After the victory of the Liaoshen Campaign in 1948, the Northeast Field Army entered the customs to fight, with a total strength of more than 800,000 troops.
At this time, the Eastern Field Army can be described as strong and strong, and the 12 field infantry columns are basically fully manned, even exceeding the establishment of strength; In addition, each column is equipped with an additional infantry division, bringing the total number of infantry divisions to four.
In this way, the strength of the column under the jurisdiction of the Northeast Field Army will be even stronger.
Taking the 3rd Column of the Northeast Field Army, known as the "Whirlwind Column", as an example, the total strength of the column reached 58,775 when it entered the customs.
Of the three main divisions under it, two divisions have more than 13,000 troops, and one division also has more than 12,000 troops; The newly joined independent division of the Liaodong Military Region also has a total strength of more than 10,000 people; In addition, there are huge column organs and direct subordinate units.
Because the 3rd Column of Dongye destroyed a lot of enemies in the previous Liaoshen Campaign, reaching nearly 40,000 people; In particular, in the process of encircling and annihilating Liao Yaoxiang's corps, he directly smashed the command organs of his corps and various elite armies, and while greatly accelerating the process of victory in the battle, he also captured a large number of American weapons, such as submachine guns.
At that time, although submachine guns had already been equipped to the squad and platoon level of the Kuomintang army's U.S. ordnance units, the guard units of the corps and corps-level command organs must have been more equipped, and if these units were destroyed, it was obvious that there would be more and better submachine guns and weapons captured.
And after the capture of these weapons, they will naturally be used by our army.
Therefore, the 3rd Column of the Northeast Field Army at the time of entry reached 3,541 submachine guns.
You must know that at the peak of the Kuomintang Army's New 1st Army when it returned from India, it was equipped with 4,097 submachine guns, which was already the highest number.
Since then, the submachine guns of all armies of the national army have not exceeded this number, and even the new 1st army itself has not reached this number of equipment.
By December 1946, the number of submachine guns equipped with the New 1st Army was 3,519.
Just two years later, when the 3rd Column of the Northeast Field Army entered the customs, the number of submachine guns it had exceeded that of the previous New 1st Army.
Of course, because our 3rd column had 4 infantry divisions under its jurisdiction at that time, the submachine guns were divided into 4 divisions, and some submachine guns were also equipped in the column organs and directly subordinate teams.
In terms of the amount of equipment of the specific divisions:
The 7th Division (118th Division) was armed with 997 submachine guns;
The 8th Division (119th Division) was armed with 769 submachine guns;
The 9th Division (120th Division) was armed with 831 submachine guns;
The number of submachine guns armed with the independent division (153rd division) of the Liaoning Military Region is 749;
The rest of the submachine guns were equipped with the organs of the column and the units directly under them, after all, the units directly under the Dongye Column were very large at that time, such as the guard battalion, the field howitzer regiment, the cavalry reconnaissance team, etc., all of which were equipped with some submachine guns.
And if we look back at the submachine guns equipped with each division, even the newly incorporated field divisions have about 750 submachine guns.
If each infantry squad leader and deputy squad leader is equipped with a submachine gun, then the whole company needs 18 submachine guns for 9 infantry squads; 9 infantry companies + 1 guard company of the whole regiment require 180 submachine guns; 3 infantry regiments + 1 guard battalion in the whole division, about 600 submachine guns are needed.
If a division can have 750 submachine guns, the above basic needs will definitely be satisfied, and additional submachine guns can be equipped with battalions and companies of organs and technical arms.
At that time, the number one main division, the 7th Division (118th Division), was equipped with nearly 1,000 submachine guns, and the submachine guns in the infantry squads and organs, directly subordinate teams, and technical detachments would undoubtedly be more substantial.
The effective range of the submachine gun is not large, and in today's weapon sequences it is already a marginal and auxiliary presence in the field troops; However, in the combat environment of that year, the submachine gun was a weapon that was very suitable for our army, which was accustomed to night combat and close combat.
In particular, a unit like the 3rd Column (40th Army), which is good at assault, is equipped with a large number of submachine guns to give full play to its excellent assault power, which can be said to be like a tiger with wings, which will greatly help the next series of victories.