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Text: Zhang Runchen
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introduction
In 2022, "Sniper" directed by Zhang Yimou will be released nationwide, and once released, the film has been widely praised. And this film also let many people know about the largest sniper operation in the history of modern warfare - the "cold gun and cold artillery movement" on the Korean battlefield.
(Stills from "Sniper")
1. The "lull" before the war
After the end of the five battles, the Korean battlefield has basically entered the stage of confrontation, but confrontation does not mean peace, and both sides still do everything in their power to gain bargaining chips for themselves. This is reflected on the battlefield in the form of skirmishes along the entire front.
At this time, our army had already moved to the defensive stage, but in the absence of artillery and inferior weapons and equipment, our army always did not occupy an advantage in positional operations. In order to avoid incurring enemy fire and to achieve the goal of completing the tunnel fortifications as soon as possible, the commanders and fighters of our army even demanded that the soldiers not be allowed to shoot at will.
(Korean Battlefield)
This behavior led to an increase in the arrogance of the enemy's behavior, when the positions of the enemy and us were often only 300-400 meters away, and in some places even only 100 meters! In the words of the volunteer soldiers: "The Yankees on the other side can see clearly whether the eyes are blue or yellow." ”
Unwilling to huddle in bunkers, the arrogant American soldiers basked in the sun on the lawn in front of the position and bathed in the ditch between the two armies. If you just do these things, in fact, the nature is not too serious, and our army will endure it. However, the US military relied on its own firepower superiority to bomb our positions at every turn.
They were eating, drinking, and having fun on the battlefield, but as long as our soldiers showed their heads, they would inevitably incur a wanton and indiscriminate bombardment by the US troops. But because of the ban on shooting, our fighters were also unable to fight back against the American troops. Until a soldier named Xu Shizhen broke this military rule, one day Xu Shizhen could no longer endure the continuous harassment of the US military.
(Korean Battlefield)
With one gun and one gun, covered in mud, he quietly sneaked into the middle of the positions of the two armies, changed places with one shot, and eliminated a whole 7 enemies in just one day! After the news was transmitted back to the rear, the morale of the whole army was greatly boosted, and Xu Shizhen's behavior also created a new way of playing for our army.
As early as May 26, 1951, Chairman Mao had instructed Peng Dehuai to "knock kraft candy" in North Korea, concentrate superior forces to fight a small-scale war of annihilation first, and gradually transition from a small-scale war of annihilation to a large-scale war of annihilation, so as to gain bargaining chips for our army.
It can be said that the instructions of the central authorities have already been issued, but after the five battles, the enemy army has not taken the initiative to attack our army, and the opposite side is all plain terrain, and our army should not take the initiative to attack the enemy army without having an advantage in firepower. Therefore, although the instructions were issued, the commanders and fighters on the front line suffered from the lack of means to carry out the instructions.
(Cold gunslinger on the Korean battlefield)
Xu Shizhen's comical operation opened up the minds of our army's commanders and fighters, and the "cold gun and cold artillery movement" was launched in the largest sniper operation in the history of modern warfare.
Second, the cold gun cold gun movement
Generally speaking, snipers need professional weapons and professional skills, but these things were not available in our army at that time. In fact, the reason why our army was able to play the "cold gun and cold artillery movement" was also because the distance between the positions of the two armies was very close at that time. And most of the "snipers" of our army, including Xu Shizhen's fighters, are the famous Mauser M98k.
This sniper rifle is undoubtedly a good weapon, but the problem is that it was already the fifties, and the Mauser M98k was more than ten years old, and it was still not advantageous compared to the US military. However, our army's "cold gun and cold artillery movement" is definitely not limited to the sniper branch.
(Mauser 98k)
On the instructions of the command of the Volunteer Army, the infantry, artillery, handymen and even cooks of our army were mobilized. Our army organized a large number of small squad combat forces in front of the position, and took the initiative to seek opportunities to attack single targets and small-scale targets of the enemy. In addition to the usual sniper rifles, the attack can also be light and heavy machine guns, submachine guns, rifle pistols and even artillery.
Twenty-five days after the campaign began, the 68th Army of our army successfully killed 1,935 enemies, and the results were not brilliant. Pang Zilong, a cook in the army, was originally a man who delivered food, but seeing his comrades fighting happily, he wanted to go up and try it himself. As a result, he killed an enemy with the first shot, and after that, he was out of control, killing 54 enemies in three months!
The results of the other armies in the same period of time were all counted in thousands. For every enemy that the U.S. military destroys on the Korean battlefield, it takes 200,000 rounds of ammunition! However, according to the statistics of the 15th Army of our army, for every enemy army destroyed, veterans consume an average of 9.4 rounds of ammunition, and recruits consume 12.9 rounds of ammunition.
(Collapsed U.S. Army)
However, after the launch of the "Cold Gun Cold Gun Campaign", the average consumption of 1.2 rounds of ammunition per enemy soldier eliminated by our veterans has also dropped to 6 rounds! One by one, under the "Cold Gun and Cold Cannon Movement", the soldiers quickly became heroes. Zhang Taofang, a soldier of our army, signed up for the Volunteer Army in 1951 and joined the DPRK in September 1952.
In January 1953, Zhang Taofang, who had stepped into the battlefield for a few months, went to Shangganling, and Zhang Taofang definitely belonged to the new recruits. But he was on the 597.9 heights, one person and one gun, 240 rounds of ammunition in 40 days, and killed 71 enemies! With an average of 3.3 bullets, kill an enemy...
Since it is called the "Cold Gun Cold Gun Movement", it will definitely not be just a robbery without artillery. It's just that compared with cold guns, cold guns still have relatively high limitations. First of all, the most important one is that the artillery is relatively cumbersome, and it is not suitable for rapid transfer, which is easy to attract the enemy's retaliation. Therefore, every time a cold cannon is fired, it must be precisely and carefully organized.
(Cold gunner on the Korean battlefield)
However, the gunners of our army quickly thought of ways to deal with the enemy, such as facing a non-moving tank, most of the enemy's tankmen were not in the tank, and at this time they could let go of the fight, so that the enemy did not dare to board the tank first. If the enemy is in the tank, calibrate the test shot at the location where the enemy is likely to move, and wait until the enemy appears to kill with one hit.
And the highest level of "cold gun and cold gun movement" is the coordinated operation of cold guns and cold guns. On the battlefield at that time, the most troublesome thing for our cold gunners was the enemy's bunker fortifications, as long as the enemy army shrank up and did not show its head, then our army must have no way to take the enemy. But these bunkers can protect against guns, but not necessarily against guns.
Therefore, our army has created a new method of warfare, that is, the artillery strikes first, once the enemy's bunker is hit, the enemy inside often has to flee from the protection of the bunker, at this time our army's cold gunners have plenty of room to play, can easily destroy the enemy, and the two cooperate to achieve the highest level of "cold gun and cold artillery movement".
(Cold gunslinger on the Korean battlefield)
Today, we tend to overlook the important role played by the Cold Gunners, because the Cold Gunners did not have a relatively bright record. However, in the later stage of the "Cold Gun Cold Gun Campaign", the enemy basically did not dare to show their heads, and the results of the cold gunners began to decline gradually.
3. The effect of cold gun and cold gun movement
From 1952 until the end of the Korean War in 1953, our army has been carrying out the "cold gun and cold cannon movement". Even after the end of the Korean War, the guerrillas of South Korea and part of the North Korean forces did not stop... In this process, our army annihilated a total of 52,000 enemy troops through the "cold gun and cold artillery movement", and the enemy-to-friend exchange ratio was as high as 1:570, which was the highest record in the history of modern warfare.
One of the most intuitive effects of the "cold gun and cold artillery campaign" is that the so-called "United Nations Army" has been beaten by our army in a panic. The cold gunners of our army caused a huge psychological shadow on the enemy, and the arrogance of the enemy army was quickly cooled. During the Battle of Shangganling, the enemy army was unable to attack for a long time in the face of the tunnel group and the cold guns and artillery of our army.
(Korean Battlefield)
In the face of huge losses, the American commanders at the front even disobeyed and refused to carry out Van Vliet's order to continue the offensive. And our army's "cold gun and cold artillery campaign," especially the huge losses it inflicted on the US troops during the Shangganling Campaign, made Clark, the commander-in-chief of the "United Nations Army," who was bent on an armistice, decide to quickly cease the war.
It can be said that the "Cold Gun Cold Gun Campaign" was very successful, and it greatly accelerated the process of ending the Korean War. In the stalemate stage after the end of the five battles, the enemy army had gradually gained the initiative on the battlefield by virtue of its own firepower superiority. It was precisely our "cold gun and cold artillery movement" that greatly weakened the enemy's vital strength and helped our army regain the initiative on the battlefield to the greatest extent.
The enemy's grassroots soldiers also began to complain about the continuation of the war, which objectively contributed to the occurrence of the armistice. At that time, the enemy army was beaten to "confinement", and even the toilet had to use canned food boxes, and when they finally came out to throw canned food boxes, they were likely to be sniped by our army... You say that in this case, can the enemy not complain?
(Sniper)
On the other hand, the "cold gun and cold artillery movement" has also become a kind of training method for our army, because for various reasons, the situation of our army in the "cold gun and cold artillery movement" is relatively safe, and the soldiers of our army at that time described sniping the enemy as "shooting live targets".
It can be seen that to a certain extent, "cold gun and cold gun movement" can also be understood as "hitting targets". Of course, the actual situation is certainly very different from shooting a target, after all, no matter how stupid a live target is, it is still a human being, and no matter how hearty the "cold gun and cold cannon movement" is, it is also a battlefield. However, the battlefield is the place where the combat effectiveness of soldiers can be improved the fastest time, and a large number of excellent snipers have emerged during the "cold gun and cold artillery movement" of our army.
Generally speaking, the "Cold Gun and Cold Artillery Movement" made an indelible contribution to the armistice in the Korean battlefield and also played an important role in enhancing the combat effectiveness of our army.
Resources:
WANG Tingting. China Archives,2020,(12):86-87.
LI Tao. Cold gun and cold cannon activities in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea[J].Yanhuang Chunqiu,2022,(03):12-16.)
LIU Xiangyang. The largest sniper operation in the history of modern warfare: A record of our army's sniper operations on the Korean battlefield[J].Light Weapons,2005,(06):35-37.