Chapter 199 5.6 day and night to conquer Shimen

On the morning of November 6, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army launched an attack on Shimen, and by the 8th, all outlying strongholds had been cleared.Among them, the competition between Daguocun Airport and Yunpan Mountain, the commanding height in the northeast suburb of Shimen, is the most intense. Soon after the battle started, troops from the Jijin Military Region surrounded the airport.In order to protect the only air passage, the defending enemy organized the main force of the 9th Security Regiment at 8 o'clock that day to counterattack under the cover of aircraft. At dawn on the 7th, the 1st and 2nd Independent Brigades of the Hebei-Shanxi Military Region attacked from the northeast and northwest respectively, annihilating a battalion of the 9th Security Regiment and occupying the airport.

Yunpan Mountain is a commanding height about 600 meters away from Waishigou. It is about 15 meters high and covers an area of ​​240 square meters. It is the only barrier in the northeast of Shimen.Defending the enemy is a strengthened company of the security police brigade. A permanent or semi-permanent fortification has been built with a temple on the mountain as the core. It is equipped with 4 heavy machine guns, 9 light machine guns, and 4 60 guns, forming a tight cross. Huowang claims to be "a cloud mountain made of iron".The 8th Company of the 3rd Battalion, 10th Brigade, 30th Regiment, 4th Column, under the cover of artillery fire from the whole regiment, launched an attack at 6 o'clock on the 8th by combining tunnel blasting and ground blasting, and occupied it after only 10 minutes of fighting. Yunpan Mountain.

While fighting on the outskirts, the attacking forces began soil work on the night of the 6th to transform the terrain.By the morning of the 8th, the traffic trench was extended to within 100 meters from the Waishi Ditch, and the tunnel was dug to the outer edge of the Waishi Ditch. At 16:00 on November 8, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army launched a general attack on Waishigou.Under the cover of powerful artillery fire, combined with tunnel blasting, all the troops quickly broke through the Waishigou.By the morning of the 9th, except for a few strongholds between the inner and outer Shigou, the rest were captured.

Neishigou is the second and main line of defense for the enemy. On the evening of the 9th, the attacking troops started soil work, transformed the terrain, rushed to repair traffic trenches and tunnels, and completed the assault preparations before dawn. At 16:00 on the 10th, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army launched an attack on the enemy's second line of defense.The blasting team of the 23rd Regiment of the 8th Brigade of the 3rd Column used the tunnel blasting to first break into Neishigou, and opened the passage in only 6 minutes. By 18:00, the whole brigade broke into the second line of defense and occupied Dongli Village and the Southwest Barracks.

The 7th Brigade made an assault from Xili Village. By the morning of the 17th, most of them had entered the urban area, occupied Zhonghua Road and Fuxing Road, and developed towards the North Barracks.The 10th and 12th Brigades of the 4th Column broke into Shigou side by side from the east and occupied Xiumen and the urban area on the east side of Zhongzheng Road.On the 11th, troops from the Hebei-Shanxi Military Region captured Beijiao Village, then broke into Neishigou and approached the North Barracks.In addition to besieging Yuancun and Pengcun, the main forces of the Jizhong Military Region broke in from the southeast, occupied Daxing Spinning Mill, and launched an offensive northward.By 12 o'clock on the 11th, all the siege troops entered the city to fight.

On the morning of November 12, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Field Army launched an attack on core positions such as the railway station and Zhengtai Hotel in the Dashiqiao area.Liu Ying, commander of the 32nd Division defending the enemy, commanded the remnants, defended the core fortifications, resisted stubbornly, and tried to stick to it and wait for help.The Kuomintang Air Force dispatched bombers and fighter jets to carry out air strikes on the PLA positions.In order to speed up the attack, the 4th column sent the 11th brigade of the reserve team into street battles.The brigade was ordered to attack the railway station and Zhengtai Hotel.

After fierce fighting, the 11th Brigade captured these two core strongholds.At 8 o'clock on the same day, the 3rd column launched a fierce attack from the west and south, the 4th column from the east and northeast, and the troops of the Jijin military region launched a fierce attack from the northwest to the Dashiqiao area, the command center of the defending enemy.After the fierce battle reached 11 o'clock, the enemy stopped resisting, and Liu Ying and others were captured.The battle of Shimen, which lasted 6 days and nights, ended in victory. After the liberation of Shimen, the independent 7th and 8th brigades of the Jizhong Military Region took advantage of the victory and marched southward. With the cooperation of the 34th and 35th regiments of the Taihang Military Region, they cooperated with the Howitzer Battalion of the East China Military Region, the Field Artillery Battalion of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region and the Engineer Battalion of the 3rd Column With the support, they launched an attack on Yuanshi County. On November 17, the four passes of Yuanshi were captured, and then 13 days and nights of earthworks were carried out, and 24 tunnels were dug, each with a charge of more than 3,000 kilograms. At 15:00 on December 3, a general offensive was launched, and the battle ended at 19:00.More than 5,000 people from the 5th Hebei Security Regiment and other departments were wiped out, and Wei Yonghe, the head of the regiment, was killed.So far, Shimen and its surrounding areas have been liberated.After the liberation of Shimen City, it was renamed Shijiazhuang City.