The fifth battle of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea can be said to be very tragic, recalling the entire Korean War, this battle is the most heart-wrenching, this is the largest loss of the volunteers since the beginning of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and the casualties are huge. There are too many heroic sacrifices in the war, and there are too many stories to sing and cry about. And among them is the ace main force of such a field army, and the sacrifices they made for the war are awe-inspiring, this is **220,000 volunteers of the 63rd Army.
In the fifth battle, our army invested unprecedented strength since the entry into Korea, and wanted to take advantage of the victory to pursue on the basis of the victories in the previous battles, intending to annihilate 3 to 4 entire divisions of the US army. However, the overwhelming momentum of our army in the first three battles was reversed after Ridgway succeeded the arrogant MacArthur. Our army did not realize that Ridgway was different from MacArthur, and at the time of the Fourth Campaign, Ridgway had already carefully studied the situation of our army and felt certain weaknesses in our army, and it can be said that our army underestimated Ridgway's command ability and the strength of the US army, and overestimated and misjudged the capability of our army.
The early offensive of the Volunteer Army was too fierce, and our army, which did not have air control, had become the biggest lifeline, and ammunition and food were often only enough to maintain the offensive for a week"Joint**"Using tactics to constantly deplete the strength of our army, from a strategic point of view, the Volunteer Army decided to shrink the front.
However, at this time, four weeks have passed, our army has almost run out of ammunition and food, and at this time the situation of the war has changed abruptly, and the joint commander-in-chief Li Qiwei suddenly launched **, intending to divide, encircle, encircle and annihilate, and annihilate the main force of the Volunteer Army south of the 38th parallel. "Joint**"It already has the advantage of equipment and strength, and if it is interspersed with the rear of our army to form an encirclement, then hundreds of thousands of our army will face the situation of being encircled and annihilated.
The situation was already precarious, and the commander-in-chief immediately ordered that the 63rd Army was ordered to defend Tieyuan and block the pursuing troops on a position more than 25 kilometers wide to buy time for the main force of the Volunteer Army to retreat. The 63rd Army was under the command of Yang Dezhi of the 19th Corps, and there were about 240,000 people, while facing the US military has 470,000 people, even more crushing our army in terms of equipment, more than 1,300 artillery pieces of various types, more than 300 tanks, not to mention aircraft. However, our army only has more than 240 artillery pieces, and there are no planes or tanks, and this task can be said to be an impossible task for the 63rd Army, which is already sleepy.
In the face of the danger of 100,000 troops being completely annihilated, the commander-in-chief of the army, who loves soldiers like children, reluctantly issued instructions that even if the 63rd Army is completely destroyed, it is necessary to defend Tieyuan to the death and fight for 15 to 20 days for our army, so that the singing and crying Cheorwon War began.
In the face of a strong enemy, the 63rd Army fully analyzed the terrain and battle situation, the defense front in the Tieyuan area was wide, and the battle needed to be held for a long time. In order to reduce the enemy's intensive firepower to the volunteers. At the same time, the 63rd Army also arranged a number of tactical groups to entangle with the enemy in the front line to prevent the enemy from proceeding smoothly. Tactically, in addition to strict defense, our army will also organize small units to raid the opponent at night.
The enemy's artillery fire was extremely fierce, and in just one hour, 4,500 tons of artillery fire were poured on our positions. At this time, the enemy was the 189th Division, and Cai Changyuan was able to attack and defend well, and he commanded the whole division to be dispersed into more than 200 units and scattered to various places on the battlefield"Bagua Array", so that the enemy's artillery fire can not find the key direction of our army, and avoid gathering and annihilating the main force of our army. In this way, although the US army was able to capture part of the position, it took a long time. After three days and three nights of hard fighting, the U.S. military had an advantage in equipment, and could only look at Cheorwon City in a hurry.
Zhang Yinghui, commander of the 188th Division, discovered the trenches and anti-artillery holes left by the Korean army in Cheorwon Seongwon, so this tunnel warfare expert with rich experience in tunnel warfare in North China used the trenches and anti-artillery holes of the South Korean army to transform the defense network for our army, combined with our army's simple anti-armor **, to destroy 100 tanks and armored vehicles of the enemy. At the same time, Division Commander Zhang Yinghui organized many sniper teams to start sniper warfare, and the sharpshooters specifically targeted important targets and officers of the US military.
However, the Cheorwon Blockade was fought very fiercely, and the US military mobilized almost all the forces that could be mobilized, and sent the armies of ten countries to jointly attack the positions of the 63rd Army. In the face of the enemy's fierce artillery fire and attacks, the 63rd Army used almost all its forces and fought bloodily for 14 days, and when it withdrew from its position, there were less than 2,500 men, including seriously wounded soldiers. It was their singing and weeping sacrifices that stabilized the defense line of the volunteer army and made a turnaround for hundreds of thousands of troops.