Chapter 41 General Van Fleet: Welcome to the Communist attack!

Frontier radio monitoring records of the United Nations Army: monitoring time: March 30. Location: Highland 205, Hongchuan North. Source: Chinese Army Telephones in Chinese. Content: Is there any difficulty with today's food? While advancing northward, the United Nations has been detecting signs that the Chinese army may launch a "large-scale counterattack". Just as the Chinese army was retreating north in the fourth battle, Tudu Peng Dehuai's headquarters was advancing south.Now, Peng Dehuai's headquarters is almost at the forefront of contacting the enemy. Enemy planes are constantly flying overhead, and the cannons of the front-line blocking battle can be clearly heard.

Spring has come, although the spring on the battlefield is so slow, but the mottled wild flowers and delicate weeds have covered the hills of the bomb crater, the shrubs are covered with goose-yellow first leaves, and the wind blowing in the valley has also changed. got milder. On April 6, 1951, the Fifth Enlarged Meeting of the Party Committee of the Chinese People's Volunteers was held at a place called Shangganling a few kilometers northeast of Jinhua, North Korea. This is a huge abandoned gold mine.A conference table made of dozens of shell boxes is placed in the center of the mine.In addition to the head of the Volunteer Army command organization, the military and political chiefs of the nine Chinese armies who entered the DPRK earlier, Wang Jinshan, the deputy commander of the Third Corps, Du Yide, the deputy political commissar, and the commander of the 19th Corps attended the meeting. Party member Yang Dezhi, political commissar Li Zhimin and other leaders.Leaders of the North Korean People's Army attended the meeting.

All the senior military commanders of the Chinese People's Volunteers are concentrated in this mine. Some of these commanders were not familiar with Peng Dehuai, but none of the senior military commanders did not know Peng Dehuai.Peng Dehuai looked at the team of commanders who had grown considerably, and jokingly said: "The US imperialists gathered armies from 15 countries to form the United Nations Army. I think we can also be called a 'Allied Forces', coming from various regions of the motherland. The area under the jurisdiction of our corps is much larger than their country!"

Peng Dehuai's mood improved with the arrival of domestic supplementary troops.After two months of hard resistance and anxious anticipation, the six armies of the Third Corps and the Nineteenth Corps finally reached the front line, together with the original nine armies participating in the battle, as well as artillery, railway, logistics and technical Arms, the total strength of the Chinese People's Volunteers in North Korea has reached more than 700,000. As long as there are people, everything is easy to handle. In terms of understanding of human capabilities, Truman is not as good as MacArthur, who has lived in Asia for 14 years, understands Chinese people.The judgment of the senior staff in Washington that "the Chinese may also think that now is the time to stop the war" is completely subjective speculation.Far from thinking that the war should stop, the Chinese are preparing for the biggest battle since the outbreak of the Korean War.Even in those bloody days when the Chinese army was passively retreating, the dream of fighting a larger-scale battle and destroying more enemies had lingered in the hearts of Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai.

There is no force that can stop the Chinese from displaying their unique national character tenaciously. Never stop without a contest to the end, and never admit defeat.It took the Americans three full years on the Korean Peninsula in the Far East to understand this. The enlarged meeting of the Volunteer Army Party Committee first summarized the gains and losses of the fourth campaign. The fourth battle lasted 87 days. The Chinese army retreated while fighting, and retreated to the north of the current 38th parallel. It spent the most difficult period in the movement defense.Chinese officers and soldiers tenaciously delayed the U.S. attack under the cover of an unprecedented scale of modern lethal weapons with their flesh and blood, so that the U.S. military's northward attack paid an average price of 900 people every day to advance 1.3 kilometers.However, the Chinese army also learned many lessons in the fourth battle. To put it simply: 1. The Korean War will be a difficult and long-term war, and the idea of ​​"quick victory" is terrible and harmful; In the face of modern equipment, it is difficult for the Chinese army to hold on to the defense, and it is necessary to carry out active mobile defense.

Recognizing these two points is enough to show that the Chinese military is clear-headed in the war. Not to mention the difficulty of the Chinese army in ensuring the basic supplies needed by soldiers for survival and combat, but only in terms of the mobility of the troops, its means of maneuvering are far from those of the US military.During the offensive, the Chinese army's attack methods remain unchanged. In order to avoid collapse in the mobile defense, they always maintain a fairly deep position configuration and cannot withdraw at will. Therefore, the assault achieved by the US military relying on mechanized speed will cause the Chinese army to fall into a trap. Passive, this reality is a profound contradiction for the Chinese military, because even after realizing it, the Chinese military still has not summed up a practical corresponding method, so this has led to the Chinese military completely ignoring this kind of thinking. situation, and the same mistakes were made in the course of future wars.

Discussion of the fifth campaign begins. The front-line strength of the United Nations Army was 14 divisions, 3 brigades, plus 3 South Korean divisions, a total of nearly 300,000 people.As for whether the enemy will continue to march northward on a large scale after reaching the 38th parallel, although China has received a signal from the United States for some kind of peace talks, Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai’s judgment on the nature of the enemy based on years of experience in fighting against the enemy is deeply rooted , that is, there is no enemy who can become a Buddha instantly.However, there may be three situations in the current battlefield: If the United Nations forces continue to march northward on a large scale, it will be most beneficial to the counterattack that the Chinese army is preparing for, because if the United Nations forces go deep north, the situation on its front will be convenient for the Chinese army to take advantage of its gaps Interspersed segmentation.

If the United Nations army is small and the main force stops, it will be beneficial to the current situation of the Chinese army, because the Chinese army is fully capable of stopping the small-scale enemy advancing northward and buying another period of preparation time for the battle.If the U.N. forces stopped moving north, it would be bad, because once the U.S. military is determined to stop and form a solid defense line, if the Chinese army wants to fight back, it is tantamount to fighting against the U.S. military positions instead of annihilating the enemy. This is the most uncertain battlefield situation.

However, Li Qiwei never let go of his vigilance against the possible counterattack of the Chinese army. He used a steady and steady northward policy.The advance speed of the troops was not fast, but they were very resolute, and the front line was pushed flat without leaving gaps, even if they crossed the 38th parallel.This made Peng Dehuai difficult to decide.Counterattacks must be fought, but when is the best time to fight and how to fight, these issues have formed a fierce debate among the military leaders of the Volunteer Army Command. The deputy commander, Hong Xuezhi, firmly disagreed with a major battle immediately. He advocated sending the United Nations troops further north until the formation of fighter planes, that is, after the Chinese side was fully prepared, before fighting.Hong Xuezhi's reason is: If we fight now, once the enemy is formed, it will not be easy to achieve the goal of "destroying the enemy in an organized way" requested by Chairman Mao.

And if the United Nations army is brought in, the Chinese army can adopt the tactics of blocking the middle, and solving the problem will be smoother.What's more, the new army has just entered the DPRK, and there is no mental preparation for a major battle immediately. Peng Dehuai interrupted Hong Xuezhi: "We can no longer retreat. Putting the enemy into Cheorwon and north of Jinhua will do a lot of harm. Cheorwon is a plain, a large open land, and enemy tanks rush in, so it is very difficult to deal with. In addition , the enemy comes in, what should we do with the many supplies and food we store near Wukaili? No, we can’t let the enemy in, we have to fight south of Cheorwon and Jinhua!”

Deputy Commander Deng Hua was also inclined to Hong Xuezhi's opinion: "Deputy Commander Hong's opinion is reasonable, and the enemy should be let in to fight. At present, the Third Corps and the Nineteenth Corps have just entered the court, and the Ninth Corps has just moved forward. The terrain is not familiar, and the action is very hasty. Letting the enemy in, first, we will be more prepared, so we can wait for work at leisure, and second, we can figure out the terrain." Hong Xuezhi said: "As for the materials and food in Wukaili, I promise to move it northward within two days!" Peng Dehuai asked seriously: "Do you really want to fight this battle?" Peng Dehuai drafted a telegram to Mao Zedong according to his own opinion, and telegraphed the Volunteer Army's thoughts on the fifth campaign. On the same day, Hong Xuezhi made his own suggestion to Peng Dehuai alone: ​​"Boss Peng, as a staff officer, you have the right to make three suggestions. I have already mentioned it to you twice. Now I will mention it to you again. It is up to you to decide." Hong Xuezhi's biggest worry was: if the enemy could not be divided and surrounded at the beginning of the battle, the Chinese army would fight forward, and the American army would retreat. The Chinese soldiers' legs would not be able to catch up with the American car wheels.If you go too far, the supply of troops will not be available, and the situation in the late stage of the fourth campaign may still occur. Peng Dehuai didn't make a sound. The important reason why Peng Dehuai advocated immediate combat was that he was worried about the US military's landing operations. The two pieces of information provided by the Chief of Staff of the Volunteer Army, Xie Fang, have aroused Peng Dehuai's deep worries.One is Ridgway's inspection on the Eastern Front. The U.S. Navy intensified its shelling and blockade of the ports of Wonsan, Sinpo, and Chongjin, and conducted frequent reconnaissance on coastal islands; The division arrived in Japan, preparing to reinforce the Korean battlefield, and at least 30,000 people in South Korea stepped up training at the US military base in Japan.There is also news that 30,000 of Chiang Kai-shek's soldiers have arrived at Jeju Island.All signs indicate that the U.S. military is likely to be planning a large-scale landing operation, and the location is likely to be Tongchuan and Wonsan on the east coast.When the United Nations forces are marching northward on the 38th parallel, if the U.S. forces conduct large-scale landing operations on the east and west coasts of the Korean Peninsula at the same time, then the supply line of the Chinese army will be completely cut off, and the situation of the Chinese army, which is attacked by the enemy, will be completely different. disastrous. The U.S. military stationed in Asia is known for its amphibious landing capabilities.The poorly maneuverable Chinese army cannot withstand the attack of an amphibious operation like the Incheon landing, especially when it is not prepared. Peng Dehuai has always been extremely vigilant about this since he was the commander-in-chief of the Korean War. It is necessary to get ahead of the US military's possible landing operations and put pressure on it from the front of the front to smash the US military's attempts and eliminate the threat of the Chinese army's rear.This is the ideological root of Peng Dehuai's insistence on starting a new campaign immediately. Peng Dehuai made an important speech at the enlarged meeting of the Volunteer Army Party Committee.He pointed out: "We must launch a campaign counterattack around April 20, wipe out several enemy divisions, smash the enemy's plan, and regain the initiative. The main direction of the counterattack is the line from Wensan to Chuncheon on the western line. The enemy consists of the 1st South Korean Division, the 29th British Brigade, the 3rd, 25th, and 24th U.S. Divisions, the Turkish Brigade, and the 6th South Korean Division. Due to the enemy's continuous northward advance operations, its depth is small , the reinforcements mainly rely on lateral movement, so in terms of campaign guidance, our army implements the policy of combining campaign division and tactical division, and combining campaign detour and tactical detour. Cleave a gap in the battle to separate the enemies on the east and west fronts, and at the same time use the three corps to attack from the front, and use the nine and nineteen corps to conduct campaign detours from the east and west wings. " Peng Dehuai demanded to seize the time to carry out political mobilization and tactical education immediately, organize the cadres of the first batch of participating troops to introduce combat experience to the newly participating troops, and send consultants to the newly participating troops to immediately carry out campaign reconnaissance and tactical reconnaissance.At the same time, the requirements for logistics work are: to strengthen the stockpiling of food and ammunition materials, to ensure that each soldier participating in this battle can bring five days of dry food, and the logistics branch also prepares five days of dry food for the troops to go with the troops.To overcome the difficulty of the 150-kilometer food-free zone along the Wangba line, the soldiers are not allowed to starve. If there is no food for a day or two, no matter how good the battle plan is, it will be useless.The health department made preparations for receiving and treating 40,000 to 50,000 wounded.The engineering troops immediately began to build the road from Xichuan via Deokhyeon-ri, Ningyuan, Mengsan to Yangde, preparing to use it as the main transportation line when the enemy landed from the side and the west line of the Chinese army was cut off. On the 10th, Peng Dehuai telegraphed the specific concept and deployment of the fifth campaign to Mao Zedong. In the study in Zhongnanhai Fengze Garden in Beijing, China, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai carefully reviewed the battle plan. Mao Zedong said to Zhou Si: "The US military wants to make a fuss about the waist of the bee in Wonsan, occupy this line, advance and attack, and retreat. Shou, whether it is beneficial military or political, I don't believe in this evil! I think Peng Dehuai's analysis is very reasonable!" Peng Dehuai expressed this in his telegram: Now, my second battalion troops are marching to the front line, but the enemy army is very tired after more than two months of attack, the casualties have not been replenished, the troops are not sufficient, and the reserve troops have not yet come. arrive.Seize this opportunity to launch a massive attack on the enemy whose foothold is not stable, and fight a big battle to speed up the resolution of the North Korean issue... Otherwise, our army will move slowly and miss the opportunity. Forcing our army to fight on two fronts puts me at a disadvantage.The campaign was originally planned to start in early May, but in order to delay the enemy's landing and avoid fighting on both sides at the same time, it started on April 22 ahead of schedule. This battle is extremely important, and it is a big and bad battle.Even at the cost of 50,000 to 60,000 people, one division of the enemy must be wiped out... "It seems that General Peng's ambition is indeed not small!" Mao Zedong said appreciatively. Zhou Enlai reminded: "In this way, the preparation time for the battle will be very short. The leading group of the Three Corps was formed only on March 16, and the entire Corps will reach the Korean front line in mid-April according to the scheduled speed. Besides, whether this battle is In terms of the deployed troops, the width of the front, and the expected effect, it is much greater than the previous four battles. Our previous battles have proved that several US divisions, a whole division, or even a regiment can be encircled at a time. , it is difficult to achieve the task of annihilation, and the first stage of this campaign is scheduled to annihilate five divisions of the enemy, including three divisions of the US military, which may be objectively difficult to achieve..." However, Mao Zedong approved Peng Dehuai's combat plan. On the 13th, Mao Zedong replied to agree with Peng Dehuai's deployment, and particularly emphasized the issue of vigilance against US military landing operations, pointing out that the 42nd Army should be deployed in the direction of Wonsan to specifically ensure the safety of Wonsan. The time when the Chinese Army's fifth campaign was launched was finally determined as: April 22, 1951. All military commanders who participated in the fifth enlarged party committee meeting of the Volunteer Army have clearly defined their tasks.In particular, the military commanders of the Third Corps and the Nineteenth Corps, who had just entered the DPRK and were about to serve as the main force in the beginning of the battle, were particularly excited. They sincerely asked the first batch of troops to take part in the war for their experience in fighting the American army. He listened to those exciting battle stories with great interest, traced the source of each battle case, and sincerely invited the first batch of troops to send capable cadres to their troops as combat advisors.They left the venue with the determination to fight a beautiful annihilation battle and make great contributions on the Korean battlefield. No one knows what kind of mood the commanders of the 38th and 42nd armies, who had fought four desperate battles with the U.S. Army and no longer participated in the fifth battle, left the venue. The gunfire at the front is getting closer and closer, and the forward troops of the US military are only a dozen kilometers away from Shangganling.As soon as the meeting ended, the staff asked Peng Dehuai to transfer immediately. Peng Dehuai was unwilling to leave, but the staff said that the agency had already been transferred, and there were actually only a few main leaders left here, the commander and the deputy commander, and even the radio station was put on the truck. Blocked by the enemy, the situation is critical. Peng Dehuai had to get into the jeep. Peng Dehuai in the jeep turned his back on the front line and headed north.Since he led the Chinese army to participate in the Korean War, his headquarters has been heading all the way south: Dayudong, Yuquan south of Tokugawa, Junzili, and then south to this Shangganling.Only now, his headquarters began to head north. The location of the new headquarters prepared for Peng Dehuai is Kongsi Cave in the north of Yichuan, which is still an abandoned gold mine. The transfer took place at night.For safety, the heads of the Volunteer Army headquarters were transferred in batches. "The road is facing the sky, each side goes!" Peng Dehuai made a rare joke. Even the transfer of the highest command of the Chinese military is dangerous.The No. 1 and No. 2 Dacheng trucks transferred by Hong Xuezhi to Peng Dehuai set out on the road. Before they had gone far, the U.S. military planes, who thought they would not come at night, swooped down on them.The jeep drove into the ditch while avoiding the bombing. Fortunately, no one was injured, but no matter how hard Hong Xuezhi and the two guards tried, they couldn't get the jeep out of the ditch together. In the end, a passing truck pulled the jeep up.As soon as I got the car up, a car that didn't dare to turn on the lights because of air defense rushed over in the dark, knocked down a guard, and was seriously injured. Under Hong Xuezhi's order, the car was responsible for killing the guard. Take to hospital.The jeep continued to walk for about an hour, and was hit by an air strike. As a result, the jeep that Hong Xuezhi was riding in was hit by a large oncoming truck. Hong Xuezhi's legs were injured, and the jeep was flattened.On the truck was a finance section chief of the 40th Army. When he found out that the car hit by Deputy Commander Hong was the car, he was frightened and got out of the car quickly. Hong Xuezhi told them to leave quickly.The jeep made in the United States was crashed like that, but it was still able to drive. At dawn, Hong Xuezhi, who was limping, finally arrived at the place called Kongsidong. The water dripping in the caves of the empty temple was too humid and too dark, Peng Dehuai didn't want to live there.There were several houses under the mountain that were not bombed, so Peng Dehuai lived in the house. At five o'clock one morning, a U.S. military plane suddenly flew over the sky. Hong Xuezhi and Deng Hua climbed into the air-raid shelter, but saw Peng Dehuai's house being hit by a rocket.After the plane flew away, Hong Xuezhi ran over. Peng Dehuai's house was completely burned down. Fortunately, Peng Dehuai was quickly pulled into a small air-raid shelter by the guards and was not injured. However, more than 70 aircraft machine guns were hit by the straw bags blocking the entrance of the air-raid shelter. bullet. Since then, Peng Dehuai has lived in a damp and dark mine.For his work, the engineers dug a small hole for him outside the entrance of the cave. When the U.S. military planes did not come, he could go to the lighted hole to hang a map. However, the U.S. military planes came almost every day. Just when the preparations for the fifth battle were at a tense stage, news came that the Sandeng warehouse had been bombed by U.S. aircraft, and Peng Dehuai was furious. Sandeng, east of Pyongyang and south of Chengchuan, is a hidden small station on the railway line. It is a main unloading point and transfer point for the Volunteer Army's logistics storage of combat materials. It is responsible for supplying the 39th and 12th.The tasks of the fifteenth, sixty-sixth, and sixty-third armies.From the beginning of February to the first ten days of April, a total of more than 700 wagons of grain, clothing, food and other materials were unloaded here. In addition to most of them being transshipped, there are also more than 170 wagons of materials stored here. The U.S. military discovered this target, and suddenly dispatched planes to bomb Sandeng for as long as 10 hours. As a result, 90 wagons of military supplies were blown up, and 2.6 million catties of raw and cooked grains, 330,000 catties of soybean oil, and 43.8 thousand catties of clothing were lost. Ten thousand sets, and a large number of other materials. When the battle was about to start, Sandeng was bombed, and Peng Dehuai was extremely distressed: "The exposed target and the person directly responsible must be dealt with by military law!" Thoroughly investigate the reasons and responsibilities, strictly enforce discipline, and educate all personnel. Otherwise, the Korean War will be seriously damaged." The bombing of Sandeng exposed the backwardness of the Chinese army's transportation and air defense forces.A large amount of materials could not be evacuated in time due to lack of means of transportation, and such an important material transfer station was not guarded by anti-aircraft artillery. Soon, Peng Dehuai heard another news that made him angry: The 60th Army called to say that there was no food, and the soldiers exchanged clothes and towels with the local North Koreans for chicken and sauerkraut. Peng Dehuai said a few unhappy words to Hong Xuezhi, who was in charge of the logistics work, and then sent his office director to investigate. It turned out that the 60th Army still had three days of food, and the telegram meant to give some more. Peng Dehuai sent a pear to Hong Xuezhi, saying that there was a misunderstanding, and he "paid a pear (reason)" to Deputy Commander Hong. Hong Xuezhi said: "I dare not eat this pear! The boss is always afraid that the troops will starve. This high sense of revolutionary responsibility is enough for us to learn for a lifetime!" According to Peng Dehuai's plan, the fifth campaign was approaching the moment of launching day by day. At this time, the heroic representatives of the Volunteer Army who returned home to give a report in China became the most popular people in China at that time.Wherever the officers and soldiers went, there were flowers and applause.The old people regard these young people who are not afraid of death as their own children, holding their hands and crying.The children's favorite person is the Uncle Volunteer Army, because they can tell stories about fighting against the American Devils.The students asked them to sign their notebooks and invited them to a dance party.Young people who asked to join the volunteer army were willing to follow them to the front line immediately.Millions of letters were flown to the trenches on the North Korean front.People who wrote letters ranged from three-year-old children to old people, and most of them were college and middle school students. The young female students wrote beautifully and even expressed passionate love, which excited the Chinese soldiers in the trenches.Because a Chinese writer wrote a newsletter titled "Who Is the Cutest Person" about a unit of the 38th Army blocking the U.S. Army at Pine Bone Peak in the second battle, the officers and soldiers of the Volunteer Army had A synonym used all over China: the cutest person. This is the new China.Material poverty did not dampen the confidence of the people of this country in the slightest; on the contrary, they considered themselves the most powerful force in the world.This is why the Chinese army can still fight bravely despite the huge gap between its weapons and equipment and its opponents. It has shocked and feared their enemies so far. After Li Qiwei succeeded MacArthur, the commander of the Eighth Army he chose was Van Fleet. james. A. Van Fleet, before taking over as the commander of the U.S. Eighth Army, was in charge of training recruits in the United States.Some in the U.S. military said he was a "hero in troubled times", while others said he was an "extreme old-fashioned soldier".He is a general who grew up from a soldier. If there was no World War II, he could only be promoted to lieutenant colonel at most. It is the war that gave him a bright future.Luck was upon him in the cruelest of battles.When D-Day landed, he was a regiment commander in the 29th Division of the US Army. The 29th Division landed on the coast of Omaha, and the battle was not going well. Five days later, the whole division was still on the coast without any progress. The German counterattack caused huge casualties to the whole division. Seeing that this local landing was about to fail, Eisenhower and Bradley, who were inspecting the front line, decided to withdraw the current commander of the 29th Division and let Commander Van Fleet act as the division commander. Therefore, "the whole division seemed to wake up. Same, moving forward." Soon, Van Fleet became an official division commander, and was then promoted to army commander.He spent some time in Greece after World War II, where he specialized in dealing with Greek communist guerrillas. Van Fleet does not care about politics, so he is considered to lack the ability of an excellent general to take care of the overall situation. Some people say that it is a bit uneasy to entrust North Korea's Eighth Army to his command.Li Qiwei didn't think so. He said he knew Van Fleet: "This is a soldier who is good at fighting and pursues perfection. Even in a small battle, he wants to win a complete victory." Van Fleet, who took over as the commander of the Eighth Army on April 14, had a hard time thinking about what he should do or what he was going to do soon.Signs of the Chinese army's counterattack are already very obvious, but it is not known when and where the Chinese army will start.But should it stop there and build up defensive positions to wait for a possible Chinese attack?Van Fleet believes that even if a defensive position is established, the Chinese army will still attack, and the established defensive position will not only fail to provide a solid defense, but will have a negative impact on the motivation of the soldiers.Therefore, only follow Li Qiwei's policy, advance northward, resolutely advance northward, and fight wherever you go. Maybe the continuous attack of the US military will destroy the Chinese army's counterattack plan. Van Fleet issued a plan to advance northward, with the goal of "Wyoming Line".This is a curve, the purpose of which is to level the uneven front of the Eighth Army again. Therefore, while the Chinese army is actively preparing for a large-scale counterattack, the United Nations forces are still advancing northward. On the 21st, the day before the Chinese army attacked, the situation on the battlefield was as follows: the 3rd and 25th Divisions under the command of the US First Army and the 1st South Korean Division were located in the area east of Mount Han; The youth regiment of the first division has arrived in Kaesong and Shizhuyuanli area.The 15th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the United States is a reserve team located in Uijeongbu. The U.S. 24th Division, the 1st Marine Division, and the 6th South Korean Division under the command of the U.S. Ninth Army are located on the line from Shibaura-ri to Dali-ri.The British 29th Brigade is a reserve team located in Gapyeong. The U.S. 2nd and 7th Divisions, the Dutch Battalion and the French Battalion under the command of the U.S. Tenth Army, as well as the South Korean Fifth Division, are located on the line from Jiuwanli to Yuantongli. The South Korean Third Division under the command of the South Korean Third Army Corps is located on the line from Yuantongli to Hanxiling.The reserve team is the Seventh Division of South Korea, located in the county. The Capital Division and the 11th Division under the command of the South Korean First Army Corps defended in the Gancheng area. The general reserves of the Eighth Army are the 1st U.S. Cavalry Division, the 187th Airborne Regiment, and the 2nd South Korean Division, located in Chuncheon, Suwon, and Wonju respectively. The planned plan for the fifth campaign launched by the Chinese army is: a total of 12 armies (including the First Army Corps of the North Korean People's Army) in three corps will carry out a major assault on the western front, with the purpose of dividing the enemy west of the Han River.With the Third Corps as the central assault group, the assault was carried out from the front.With the Ninth Corps and the Nineteenth Corps as the left and right assault corps, the campaign was detoured from the two wings.First of all, five divisions (brigades) in total were annihilated, namely, the 1st South Korean Division, the 29th British Brigade, the 3rd US Division, the Turkish Brigade and the 5th South Korean Division.Then, concentrate our forces to annihilate the 24th and 25th US divisions.The North Korean People's Army actively suppressed the enemy and wiped out the enemy with camera. The Third Corps of the Central Assault Group commanded the Twelfth and Fifteenth.The 60th Army, with two regiments of artillery and one regiment of anti-tank artillery, carried out a breakthrough from Sanchuanli to the front of Xinguangdong 15 kilometers away. First, it annihilated the third US division and the Turkish brigade, and then moved towards Shaochengli and Zhongxuanshan. Assaults were carried out in the area, and the 24th and 25th US Divisions located in the horizontal and Pocheon areas were wiped out with the Ninth Corps and the Nineteenth Corps. The 19th Corps of the right-wing assault group commanded the 63rd, 64th, and 65th armies, and was assigned an artillery regiment. Break through the Imjin River head-on, first annihilate the 29th British Brigade, and then carry out assaults in the direction of Dongducheon and Pocheon, and coordinate to wipe out the 24th and 25th U.S. Divisions.After the 64th Army crossed the river, it quickly implemented a campaign detour in the direction of the Ui government, cut off the enemy's retreat, and prevented the enemy from reinforcing.After succeeding, it developed to Seoul, and the camera occupied Seoul. The Ninth Corps of the Left Assault Group commanded the 20th, 26th, 27th, 39th, and 40th Armies, with six battalions of artillery artillery and one regiment of anti-tank artillery. The twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh armies broke through the 27-kilometer front from Gunan Mountain to Huozhu Mountain. The Ninth Corps annihilated the 24th and 25th US Divisions.The 40th Army carried out a breakthrough on the six-kilometer front line from Sangsinari-ri to Hamansan-dong, assaulted in the direction of Gapyeong, cut off the road from Chuncheon to Gapyeong, and cut off the connection between the U.S. troops on the east and west lines. In the meantime, cut off the enemy's retreat and cooperate with the 39th Army to wipe out the enemy.The Thirty-ninth Army used a force to contain the enemy in the north of Huachuan, and the main force carried out assaults in the direction of Yuanchuanli and Zhangbenli, and restrained the 1st Marine Division and 1st Cavalry Division from the west to ensure the safety of the left wing, which was the main assault direction of the battle. . Judging from the plan of the fifth campaign, this campaign can be described as grand in scale!The large number of troops invested, the width of the front of the attack, and the long distance of the scheduled assault are all the largest since the Chinese army participated in the Korean War.This is a battle of unprecedented scale. The determination is firm and lofty, and the concept is close to perfection. The goal of annihilating the enemy is five entire divisions of the United Nations Army! The final outcome of the fifth campaign finally made Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai realize that the war in Korea was fundamentally different from the civil war because of its different opponents.On the Korean battlefield, facing the advantages of the enemy's three-dimensional combat with modern equipment on the sea, land, and air, the Chinese army was overly optimistic about its superiority in ground forces and the enemy's lack of close combat and night combat capabilities. Conditions for the intended goal.Objectively speaking, under the circumstances at the time, the Chinese army did not yet have the strength to conduct a large-scale (five entire divisions) annihilation of the US military.In particular, the U.S. military has mastered certain temporarily insurmountable weaknesses in the Chinese military due to various restrictions.Therefore, the grand battle plan of the Chinese army was not only a matter of imagination, but it also caused the Chinese army to suffer heavy losses on the battlefield.It is a pity that the realization of this mistake came after the blood price was paid, not before. On April 19, the headquarters of the Volunteer Army issued a political mobilization order to the entire army: the fifth battle is about to begin!The glorious task of annihilating a large number of enemy divisions has fallen on the shoulders of comrades! This battle is of great significance, because it is the key to our army's taking the initiative or not, and the key to shortening and prolonging the Korean War. We must strive to shorten the duration of the war, because it is in the interests of the Chinese and North Korean people.We must strive to win this battle, because it has conditions for victory. We have attacked the enemy, and the time has come to serve the Chinese and North Korean people! Our battle cry is: mobilize all, carry forward the spirit of hard work and overcoming difficulties, and strive to win every battle!Keep up the glorious tradition of revolution! Just the day before the Chinese army launched its fifth campaign, Japan's "Asahi Shimbun" published an eye-catching headline: "General Van Fleet: Welcome to the Communist Army's Attack!" "