In 1984, Liu Changyou, commander of the 40th Division of the 14th Army of the Kunming Military Region, pointed out after leading his troops to recover the Laoshan Theater:Laoshan Mountain and Balihe Dongshan are the two gates in the Chuantou area of Malipo, Yunnan, and Songmaoling and Nala Pass are the indispensable thresholds of these two gates. The enemy will inevitably choose to fight back at us in these two places, and we must be mentally prepared.
For this reason, the command of the 40th Division of the People's Liberation Army deployed the 119th Regiment, formerly known as the first column of the Shanxi Youth Anti-Enemy Decisive Death, in these two directions.
On July 12, 1984, the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 119th Regiment resisted the 149 Heights in the direction of Nala with more than 100 people, resisting about 1,500 people from 2 reinforced battalions and 2 ** companies of the Vietnamese Army for 14 hours, repelled 21 enemy charges, killed 274 enemies, captured 1 enemy, destroyed 2 tanks, and defended the position with their lives.
Nala Pass
Heights 142 and 149, located hundreds of meters southwest of the settlement of Nala Village in Vietnam, are like two courtyard gateposts, directly inserting into the hinterland of the Vietnamese army's defense. At that time, the 119th Company of the 8th Regiment was responsible for defending the 142nd Heights, and the 7th Company was responsible for the defense of the 149th Heights. In the battle on July 12, both the 7th and 8th companies displayed national and military prestige.
The 149 Heights defended by the 7th Company are surrounded by high grounds, and about 500 meters to the northeast is the 142 Highland Group defended by the 8th Company.
The 149 highland group defended by the 7th Company is east-west, with an altitude of 300 to 400 meters above sea level, and is completely covered by the fire of the Vietnamese army's Da, Xiaoqing, Hanyang and other highlandsThe highland group is dominated by white sand soil, and the mountain soil is loose, and it is necessary to use plank timber to construct qualified tunnel fortifications.
Less than 500 meters to the east of the highland group is the Lujiang River Highway in Vietnam, which leads directly to the depth of the Vietnamese army's defense. Among them, about 150 meters south of Heights 169 is Heights 156 controlled by the Vietnamese army. If the Vietnamese infantry breaks through the 142 Heights Group or the 149 Heights Group, it will directly threaten the security of our bow area.
After receiving the task of guarding the 149th Heights Group, the commander of the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 119th Regiment, Cheng Mingyong, first led the soldiers of the whole company and the 8th Company to dig anti-tank trenches and lay mines on open ground to prevent the Vietnamese ground troops from breaking through into the deep defensive areas of our army.
In terms of troop deployment, 7 companies and 1 platoon were stationed on Heights 153;2 platoons (4 squads owed) were stationed on heights 149 and 169;The 3rd Platoon was stationed on heights 151 and 172;The 2nd Platoon and the 4th Squad served as a reserve on the northwest side of Heights 153;60 mortar platoon on the western side of the hillside of Heights No. 153;The company command post was at the top of the 172 heights.
The defensive formation of the 7th company was in a regular triangle, each platoon was equipped with 1 heavy machine gun, and the company command post was reinforced with 1 82 recoilless guns.
The night is dark and the wind is fierce, and the battle is urgent
At around 4:15 a.m. on July 12, Hao Xingxue, the squad leader who was on guard duty at the foot of the south side of Heights 169, noticed that there were people moving in the direction of Heights 156.
The company commander immediately reported to the battalion command post, and the battalion command post reported level by level, and finally, the division command said:It may be that the divisional artillery group inflicted heavy damage on the Vietnamese forward observation unit at 3 a.m. when it carried out reconnaissance fire on the west bank of the Qingshui River, and demanded that the 7th Company be more vigilant; once the Vietnamese infantry is discovered, it will first accurately guide the artillery units of the battalion, regiment, and division to cover the firepower, and absolutely not allow the enemy troops to break through into our deep area.
At this time, the 1st platoon of the 198th ** Regiment of the Vietnamese Army had already set up a formation at the foot of the mountain on the north side of the 156th Height, and crawled closer to the 169th Height.
At about 4:50 a.m., several Vietnamese soldiers lit a fire at the foot of the southeast side of Plateau 150 to guide the direction of the follow-up troops.
After the battle began, the company commander Cheng Mingyong was responsible for calling the battalion's artillery support, and the instructor Tai Shengliang led the soldiers to use light firearms to block the enemy infantry, and the soldiers of the 2nd platoon successively detonated several anti-infantry directional mines, and repelled about 1 platoon of Vietnamese troops on the south side of the 169 heights.
After a while, the 174th Regiment of the 316th Division of the Vietnamese Army dispatched a platoon to fire fiercely on the southeast side of Heights 151, and the mortar and anti-aircraft machine gun firepower of the Vietnamese troops on the Hanyang Heights were also concentrated on the southeast slopes of Heights 151The company commander became famous and walked on a walkie-talkie to remind the soldiers to be calm and not to expose the location of the machine-gun fire point too early.
The soldiers of the 3rd platoon found that about 150 meters east of the No. 150 height, there was a 1 platoon of Vietnamese troops charging;Another reinforced platoon of Vietnamese infantry approached Heights 149 from the open area between Heights 150 and 169. Wang Changrong, the commander of the 2nd platoon, found that on the southeast side of Heights 169, there were troops of a reinforced company of the Vietnamese Army attacking Heights 169 in small groups and multiple routes.
Instructor Tai Shengliang thinks:The enemy on the east side of Heights 150 was a feint, and Heights 169 was the main target of the Vietnamese army。The company command post ordered the mortar platoon to intercept the Vietnamese infantry platoon that entered the open ground between Heights 150 and 169;The 3rd Platoon discharged the Vietnamese infantry on the east side of the 150th Heights into the grenade kill range and then blocked the attack.
2 rows of heavy machine guns intercepted the Vietnamese infantry company on the southeast side of the 169 Heights, while 3 rows of heavy machine guns cooperated with 2 platoons to fight. The company commander continued to guide the battalion and regimental artillery fire support. After 15 minutes of fierce fighting, the 7th Company repelled the attack of 1 company and 2 platoons of the Vietnamese army.
At about 5:10 a.m., howitzer shells, rocket artillery, cannons, and large-caliber mortars in the deep area of the Vietnamese army suddenly opened full firepower, concentrating their firepower on the positions in the direction of Nala, and the high ground was divided into isolated islands by the artillery fire of the Vietnamese army, and fierce gunfire was also heard from the 8th and 9th companies near the defensive positions of the 7th Company, and the 3rd Company of the 3rd Battalion could only fight on their own.
At this time, the division's artillery units had already participated in the battle, and the three-layer artillery fire of the battalion, regiment, and division extended from the front of the 169 heights to the depth of the Vietnamese army's defense, but it could not stop the frantic attack of the Vietnamese infantry.
At around 5:25, the Vietnamese army dispatched two infantry battalions and pounced on the south side of the 149 Heights GroupThe company commander took the opportunity to make a decisive decision and ordered the 2nd Platoon to abandon Heights 169 and withdraw to Heights 149, and then immediately called the 100th Mortar Company of the regiment to carry out covering fire on the enemy who captured Heights 150 and 169.
The Vietnamese army had too many troops, and there was not enough cover to hide at all on the 150 and 169 heights, and they were attacked by our mortars, so they could only continue to attack our deep area, and each platoon of the 7th Company concentrated all light and heavy firearms to push the Vietnamese troops back to the foot of the hill on the south side of the 150 and 169 heights.
At about 6 o'clock in the morning, the Vietnamese troops who had captured the 150 and 169 heights suddenly turned their guns and attacked the 142 heights**, in an attempt to open a breakthrough in the 149 highlands.
The 7th Company requested the higher artillery fire to extend to the front, and then ordered the 2nd platoon commander Wang Changrong to lead 1 platoon, and under the cover of the company's main force, take the initiative to counterattack in the direction of the northwest side of the Vietnamese army.
The biggest mistake of the Vietnamese army was that it should not have invested so many troops in the Nala Pass on the terrain of the "bottom of the vegetable pot". The Nala Pass is less than 2 square kilometers in circumference and is completely covered by artillery fire from both sides, and in this place, the infantry must be covered by tunnels, otherwise they will be sent to the heads.
The 7th Company found that the artillery fire of the Vietnamese army was too fierce, and decisively abandoned the high ground without tunnels, and the main force of the company was concentrated on the No. 149 height, and the strength was only more than 100 people, which could avoid unnecessary **. On the other hand, the Vietnamese army threw more than 1,500 people into a counterattack at once, and our army's light and heavy machine guns could hit without aiming.
In addition, the artillery units directly under the 40th Division used a large number of air-burst shells and time-delay fuse shells, and the front of the position was covered with various types of mines. The Vietnamese infantry who attempted to capture the 150 and 169 heights were dead if they moved, and if they did not move, they were in a dilemma.
At the height of the fighting, the Vietnamese army also dispatched tank units to cover the infantry charging towards the 149 and 142 highland groups. As a result, the Vietnamese tanks were destroyed by our army's intensive curved artillery fire.
The 7th Company of the 119th Regiment cooperated tacitly with the higher-level artillery units, and sent a combat squad to launch a counterattack from the gap between our artillery fire, and quickly withdrew to the position after inflicting heavy losses on the Vietnamese army, always sticking to the Vietnamese army.
What Wu Li, commander of the Second Military Region of Vietnam, did not expect was that the 149 highland group of Shankou there was completely within the range of the firepower of the Vietnamese army's Da, Xiaoqingshan, and Hanyang heights. In order to capture the 149 highland group, the Vietnamese army invested about 1,500 people in 2 reinforced battalions and 2 ** companies, and the Vietnamese army's counterattack strength was 15 times that of our army, and the number of artillery was 11 times.
After paying a huge amount, it has always been difficult for the Vietnamese army to break through the 149 highland group and completely annihilate the PLA stationed in the 149 highland group. After dawn, the PLA's artillery fire was accurate and fierce, and the Vietnamese army originally planned to capture the Nala Pass and Songmaoling in three days, but the Vietnamese army suffered heavy losses after only a few hours of fighting, and the offensive was sharply reduced after that.
In order to implement the "Northern Light Plan" military operation, the Second Military Region of Vietnam has prepared 100,000 rounds of large-caliber artillery shells, which is half of Vietnam's national large-caliber artillery shell reserves, and most of the troops participating in the war are elite troops who participated in the war in Cambodia before.
The 7th Company of the 119th Regiment was at the forefront of the position, and paid a huge amount of **, only 2 platoons **20 people, of which 16 wounded held out until the end of the battle before they were willing to accept ** to the rear.
From 4:50 a.m. to more than 7 p.m., the 7th Company repelled 21 large-scale charges of the Vietnamese army above the platoon level, of which 4 were battalion-level charges, killing 274 enemies and capturing 1 enemy in front of the battle.
At about 7:25 p.m., the 7th Company, with the help of the 1st Battalion, the 1st Company and the 3rd Company, successively recaptured the 150 Heights and 169 Heights captured by the Vietnamese Army.