Chapter 152 Van Vleet shoots suddenly

At that time, Panmunjom negotiations were at an impasse. In the United States, the 34th presidential election is about to begin. Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party want to earn campaign capital from the battlefield. How to get it? fight a battle. Even now, the president of the United States is going to be re-elected, and he has to fight a war. What is the difference between this kind of politics, this view of political achievements, and the eagerness for quick success and quick benefits of some Chinese cadres? If you are eager for quick success, it is easy to go wrong. No, in Shangganling, the United States has a big problem.

At that time, Lieutenant General Li Qiwei, the commander of the United Nations Army, had just been transferred to Europe as the commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces. General Clark, the commander-in-chief of the local forces, has just succeeded the commander of the United Nations forces. The new official took office with three fires. In addition, General Van Fleet, commander of the U.S. 8th Army, who is aggressive by nature, had his son just killed by the volunteers, and he was holding back his anger and had nowhere to vent his anger. On October 9, Van Fleet ordered the US Ninth Army commander Ruben?Major General Jenkins: "Place your bet! Immediately organize the US and South Korean troops of the US 9th Army to implement the offensive plan."

General Van Fleet is not an ordinary person, he cleverly chose the breakthrough point.He judged that the western mountain in central North Korea was flat and easy to attack by the mechanized troops of the United Nations Army. It must also be the focus of the smart Chinese army's defense. Therefore, we must take a slanted sword and choose to shoot at Ganling on the steep Five Sacred Mountains. He judged that the steepness of the mountain meant that the defense of the Chinese army would be weak. I suddenly shot a shot, and before you could react, the shot was successful, what can your Chinese army do to me?

This time, General Van Fleet was right. The defense line of the 15th Army started from Zhongxian Mountain in the east and Fali Peak in the west, with a front width of about 30 kilometers and a depth of about 20 kilometers.There are major commanding heights such as Xixi Mountain, Douliu Peak, and Five Sacred Mountains in the defense zone, which are the gateways to the central front. At that time, Qin Jiwei, the commander of the 15th Army, judged that Western Mountain was close to Pingkang Plain, and it was the connection point of the Wonsan on the east coast to Wenshan on the west coast, and the railway from Seoul to Wonsan ran through the center of the defense area. The movement of enemy tanks and mechanized troops, and the junction with the 38th Army's position, should be the focus of the United Nations Army's breakthrough.Therefore, the defense focus of the 15th Army is on the Western Hills.He placed his fist unit—Xiang Shouzhi's 44th Division there, and strengthened the 87th Regiment of the 29th Division, and attached the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 9th Artillery Regiment.

Look, General Van Vleet doesn't eat for nothing. It is the 45th Division that guards Shangganling on the Five Sacred Mountains.At that time, there were the 1st company, the 9th company, and a platoon of the 8th company of the 135th regiment. Cui Jiangong, who was the commander of the 45th Division at the time, was born in Wei County, Handan, Hebei. His ancestors were Jinshi in the Qing Dynasty.In his early years, he served as a soldier under Zhang Xueliang of the Northeast Army. Because the "communist suppression" troops in northern Shaanxi were ambushed by the Red Army in Zhiluo Town, he was captured and became the Red Army.First worked as a political officer in Xu Haidong's Red 15th Army Corps, then as the chief of the enemy's engineering section, and then as the commander of the battalion, regiment, and brigade, all the way as the division commander.

At that time, the 1st and 9th companies did not have mountain artillery, field artillery, or howitzers.Qin Jiwei allocated 15 obsolete old-fashioned guns that were idle on the second line to these two companies.These guns are all captured Japanese guns and old-fashioned guns manufactured by Taiyuan Arsenal, with short range and poor accuracy.But when the battle was fought, these old cannons played a huge role. At 3:30 a.m. on October 14, 1952, Van Fleet, commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, announced to the world through the Associated Press reporter in Seoul: "The Jinhua Offensive has begun!"

In this battle, Van Fleet would have done it if he hadn't fought it, and he would have been ruthless if he fought it. This ruthlessness is far beyond people's imagination. On that day, the U.S. Eighth Army launched an almost crazy bombing of Shangganling with 300 cannons, 40 aircraft and 120 tanks. How crazy? In the first hour of the attack, an average of 6 bullets were dropped per second on the 37,000-square-kilometer position, crackling, like firecrackers during the New Year, and the cannons rang together. On the first day, a total of more than 300,000 shells were poured, and 500 bombs were dropped.

Hidden in a deep and solid underground tunnel, the volunteer soldiers were stunned by the shock. Many people had their teeth broken and their lips were broken. There was also a 17-year-old soldier who was shocked to death. The superficial fortifications of the Volunteers, not to mention, were all destroyed. The elevation of the main peak of the position was lowered by a full two meters, and the hard rock became soft virtual soil. The sound of artillery was intermittent, and the American soldiers rushed up in groups. The formation was to seize Shangganling in one fell swoop while the volunteers were being bombarded.

Volunteer soldiers' gun barrels were red, and there was no water to cool them down, so they used urine instead. The volunteers resisted desperately and repelled the enemy from platoon to battalion successively, with a total of more than 30 attacks. At 1300 hours, most of the surface positions were lost. At 19 o'clock, dusk came, and the volunteers regained their positions.