"A big river, wide waves, wind blowing rice and flowers on both sides", this song is believed to be familiar to every Chinese, this song is called "My Motherland", which is the theme song of the movie "Shangganling".
The Battle of Shangganling played a pivotal role in the Korean War, and the battle also left a deep impression on the Hearts of Americans.
The Battle of Shangganling is the only Chinese example included in textbooks at U.S. military academies. When choosing the topic of the Chinese army, the US military academies and universities regard the Battle of Shangganling and the Lei Feng phenomenon as two important contents, and they believe that only by clarifying these two issues can they truly understand the Chinese army.
Figure | the Battle of Shangganling
Although they have studied for so many years, to this day, the Americans still do not understand why they still could not capture these two highlands at an altitude of only more than five hundred meters under the condition of occupying the advantage of huge artillery fire.
General Kim Yinan once mentioned in his speech that when he visited West Point, the American officers had great respect and enthusiasm for him, and the important reason was the Korean War, which fought the respect of the enemy for Chinese soldiers.
When talking about the Battle of Shangganling, the American officer said to Jin Yinan: "We have learned this example, I know that at that time you only had two companies of troops guarding, and our seven battalions attacked in turn to attack, but we could not attack it, and we pushed on the beach with a model for half a day, or did we not understand why the seven battalions could not attack the position guarded by only two companies?"
Picture | shell casings left by the American army after the Battle of Shangganling
How fierce was the Battle of Shangganling that year?
In the Battle of Shangganling, the enemy poured more than 1.9 million shells on the volunteers' positions of about 3.7 square kilometers on two heights, up to a maximum of more than 300,000 rounds a day; more than 3,000 aircraft sorties were dispatched, more than 5,000 bombs were dropped, and at most 250 sorties and more than 500 bombs were dropped in a day.
What is this concept?
The density of this artillery fire has exceeded the highest level of The Second World War. Under this kind of artillery fire, the hill of our position was cut down by two meters, but our soldiers still did not abandon their positions, and the surface positions were lost, so they turned to tunnel operations.
The volunteer troops participating in the battle relied on the tunnels to repeatedly compete with the enemy 29 times, repelled 25 charge at the scale of the enemy battalion above the camp, and 653 times below the battalion. The volunteers suffered 11,529 casualties, with a casualty rate of more than 20%. The "United Nations Army" suffered 25,498 casualties, with a casualty rate of more than 40%.
Such a casualty rate and the average number of casualties per day are extremely frightening for the Americans, because the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific War, which the United States considers the highest casualty rate, was only 32.6%.
Therefore, compared with the Battle of Shangganling, the Battle of Iwo Jima by the Japanese Army is really nothing. It can also be pointed out that the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army in World War II is far from being comparable to that of the volunteer army.
The Battle of Shangganling was fought brilliantly, but it was also extremely arduous.
According to a photographer of the 45th Division of the 15th Army who spent 20 days in the tunnel, "The tunnel was blown up all the time, there was no light, and the air was turbid. The defecation in the tunnel cannot be dealt with in time, the remains of the martyrs cannot be buried in time, and the smell of gun smoke, sulfur, blood, and feces and urine fills the tunnel, making people suffocate. The most scarce thing in the tunnel is water, and the compressed biscuits cannot be swallowed at all. Sometimes I even have to drink urine, but because there is no water to drink, there is very little urine... There was a tunnel where more than 10 soldiers stood guard at the mouth of the tunnel with submachine guns until they starved to death. ”
It can be said that in order to hold their positions, our soldiers have exerted their physical strength to the extreme, and they cannot tolerate ordinary people and cannot bear them.
The outcome of this battle greatly shocked the Americans.
Ridgway, the second commander-in-chief of the United Nations Army, called Shangganling "Sadness Ridge," and he said that the fighting on "Sadness Ridge" was perhaps the most brutal and tense battle to date.
In 1970, CIA Director Walters also had to admit: "When we were in Korea, we realized that the Chinese volunteer army is the toughest opponent we have encountered since the two world wars ... Most Americans are reluctant to talk about Shangganling." Hollywood produced a large number of military films reflecting World War II and the Vietnam War, but avoided talking about the Korean War, especially the Battle of Shangganling. ”
Why doesn't Hollywood talk about Shangganling? Because I suffered losses, I was afraid, and I was ashamed to mention it.
Four-star U.S. Army General Paul Lamar Freeman Jr. said bluntly when talking about the Battle of Shangganling: "The firepower is not as good as ours, but it has made us fools!" “
This is the Battle of Shangganling in the eyes of the Americans, and back to the question at the beginning of the article, why the Americans have not been able to figure out why they could not win this battle to this day.
That's because the Americans are studying the wrong direction, and if they only study the examples and tactics, they will never understand it.
Jin Yinan once said: Americans do not know the story of an apple in Shangganling, do not know Chinese under what circumstances they have shown unprecedented national spirit.
Yes, the energy that bursts out of a nation's standing up is enormous, and Americans have no deep history, let alone experienced a hundred years of humiliation, so they can never empathize with the psychological feelings of a nation that has experienced a hundred years of humiliation.
Why are our soldiers not afraid of death, because behind them is the motherland, where there are parents, wives and children, and our lovely hometown, and winning the Korean War is to protect our homeland.
It is in this spirit of defending the country that our warriors have exploded with astonishing willpower.
Wang Wancheng in the list is alone in the battle to grab a blaster and pounce on a group of enemy troops - he is one of the prototypes of the protagonist Wang Cheng in the future film "Heroes and Children".
In the Battle of Shangganling, a large number of combat heroes and heroes emerged in our army. Among them, there is a special hero Huang Jiguang whose body blocks the eye of the enemy machine gun;
Sun Zhanyuan, who had his legs broken and still insisted on commanding the battle, pulled the last grenade on his last breath and died with the enemy;
In the case of casualties of the whole class of comrades- and civilians, one person insisted on fighting in the position, repelled more than 40 enemy charges, killed and wounded more than 280 enemy soldiers, and finally defended the position of the new soldier Hu Xiudao;
There were those who were seriously injured in battle, and in the last breath of life, they used their bodies to connect the broken lines and ensured the smooth communication of the command hero Niu Baocai.
In addition to them, there are many heroic deeds and heroic figures that can be sung and wept.
Why the US army could not capture Shangganling, because everyone on Shangganling is a hero.
After the Battle of Shangganling, the U.S. army was amazed by the volunteers' amazing will to fight, and never launched a battalion-sized attack on the volunteers again, and the Korean war situation has since stabilized at the 38th parallel.
General Qin Jiwei once said: "The Real understanding of Chinese by americans began in Shangganling. ”
Tu | volunteers took an oath at Shangganling before withdrawing from Korea
I am afraid that the whole world did not expect that it was only more than fifty years, and the Chinese at this time had already impressed the whole world, and the Sino-Japanese War more than fifty years ago, also in Korea, the Japanese army could easily defeat the Qing army, but more than fifty years later, the volunteer army faced the sixteen-nation coalition army, and it was hard to fight the national prestige.
Or to borrow a sentence from the four-star general of the US army, Freeman, to answer the doubts of the Americans. During World War II, Freeman fought alongside the Chinese army against the Japanese, and in the Korean War, Freeman was surprised by the huge changes in the Chinese army and lamented: "They are already different Chinese." ”
Yes, this is the answer to the Americans' inability to win the Battle of Shangganling, when China is no longer the sick man of East Asia, and China has really stood up. Even if there were ten more battles similar to Shangganling, the Americans would still not be able to win.
The Korean War also declared to the world that When national interests were at stake, China would never back down.
In this article, I would like to pay tribute to the heroes and martyrs of the Volunteer Army.