On June 4, 1953, the Korean battlefield fell silent. It seems like a very normal day.
Hidden deep in the mountains, the headquarters of the 20th Corps of the Volunteer Army was brightly lit, and an important military meeting was being held here to study the Battle of Jincheng.
The second and third phases of the combat plan. What is being discussed at the moment is how to capture the two regiments of the ROK army. 2 Highlands and Hill of Crosses. The capture of these three heights will shake the defense system of the ROK army on the front line of Jinseong, which will be conducive to the in-depth development of our army.
Zheng Weishan, commander of the Corps, proposed a crazy combat plan: to concentrate 3,500 people, in 8837. Carry out lurking in front of the enemy in the open area with dense trees below the high ground to achieve the purpose of taking them by surprise and attacking them unprepared. After the plan was announced, the venue of more than 50 people fell silent.
Zheng Weishan. Except for Zhang Zuliang, the commander of the 60th Army, and Qiu Wei, the commander of the 67th Army, no one at the scene agreed with Zheng Weishan's plan. However, the second army commander Zhang Qiu is the commander of the main attack force on the front line, and their support reassures Zheng Weishan, even if Deng Hua, the acting commander of the Volunteer Army, clearly disagrees in **, it cannot change Zheng Weishan's determination.
Ambush thousands of people in broad daylight under the noses of the enemy, and even the slightest exposure will be wiped out. Throughout the ages, except for the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, no army dared to do this, let alone any army could do it.
Harsh prerequisites for the Volunteer Army.
This is not the first time that the Volunteer Army has implemented large-scale stealth tactics. On December 31, 1950, the 39th Division of the 116th Army used clever camouflage7,500 men and 86 artillery pieces were hidden in the snow and ice for a day and night。After the battle was launched the next day, the 116th Division broke through the defense line of the ROK 1st Infantry Division in only 11 minutes. Foreign military observers marveled that Chinese soldiers had set a record that was rare in the history of warfare.
October 12, 1952, 3rd Battalion, 87th Regiment, 15th ArmyMore than 500 people lurked in the grass at the front of the 391 Heights for 17 hours, the target was not exposed when it was detected by enemy fire. After launching the attack at dusk, it completely annihilated 1 company of the 9th Division of the ROK Army in only 23 minutes, occupying the high ground in one fell swoop. In this battle, a first-class combat hero Qiu Shaoyun emerged.
Qiu Shaoyun. On May 26, 1953, the 60th Division of the 180th ArmyFour companies of 400 men formed a commando team and lurked at the foot of the square hill for a whole day。After the battle was launched, with the support of 108 artillery pieces (including 11 Katyusha rocket launchers), it broke through the defensive line in 15 minutes and completely annihilated a battalion defending the enemy, creating a model combat example of the Volunteer Army pulling out points to attack fortified positions in the positional warfare stage, which not only turned over the 180th Division, which was almost completely wiped out in the fifth battle, but also strengthened the confidence of the Volunteer Army to carry out a larger-scale lurking in front of the enemy.
In the stage of positional warfare, the biggest problem faced by the volunteers was how to break through the enemy's strong and permanent fortifications without air supremacy and insufficient artillery suppressive firepower. The solution to this problem is to reduce the distance of the infantry impact as much as possible and reduce the time it is exposed to the enemy's powerful firepower. Therefore, the extremely risky tactic of lurking in front of the enemy is not only a helpless move of the volunteers, but also an inevitable choice.
Katyusha rocket artillery.
However, there are demanding prerequisites for the implementation of this tactic.
First of all, the choice of the hiding place must be appropriate, both to facilitate concealment and to facilitate the launching of an offensive. As for how the enemy's fortifications were built, how many defenders there were, and what the terrain was like, it was also necessary to analyze and grasp in detail.
Second, personnel undertaking latent tasks must be strictly selected, and they must not only have qualified military technology and rich experience in actual combat, but they must also have a strong ideological and work style, be able to withstand cruel tests in the harsh battlefield environment, and abide by iron-like latent discipline even if they are burned in flames.
Therefore, the implementation of this tactic must be preceded by targeted training to solve all problems that may expose hidden targets. The 38th Army had conducted 6 weeks of latent training before attacking Baima Mountain, and they specially found a place where there were frogs to practice, and if the frogs barked during the march, they were deemed to have failed the training, and they practiced until the frogs did not bark.
It can be seen from this that to carry out lurking in front of the enemy, it is necessary to have a strong execution force. I thought of everything I could think of.
The victory in the battle of Square Hill greatly boosted the morale of the 60th Army, and the mood for war was high. When Zheng Weishan made up his mind to engage in large-scale lurking in front of the enemy, he handed over this arduous task to the 60th Army, which had rich experience in lurking.
The reason why 883 was chosen between the three highlands7 The target was because the enemy forces on the other two heights were already prepared. But 883The 7 heights are far from the starting positions of the Volunteer Army, and it takes a long time to meet the enemy at night. It was calculated that if the troops set out in the evening, it would take at least six hours to march to the starting position.
Volunteers. If it takes too much time to capture the enemy's position, then the time to strengthen the fortifications and replenish the troops and ammunition is too tight, and as soon as the morning dawns, it will face a large-scale counterattack by the enemy, and the troops will encounter great difficulties in the defense, which must be not small.
Therefore, by lurking in front of the enemy and fighting as quickly as possible, we can leave sufficient time for the troops holding their positions to prepare and be sure of consolidating their positions. Because of this, Zheng Weishan felt that this risk was worth taking, and it had to be taken.
According to Wang Chenghan, then commander of the 181st Division of the 60th Army, recalled many years later, the 60th Army analyzed six favorable factors for this latent operation.
First, attack 8837. The heights were taken by surprise by the enemy; Second, the cold guns and artillery of our army made the enemy dare not go outside the position in broad daylight; Third, the dense vegetation at the front of the enemy's position is conducive to concealment; Fourth, the 60th Army had experience in lurking in front of the enemy; Fifth, our army has a strong sense of organization and discipline and a spirit of dedication; Sixth, the artillery of corps and divisions can suppress the enemy's artillery, and the latent troops can immediately carry out a strong attack if they are discovered.
More than 3,000 people hid for 20 hours motionless under the noses of the enemy, which is an incredible thing to think about. How to solve the problem of eating, drinking, and Lazar? What to do if someone coughs and sneezes? How do you wear equipment so that it doesn't make a sound? How can you stay in danger after being hit by enemy fire? None of these problems will be a catastrophe if they are not resolved.
The 60 th Army mobilized the masses to raise difficulties and find solutions, and came up with many ideas. For example, keep all the cigarettes and matches behind to avoid the flare of the smoke when you smoke. Wrap several layers of cloth around areas that are prone to collision noise; Cover cough with a towel; In the lurking, the hands are relieved and buried on the spot; Step *** is not loaded, and the submachine gun jams the safety machine to prevent misfire; Dry food bags and bullet bags are all dyed in the same color as the landform of the lurking area; In case of solo activity of the enemy, ignore those who are far away and capture those who are near. In the event of an enemy detachment, the alert unit will deal with it.
After listening to the report of the 20 Corps, the leaders of the Chinese People's Volunteers, Deng Hua, Yang Dezhi, Li Da, and Li Zhimin, made thorough inquiries on the above-mentioned questions, and Zheng Weishan gave reasoned and well-founded answers to them. The plan was subsequently approved.
Yang Dezhi (right) and Zheng Weishan (the person who beat the **) died at the headquarters without a sound.
On 6 June, 259 artillery pieces of various types of the Volunteer Army took advantage of the darkness of the night to advance in batches into a forest several kilometers away from the enemy's front line, and quickly calculated the number of shots. On June 9, the 20 Corps was at a distance of 8837 An advance command post was set up at Longmen Mountain, less than 3 kilometers from the front of the highlands, where everything in the lurking area could be directly observed.
In addition to Zheng Weishan, acting commander of the 20 th Corps, and Zhang Nansheng, political commissar of the Corps, Yang Yong, the new commander of the Corps, Wang Ping, political commissar, Xu Shiyou, the new commander of the 3rd Corps, Du Yide, deputy political commissar, and some instructors of the Military Academy also rushed to the front-line command post to observe and guide.
Xu Shiyou. The reason why Zhang Zuliang, commander of the 60 th Army, firmly supported Zheng Weishan's battle plan was that the 60 th Army had carried out many experimental latent operations since it took over the defense, and successively organized 26 counterattacks against targets below the enemy's company level, of which 21 adopted latent means and all of them were successful, with a short time of a few hours and a long time of two days and nights, and the ratio of strength was basically 1:1. In other words, the goal of this offensive operation is to annihilate a regiment of the enemy, so it is enough to use 3,500 troops.
At 19 o'clock on the 9th, the assault detachments of the 179th and 181st Divisions secretly marched to their respective hiding areas as planned. By 4 a.m. on the 10th, a total of 15 semi-infantry companies and four machine-gun companies, totaling more than 3,500 people, had entered the lurking area, the nearest being less than 200 meters away from the enemy's front line.
Still, the fears were happening. During the day, the enemy repeatedly fired cold artillery into the lurking area, and many of the lurking troops were wounded. Zhang Baocai, a soldier of the 535th Regiment, was hit in the lower leg by a shell until the last drop of blood was shed, and he died without a sound. Gou Ziqing, a soldier of the 542nd Regiment, was hit in the abdomen by shrapnel, and he stuffed the intestines that flowed out of his body into his stomach, wrapped them in a towel and endured the pain until he died.
Zhang Zuliang, commander of the 60th Army.
On this day,Fighters like Zhang Baocai and Gou Ziqing emerged more than 30 in the entire sleeper force。A great creation in exchange for blood.
At 8:20 p.m. on June 10, 1953, the general offensive began. The history of the Korean war records: The enemy suddenly fired more than 10,000 shells and launched an attack on the 27th Regiment on the right flank of the 5th Division, making it difficult for people to move an inch, the wired communication was blown up, and the position was in chaos and ......」
At 8:40, as all the artillery fire of the Volunteer Army was extended, the lurking troops jumped up and launched a fierce attack on their respective targets, breaking through the enemy's defense line in only 15 minutes. Before 21:50, our troops occupied all enemy positions and basically annihilated the three battalions of the 27th Regiment of the 5th Division of the ROK Army and the search company of the division headquarters.
After capturing the intended objective, the units quickly moved to the defensive. Since 1 June, our army has fought fiercely for four days and nights with artillery support, successively repelling more than 190 counterattacks from one platoon to two battalions of the ROK army, destroying 7,812 enemy troops, and consolidating all vested positions while inflicting heavy losses on the enemy.
Volunteers. With a force of more than 3,500 troops, he lurked for 19 hours within nearly 100 meters of the front line of the enemy's position, which was unheard of in the history of world warfare. This bold tactic was a great creation created by the volunteers in exchange for blood in order to enhance the suddenness of the battle and gain the initiative on the battlefield in the face of the enemy's superior firepower.
After witnessing this battlefield miracle with their own eyes at the command post, the generals who had experienced a hundred battles were amazed and full of praise. The famous tiger general Xu Shiyou patted Zhang Zuliang on the shoulder and said: Commander Zhang has the courage to lurk thousands of people under the nose of the enemy, and by surprise, he fought a beautiful battle of annihilation! 」
In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the reason why the Chinese Volunteers were able to defeat the United States with inferior equipment and create a miracle in the history of war was due to many reasons, one of the most important of which was that they were good at boldly innovating tactics according to different combat objects and environments, and finally found an effective way to defeat the enemy, thus proving it again and againFight to winThe key is in the absence of people