infantry in the battle.
However, when our troops approached the unnamed heights on the northern side of Vietnam, the enemy was aware of our army's plan of action and began to use machine guns and submachine guns to build a network of fire to block the advance route of our troops. Our troops decided not to exchange fire with the enemy, but to adopt the tactic of pushing artillery up the mountain.
First of all, use bazookas and light cover to break through the enemy's blockade, quickly occupy positions, push artillery to a position only 600 meters away from the enemy, and carry out close shooting.
Despite the fact that the enemy occupies high ground, we are at the bottom of the mountain, and the effect of attacking with rocket launchers is limited, our fighters, in order to ensure the continued advance of the rear troops, resolutely rushed to the front line, attacked the enemy's fire points, and bought time for the deployment of cannons on the front line. After the cannon was deployed, 600-meter fire was fired at the enemy position, and the Vietnamese army quickly retreated.
Realizing that it could not confront our army head-on, the Vietnamese army turned to guerrilla tactics, built a multi-layered firepower network, and implemented cold guns and cold artillery, but our army still resolutely eliminated the enemy's firepower points and advanced steadily. Soon, the 125th Division of our army attacked the enemy's heavy stronghold, and the Vietnamese troops condescendingly fired at our infantry, and the enemy on the hills behind the flanks posed a threat, and the terrain was extremely unfavorable.
Therefore, our army decided that the seventh company would aim the vast majority of the artillery at the enemy position, and the remaining artillery would be responsible for the flank and rear defense, so as to ensure that any enemy force could be immediately eliminated if it appeared. The Vietnamese had set up anti-aircraft machine guns and heavy machine guns in the caves to block the mountain roads and make it difficult for the infantry to attack.
However, the 7th Company drove a truck to brave enemy fire, successfully entered the high ground, and aimed at the target. Our troops chose hidden paths, allowing soldiers to push their artillery forward, using grass and houses as cover to push artillery hundreds of meters away from the enemy for deployment. Destroy enemy caves with high-explosive shells and bury them inside.
However, there are not many caves that are easy to collapse like this, and most of the natural caves are unusually strong, so our army decided to concentrate its firepower on destroying the enemy's firepower points and natural caves to prevent the enemy from reoccupying them. The situation on the front line was tense for a while, and our artillery continuously crushed the enemy's fire positions like whack-a-mole.
From time to time, the enemy infantry hit the protective shield of our artillery, which put great pressure on the aiming and operation of the artillery soldiers, but the soldiers did not care. In the next 30 minutes, the company fired a total of 27 artillery shells, destroying 11 Vietnamese firing points. With the sound of Vietnamese machine-gun positions, our infantry began to penetrate deep into the enemy position.
By February 19, our infantry and tank units met up and launched an offensive against enemy strongholds. However, on the way forward, the enemy discovered the position of our troops and launched an attack on our troops. Soviet-made baby anti-tank missiles were constantly fired from enemy anti-tank positions, our artillery bravely destroyed enemy targets, and cannon units were deployed at a distance of only 1,700 meters from the enemy.
During this attack, our troops destroyed a total of 31 enemy fire points and successfully covered the advance of tank and infantry units. In order to ensure the advance of the troops, our soldiers even forcibly launched an attack when they knew that the enemy had laid mines, firing artillery while clearing mines.
In this case, our army fired a total of 103 shells, destroyed 23 enemy fire points and two command headquarters, and brilliantly fulfilled the combat mission. The "bayonet" tactics of artillery on the battlefield are remarkable. After the battle, our troops, while cleaning up the battlefield, found a diary of a Vietnamese officer, in which he recorded his shock at Chinese tactics.
He described how they used the artillery as if it were machine guns, pushing to less than 200 meters from the Vietnamese army**, causing great psychological pressure on their troops, making everyone feel that they were in danger and not knowing which one would send them into the sky. This passage confirms from the Vietnamese military the extreme effectiveness of this tactic of our army.
Because during the battle, our army boldly changed the rules for the use of artillery, and used artillery as close firepower, causing extremely serious casualties to the enemy and achieving brilliant results.