USA and UK. Their military strength is not only reflected in the strength of the army, but also in the invincibility of the navy. This power makes them profoundly influential in the global balance of power.
In the past, Britain, Germany, Japan and other countries have challenged Britain's maritime supremacy, but all of them have failed. In the 70s of the 20th century, the naval power of the USSR reached its peak, but in the 80s it declined with the decline of the Soviet state.
And the British and American navies are unmatched, which makes them have great ambitions for those countries with weaker maritime power. In order to break the imperialist domination of the seas, China decided to vigorously develop its navy.
In October 1949, when the Fourth Field Army and the Second Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army had just won the Battle of Hengbao, Xiao Jinguang, then commander of the Hunan Military Region, received a telegram from the Military Commission, ordering him to return to Beijing as soon as possible to meet the chairman.
Xiao Jinguang did not know why the chairman suddenly summoned him, because at that time, the Kuomintang was already on the verge of a fiasco, and it could not set off much of a storm in any case. Therefore, it was never for him to go to war.
But what else could it be if he wasn't allowed to go to war? Xiao Jinguang didn't have time to think about it, so he handed over the work to others that day, and hurriedly got on the train to Beijing with only a secretary.
Xiao Jinguang stepped into Zhongnanhai and was led to the sofa in the living room of *** and sat down. ** Hold his hand tightly and ask with concern: "It's been a bumpy journey, hard work, right?" ”
Xiao Jinguang replied with a smile: "Fortunately, everything is going well." Then, ** asked him about his life, and Xiao Jinguang answered them one by one. However, suddenly, the conversation changed and went straight to the point: "Although the task of liberating the whole country is still arduous, we have begun to work on the formation of the air force and navy."
On the Air Force side, I have already sent Liu Yalou to take charge, and it is going well. But the Navy has not yet started, and it was decided to make you the commander, what do you think? ”
Xiao Jinguang was a little surprised, he never thought that he would receive such a heavy responsibility. He said matter-of-factly: "Chairman, I am a 'landlubber', I have only been a boat a few times, and I am still dizzy.
I'm afraid that I won't be able to be the commander of the navy, so you'd better find someone else! Hearing this, the chairman listened to Xiao Jinguang's words unhurriedly, took out two cigarettes, handed one to him and said: "What I fancy is you, and letting you form an army is not letting you go to sea every day."
Since we participated in the revolution, how many of us have really come into contact with the navy? The choice of you this time is deliberate by the organization, so you accept it! ”
In the course of the revolutionary war, Xiao Jinguang was trusted and appointed by *** many times. Whether it is the establishment of the Red Army School, or the handling of the uprising of the Kuomintang Army, or the general garrison of the rear of the Red Army's reorganization into the Eighth Route Army, Xiao Jinguang's performance has been highly affirmed.
At that time, the Chinese navy was in urgent need of development, and Xiao Jinguang's experience in studying in the Soviet Union and reforming the old army made him the best choice to serve as a naval commander.
In the face of the trust and appointment of the first party, Xiao Jinguang felt a great responsibility, accepted this important task, and promised to solve the bandits in Xiangxi as soon as possible, waiting for the official order of the Military Commission.
**After receiving the call from ***, the representative ** officially appointed Xiao Jinguang as the commander of the Navy. Huang Kecheng, political commissar of the Hunan Military Region, expressed his full support for Xiao Jinguang and encouraged him to boldly take up the burden of building a navy.
Although Xiao Jinguang has never been in contact with the navy, he is confident in it. However, he was well aware of the responsibility on his shoulders, for over the past few decades he had had no contact with the Navy except for a visit to the Baltic Fleet once while studying in the Soviet Union.
Among the challenges he faced were what arms the navy should consist of, what equipment it needed, what was the current state of foreign navies, and where should the navy be formed. In order to better understand the navy, Xiao Jinguang's first stop was Wuhan, where he visited 30 ships of the East China Military Region Navy on the bank of the Yangtze River, and learned in detail about the performance, equipment, and personnel of the ships.
He worked and thought until he had enough knowledge of all the issues before returning to Beijing.
In October 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded. At that time, the squadron had five major services, namely the army, navy, air force, rocket force and strategic support force, of which the strategic support force was established in 2015.
In April 1950, the first battle after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Battle of Hainan Island, officially began.
In less than a month after the establishment of the naval organ, Xiao Jinguang received an important task. Hong Xuezhi, commander of the Jiang Defense Unit of the Guangdong Military Region, sent a telegram reporting that the leading body of the South China Navy is being smoothly established, and that in order to dispel the Kuomintang conspiracy on the mainland and regain sea supremacy, the Guangdong Jiang Defense Command has accepted a combat mission to liberate the Wanshan Islands in coordination with the army.
This was the first battle since the establishment of the naval force, and Xiao Jinguang attached great importance to it. Located outside the mouth of the Pearl River, Wanshan Islands consists of 48 islands, which echo Hainan Island and are related to the Pearl River's waterway and the main route to Hong Kong and Macao.
At first, the Kuomintang had no scruples, believing that the PLA did not have a navy and had no influence on the liberation of Hainan Island, but with the liberation of Hainan Island, Chiang Kai-shek began to panic.
In order to prevent the Wanshan Islands from suffering the same fate as Hainan Island, Chiang Kai-shek sent his naval commander-in-chief, Gui Yongqing, to personally take command of the Wanshan Islands and deploy defenses on the garbage tail island of the Wanshan Islands.
In terms of the balance of forces, the Kuomintang army clearly had an advantage. In terms of equipment and tactics, our army is relatively backward, there are insufficient personnel and forces, and many people lack understanding of naval tactics.
However, despite the disparity in forces, our army emerged victorious. After 71 days of sea transport and cooperation with the army, all the islands were successfully liberated. **After seeing the report on naval warfare, the chairman said that he would like to commend the Navy for citing the precedent of the war for the first time.
In battle, the square ** created a miracle. In May 1950, after 16 ships assembled at Tangjiawan Port in Zhongshan County, they were ordered to sail to Junktail Island.
At the same time, fishing boats and landing ships carrying the 131st Division of the 44th Army of the Army also headed for Qingzhou and Triangle Mountain. The commander clearly instructed that victory must be fought for through close combat, night combat, and "three fierce" tactics.
At that time, our navy was not very strong, only the ships of the uprising and capture, plus the ships converted from merchant ships and fishing boats, the total number reached more than 200. Most of these ships are backward in performance, with messy models and dilapidated equipment.
Only three warships took part in this battle, namely the US-built landing ship "Kokang," the British-built landing ship "Guochu," and the merchant ship modified "Guishan." The three ships were all purchased from Hong Kong in the name of buying scrap steel, and they are all square and rectangular in shape, so they are also called "square ships".
The sea is pitch black at night, and with heavy fog, visibility is extremely low. The 16 ships were moving slowly on the sea, and because of the inexperience of the commanders, the speed of the 16 ships varied, and after walking for less than an hour, the ships were scattered, and no one could find anyone.
In the event of the termination of the radio command, the 16 ships could not communicate with each other and could only rush forward separately. Among them, the "Liberation" ship was the first to break into the port of Mawan, the port of Junkytail Island, but when they came into contact with the enemy, they found that there were twenty or thirty enemy ships moored in the harbor, and they fell into the enemy's encirclement.
Faced with the dilemma that the fraternal troops could not be contacted, Lin Wenhu, a commander and fighter, resolutely ordered to target the enemy flagship "Taihe" and bravely led the "Jiefang" deep into the enemy port.
To the surprise of the enemy, the "Liberation" suddenly attacked, and the unsuspecting enemy instantly fell into chaos. Amazingly, our first bullets wounded the commander of the enemy fleet.
The battle lasted until 7 a.m., when it waited for the arrival of the "Katsurayama". Commander Guo Qinglong discovered that the enemy ships in the harbor were fleeing, and immediately ordered the use of mountain guns, anti-aircraft guns, and anti-aircraft machine guns** on the ship, and successfully damaged three enemy ships**.
At the same time, the sound of artillery fire on the garbage tail island was endless, and the rectangular landing ships "Kokang" and "Guochu" were on their way, they could only hear the sound of artillery fire, but the speed was as slow as an old cow, and they could only do it in a hurry.
Suddenly, the signalman spotted four enemy ships approaching in front of him.
During one battle, the commander mistakenly believed that the enemy was blocking the advance of our follow-up troops, but in fact the enemy ships were fleeing. The caliber of our guns is too small, and the enemy does not care about our attacks.
Deputy division commander Shao Zhen wittily ordered mountain artillery, battle defense artillery, and recoilless guns to be placed on the deck, and successfully repelled the enemy ships. After this battle, some Hong Kong newspapers reported that the enemy ships used powerful firepower to break anchor and shoot at our fleet, but in fact it was because the landing fleet was moving slowly, creating a false impression.
This battle is a heroic example of our navy, and it is a classic for the inferior to defeat the superior. Under the leadership of Xiao Jinguang, China's naval forces are growing day by day. He carried out regular military training, developed new naval technologies, and researched the best and tactics, and in just a few years, the navy had a strong defense capability.
What did Xiao Jinguang and the *** Navy team originally commemorate? It was for the combat rehabilitation of the troops, but, with the exception of a few battles for the liberation of the coastal islands, most of them were "encounters".
The Navy's first strategically purposed sortie was the bombardment of Kinmen in January 1958. At that time, imperialism had been intervening in the Middle East for a long time, and many political events had taken place, which made the international situation very complicated.
The armed intervention of Britain and the United States has undermined peace in the Middle East, but Taiwan is secretly rejoicing on the sidelines, and they want to take advantage of this opportunity to launch a plan against the mainland.
The Taiwan side has continuously organized naval exercises and air defense exercises, and high-ranking generals have frequently appeared in the Kinmen and Matsu areas, and the situation in the Taiwan Strait has gradually become tense. The generals and commanders of the People's Liberation Army know that in this chaos in the Middle East, China cannot sit idly by, so after the discussion of the Military Commission, it was decided: shell Kinmen!
The purpose of the shelling of Kinmen was not to provoke a war, but to severely punish Taiwan, and at the same time to contain the military strength of Britain and the United States.
After Xiao Jinguang received the order of the ** Military Commission, he decisively ordered Peng Deqing, the chief of combat training of the East China Navy, who was familiar with the situation in Kinmen, to go into battle. In order to achieve the effect of surprise, Xiao Jinguang strictly ordered secrecy, all ships and equipment were covered with canvas, and it was strictly forbidden to write letters when participating in the war, and most of them changed into army uniforms.
After several days of intense preparations, the naval unit arrived at the Fujian front as scheduled. Since all deployments took place at night, the Kuomintang in Kinmen was unaware of this. At 5 p.m. on 23 August, artillery shells crossed the strait and hit Kinmen Island, and the Kuomintang was shocked by the sudden attack, and it took more than 10 minutes before they began to return fire.
At the beginning of the battle, Xiao Jinguang was busy negotiating with the Soviets in Beijing, but news from the front made him uneasy. Although the battle reports were always delivered in a timely manner, he was still uneasy.
As soon as the negotiations were over, he immediately rushed to the Fujian front.
Xiao Jinguang went to the front line in person, learned about the battle situation and personally commanded the battle. He stayed on the front lines, always staying at the forefront no matter the danger. His actions boosted the morale of officers and men and strengthened the combat effectiveness of the front.
In addition, this battle also played a role in containing the strength of the US military and attracting the attention of the United States, contributing to the easing of tensions in the Middle East.
The reason why the Chinese Navy can play such an important role is that in addition to the wise leadership of the Chinese Navy, it is also inseparable from the joint efforts of the Navy's leading body. However, some people were dissatisfied with Xiao Jinguang and other leaders, and even wanted to remove the leaders of the navy.
In 1966, the "Third Three" meeting of the Navy was held, and Li Zuopeng and others openly proposed to remove the leading group of the Navy, and named Xiao Jinguang and Su Zhenhua as unsuitable for leadership, and the leading group should be adjusted.
For the situation of the "33" meeting, ** seemed to have been expected, he called ** to Xiao Jinguang, saying: "The report has been read, waiting for the opinions." ”
On 7 July, a meeting of the Standing Committee to study the issue of the Navy's "March 33" meeting was held, which was presided over and attended by **. At the meeting, ** made a long speech for nearly an hour, and he said that the proposal of Li Zuopeng and others at the "March Three" meeting was simply unreasonable, and if Xiao Jinguang, Su Zhenhua and other leading groups were removed, it would be detrimental to the party's cause, and the consequences would be unimaginable.
We must support and uphold the authority of the leadership of the Navy in order to continue to advance the cause of the Navy.
After the meeting between Xiao Jinguang and ***, Li Zuopeng found an excuse to return to Beijing under great pressure and kept the navy leadership team. A month later, ** met with the Red Guards in Tiananmen Square, and naval leaders such as Xiao Jinguang, Su Zhenhua and Li Zuopeng were on the viewing platform.
At the end of the interview, ** pulled Xiao Jinguang and Su Zhenhua to his side and said to them: "Xiao Jinguang and Su Zhenhua are good comrades, why do you keep purging them?" ”
Then, take a photo with the two of them. Hearing this, Li Zuopeng felt uneasy, and since then, they have restrained Xiao Jinguang's behavior.
The rise of the Chinese Navy has broken the hegemony of US imperialism in the maritime areas and ensured the security of China's maritime areas, which fully proves that the navy is an important position in China's leading forces, and no one can be at the mercy of anyone.