On October 25, 1950, after the first batch of volunteer troops entered the DPRK secretly entered the DPRK, they launched a surprise attack on the UNITED Nations army led by the United States, annihilating 15,000 enemy troops and inflicting heavy losses on the UN army. Immediately afterward, the volunteer army launched a second campaign, the third campaign, until the 37th Line, to capture Seoul.
The first batch of volunteer troops to enter the DPRK were all elite units of the whole army, such as the 38th Army, the 39th Army, and the 40th Army, but these three units were reorganized from the first column, the second column, and the third column of the Northeast Field Army, and the first commanders of the three columns were Li Tianyou, Liu Zhen, and Han Xianchu, all of whom were later founding generals, and all of them made outstanding military achievements in various periods. However, among the units of the Volunteer Army that entered the DPRK, there was also a special unit, which was the Siye 50th Army, which was reorganized from the 60th Army of the former National Revolutionary Army.
The predecessor of the Siye 50th Army was the 60th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, that is, the famous 60th Army of the Dian Army, which was a typical internal war layman and a foreign war insider. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, this unit blocked the attack of more than 50,000 Japanese divisions and regiments for 27 days at Yuwang Mountain, annihilating 12,000 Japanese troops, and the casualties of the 50th Army reached 20,000. After that, this unit participated in the Battle of Wuhan, the Battle of Changsha, and the Burmese Counteroffensive.
After the end of the War of Resistance, the unit was sent to Vietnam to be surrendered, and then sent to the northeast to fight the civil war. Because it was a local army, this unit was ostracized everywhere and did not fight well, so there was the title of Xiong 60 in the national army, and in 1946, Pan Shuoduan, commander of the 184th Division of the 60th Army, led the uprising. In 1948, Zeng Zesheng, commander of the 60th Army, led the whole army to revolt in Changchun, which was also the first Kuomintang army unit to revolt during the Liberation War, and was later reorganized into the Siye 50th Army, with Xu Wenlie, director of the Political Department of the Northeast Military and Political University, as the commander of the 50th Army. In the later Battle of Western Hubei and the Battle of Chengdu, this unit made great achievements.
After the outbreak of the Korean War, this force was urgently transferred to the northeast to prepare for the reorganization into an artillery unit to receive Soviet assistance. On October 24, 1950, Xu Wenlie, political commissar of the 50th Army, received a call from Gao Gang, political commissar of the Northeast Military Region, ordering the 50th Army to immediately restore its original equipment and immediately take the train that had been sent to the Border between China and North Korea. The first train had just arrived in the northeast, and the troops, without maps, without translations, without operational mobilization, and without preparation for all supplies, received an order from their superiors: immediately cross the river and participate in the first battle.
During the first campaign, the 50th Army had just arrived at the designated area, the battle had already been fought, and during the second campaign, this unit behaved very generally, and the two battles into north Korea were not fought well, which made the psychology of the officers and men of the unit very uncomfortable, and many officers and men began to complain, saying that they were taking a confused road, eating a confused meal, fighting a confused battle, and being confused in Korea. Zeng Zesheng, commander of the 50th Army, also felt very depressed, in his eyes, this unit is a very capable unit, should not be just such a performance. In view of the problems existing in the troops, the 50th Army carried out a week-long ideological rectification.
On December 31, 1950, the third battle began, and the 50th Army of the Volunteer Army crossed the Rinjin River from Maoshidong to Golangpu-ri 6 kilometers, quickly broke through the South Korean 1st Division's river defense, and occupied its first line position. On the morning of January 2, the 50th Army occupied Huangfali. At this time, the American army was ready to retreat, but in order to escape for their own lives, the British 29th Brigade Royal Oster rifle regiment and the Royal Heavy Tank Battalion served as cover in the Government of Parliament, using the British army as cannon fodder.
The British 29th Brigade is the elite unit of the British Army, this unit has a history of hundreds of years of military construction, this unit has made great achievements in modern times, especially in the process of British overseas expansion. At that time, the British 29th Brigade was also equipped with three squadrons of centurion main battle tanks, which were only built in 1945 and completed six prototypes, and only installed in 1949, which was very advanced at that time, and when the Korean War broke out, this tank had always been the killer weapon of the United Nations Army, causing great casualties to the Volunteer Army and the Korean People's Army, but it was planted in the hands of the Volunteer Army.
The 149th Division of the 50th Army carried out the task of attacking Goyang in the course of the third campaign, which was located on the road from the Uighur government to Seoul. The occupation of Goyang by the volunteers could not only take the flank of Seoul, but also cut off the retreat of the British army of the government. However, in the north of Gaoyang, there was a battalion of the 34th Regiment of the US 25th Division, and the 149th Division of the 50th Army stormed the US position with two companies, 28 American troops were captured, and the rest fled in a hurry.
As soon as the American troops withdrew, the British troops who served as a cover in the parliamentary government were completely isolated. The volunteer army took advantage of the victory to march to occupy Gaoyang, and then attacked the xianyouli highlands southeast of Gaoyang. There was a Battalion of the British Army defending the Xianyouli Heights, and the 149th Division of the 50th Army of the Volunteer Army conquered the place in only half an hour, cutting off the rear road of the British Royal Heavy Tank Battalion.
In order to rescue this force, the British 29th Brigade sent more than 1,000 people from the direction of the Government of Parliament, using more than 200 cannons to cooperate with the British troops retreating from the highlands. In the process of the enemy's retreat, the signal board of the liaison aircraft was captured by the volunteers, and the officers and men of the 50th Army of the Volunteer Army took off the helmets of the British army and put them on their heads, and used the enemy's signal boards to command the American aircraft, and bombarded the British troops around the highlands indiscriminately, causing great casualties to the British army.
On the evening of the 3rd, the 50th Army sent three companies of an infantry battalion to launch an attack on the British Royal Heavy Tank Battalion, and Li Guanglu, deputy squad leader of the machine gun squad of the 5th Company of the 446th Regiment of the 149th Division of the Volunteer Army, was resourceful and brave, and rushed into the tank group alone. The blaster was stuffed into the middle of the tank tracks, destroying 1 tank and then 2 more tanks. After Gu Hongyun, a soldier of the 4th Company, blew up 2 tanks and ran out of explosive canisters, he climbed onto the 3rd tank, lifted the turret canopy, raised the grenade, and forced the enemy to surrender. Warrior Lee Weijing raised a grenade to frighten the British, and 4 enemies raised their hands almost at the same time, including a major captain.
After a night of fighting, the 149th Division of the 50th Army destroyed and captured 31 British tanks, one armored vehicle, 24 tractors and more than 300 British prisoners with three companies. Later, when the war report was sent to the Volunteer Army Headquarters, peng Dehuai, the commander of the Volunteer Army, was a little unconvinced, saying: "In a hurry, the battle merits are to be killed." Later, Xu Wenlie, political commissar of the 50th Army, sent a photo of the front line, and General Manager Peng believed it, and Li Guanglu, Gu Hongyun, Ronglite, and other units and individuals of the 149th Division of the 50th Army were also commended.