In the 1979 war of self-defense and counterattack against Vietnam, both countries paid a huge price. China defeated Vietnam by a landslide, but it also learned valuable lessons. After this war, Vietnam's national strength has regressed by at least 20 years, and it no longer dares to underestimate China, and its ambition to occupy China's borders has since faded.
The war had a far-reaching impact on the international community, not only providing important experience and lessons for other countries, but also arousing the attention and interest of countries around the world.
On February 17, 1979, China's self-defense counterattack against Vietnam began, and the Soviet Union, the United States, and other Asian countries closely followed the situation. The large-scale operation was the largest of the Chinese Army's operations since the Sino-Indian border operation in 1960, and it also brought about a major change in the attitude of the United States and the Soviet Union.
Many foreign war correspondents also followed the troops into the battlefield and prepared to make a comprehensive report. Among them, the Japanese military journalist Masahiro Mino did not arrive in Vietnam until after February 26, so his relevant historical sources mainly describe the fighting after February 26.
His book "The Truth of the Sino-Vietnamese War 1979" was declassified many years later because it contained some evaluations and opinions. The evaluation and professionalism of this book vary from person to person.
In the book, Sanye Zhengyang describes the squadron's surprise attack on the Vietnamese army from three directions: Lao Cai, Cao Binh, and Lang Son. The 41st Army and the 42nd Army of the squadron, a total of 6 divisions, launched a full-scale fierce battle with the Vietnamese position.
At the same time, the Soviet Union, which was always paying attention to the changes in the squadron, announced that it had entered a state of alert and put pressure on the squadron. However, the goal of the squadron this time is not to declare war on Vietnam, but to teach Vietnam a lesson in self-defense and make them understand that violating our borders and undermining our territorial sovereignty will absolutely not be tolerated.
Between February 17 and 19, the squadron successfully captured Lao Cai as a result of their fierce assault on the 246th Regiment of the Vietnamese Army using crowd tactics.
It is said that during the battle, the commander of the 246th Regiment of the Vietnamese Army was killed, and the chief of staff of the regiment was captured by the squadron. By the early morning of 20 February, the Vietnamese army had exceeded 10,000 and seven missile bases had been blown up, which showed that the all-out offensive of the squadron had reached a climax.
On February 21, the squadron began to attack the periphery of Lang Son, and the Vietnamese army immediately dispatched the reserve 345th Division to support to stabilize the situation on the Lang Son line, and the two sides launched fierce battles on the periphery of Lang Son.
This attack caused a large number of ** on the Vietnamese army, making their defense system stormy.
Although in the battle of Lao Cai, the Chinese artillery achieved significant results, due to the lack of experience in mountain operations, the squadron suffered a heavy defeat in the Battle of Gaoping.
The lesson is that in the case of complex terrain, the insufficient reserve of artillery support forces can seriously affect the effectiveness of the operation. In the mountain and jungle warfare, the Vietnamese army adopted the strategy of dispersing the offensive, which put our army in a difficult position.
Although our artillery supplies were abundant, it took only one day to run out of all the shells, and it took four days to replenish them, and there was only one yield. Therefore, in future wars, our army needs to strengthen its experience in mountain operations and the construction of artillery support forces to meet similar challenges.
It is reported that the artillery of the squadron mainly uses towed artillery, which is bulky, heavy, and inconvenient to move, and takes a long time to defend the column, which seriously affects the speed of the attack.
This is one of the important lessons learned by the squadron in the bloody battle of Tongdeng. In contrast, the Vietnamese army's mode of transportation is worth mentioning, they used American-made C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and *** captured from the South Vietnamese regime in 1975 and American-made M-113 armored infantry transport vehicles captured in the US-Vietnam War, which posed a greater threat to the squadron at that time.
For the interpretation of Japanese reporters, it is believed that at that time, the Vietnamese army had just finished fighting with the United States and had strong individual combat capabilities, while China was relatively backward in terms of **, so it would use crowd tactics.
This interpretation is too one-sided, only looking at the situation on the battlefield and ignoring that the contest between China and Vietnam is only known to the people of the two countries. Because in the bloody battle of Tongdeng, the artillery fire of the squadron became the key to breaking the victory.
On February 26, the Chinese side decided to withdraw to the country in order to avoid the expansion of the fighting. However, the fighting intensified on the tenth day of February 27.
With the input of Chinese reserves, they tried to break through the defensive line established by the Vietnamese army and capture the vital airfield of Lang Son. At this time, the Vietnamese army also began to counterattack, and their target was Dong Deng, an important stronghold in Lang Son.
According to the news, Dong Deng had been occupied by the squadron before, but unexpectedly, the counterattack of the Vietnamese army succeeded in recapturing most of Dong Deng, which surprised the Chinese command. It has been learned that the Vietnamese army began to adopt a flexible combat method, breaking up the whole into parts, and launching an attack on the squadron on the basis of scattered small teams.
This is undoubtedly a severe test for the command of the squadron. The Vietnamese troops were lightly armed, carried the radio station on their backs, and were able to receive orders from the command at any time, so their tactical movements were very active.
Although the squadron had an advantage in terms of strength, this combat tactic of the Vietnamese army caught them off guard. For the PLA fighters, who have not had large-scale actual combat for 20 years, the experience of individual combat has been greatly tested, which has led to a large number of troop losses.
In view of this situation, the command of the squadron immediately adjusted the direction of the operation, took Lang Son as the main direction of attack, and concentrated its forces to launch an attack.
The squadron launched a fierce offensive in March, employing large-caliber artillery fire, powerful 152-mm guns, and armored units. They launched a fierce attack on the defensive fortress of Dong Deng, lined up with hundreds of heavy guns, and bombarded the Vietnamese positions with frenzied firepower.
According to the records of Japanese reporters, the squadron's style of not being afraid of sacrifice and rushing forward completely broke the psychological defense line of the Vietnamese army, and the Vietnamese soldiers expressed great fear and fear.
Because the squadron was not afraid of sacrifice and successfully overwhelmed the insufficient Vietnamese army with the "crowd tactics", Dong Deng also fell into the hands of the squadron in half a day.
At the same time, it also exposed the weakness of the Vietnamese army's operations, and the Vietnamese troops fighting on the front line delayed the time of retreat and could not retreat safely, resulting in a large number of war dead and captured personnel in many units.
Although the Vietnamese tanks could not concentrate on fighting, and they were powerless to turn the situation around after being broken by each one, they still tried to inflict equal or even more ** on the squadron, so they were in a difficult situation.
In order to prevent the strong offensive of the squadron, the Vietnamese top level urgently requisitioned the most elite troops from Hanoi to reinforce Lang Son to the south. However, the squadron did not send its troops south of Lang Son, and this unit did not really participate in the battle.
The heaviest fighting took place from February 27 to March 2, when the 308th Division of the Vietnamese Army, known as the "Invincible Regiment", was put into battle. Although Vietnam announced that more than 27,000 people in the squadron had been eliminated, the actual result was that the squadron had the advantage.
On March 1, the squadron broke into Lang Son City and engaged in street battles with the Vietnamese army, and the stronghold became a meat grinder battlefield. In the face of fierce fighting, the Vietnamese army Gao Zong was afraid that the squadron would hit Hanoi, so he sent Wu Yuanjia into the front line to command, and the squadron was led by Xu Shiyou and Yang Dezhi, which shows the importance of both sides to this war.