Chapter 55 7. Focus on attacking the South Korean Army

With the continuous progress of the armistice negotiations, the obstruction and sabotage activities of the Syngman Rhee Group have intensified.Syngman Rhee publicly stated that he could not accept the new plan of the United Nations Army, clamored to "oppose any compromise", wanted to "advance on the Yalu River" and "fight it alone", and directed his negotiators to withdraw from the negotiations, directing protests in Seoul, Busan and other places. The so-called "mass demonstration" of the armistice. According to the performance of the United States and the Syngman Rhee Group in the negotiations, the Volunteer Army decided to adjust its deployment and change the key targets of the attack. On June 1, the head of the Volunteer Army issued an order to adjust the deployment.The order pointed out that "according to the current situation and the negotiations in Panmunjom, in order to make this campaign more strategic, and to enable our newly entered North Korean troops to quickly go to the front line to get tempered", it was determined that "the main target of the current counterattack is the Li puppet army. We should strike resolutely, and seek to wipe out a large number of their vital forces. We will not attack the British and other slave troops for the time being, and we will not make large-scale attacks on the U.S. Army. However, the original combat preparations should still be carried out so that we can fight again when necessary. Regardless of any enemy, anyone If they attack us, they should be resolutely and completely crushed."Order the newly entered 16th, 54th, and 21st armies to go to the front line, under the command of the 9th and 20th corps respectively, and the 21st army serves as the general reserve of the volunteer army.

According to the instructions of the head of the Volunteer Army, each corps and army made appropriate adjustments to the combat plan.The 20th Corps held a combat meeting on June 4 and formulated a next-step combat plan.It was decided to continue to expand the scale of operations, seize the positions of the South Korean Army Corps, cooperate with each other with the 60th and 67th Armies, and concentrate on further attacking the South Korean 8th and 5th Divisions on both sides of the North Han River, attacking one each The regiment's position, and prepare to smash the counterattack of the "United Nations Army" from deep maneuvers of more than two divisions.In order to avoid the two armies fighting at the same time and form a stalemate with the enemy, according to the terrain conditions, the meeting decided that the 60th Army would launch an attack on the east bank of the Bukhan River first, and then depending on the development of the battle situation, the 67th Army would launch another attack.In order to ensure that the corps needs to expand its operational scale, the Volunteer Army Command successively dispatched nearly three artillery regiments to support operations.

According to the deployment of the 20th Corps, the 60th and 67th Corps made further preparations on the basis of the original preparations.The 60th Army is determined to use the 181st and 179th Divisions to seize the main positions of the 27th Regiment of the 5th Division of South Korea, such as the 883.7 Highlands, 973 Highlands, and 902.8 Highlands on the east side of the North Han River, annihilate the defending enemies and firmly hold their positions. This is the first time that the Volunteers have attacked the position of an enemy regiment since they entered positional warfare.The Volunteer Army attaches great importance to it from top to bottom, carrying out careful deployment and strict organization, especially the implementation of infantry coordination and latent troops, and the success of latent is directly related to whether the battle can be won or not.The 60th Army formed a temporary command post in Longmen Mountain.The 20th Corps opened an advance command post in a tunnel near the corps command post. When the 60th Army launched its offensive on June 10, Zheng Weishan, the former acting commander of the 20th Corps, Zhang Nansheng, the political commissar, and Yang Yong, the new commander, Wang Ping, the political commissar, and Zhao Guanying, the deputy chief of staff, all went to the front line to command the operations.Xu Shiyou, commander of the 3rd Corps, and Du Yide, deputy political commissar, also came to visit.The Volunteer Army Command also sent the Chief of Operations to wait until the 60th Army to help guide.

On the evening of June 10th, the 60th Army concentrated 259 artillery pieces with 82mm or more chasing guns and carried out a 20-minute fire attack on the enemy's positions, destroying 70% of the enemy's fortifications.Then, the troops lurking in front of the enemy's position were like arrows flying off the string, and the infantry divided thirteen arrows into attacking the predetermined target at the same time, and quickly broke through the enemy's forward position.In the process of advancing in depth, they encountered enemy artillery fire and infantry resistance, but the attacking troops bravely interspersed and attacked hard, making them unstoppable.After one hour and ten minutes of fierce fighting, the three regiments of the first echelon responsible for the main offensive task wiped out the front line of 883.7 Heights - 973 Heights - 902.8 Heights, occupying about 10 square meters of the main position of the 27th Regiment of the 5th Division of South Korea Kilometer area, the first example of an offensive operation that wiped out most of an enemy regiment since the Volunteers entered positional warfare.

Beginning on June 11, the South Korean Army assembled three regiments, one each from the 5th Division and one from the 3rd Division of the Reserve, and with the support of a large number of artillery and aviation, they continued to carry out violent counterattacks.By the 14th, the 60th Army repelled the enemy's counterattacks more than 190 times and firmly occupied the established positions. Taking advantage of the enemy's inability to counterattack, the 60th Army continued to develop its offensive. By 8 o'clock on the 15th, the 60th Army had completely occupied all the positions defended by the two regiments of the 5th Division and the 3rd Division of South Korea, covering an area of ​​about 30 square kilometers. .In this offensive operation, the 60th Army killed, wounded and captured more than 14,800 enemies.

Following the 60th Army, the 67th Army, with three regiments on the night of June 12, with the support of 308 artillery pieces above 82 mm mortars and eight tanks, attacked the 21st Regiment of the 8th Division of South Korea. On the west side of the Bukhan River, Namsan Mountain (Cross Mountain) in Zashoudong launched an attack.The position is solidly fortified, and it is called a "model position" and "Gyeonggi Fortress" by the South Korean Army. In order to ensure the suddenness of the battle, the 67th Army built more than 700 secret garrison holes and more than 100 artillery and tank launch positions in front of the enemy's front.On the day before the offensive, nine infantry companies were secretly driven into the ambush area and the garrison cave.After the battle started, it took only one and a half hours to occupy all the enemy's surface positions.On the morning of the 13th, the remaining enemies in the tunnels were cleared, and the two battalions, one company, and the other battalion of the defending enemy were wiped out.Then, they repelled more than 50 counterattacks from one company to two battalions of the enemy. On the 14th, taking advantage of the victory and expanding the results of the battle, they occupied all the positions of the 21st Regiment of the 8th Division of South Korea, and advanced 4 kilometers deep into the enemy.In this offensive, the 67th Army killed, wounded and captured more than 13,500 enemies, captured eight tanks, and shot down and injured 21 enemy planes.

At the same time, the 23rd and 24th armies under the command of the 9th Corps on the center line attacked eleven positions defended by troops below the enemy barracks from June 10 to 15. Two positions were taken.The 3rd and 7th Corps of the Korean People's Army on the Eastern Front also successively attacked the eleven positions defended by troops below the South Korean barracks in front of them, consolidating and occupying two positions. On June 8, the armistice negotiators reached an agreement on the issue of prisoners of war.So far, all the agendas of the armistice negotiations have been agreed. On the 15th, the work of delineating the military demarcation line according to the actual control line of the two sides is about to be completed, and the signing of the armistice agreement is imminent.

At 19:00 on June 15th, the Volunteer Army Command ordered all units to stop actively attacking the enemy starting from June 16th, but any attack on the enemy should be resolutely attacked.The second phase of the battle came to an end. In the second phase of the battle, the Chinese and North Korean troops successively attacked 51 positions defended by troops below the "United Nations Army" regiment 65 times, killing, injuring and capturing more than 41,000 enemies, and expanding the area of ​​the position to 58 square kilometers.Among them, the 5th and 8th divisions of South Korea were dealt devastating blows on both sides of the North Han River.