At the beginning of April 1951, when the fourth campaign of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was in full swing, the 39th Army of the Volunteer Army suddenly received a special task assigned by the superiors: to block the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Marine Division of the United States in the Hwacheon Plain. Although the 39th Army is the trump card of our army, since entering the Korean war has repeatedly set impressive records, but the US 1st Marine Division is also not idle, the US 1st Marine Division is known as the "sword of the United States", has repeatedly inflicted heavy losses on the opponent in the Battle of Kuah, the Battle of Peleliu Island and the Battle of Okinawa, and has made great contributions to the "myth of invincibility" of the US military, even among all the Marine Corps in the United States, the 1st Marine Division is also the most dazzling existence, they are the oldest, with 1The super-large army of 790,000 people, and equipped with the most advanced individual combat equipment in the United States at that time, tanks, artillery and other equipment of the 1st Marine Division of the United States is almost as much as possible, such a force's amphibious assault ability and ground combat capability have surpassed other armies on the Korean battlefield, and it is a real elite and strong army, so even if our army's ace 39th Army is dispatched, it is not easy to defeat it.
1st Marine Division.
And what's worse is that due to the continuous battles of all sizes after entering the DPRK, and the material transport vehicles were constantly bombed by the US military, the soldiers of the 39th Army were not only mentally exhausted, hungry, and the ammunition and ** were about to run out.
The tired volunteer soldiers could only eat some preserved potatoes.
After receiving the order, Wu Xinquan, commander of the 39th Army, immediately began to organize the strategic deployment of blocking the 1st Marine Division of the United States, and in order to fully grasp the terrain of the Huachuan Plain, Wu Xinquan led the 115th Division of the 39th Army to garrison the south of the Huachuan Lake Dam, and used this as a base to reconnoiter a favorable blocking position. Hwacheon Lake is located in the upper reaches of the North Han River, is the largest reservoir in the middle of the Korean Peninsula, originally an artificial lake dug for dam power generation, but Wu Xinquan wanted to use it to resist the U.S. army, standing near Hwacheon Lake, looking at the turbulent lake, Wu Xinquan suddenly thought of a Three Kingdoms allusion: Guan Yunchang flooded the Seventh Army. Now that Hwacheon Lake also has such conditions, why not come to "flood the US military" on the spot?
According to his plan, the chief of the reconnaissance section personally led a team to the vicinity of the dam to conduct field tests, and after figuring out the sluice gate and the amount of water to be stored, the dam was closed for a few days to increase the water level as much as possible to maximize the amount of water that could be opened at one time, and at the same time arranged for the soldiers to urgently evacuate the Korean residents around the dam to prevent innocent people from being injured, and ordered the 115th Division to secretly lurk on the north bank of the Han River to prevent a possible US attack. Buy more time for reservoirs to fill water.
Considering that the living forces of the 1st Marine Division of the United States should be wiped out to the greatest extent, the commander of the 115th Division at that time suggested that the entire dam should be blown up directly after the arrival of the US troops, so that the water would be more violent, but Wu Xinquan immediately rejected this suggestion, this dam is a reservoir that the North Korean people have worked hard to dig in order to generate electricity, and they still need to continue to use it after the battle, so they should destroy as little as possible to ensure the production and power generation of the Korean people in the future.
On April 9, the 1st Marine Division arrived at Hwacheon Lake as promised, because it was confident that the volunteers would not be able to set up an ambush here, so the 1st Marine Division went straight to the south bank of the Han River without doing any reconnaissance, and began to cross the river unscrupulously, however, just when they were in full swing to prepare to cross the river, the 39th Army's plan to "flood the US Army" also entered the countdown stage, and soon all 10 gates of the Hwacheon Lake Reservoir were opened, and the water roared towards the 1st Marine Division in an instant. The reservoir that has been impounded for 8 days has been pouring water for half an hour, and the huge waves stirred up are nearly 30 meters high, and the 1st Marine Division, which is preparing to cross the river, was instantly submerged by the flood, and there is no time to react and escape, and the pontoon bridge that the US military has just laid on the water to prepare for crossing the river was washed away by the lake before it was completed, and the cars and tanks were also washed into the river by the turbulent current, and the 1st Marine Division at this time had all fallen into chaos, and the soldiers were killed and wounded, and the mechanized troops were even more difficult to move an inch. They had no idea that there would be such a nightmare waiting for them after the defeat at Changjin Lake.
After the flood, the U.S. military was extremely heavy, the road was destroyed, the bridge collapsed, and the muddy road made the U.S. mechanized troops move extremely slowly, of course, it is not realistic to make the U.S. Marine Division completely ineffective by flooding alone, and soon Li Qiwei began to deploy the remaining U.S. Marine Division soldiers to counterattack, aiming to seize control of the Huachuan Lake Reservoir, Li Qiwei's plan was to occupy the only high ground near the Huachuan Lake Reservoir first, relying on the favorable terrain of the highlands to suppress the volunteers with heavy firepower, but what he didn't expect was, Our army also noticed this high ground and sent the 1st Company of the 115th Division to garrison it early.
After receiving the order, the commander of the 1st company immediately led people to build fortifications on the high ground, and within a few days, the soldiers of the 1st company only did one thing, that is, digging a pit, the so-called digging pit is to build a tunnel trench, in order to prevent the US army from forcibly seizing this high ground with heavy firepower, the soldiers of the 1st company insisted on civil engineering operations for 14 hours a day, almost day and night to open up the high ground, before the US 1st Marine Division officially attacked the high ground, the 1st company built a total of more than 1,800 meters of trenches, more than 400 meters of hidden trenches, and tunnels were all over the highlands. The top of each tunnel is more than 30 meters thick, and the mouth of the tunnel is 10 to 15 meters thick, in addition, the 1st Company has built a large number of concealments, firing fortifications and bunkers, and the companies and platoons are connected by communication trenches, so as to form a ring and can support each other and cover a solid defensive position, no matter which direction the American army attacks, our army can easily deal with it.
In order to be able to have the advantage of attacking at the same time as the defense, the 1st Company also built 1 2 dark fire points and bunkers in various parts of the front, and destroyed a section of the road more than 200 meters in front of the position, so that the enemy was firmly locked in the control of the 1st Company, for the enemy's fierce offensive tank armored vehicles, the 1st Company also had a coping strategy, they dug three trenches up to 800 meters in front of the position, so that the enemy's tanks could not enter, effectively covering the safety of the large force, in the next few days, The 1st Marine Division of the United States repeatedly attacked this high ground with the strength of one battalion, and on 9 April alone, under the cover of howitzers and aircraft, the US troops launched two group charges to the high ground with the strength of two companies, but our defensive positions were too strong, and the two strong attacks of the US troops ended in failure.
On that day, a large number of enemy planes roared to the high ground, shells rained down on our positions, incendiary bombs, napalm burned all the vegetation on the 500-square-meter position, it was almost impossible to have survivors in such a dense bombardment, but thanks to the fact that our army built a large number of tunnels on the position early, whenever the enemy's firepower was too dense, our soldiers hid in the tunnels, Although the shock caused by the bombing made many soldiers a little dizzy, but fortunately, they all saved their lives, and the soldiers of the 1st Company responsible for the defensive position were all safe and sound, and when the enemy's fire bombardment was over, the soldiers of the 1st Company hiding in the tunnel quickly launched **, which made a large number of soldiers of the US Army begin to doubt their lives, they simply did not understand how the volunteer soldiers survived under their intensive shelling, in their opinion, this is almost an impossible miracle, decades later when an American five-star general recalled the year and the middle ** In the scene of the team's battle, he still said with lingering fears: "If you want to defeat China, unless God wears a steel helmet and participates in the war in person."
On that day, the 1st Marine Division launched 6 consecutive attacks on our army's position, but the results were all ended in failure without exception, they could only helplessly stop at the south bank of the Han River, although the next day the unwilling US army launched another attack, but the soldiers of the 1st Company were still not afraid at all, the 1st Company soldier Wang Wenhai went into battle shirtless, picked up the submachine gun and fired wildly at the American troops who rushed to the position, even if he was shot, he did not fall, and fought until the last drop of blood was drained, after Wang Wenhai fell, the soldier behind him picked up his submachine gun and continued to chargeThere are many soldiers like Wang Wenhai, every volunteer soldier is defending the high ground with his life, they are ready to sacrifice, no matter how fierce the attack of the American army is, our army has never retreated, in the face of such a high will to fight, the American army had to withdraw from the position, and before withdrawing, they had nearly 100 soldiers lost in the hands of the soldiers of the 1st company.
After a long attack, the command of the 1st Marine Division came up with a new move, and they locked their eyes on the 436 defended by the 2nd Company1 heights, it was planned to bypass the positions defended by the 1st company from the water with amphibious vehicles, and instead attack the 2nd company, and then rely on the 436 defended by the 2nd companyWhen the strength of a battalion of the US army touched the position of the 2nd company, the soldiers of the 2nd company were just the time to change the guard and rest, so that the US army almost succeeded in the sneak attack, but fortunately, the command post of the 344th regiment responded quickly at that time, and launched a counter-charge against the unstable US troops with the strength of two companies, which successfully resolved the crisis, 4361 high ground was preserved, and finally the 39th Army 1 Company held its position for 4 days and 4 nights with the cooperation of the brother troops, and the US ace troops attacked more than 10 times by the tenacious soldiers at the cost of blood, the 1 Company of this battle killed a total of 482 US troops, which was another big victory after the Battle of Changjin Lake, and after the war, in order to praise the soldiers of the 1st Company of the 344th Regiment of the 39th Army who bravely blocked the enemy, the ** Military Commission awarded it the glorious title of "Hero Company".
In the Huachuan Lake blockade battle, the 39th Army used a variety of tactical strategies such as water warfare and tunnel warfare to successfully drag the 1st Marine Division of the United States for six days and six nights, winning valuable time for the combat deployment of the second echelon of the Volunteer Army. In the book, I couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "The tactics of the squadron are too weird, we never thought that water could also become a magic weapon for victory on the battlefield", and this is the subtlety of Chinese tactics, the so-called flexible tactics, that is, everything in heaven and earth can be soldiers.