At the end of the Liberation War in 1949, our army was busy preparing for the battle of crossing the river. However, the British ship Purple Quartz suddenly broke into our army's defense area and even opened fire on our army, seriously violating China's sovereignty.
Our army could not stand this and immediately organized a counterattack. Under the powerful artillery attack, not only the Purple Quartz suffered heavy losses, but the three British ships that came to the rescue later were also forced to evacuate quickly.
So, what is the reason why the Purple Quartz will suddenly break into our military defense area? What exactly happened at that time? Let's do it together.
On the evening of July 30, 1949, a British ship full of scars, under the cover of night, quietly followed a passenger ship downstream, seized the opportunity to sail into the left side of the passenger ship, successfully evaded the supervision of our army, and escaped from the north entrance of Chongming Island into the boundless sea.
A few days later, the British ship arrived in Hong Kong for emergency repairs. I saw that the British ship was numbered F116, and there were several large holes in the command platform, stern gun mount and ship's side, which were obviously left traces when it was hit by a Chinese PLA shell.
As for why it was shelled by the PLA, it can only be said that it suffered from itself.
On April 20, 1949, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) prepared to launch the Battle of Crossing the Yangtze River, and the million-strong division was divided into three group armies to break through the Kuomintang Yangtze River defense line from the east, center and west, and pointed directly at Nanjing.
At eight o'clock in the evening of the same day, the Central Group Army took the lead in launching a river crossing and broke through the Wuhu River section. On the evening of the next day, the Eastern Group Army, which was deployed in the Jiangyin defense area, would also force its way across the Yangtze River.
However, on the morning of April 20, a British ship broke into the defense zone of Army Group East. Waiting for the charge here was the 3rd Field Army, and the first to spot the British ships was the observation post deployed in the Sanjiang Battalion.
Due to the thick fog that morning, the sentry could not see the number of ** clearly at first, and mistakenly thought it was the ** of the Kuomintang. The big war is imminent, and the Kuomintang may send ** reconnaissance, so this British ship seems a little out of place.
In order to ensure that the fighters were not affected, the sentries immediately reported the situation to the regimental headquarters command. After learning of the situation, the commander of the regimental headquarters immediately ordered: "Do not move for the time being, if the other side launches an artillery attack on our army, we will resolutely counterattack!" ”
As soon as the regimental command was issued, the sentry clearly saw the rice flag on the ship, which turned out to be a British frigate named "Purple Quartz". Later, it was found out that the reason why this ** appeared here was because it was going to Nanjing to protect the British expatriate, so during the battle between the two armies, it sailed into our army's defense area.
However, as a foreign ship, without the permission of our country, it has openly sailed into our country's inland waters, which has seriously violated our country's sovereignty in territorial waters, and our military has the right to expel it.
Seeing that the distance was getting closer and closer, all artillery companies in our army's defense area were ready to fire and waved warning flags, declaring that this was the PLA's defense area and demanding that the other side leave immediately.
However, the other side ignored our warnings and swaggered on. When their ships passed by the third gun position of our 7th Company, they opened fire on our positions without warning, and the artillery positions of our troops on the north bank were attacked.
This provocative behavior made the behavior of the Purple Quartz unbearable for our artillery positions, and two artillery companies accurately hit the Purple Quartz with several shells under one order.
Despite the fact that the rear main guns of the Purple Quartz had a better angle of fire, and its shells had an advantage in rate of fire and caliber, they still had nowhere to escape under the heavy fire of our troops.
After withstanding more than 30 heavy shells, almost all of the Purple Quartz's command platform, turret, and deck were hit, and a large hole appeared in the left side of the ship, and the river was constantly pouring in.
In addition to this, the captain and deputy captain were seriously injured, and the helmsman was killed on the spot. The ship, which lost control, instantly lost its previous prestige, and the British Navy urgently hoisted the white flag, and our troops stopped shelling.
However, after the Purple Quartz ran aground, it was attacked by three more uninvited guests.
The British ship Purple Quartz was hit by our troops, and the British sent 3 ** ships to the rescue, but they were successfully repelled by our troops. On the day of the outbreak of the Battle of Crossing the River in 1949, a British ** ship intruded into the PLA defense area without permission.
After our army issued a warning, the ** still ignored the warning and opened fire on our army's defense area. Our troops could not bear it anymore and fiercely returned fire, and finally paralyzed it and ran aground in shallow water.
However, when the British learned of this, they tried to rescue the Purple Quartz by force. So, what exactly has the UK been doing?
On the afternoon of April 20, 1949, after the Purple Quartz ran aground, Britain again plotted against it. A destroyer parked on the Nanjing River, the Mate, ignored the warnings of our troops and attempted to forcibly tow away the Purple Quartz.
Our army solemnly warned that after many ineffective times, the PLA decisively opened fire five times. After being shot, the Mate was forced to leave our defense area. However, the ship, believing that it had found a weak point in the shelling of our troops, again went against the current and tried to exploit the loophole.
However, the coastal artillery battery was defenseless and was succeeded by the Mate, losing two field guns and six gunners died heroically.
Then, the Mate approached the Purple Quartz with impunity. As it passed through the artillery battery on the north bank, our troops opened fire again, hitting the barrel and conning tower of the Mate. The captain of the Companion, Lieutenant Commander Robertson, was wounded in the shelling, and in a panic he immediately turned around, leaving the Purple Quartz and fleeing.
However, its escape was not smooth, and it was intercepted by the artillery of the 1st Battalion of the 1st Regiment of our special artillery, and Roberson could only order to flee at full speed, not even daring to turn back. Eventually, it fled to the waters near Shanghai, where Robertson appealed to the cruiser London for help, asking the London to "sanction" the PLA.
The London has a larger displacement, more firepower, and water from the deck to take off from the aircraft. After the Mate failed to rescue the Purple Quartz, the British telegraphed Vice Admiral Maiden to take the Purple Quartz out of the PLA defense area.
Su Yu reported to the ** Military Commission on the evacuation of two British ships. **Instructions: "These foreign ships may be disguised by the Kuomintang, or they may be real." Regardless of whether it is true or not, the warships that hinder our crossing of the river are regarded as Kuomintang warships. ”
As soon as the instructions arrived, Maiden came with the London in a menacing manner.
Although Maiden and his men knew that they were wrong, after learning about the situation of the Chinese civil war, they still went to the defense zones of other countries without authorization and interfered in the internal affairs of other countries. Therefore, after arriving, the two ** ships anchored and anchored not far away while constantly saying "We are not your enemies" with loudspeakers.
Although their purpose was to tow back the stranded Purple Quartz, in order to prevent the PLA from shelling, the muzzles of the guns on the two ships were also all aimed at our positions. The place where they anchored was already in the war zone, and logically speaking, they should leave.
Our troops kept signaling them to leave with flags, but Maiden had no intention of leaving.
The battle of crossing the river was in full swing, and our soldiers were vigilant, and any slight sound was enough to attract their attention. A loud bang was heard, and our positions mistook the London for a cannon and immediately counterattacked.
Although it was later learned that it was the sound of the London anchoring, their attack did not stop, and they continued to advance towards the Purple Quartz. In this battle, both sides paid a heavy price, and the unreasonable behavior of the British ** ship caused irreparable losses to our army.
So, how did this shelling end up? And how many sacrifices did our army pay?
Ignoring the warning, the four British ships intruded into our army's defense area without authorization, and as a result, they could only flee in embarrassment. In 1949, a British frigate suddenly broke into the PLA defense area without permission, was hit by our artillery shells, and temporarily stayed in the defense area of our army.
In order to save this frigate, Britain successively sent three ** to confront our army. However, in the face of our artillery fire, the British ships could only flee in panic. The Purple Quartz, which was abandoned, also quietly slipped away while the representatives of our party were negotiating diplomatically with the British.
So, how did our party negotiate with the UK? What was the final outcome of this event?
On April 21, 1949, the Third Field Army was ready to liberate Nanjing along the Yangtze River. Among them, Deng Ruobo, commander of the 202nd Regiment, was at an operational meeting in the defense area when he was suddenly attacked by a 203-mm large-caliber heavy gun and unfortunately died.
After learning the news, the army commander Tao Yong was grief-stricken and shouted at the London on the sea: "Hit hard!" "It turned out that the London, after anchoring, despite the shelling of our troops, forcibly approached the Purple Quartz and opened fire on the artillery positions of our troops.
The heavy artillery on the London was incredibly powerful and capable of striking from a distance. They opened fire without a brain and directly hit the 202nd regiment, where our army was meeting. Tao Yong decisively ordered the bombardment of the London, the control tower was hit, and the captain was seriously injured and fell to the ground.
Maiden was also injured and hurriedly ordered to flee. On the way, when they passed through the 23rd Army Defense Zone, they were heavily bombarded again. In the end, the British ** ship did not dare to risk rescuing the Purple Quartz.
According to statistics, the British Navy suffered heavy losses in this battle, 42 people were killed, 52 were wounded, and 103 officers and men were missing. This includes 5 captains and vice-captains.
The Purple Quartz invaded China's internal river without authorization, resulting in the death of 252 ** members of our army, and one regiment-level commander and fighter. They are to blame for the losses of the British Navy. However, the British side made a diplomatic mistake and demanded that our party return the Purple Quartz as soon as possible.
Our party resolutely refused to do so, because at that time our party and Britain had not yet established formal diplomatic ties, and our party was not very good at dealing with such matters.
At the critical moment of the battle to cross the river, we could not take into account the demands of the British, after all, they were on the side of injustice. With the end of the battle, the Chinese and British sides launched many negotiations on this matter, and the results of the negotiations showed that the British did not bear the responsibility for the incident, but kept asking when the Purple Quartz would leave our army's defense area.
However, while the negotiations were underway, on the night of July 30, the scarred Purple Quartz unexpectedly escaped, using the passenger ship as a cover and sneaked into Hong Kong.
At that time, no one knew how the Purple Quartz escaped, and it was not until 1957, when *** visited the Soviet Union, that the secrets were revealed.
It turned out that the evacuation of the Purple Quartz was not accidental, but a careful arrangement of our party. ** Once said: "We helped the Purple Quartz because of its lack of fuel, but that doesn't mean we're going to let them go."
Otherwise, Sino-British relations will become even more tense, which is not conducive to the friendship between the two peoples. The day after the London escaped, ** sent a telegram to the General Front Committee of the River Crossing Campaign, instructing them: "If the Purple Quartz does not interfere with the movement of our troops, we should provide convenience for the rescue of the British troops."
But if they were going to Nanjing, we couldn't agree. However, if the British ships do not listen to the advice, we will not attack them either, as long as they do not fire on our troops. ”
**'s foresight has enabled our country to achieve fruitful results in the field of diplomacy. After the incident, our army did not choose to use force against the Purple Quartz, nor did it board the ship to capture the surviving crew.
Instead, we provided assistance to the injured crew members, helped them recover 2 navy members, and allowed them to repatriate the personnel after **. These initiatives demonstrate our country's broad-mindedness and foresight, and have also earned us more respect on the international stage.