Got lucky out of the smoke of artillery fire
-- Commemorating Wu Xinghan, a veteran of the Volunteers to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
Yang Xuejie, former deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Jingyuan County People's Congress
As a communicator of the battalion chief of staff, Wu Xinghan bravely participated in the battle on the battlefield filled with gunpowder, and at the same time observed the battlefield situation vigilantly at all times to protect the safety of the chief.
Today, let's visit his surviving old comrades-in-arms and son Wu Zhenghui, consult the relevant archives of Wu Xinghan, and learn about the battle story of the hero Wu Xinghan.
Volunteer to join the army
In November 1934, Wu Xinghan was born in an ordinary farming family in Wujiashahe (now Baoquan Village, Beitan Town), Dongning Township, Eighth District, Jingyuan County. In May 1951, when he was about to graduate from primary school, with the support and encouragement of his father Wu Wanxuan, he volunteered to join the Chinese People's Liberation Army and joined the great struggle to "resist US aggression and aid Korea, protect the family and defend the country". After enlisting in the army, he immediately went to the Fourth Company of the Independent Battalion of the Fourth Regiment of the Northwest Military Region to be trained as a correspondent in Qingshui Township, Yuzhong County.
After a year of military training and ideological education, on June 16, 1952, the supplementary training regiment was added to the Third Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and Wu Xinghan was assigned to the second battalion headquarters of the 20th Regiment of the 7th Division as a communicator. After that, the three armed forces and the first army were merged and reorganized to form a new first army, which was the first heavy army of our army. Wu Xinghan still served as a correspondent at the headquarters of the 2nd Battalion of the 20th Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division after the reorganization.
In the winter of 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected the 34th president of the United States and clamored for a large-scale landing operation on the Korean Peninsula to end the Korean War in one fell swoop. In order to smash the enemy's arrogant attempts, the Central Military Commission mobilized five armies to rush to the aid of the Korean battlefield. In accordance with the order of the Central Military Commission, in December, the 7th Infantry Division of the First Army set out from the Hexi Corridor station, arrived in Lanzhou by car, and took a stuffy tank train.
In January 1953, the unit name was changed to the First Army of the Chinese People's Volunteers, under the command of the 19th Corps of the Chinese People's Volunteers, and crossed the Yalu River into Korea by two routes, Andong and Ji'an, to participate in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
After crossing the river, in order to avoid the bombing of enemy planes, the troops mostly marched in concealment and rapid in the mountain and forest paths. In North Korea's winter, the snow is thick and the roads are slippery, and people fall from time to time. In order to reduce casualties and reach the destination as soon as possible, the superiors ordered to travel lightly and discard some of the belongings they were carrying. Despite this, the soldiers were still very tired during the continuous rapid march, and some of the weak or young warriors could not get up as soon as they arrived at the camp. There are many rivers along the way, and during a wading across the river, a small soldier beside Wu Xinghan was so tired that he fell headlong into the river, was washed away by the river, and never came up again.
At that time, North Korea was in the middle of a harsh winter, and the river water soaked the soldiers' pants, and after they came ashore, the cold wind blew like knives to the bone. They could not stop, they could not light a fire, and then marched hurriedly, drying their trousers with the heat emitted by their bodies during exercise. After several days of arduous marching, we finally arrived at our destination, Gushan, for actual combat training.
When they first arrived in the DPRK, there were still many South Korean spies operating around the troops' station, and they often found that there were enemy signal flares in the mountains and forests, which constantly attracted reconnaissance and harassment by enemy planes. Another task of the army is to catch the enemy, and every time he acts, Wu Xinghan shows courage and often runs in front.
Wu Xinghan also often braved enemy artillery fire and carried out communication tasks alone after dark, and successfully completed the task every time. In March 1953, he was introduced by Deng Shixiong to join the China New Democratic Youth League.
Respond to provocations
At the beginning of April 1953, the First Army took over the 47th Army as a frontal battlefield defensive combat mission, and confronted the South Korean First Army and One Division on the west side of the "38th Parallel". At this time, the situation on the Korean battlefield was in a state of stalemate, and both sides realized that they could not completely defeat each other in the short term, and an armistice agreement was basically reached, but the Syngman Rhee authorities did not want to lose the opportunity to use the "United Nations Army" to reunify the Korean Peninsula, refused to sign the agreement, and clamored to go head-to-head with the Chinese People's Volunteers. In order to sabotage the signing of the armistice agreement, they frantically provoked and created incidents, and constantly attacked and harassed our forward positions.
On 23 April, a battalion of the 15th Regiment of the ROK Army attacked the position of our 20th Regiment, and our army thwarted the enemy's continuous attacks by combining positional resistance and tunnel assault, killing and wounding more than 140 enemies at the cost of 80 casualties. The enemy was not resigned to defeat, and after full preparations, 20 days later launched another attack on the position of the 20th Regiment, which ended in failure.
Zhang Ba, deputy commander of the 1st Battalion of the 20th Regiment, was discovered by the enemy while observing the enemy situation at the observation post, and was killed by an enemy tank shell hitting the head. Zhang Ba was one of the three combat heroes named by the Central Military Commission (the "National Demolition Hero") of the First Army, and his sacrifice made the hearts of his superiors and comrades-in-arms very painful. Because Wu Xinghan worked as a correspondent in the second battalion and was very familiar with Zhang Ba, this incident had a great impact on him.
Once, Wu Xinghan followed the battalion commander through the enemy blockade line and went to the front line to inspect the enemy's situation, but on the way back, he was discovered by the enemy and was attacked by heavy artillery fire. He and the chief quickly hid behind a large rock and waited for our artillery support. In the interval between the cessation of enemy artillery fire, they immediately retreated and hid themselves. When the enemy found out, they began to attack again, and our artillery returned fire. Taking advantage of the thick smoke, they continued to retreat. In this way, they safely withdrew from the front line one by one, step by step, and returned to the positions of our troops.
In order to force the enemy to the negotiating table, the Volunteers carried out the principle of "promoting talks by fighting" and launched the Jincheng Campaign on the Eastern Front, coordinated the operation on the Eastern Front on the Western Front, and launched a summer counterattack.
Located on the east bank of the Imjin River, the 198.6 Heights northeast of Gyeho-dong are a prominent position and main support point on the front mountain range of the enemy's defense, and its strategic position is very important. It not only has a direct view of the forward positions of the 20th Regiment, and can support the fighting on the high ground on its flanks in the east, but can also carry out firepower attacks on the positions west of the Imjin River of the Volunteer Army, which poses a great threat to our army, so it is listed as the primary target of our army's attack. The 1st Army decided that the 20th Regiment would first attack and occupy the highlands on 198.6 and both sides of Guihudong, and then the 19th Regiment would attack the Diyinli position, and after succeeding, the 21st Regiment would capture the enemy's position No. 15 in the southeast of Shangpu Defense at Laobal Mountain.
198.6 The high ground was guarded by more than 220 people from the 10th Company and 11th Company of the 15th Regiment of the 1st Division of the ROK Army. The 20th Regiment divided the regimental command post into front finger, middle finger and rear finger, the front finger was in charge of the deputy regiment commander Li Shilin, and the regiment commander Bai Guide was in charge of the middle finger, if the front finger was blown up by the enemy, it would take over the command, and the rear command was responsible for the logistics support by political commissar Qiao Henian. The specific deployment was as follows: 8th Company attacked Position 2 (198.6 Heights), and 1st Company and 9th Company attacked Position 1 and 3 on both flanks respectively. The main peak of the 198.6 high ground must be the focus of contention between the enemy and us, and the task of the second battalion is to take over the defense of the three companies after the eighth company occupies this position. Wu Xinghan accompanied the commander of the second battalion to the front and was ready to participate in the battle at any time.
Wu Xinghan took a photo in Guihu Cave
Positional contention
On the night of June 24, 1953, the assault troops secretly entered the cantonment cave at the foot of the mountain of the enemy position under the cover of night. There are many people in the Tunbing Cave, the space is narrow, the air is thin, and some soldiers faint due to lack of oxygen, or even die in the cave.
At 7:30 p.m. on June 25, the battle to capture Guihu Cave began, and our army concentrated artillery fire on the 198.6 heights and the positions on both flanks to carry out a lightning attack. In an instant, tens of thousands of artillery shells fell on the enemy's forward positions, and in only 35 minutes, the barbed wire, mines, and surface fortifications set up by the enemy were basically destroyed. The soldiers of the assault force drilled out of the cantonment hole, breathed the air outside the cave, adapted to the environment outside the cave, and prepared to go.
As the artillery fire extended forward, our attacking troops charged, and without waiting for the enemy to react, they broke through and seized the enemy's forward positions along the entire line. Under the leadership of Company Commander Wang Huyuan, the Eighth Company quickly rushed to the 198.6 heights, cleared the surface position in 5 minutes, and cleared the enemy in the tunnel in 1 hour. And quickly repaired the fortifications under the enemy's artillery fire, and switched from the main attack to the positional defense.
The enemy shelled again and again, counter-charged again and again, and tried to recapture the 198.6 heights, but they were all repelled by the Eighth Company. The 8th Company resisted 23 counterattacks by 1 battalion of the 15th Regiment of the enemy under the cover of artillery, annihilated more than 500 enemies, and finally fought to only 8 people, but still held the position, and was commended by the headquarters of the Volunteer Army.
After the war, the Eighth Company was awarded the honorary title of "Second Class Hero Company" by the Volunteer Army Headquarters; Company commander Wang Huyuan was named a combat hero, participated in the 1954 Volunteer Army Return Viewing Group, climbed the Tiananmen Square viewing platform, and was received by Chairman Mao and took a group photo.
On the afternoon of 26 June, the regimental commander ordered the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion: "Order the two platoons of your company to go to the cantonment cave first, and when the 8th Company repels another enemy countercharge, you will go up and take over the 8th Company." Qin Zhixian, the commander of the sixth company, was afraid that the strength of the eighth company would be insufficient at this time and would not be able to withstand the enemy's counter-charge, so he only let one platoon enter the cantonment cave, and directly led two platoons to the position and replaced the eighth company. Wu Xinghan followed Chief of Staff Xi Youhong, and then also went to the position.
After the 6th Company reached the 198.6 heights, it was attacked by enemy artillery fire, and many counterattacks and sneak attacks on the scale of platoons and battalions were repulsed by the 6th Company again and again.
On the morning of the 27th, Li Shilin, deputy commander of the regiment, came to the forward observation post, and Zhao Shirong, the regimental staff officer in charge of the observation post, said: "Why did you come up? Li Shilin, deputy commander of the regiment, said: "The division headquarters called to say that the mountain was lost, and it was necessary to attack it with artillery fire and organize the company to recapture the mountain." Zhao Shirong said: "I didn't lose it!" Don't believe you look at it. The deputy regiment commander looked at it with a telescope, and Staff Officer Zhao asked the Sixth Company with a talking machine, reporting that there were still more than 20 people on the position, and the position was still in the hands of the Sixth Company. said to the deputy head of the regiment, Li Shilin: "It's not lost, you leave quickly, it's too dangerous here." ”
On this day, the enemy organized the remnants of the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Regiment and the 15th Regiment of the Second Echelon, launched more than 40 counterattacks, and once broke through the defense line of our army. The 20th Regiment threw the 4th and 5th companies of the 2nd Battalion and the Police Reconnaissance Company into battle, carried out a counter-charge, and routed the invading enemy. On that day, the ROK army adopted the tactics of crowd and fought extremely brutally, and as a result, more than 800 people were killed and wounded by us.
On June 28, the 1st Division of the ROK Army launched another attack with the strength of three battalions. The officers and men of the 20th Regiment went forward one after another, the company commander died, the platoon commander commanded, the platoon commander died, and the squad leader took over. The soldiers regarded death as home, and the people were in the position, vowing to live and die with the position, and persist in fighting to the end. On the same day, more than 700 enemies were killed and wounded.
On June 29, the ROK army transferred the 11th Regiment to counterattack, and our 20th Regiment threw the 7th Company into battle. The enemy adopted the tactics of continuous attack in waves, and despite the accumulation of corpses, the offensive momentum was not reduced. The positions on both flanks of the main peak were once broken through by the enemy, and the enemy rushed to the main peak position like a tide. Wu Xinghan and the soldiers also killed the red eye, and the enemy was in close contact, and the two sides fought for 14 rounds, and the Korean army finally could not support it and was defeated. This time, the South Korean army lost more than 800 people.
Li Shilin, deputy commander of the regiment, asked Zhao Shirong, a staff officer of the regiment, to check the situation on the 198.6 heights, and the mountain was full of broken corpses of dead people, and the smell was unpleasant.
After more than 120 battles in six days and six nights, the 20th Regiment killed and wounded more than 3,370 enemies and captured 65 of them.
Wu Xinghan's second battalion also suffered heavy losses in this battle, and Qin Zhixian, the commander of the sixth company, was killed by the bombing, and even the body was not found. The reinforced company of more than 180 people in the fourth company had only 15 people when it was withdrawn. After that, the 5th Regiment of the 2nd Division of the 1st Army took over the 20th Regiment, which had been fighting continuously for several days and had suffered serious battle losses. The 20th Regiment withdrew from its positions to rest.
Front row, first from left, Wu Xinghan
Awarded many times
On July 27, 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed. In the next three years of garrison warfare, Wu Xinghan and his comrades-in-arms had to carry out construction work in addition to military training.
During the construction, he not only took the lead in hard work, but also used meticulous working methods to reasonably distribute the work of the whole class and organize the completion of the tasks assigned by his superiors. In the construction, the team led by Wu Xinghan completed the task of touching the wall outstandingly, the quality was the first, and it was well received. The leader of the class captured the mobile red flag three times, and the class was collectively on the honor roll, and he himself was also on the honor roll.
While completing his work tasks, he also consciously cultivates the collective concept of the class. When it was discovered that the new soldier Comrade Chilin had a strong sense of organization, observed, and had a better technique of touching the mud, he was willing to endure hardships and unite his comrades. He actively cultivated and set an example in the class appraisal meeting, so that everyone could learn from him, thus leading other comrades and promoting the work of the class. During the inspection, the whole class became the best class in the whole camp in the implementation of the formal system, and was rated as the advanced class of the whole camp twice.
Comrade Wu Xinghan is politically firm, has a strong sense of responsibility, adheres to principles, strictly implements the regular system of the army, and has a strong sense of honor as a soldier. He respected the leadership, but did not blindly obey it, and once he went to the regiment to report on his work, believing that the regimental reconnaissance chief's statement was wrong, and had an argument with the unit commander on the spot. For this, he returned to the camp and was criticized. He unites his comrades and has a good relationship with them.
As a long-term communicator at the battalion headquarters, Wu Xinghan learned certain organizational and leadership methods from the chief, and after intensive training as a squad leader, his military quality was improved to a certain extent, and he was fully qualified for the post of artillery commander. In January 1955, he was appointed commander of the second battalion headquarters; In July 1955, he served as the commander of the second squad of the "57" recoilless gun platoon of the second battalion headquarters. In September 1955, he was introduced to the Communist Party of China by platoon commander Zhang Cundou and artillery commander Fang Cheng.
In 1955, Wu Xinghan led the military training of the whole class. He patiently educated every comrade, inspired everyone's passion for training, conscientiously organized, actively studied, studied hard, and led the whole class to achieve excellent results and improve combat effectiveness.
In October 1955, he was awarded the rank of sergeant, and at the same time went to Zouping County, Shandong Province to recruit soldiers, and served as the platoon commander of the third company and the second platoon of the Seventh Division of the First Army of the Volunteer Army. He tirelessly did patient and meticulous ideological work for the recruits and their families, and successfully completed the task of conscription.
After returning to the old Korean army in March 1956, Wu Xinghan was promoted to the deputy platoon commander of the first platoon of the fourth company of the second battalion of the 20th regiment. He took the initiative to help the platoon commander, implement the plans of his superiors, and strictly implement various systems. For a period of time, when the platoon commander was not in the unit to visit his relatives, he boldly shouldered the burden of the platoon commander, encountered difficulties and problems, actively studied methods with everyone, completed all the tasks assigned by his superiors, and achieved the outstanding result of being the first in live-ammunition shooting. For this, he was commended by the company.
Wu Xinghan's work and ability were recognized by his superiors, and it was decided to let him go to a domestic military school to study and improve. But at this time, Wu Xinghan had a serious illness and missed the opportunity.
The style is the same
In April 1957, Wu Xinghan returned to his hometown to participate in the socialist construction of the motherland and serve in the reserves. After returning to his hometown, Comrade Wu Xinghan was appointed as the director of the Supervisory Committee of the Baoquan Senior Cooperative in Dongning Township, Beitan District, and he also served as the secretary of the Dahonggou Brigade. In February 1960, he was organized and arranged to work as a salesman at the post and telecommunications office of Dongning Commune, and was responsible for the work of the post and telecommunications office. In December 1960, he supported agricultural production, returned to his hometown to work, and served as the director of the Supervisory Committee of the Baoquan Brigade.
In October 1961, Wu Xinghan was selected as an armed cadre, and after participating in the training class for armed cadres of the Dingxi Military Sub-district, he was appointed deputy director of the armed forces department of Dongning Commune in Jingyuan County, and began the construction and training of the people's armed forces. Later, he served as an armed officer in Beitan District, Talachi District, and Dongsheng Commune. Due to his serious work, he was transferred to the Jingyuan County Strategy Office in February 1970. In February 1971, he was appointed as a supervisor of Yongxin Commune, and from July 1975 to 1994, he successively worked in Wuhe Commune and Beitan Commune (Township Government).
During his work in the county and township armed forces departments, he conscientiously implemented the "Regulations on Militia Work" and conducted political and current affairs education and military training for the militia in accordance with the "Militia Training Program" and the "Militia Education Program" issued by the General Political Department, so as to achieve the "three implementations" of the militia work. At any time, when the security of the motherland is threatened, we will once again respond to the call of the motherland and stand up to fight all enemies who dare to attack. Organize the militia to overcome difficulties in production and construction and major projects. During the "Ten Years of Turmoil", he did not participate in any armed struggles, and it is worth mentioning that an ethnic minority cadre who was working in Talachi District at that time was criticized for fighting, and he could not figure out his thoughts and had the idea of committing suicide. Wu Xinghan was afraid that something would happen to him, so he kept watch outside the window all night, and was later called a "life-saving benefactor" by him.
Throughout his life, Wu Xinghan always maintained the arduous and simple style of life cultivated in the army. Respect the leadership, unite comrades, be kind, upright, educate children to abide by the law, be innocent, and work diligently. The five children rely on their own hands, work hard, and have a successful career.
In November 1994, Wu Xinghan was honorably retired. should have enjoyed his old age in peace, and his children were also very filial, but he never sat back and enjoyed the blessings, and still insisted on agricultural production and labor within his ability. On November 16, 2010, Wu Xinghan passed his glorious and unregrettable life due to a serious illness, closed his eyes peacefully, and died at the age of 77.
Heroes are always there, and the spirit is always there. Today, we cherish the memory of Wu Xinghan, a veteran of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and his comrades-in-arms, the most lovely people, with the purpose of remembering the past and forging ahead into the future, so as to inspire more Chinese sons and daughters to face difficulties, be realistic and innovative, and move forward bravely.
Source: Jingyuan County Red Army River Crossing Battle Memorial Hall