At the beginning of 1953, ** reported to *** on the situation of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea, which coincided with *** asking: "Lao Peng, among the first batch of several armies to enter North Korea, which army performed the best in battle with the US army?" ”
** After thinking for a moment, he replied: "In my opinion, it is the 42nd Army, and they are outstanding in both offensive and defensive aspects. * nodded approvingly, and said, "Since this is the case, then transfer the 42nd Army back, and you can handle it immediately." ”
** Confused by this, the 42nd Army performed well on the Korean battlefield, why should it be transferred back home? What's the meaning behind this? What does this mean?
The 42nd Army entered the Korean War in 1950. At that time, they were carrying out the task of reclamation in the Daxing'an Mountains of Heilongjiang, and the Central Military Commission was in charge of it.
At noon one day in mid-July, Wu Ruilin, commander of the 42nd Army, received a letter from Gao Gang, commander of the Northeast Military Region, informing him that there was an emergency and he needed to be interviewed. Wu Ruilin knew that the matter was urgent, and immediately rushed to Qiqihar Railway Station and boarded a special train to Shenyang.
After getting out of the car, he and his secretary took a car directly to Gao Gang's residence, and as soon as they entered the door, they saw Gao Gang and He Jinnian, deputy commander of the Northeast Military Region. Gao Gang said to Wu Ruilin: "This time we sent a special car to invite you because we want to convey to you the instructions of the CPC and the Military Commission and accept the new tasks of the Central Military Commission. ”
Then, Gao Gang conveyed his analysis of the current situation to Wu Ruilin, and said solemnly: "According to the current situation, the Military Commission ordered your 42nd Army to assemble on the front line of Tonghua and Meihekou within 7 to 10 days.
At present, only your 42nd Army and artillery column in the northeast are engaged in production here, and I have no other troops ...... in my handsSubsequently, He Jinnian took out the military transportation plan that had been prepared long ago to convey the deployment to Wu Ruilin.
Gao Gang continued: "Time is urgent, the task is arduous, you better hurry back and prepare!" This matter must be kept secret, no **, no telegram, can only explain the task in person, do you hear clearly? ”
Wu Ruilin hurriedly replied: "Report, resolutely carry out the order!" ”
When night fell, Wu Ruilin returned to the military headquarters and immediately convened a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Military Party Committee to convey to everyone the orders of the Communist Party of China and the Military Commission and the tasks of the 42nd Army.
In the course of the discussion, Wu Ruilin gathered everyone's wisdom and made the following three decisions: First, the headquarters of the 42nd Army was moved to Tonghua, the 124th Division was the first echelon and assembled in Tonghua, the 126th Division was assembled in Linjiang Dali Temple east of Tonghua, and the 125th Division was assembled at Meihekou.
Secondly, the production tasks of the 42nd Army were transferred to the localities. Finally, the organs and units under the army immediately notified the personnel of all units who had gone out to perform their duties and rushed to the designated place to assemble and return to the unit.
In mid-July, the 42nd Army was stationed in the Tonghua area. Two days later, one night, the head of the Northeast Military Region again sent a special car to pick up Wu Ruilin and military political commissar Zhou Biao to Shenyang to discuss matters.
After arriving at the Northeast Military Region, Gao Gang, He Jinnian, and Zhou Huan, director of the Political Department of the Northeast Military Region, were waiting for them. After listening to Wu Ruilin's report on the assembly of troops, Gao Gang, He Jinnian, and others were very satisfied with their performance.
Gao Gang said: "You move quickly, assemble quickly and safely, and work in the same style as in the war years!" Soon after, Wu Ruilin and Zhou Biao hurried back to the army, and then held a meeting of the military party committee to convey the spirit of the meeting to everyone.
Wu Ruilin said: "This time our opponent is the US military, which has powerful equipment, and we must not take it lightly. After crossing the river, new situations and enemy movements should be reported in a timely manner so as to make preparations for the next step.
Moreover, this is the first time for our army to go abroad to fight, and we may encounter unprecedented difficulties, but we must give full play to our army's tenacious work style of being good at overcoming difficulties, actively overcome difficulties, and not raise difficulties to our superiors! ”
On October 8, 1950, the great leader *** issued an order to form the Chinese People's Volunteer Army to fight in Korea, and appointed Comrade *** as the commander and political commissar of the volunteer army.
Subsequently, the 42nd Army accepted the combat mission, and on October 12, the military party committee was convened to carry out mobilization and deployment into the DPRK. At 6 p.m. on October 16, the vanguard reconnaissance unit of the 42nd Army successfully crossed the Yalu River and advanced 100 kilometers.
At the same time, Xiao Jianfei, deputy commander of the 124th Division, led the 370th Regiment to cross the river smoothly and advanced more than 30 kilometers. On October 17, the Volunteer Army Headquarters urgently ordered all divisions of the 42nd Army and the 8th Artillery Division to assemble in the area of Ji'an.
However, Wu Ruilin received another order from the headquarters in the afternoon of that day: "Stop advancing and stand by in place." It was not until October 19 that Wu Ruilin received the order to cross the river.
He bid farewell to the last rays of sunset on the northeastern border of the motherland, commanded more than 50,000 volunteer soldiers, and safely crossed the Yalu River in only seven hours. The enemy reconnoitred from the air three times in succession, but failed to detect the movements of our troops.
Shortly after entering Korea, the 42nd Army won the victory in the Huangcaolyeong Resistance Battle, laying the foundation for the victory of the first battle to resist US aggression and aid Korea. According to the deployment of "attacking the west and defending the east", the 38th Army, the 39th Army and the 40th Army were responsible for combat missions on the Western Front, while the 124th and 126th Divisions of the 42nd Army were to contain the enemy forces on the Eastern Front near Huangcaoling and Battle Ridge on the Eastern Front, and the 125th Division was to cooperate with the 38th Army to annihilate the enemy on the Western Front.
In the eastern battlefield of the Korean Peninsula, the 42nd Army of our army was given the arduous task of guarding, and what they needed to hold on to was Hwangcaoling. The geographical location of this important military point is very important, and if the enemy forces can pass through it, it will pose a threat to our army's eastern front, and may even carry out an east-west flanking attack on our army, putting our army in a dangerous situation.
Therefore, the responsibility of guarding Huangcaoling is very heavy, which is why General *** let the 42nd Army stay here. The terrain conditions around Hwangcaolyeong are very suitable for defense, but the weather in North Korea is not good, and the temperature in October has dropped to minus 10 degrees, which is a big challenge for the volunteers.
In addition, there is also a big gap between the equipment and manpower of the enemy army and our army. Taking the 1st Marine Division, the main force of the enemy, as an example, their equipment is much better than ours, while the 124th Division, the main division of our 42nd Army, although it also has 80 artillery pieces, it is a relatively backward mortar, and even there are only 1,000 grenades, and the gap with the enemy is very obvious.
However, despite the huge disparity in strength between the enemy and us, General Wu Ruilin always remained calm and brave, and the combat slogan he issued to the troops was: "Hold on to the danger, fight to the death with the enemy, and turn Huangcaoling and Battleling into a ghost gate, except for wandering spirits and prisoners, not a single enemy is allowed to let go!" ”
Despite the difficulties, the soldiers of our 42nd Army were not intimidated, and with their courage and wisdom, they successfully defended Hwangcholing and became a banner on the Korean battlefield.
When the Capital Division, one of the main forces of the South Korean army, attacked Hwangcholing, the enemy did not realize that our army had entered Korea and had won many victories, so the defenders did not pay attention to it.
However, in their swaggering attack, they were suddenly suppressed by the fire of our army, and hundreds of enemies were instantly knocked down, and the rest scurried like headless flies.
The commander of the capital division was surprised that his subordinates were powerless to fight back, and gave the order to attack again, but the result was still unsuccessful. The crushing defeat of the Capital Division made Almond, the commander-in-chief of the American Army on the Eastern Front, understand a truth: "We lost so badly because we ran into the Chinese." ”
Before Almond could come up with a countermeasure, his immediate superior, MacArthur, instructed the 1st Marine Division to attack Yellow Grass Ridge. On November 1, the 1st Marine Division, with the battalion as a unit, with the cooperation of aircraft and tanks, marched to Yantaifeng, Songtakedong, and 5319 heights launched an offensive.
However, the 42nd Army of the Volunteer Army, under the command of Wu Ruilin, successfully beat back this ace division of the American army. Smith, the commander of the 1st Marine Division, became angry when he learned of the defeat, and deployed more troops to attack Yantai Peak, the throat area of Huangcaoling.
After fierce fighting, our troops were outnumbered and broken through by the American troops. However, Wu Ruilin did not panic after learning the news, but calmly gave an order: "We must counterattack, improve our army's position, and be sure to tell the troops to be steady, fierce, and ruthless!" ”
Then, in accordance with Wu Ruilin's deployment, the 124th Division adopted the "sharp knife tactics" and the "tiger's mouth and heart tactics", and divided into two parts to fight with the US army.
On the battlefield, our army successfully thwarted the attack of more than 2,700 people of the 1st Marine Division of the United States, intercepted the enemy's attempt to attack from the Eastern Front, effectively cooperated with the Western Front of the Volunteer Army, broke MacArthur's plan to occupy the Korean Peninsula before Thanksgiving, and finally ensured that the first battle achieved the annihilation of the enemyVictory of 50,000 people.
On the front line, the soldiers of the 42nd Army fought bravely and constantly tried new tactics, and Wu Ruilin even invented a "baba tactic" that even *** praised.
This tactic was inspired by the experience of the Japanese army in building roads and blowing up stones during the Anti-Japanese War, and he asked sappers to dig holes in the mountain wall, install explosives, and lead the charge through the **line**.
In the first test, the ** of the boulder destroyed 5 tanks and 8 cars of the enemy, and a large number of enemies were killed. The enemy thought that he had encountered a new type of ** and did not dare to advance for a full 6 hours.
After the battle, Wu Ruilin named this tactic "Baba Hu Tactics", which attracted widespread attention. Wu Ruilin is not only good at fighting defensive battles, he is also very good at fighting tough battles.
MacArthur wanted to end the Korean War by Christmas, so he launched a general offensive. He deployed 13 divisions and 3 brigades on the front line, divided into two fronts, east and west, to attack our army.
On the Western Front, the commander of the US 8th Army, Walton Walker, commanded 8 divisions, 3 brigades and an airborne regiment; On the Eastern Front, Almond, commander of the US 10th Army, commanded 5 divisions and a Marine regiment.
In order to counterattack, the Volunteer Army was also divided into two fronts, east and west. Wu Ruilin led the 42nd Army to participate in the counterattack on the Western Front, and they attacked the Tokugawa and Ningyuan areas, which were relatively weak on the "United **" Western Front, opening up a gap in the campaign.
The specific task of the 42nd Army was to annihilate the 8th Division of the South Korean Army attacking in Yongwondi. After receiving the order, Wu Ruilin immediately sent two divisions to carry out a multi-way flank detour, and one division to carry out a frontal attack.
On the evening of November 25, with Wu Ruilin's order, the volunteer soldiers launched a general attack. After fierce battles, our army annihilated most of the troops of the 8th Division of the South Korean Army, occupied the city of Nyongwon, and successfully completed the task of opening the gap in the campaign together with the 38th Army.
The third campaign was an offensive campaign in which our army and the Korean People's Army broke through the "38th parallel." At that time, the "United **" used the "38th Parallel" to set up positions to organize defense, and our army formed two columns on the left and right, and another army corps of the People's Army launched an attack.
The 42nd Army and the 66th Army of the Volunteer Army were organized into the left column, under the unified command of Wu Ruilin and Political Commissar Zhou Biao. After the Chinese Volunteers and the Korean People's Army broke through the "38th Parallel" position, at noon on January 1, 1951, the 124th Division and the 66th Army of the 42nd Army surrounded most of the 2nd Division and the 1st Division of the 5th Division of the South Korean Army in the area of Sudeoksan and other areas north of Gapyeong.
After a fierce battle, our army successfully eliminated four enemy infantry battalions and an artillery battalion, totaling more than 3,000 people, and captured a large amount of ** equipment. This battle was one of the best in the third battle.
** When the commander learned of this, he praised and rewarded the 42nd Division and the 66th Army of the 124th Army. The Hengcheng Counterattack was the first phase of the Fourth Campaign, commanded by Deng Hua, deputy commander of the Volunteer Army, with the participation of nine divisions, including the 42nd Army.
The campaign began at dusk on February 11, 1951, with the objective of attacking the 8th Division of the South Korean Army and the 1st Regiment of the 2nd Division of the U.S. Army in the northwest area of Hoengseong. Wu Ruilin, commander of the 42nd Army, and Zhou Biao, political commissar, commanded the 124th Division, the 125th Division, and the 117th Division of the 39th Army, and their main task was to cut off the enemy's retreat and prevent enemy reinforcements.
After the three divisions completed their tasks according to the plan, the 124th Division and the 118th Division of the 40th Army successfully divided the encircled enemy into several parts and annihilated them one by one; The 117th Division succeeded in annihilating all the enemy forces encircled by the protruding inner layer and routed the reinforcements.
The battle lasted until the morning of February 13, when our troops wiped out a total of 1 regiment of the 8th Division of the South Korean Army and 1 battalion of the 2nd Division of the US ArmyWith a strength of more than 20,000 people, countless ** equipment was captured.
The volunteer soldiers commanded by Wu Ruilin and Zhou Biao played an important role in the victory of this operation. Therefore, the ** commander praised the 124th and 117th divisions.
At the end of May 1951, Deng Hua, deputy commander of the Volunteer Army, led Liu Xiyuan, political commissar of the 38th Army, Wu Xinquan, commander of the 39th Army, Wen Yucheng, commander of the 40th Army, and Wu Ruilin, commander of the 42nd Army, to return to China to report the battle situation.
Wu Ruilin reported to *** on the understanding and preparations for the war against the United States and aid Korea, and he said that our army adopted night combat, close combat, and transmission methods against the enemy's tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery, and covered his mouth and nose with a towel soaked in urine to deal with poison gas warfare.
** Praise them for their specific tactics and proper methods, which grasp the key to the war. He affirmed the important contributions made by Wu Ruilin and the 42nd Army in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and praised their creative spirit and glorious tradition of using local methods to deal with foreign things.
**Praise Wu Ruilin, thinking that he is in line with the consistency of our army"It is better to cut off one of its fingers than to hurt its ten fingers"strategic approach. It was rare for Mao to talk to a volunteer commander for hours and invite him to dinner.
** The 42nd Army was considered to have performed well in Korea, but Mao decided to transfer it back. Mao explained that the United States may make a comeback, and we need to bring back the units that are most familiar with the American military to fight it again in the south.
Soon after, Wu Ruilin led the 42nd Army back to China and stationed in Huiyang, Guangdong, guarding the southern gate. In 1955, Wu served as the commander of the Hainan Military Region and the commander of the 43rd Army, solving major issues of concern to the people of Hainan, such as the construction of the central national defense highway and the development of transportation.
However, just as Wu was ready to make a big move, the situation changed again.
On December 25, 1959, Xiao Hua talked to Wu Ruilin and conveyed to him the situation of the emergency meeting of the Central Military Commission: "The chairman and the premier have agreed, and the Central Military Commission has decided to transfer you to the Nanjing Military Region as deputy commander and commander of the East China Sea Fleet, mainly to focus on the work of the East China Sea Fleet. ”
Wu Ruilin didn't expect to be transferred to work in the navy, he was not mentally prepared at all, so he said: "The navy is a relatively complex branch of the military, and my education level is relatively low, so I am not suitable for naval work, so let me go to the Shenyang Military Region!" ”
Xiao Hua said: "This is the opinion of the Military Commission that has been agreed by ***. Wu Ruilin had no choice but to say: "Then I'll think about it." Soon after, he was officially transferred from the Army to the commander of the South China Sea Fleet, moving from land to the sea.
During the National Day in 1961, two Kuomintang troops disguised as Japanese fishing boats set off from Kaohsiung Port in Taiwan and were soon discovered by our army's Kumgang Mountain Guantong Station and Zhoutian Guantong Station.
Judging from the intelligence, the movement pattern of the two camouflaged ships was different from that of ordinary merchant ships, and Wu Ruilin concluded that they must have carried out harassment and sabotage. Therefore, he made careful arrangements and sent Hu Shenghui, commander of the Shantou Marine Police District, Liu Zhongzhong, captain of the 74th Brigade, and Xu Shouqi, political commissar, to lead two submarine hunters to secretly set up an ambush south of Shantou Island and west of Nanao Island, preparing to attack the enemy ships from three sides after they entered the ambush circle of our army, and adopt the method of dividing and encircling them to break them one by one.
Sure enough, as expected, after these two enemy ships entered the encirclement of our army, the naval ship unit sank all these two enemy ships in only three hours, and not only captured more than 20 Kuomintang soldiers alive, but also captured many short guns.
At the beginning of December 1963, Wu Ruilin received an important task conveyed by Luo Qingchang, deputy director of the first office, that the premier would come to inspect the Pearl River Estuary, and he would be accompanied by two leaders.
Wu Ruilin rushed back to Guangzhou to prepare and arrange, and arrived on time on the fifth day, along with him and Zhang Zhizhong. In order to ensure their safety, Wu Ruilin personally led five ** ships to conduct a military exercise in small detachments.
In the evening, the group returned to the ship and visited the officers and men on the 5 ships. In order to let *** rest well, Wu Ruilin ordered the frigate to move at a low speed to reduce noise.
The next morning, ** woke up and said he hadn't slept so well in a long time. On August 24, 1968, Wu Ruilin was appointed executive deputy commander of the Navy, and on October 1, the National Day, he was watching the ceremony at the Tiananmen Gate Tower and was called to the VIP lounge.
**Praise Wu Ruilin's achievements in the South China Sea, so he was transferred to the navy, Wu Ruilin did not live up to his expectations and completed the important task of guarding the southern gate of the motherland.
On April 21, 1995, Wu Ruilin passed away in Beijing at the age of 80.