The Forty-Fifth Chapter: Blood Stains the Han River 5
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When Major Melit woke up from his coma, he vaguely saw the enemy moving not far away. He shook his dizzy head, adjusted his tilted helmet, and struggled to stand up against the wall of the trench. Suddenly, the repair mountain main peak, which was surrounded, sounded a charge, and the first battalion of Xu Deyao's unit began to attack from the foot of the mountain. Our troops crawled out of the trenches and lay down less than 30 meters in front of the enemy's position. The panicked enemy scrambled to get up under the calls of their officers, or emerged from the artillery caves. In a burst of flames and hand grenade rain, more than half of the "hit" enemies fell down. Then our troops rushed into the trenches and mixed with the enemy in close combat.
The next morning, the reconnaissance plane reported to General Keane, commander of the 25th Division of the US military, that no signs of our army's activities were found on the line of Xiu Shi Shan. General Keane slumped back in his chair, "It's gone! More than two thousand people, including a Turkish battalion, disappeared overnight! Adding to yesterday's losses, more than 3,400 people, an entire regiment!"
While on the Gwangju Mountain, an independent division and regiment paid a relatively small price to inflict heavy casualties on the attacking US 3rd Division. As a result, the enemy was pinned down at the Suri-san-Gwangju-san line south of Hancheng on the west line, with over 6,000 casualties.
The commander of the 50th Army, who had just arrived to take over the position of the 2nd Regiment, deliberately wore US-style equipment and hung full-body ammunition. However, when he saw the piles of enemy corpses in front of the forward position, he was shocked and vowed not to let the enemy occupy the forward position.
After understanding our army's fortifications, coordinates, and enemy situation, the 50th Army entered the Gwangju-san-Suri-san line position. The increasingly powerful 50th Army made the US military start a history of more than 30 days of inching forward without progress. If not for the right wing exposing its flank, the 50th Army would not have considered retreating.
In particular, before withdrawing, they blew up all the tunnels and trenches, leaving behind a historical mystery in the US military's war records: how did the enemy survive the increasingly intense artillery bombardment south of the Han River for over 50 days?
The US said that the enemy was forced to withdraw from the position after suffering over 100,000 casualties. The Japanese said, "Our masters were tired, so they took a rest." The Koreans said, "We are the great Korean people, and we're good at fighting!" The North Koreans said, "Under the leadership of our great leader, our brave guerrilla fighters, numbering over 600, annihilated two US divisions and most of a Turkish brigade, totaling over 60,000 enemy troops."
On February 5, the independent first division withdrew from the position and thought to rest in the rear, but soon received a report ordering them to bring the tank regiment and artillery regiment to participate in the battle of Topyeong-ri. Gao Quan looked at the soldiers who were eating while rushing to march and couldn't help but want them to stop and rest for a bit. The soldiers who had just gone through the arduous sniper war hadn't even had time to wash off the gunpowder on their faces, and they were all black like African brothers, with only their yellow teeth and the yellow skin on their necks indicating that they were still Chinese.
As soon as Gao Quan returned to the headquarters, he received a telegram from the Volunteer Army Headquarters. Gao Quan would unify the command of the 39th, 40th and 42nd Armies' eight regiments, two tank regiments directly under the Volunteer Army Headquarters, one artillery regiment, plus the troops of Independent Division One. To his surprise, he found himself commanding an army-level force with firepower far exceeding that of a standard US infantry division. The enemy forces facing him were the newly formed 23rd Regiment of the US Second Infantry Division and a French battalion and a Dutch battalion, totaling over six thousand men. When Independent Division One marched at night and arrived north of Yangping on February 11th, the Hwangsong-bu Battle had already begun. The Puppet Army's Fifth Division and the newly replenished Eighth Division suffered devastating blows. A US Second Infantry Division armored regiment that was deployed on the road was ambushed by our army, resulting in over five hundred and thirty men being completely annihilated. After the enemy at Hwangsong-bu was eliminated, the two flanks of the enemy at Toppurri were exposed to our army.
When the battle of Hwanggiri ended on the morning of 23rd, Colonel Freeman of the 23rd Regiment was waiting for the arrival of General Almond, commander of the 10th Corps, at a small hill in Pongam-ni. The sound of artillery fire not far away last night made the regimental command post tense, after all, their previous officers had left their lives in the mountains of North Korea or enjoyed special treatment in prisoner-of-war camps.
When Freeman didn't receive an attack from our army for two consecutive days, he found it strange and sent out a small reconnaissance team to scout ahead, but they fell into Zhang Yu's trap. With unfinished business, he had originally wanted to take advantage of the night to sneak over to the enemy's camp to "chat" with someone, but was prohibited by Gao Quan who feared exposing the news of the arrival of the Independent First Regiment. Thus, both sides entered a brief period of calm.
Freeman, who was still in a state of shock and fear, ordered his men to intensify their fortification work. However, the arrival of General Almond this time gave him hope for withdrawal. After all, the American 2nd Division, the ROK 5th Division, and the ROK 8th Division on his flank had already collapsed and were retreating to the rear, leaving him as a salient that could be easily annihilated if the enemy concentrated their forces to attack.
However, what awaited him was General Ridgway's order "Do not retreat, hold on to Chip'yong-ni". So when General Ridgway recalled this incident years later, he said "I had actually prepared a cavalry regiment of the 5th Cavalry Regiment plus two mortar battalions and a tank battalion, totaling over 7,000 men. I thought that with such weak firepower, wanting to annihilate our 14,000+ men was an illusion, but...
The captured wireless telecommunication equipment was welcomed by the troops, although it was interfered with by the enemy during battles, but in peacetime it was still very useful, at least much better than horse-riding notifications. Soon, eight regimental commanders from other troops came to the frontline command post located in Yangping to discuss plans to eliminate the enemy.
The victory of the Hengcheng Counterattack greatly boosted the morale of our troops, who were previously undersupplied. The addition of two tank regiments to the battle made it a smooth and effortless fight, even causing the US 2nd Division to hastily retreat under the powerful firepower of the tanks. What was particularly delightful for the division commanders was that Hengcheng had captured equipment from two more tank regiments (enough to equip an entire US Army division). Considering that they had just disbanded a lone artillery division and reorganized it into corps-level artillery groups, and there were only six corps on the western front, with four existing tank regiments plus the two newly captured ones, it was just enough for one regiment per corps. Therefore, Liang Daxin first asked Gao Quanquan for support from tank troops, saying that they needed to plant seeds to take root and sprout. The 40th Army didn't need to worry about this, as although their three light tanks had worn out, the tank crew had been trained and were now richer than a whole regiment. They were thinking of capturing more tanks next time, anyway, the oil captured from the airport last time would be enough for a long while.
The Final Battle of Korea: Chapter 45 - Blood-Stained Han River
