To what extent was the battle of Shangganling tragic?

Even China people who have no knowledge of war history will know the Battle of Shangganling on the battlefield to resist US aggression and aid Korea because of the film Shangganling and the episode My Motherland. The film is beautiful, but it is a later work of art, not a real scene record. People who know about this battle may say, "In those days, it was impossible to take pictures in such a fierce battle." In fact, in Shangganling's heroic volunteer army, there are really war photographers, and Gao is one of them.

I was a photographer in the 45th Division of 15 Army (the commander was Qin Jiwei) and my teacher was Cui. At that time, every division had a full-time photographer. No reporters were called at that time. I was in the tunnel during the battle in Shangganling. During the 43-day battle, I stayed at the front line for nearly 20 days. The tunnel was bombed and the soil kept falling. There is no light and the air is cloudy. Poisonous gas, napalm, flame throwers, explosives ... The enemy used all kinds of weapons. The toilet in the tunnel cannot be handled in time, and the remains of martyrs cannot be buried in time. The tunnel is filled with the smell of smoke, sulfur, blood and feces, which makes people suffocate. What is most lacking in the tunnel is water, and dry food-compressed biscuits can't be swallowed at all. Sometimes I even have to drink urine, but there is no water to drink and I have little urine. ...

Next, let's listen to the story of Shangganling again.

A memoir about General Qin Jiwei describes the Battle of Shangganling in this way: On the Korean battlefield of 1952, Chinese and Korean troops won one after another, but the US military didn't want to lose face at the negotiating table and wanted to win more bargaining chips on the battlefield, thus forming a situation of fighting and talking. In June 5438+10, the US military unilaterally suspended the negotiations, and Harrison, the chief negotiator of the US side, shouted: "Let the guns speak!" Then began their "golden offensive". At that time, Wusheng Mountain was of great strategic significance. It is the connection point from the east coast of Korea to the west coast, controls the triangle of Jinhua, Tieyuan and Pingkang, and is the natural barrier of the central plain of Korea. If the volunteers have it, they can overlook the enemy's depth, directly threaten the golden defense line of the "United Nations Army" and stabilize the front line on the "38th parallel"; If the "United Nations Army" captured the Wusheng Mountain, it would be tantamount to breaking through the defense line of the volunteers from the central part, thus endangering the entire Korean front. Shangganling, which is less than 3.7 square kilometers, is the highland that controls the lifeline of Wusheng Mountain. The main point of the so-called "golden offensive" is to win Shangganling and break through the defense line of Wusheng Mountain.

At that time, the Chinese and Korean troops had turned to strategic defense and built fortifications in Shangganling area for nearly a year. Van Frith, commander-in-chief of the US Eighth Army, originally planned to use only two battalions, and 200 people were killed or injured in five days to win Shangganling.

1952 65438+1October 14 At 3: 30 in the morning, Van Frith, commander of the Eighth Army of the United States, announced to the world through the Associated Press reporter in Seoul: "The golden offensive has begun!" Half an hour later, 300 cannons, 40 planes and 120 tanks of the Seventh Division of the Eighth Army of the US Army and its subordinate North Korean Second Division 16 Artillery Battalion fired more than 300,000 shells and dropped 500 bombs on the 597.9 and 537.7 highlands in Shangganling. Almost all the ground works of our army were destroyed. On this day, the 45th Division 1 35th Regiment annihilated 1900 people, destroyed 3 tanks and captured1vehicle, with more than 500 casualties.

Gao recalled:

I also went to the front with the army. Although I am a photographer, it is difficult to take good photos under such conditions. Most battles are fought at night, and I can only shoot when I fight back during the day. The photos I see now were taken in a daytime counterattack. I only took one and then went back to the tunnel. I don't know all the soldiers in the photo because there are too many casualties. In order to keep the army number, I constantly added personnel, and the company was constantly reorganized, only knowing that it belonged to the 45th Division.

The highlands have been recovered, and so have they. In the end, because the enemy was strong and we were weak, and the ammunition could not be supplied, the volunteers were forced to turn to the tunnel and persist in the struggle. Tunnel warfare is more difficult than positional warfare. The enemy blocked the 15 military tunnel with favorable terrain, blocked it with stones and mud, bombed and blasted it, cut off water, poisoned it and smoked, in an attempt to destroy the volunteers in the tunnel.

Tunnel warfare is difficult. Many tunnels can only eat half a biscuit every day, and many people can't drink a drop of water, so they have to drink urine from each other to quench their thirst. The officers and men also nicknamed it "glorious tea". Soldiers can put cookies in their mouths and cut their tongues, but Dan can't melt cookies in his mouth. Many wounded people died in the tunnel because of poor medical conditions. There was a tunnel, 10. Many soldiers starved to death, and they were still holding submachine guns at the entrance of the tunnel.

"Whoever can send the apple into the tunnel will be given a second-class merit!" This is the meritorious standard of adhering to the stage of tunnel warfare in Shangganling campaign. For the two highland tunnels, the nearest one is 500 meters from the main peak of Wusheng Mountain, and the farthest one is only more than 1000 meters, but it has to pass through the blockade line of 10. Even at the entrance of the tunnel, it is difficult to get in, and every step may lead to bloodshed and sacrifice. Sent to a class, only one-third of the people entered the tunnel alive, and even paid a few lives to send a pot of water.

Under such difficult circumstances, the logistics department of 15 Army adopted the way of "crawling transportation" and "relay transportation" to send 30,000 mortar shells and a large amount of grain and materials into the tunnel. There were more than 1.700 casualties in the battle of shangganling, accounting for 14% of the total casualties of our army. Qin Jiwei once said to You Jixian, "Let's go to Ganling and make some contributions to logistics."

The tunnel was crowded with the bodies of combatants, wounded and martyrs. Smoke and blood are mixed together. The food is gone, the water is gone, and the medicine is gone ... It is difficult for both sides to hold on, depending on who can hold their ground. In order to grasp the situation, the volunteers decided to take prisoners. By interrogating the prisoner, Qin Jiwei knew what was going on. He wrote in his diary: "Two enemy divisions have been killed or injured by more than half. According to the US (divisions) 1.8 million, and the puppet troops (South Korea) 1.2 million, a total of 30,000 people. At present, less than 10000 people can participate in the war. The enemy has spent 20,000 casualties in the battle for the position of our two companies, but this position still cannot be captured. I think the enemy is unwilling to fight for consumption like this. What the American army lacks is not steel, but manpower ... "Based on this, he decided to start preparing for the counterattack.

165438+1October1,15: 45, the howitzers, rockets, mortars, mountain guns and wild guns of the volunteers poured on the enemy like an avalanche. Qin Jiwei instructed the artillery to skillfully use the power of artillery: after the first surprise attack at 15: 45, the artillery stopped for 5 minutes, then made a surprise attack for 5 minutes, and then the false signal infantry attacked, but did not charge. After luring the enemy to the frontier fortifications, it was covered with rockets and dozens of howitzers were bombarded together. In these rapid shots, more than 1000 shells landed on enemy positions, and the fire in the north mountain of 537.7 highland soared into the sky, the barbed wire was blown off, and the bodies of the enemy flew everywhere.

The battle lasted for 43 days, and the two sides invested more than 65438+ 10,000 troops. What was originally a local-scale battle has developed into a famous battle. During the battle, the "United Nations Army" dumped 6.5438+0.9 million shells and 5,000 bombs on two hills in Shangganling. There are as many as 300,000 shells a day, with an average of 6 shells per second, and 76 bombs explode on every square meter of land. The sky above Shangganling is filled with smoke almost every day, like a cloud. Grab a handful of sand, half of which is iron filings and shell casings. In the whole battle of Shangganling, the volunteers repelled the enemy's attacks 900 times. The "United Nations Army" suffered 25,498 casualties, with the casualty rate exceeding 40%. At the same time, 300 planes were shot down and injured; Destroy 40 tanks and 6 1 door of large caliber artillery. Casualties of volunteers 1 1529, with the casualty rate exceeding 20%. This casualty rate and the average number of daily casualties are extremely terrible figures for Americans, because the United States believes that the battle of Iwo Jima with the highest casualty rate in the Pacific War is only 32.6%. In this way, the enemy's so-called "most powerful offensive in a year" ended in complete failure.

When the news reached Beijing, the whole country was boiling. 65438+February 65438+June, Mao Zedong made a speech on the situation and characteristics of the Korean War and spoke highly of the Battle of Shangganling. 65438+February 18, People's Daily published an editorial "Celebrating the Great Victory of Our Army in Shangganling Front", which pushed the celebration of Shangganling to a climax.

Speaking of shooting, Gao said:

Shangganling is a small village in North Korea, with only two hills. I have a Lycra 3 camera and an Akfa black-and-white movie captured during the War of Liberation-that's one of the two movies captured by our soldiers on the domestic battlefield. The other set of soldiers didn't know what it was, but when they opened it, it was all exposed. I took more than 100 negatives during the whole battle. At that time, I didn't realize I had to shoot more. When I went to the battlefield, I still had a pistol and a camera. I am a "double shooter". I share a shell box with two other photographers in the tunnel, and we can squat on it-the space in the tunnel is very small, sometimes it is crowded like a train car on holidays. When I'm not charging, I shoot in the tunnel. At that time, the tunnel was dark, there was no flash, only magnesium powder. There are "jumps" with matches and white smoke, which is very choking. Even so, the soldiers are willing to take pictures. They said, take a picture and choke a little. At first, I used door B, turned on the camera, and then clicked magnesium powder. There was not much magnesium powder, so we picked up the unexploded flares thrown by Americans, poured out the magnesium powder, and connected it to the camera with military batteries, which were connected to the magnesium powder. Press the shutter here and the magnesium powder will catch fire there. This indigenous method is quite good.

Once I went with a photographer. On the way, the photographer said we needed to go to the toilet, so we found a hidden place. When it is convenient, the enemy's shells bombed our road just now, and we are glad that we are lucky.

I was injured twice in Korea, once by a shell near my eyes and once in my leg. Qiao Songting, the vice captain of another propaganda team, was hit in the eye like me and died. After filming, I gave the negative to the correspondent, and the correspondent gave it to the troops, who were responsible for developing it and publishing it. I was only 19 years old when I fought in Shangganling, and many of my comrades died young. Soldiers often say in the tunnel: "It is enough to live to be 20 years old!" It can be seen how big the casualties are! There are only five people left in the company like Huang Jiguang. As soon as the shells came, several companies disappeared at once. I am lucky to be alive. The surviving old comrades still keep in touch, and the feelings on the battlefield are the most sincere and reliable. Our teacher died this year, and he was finally promoted to lieutenant general.

There are always more than 20 photos of Shangganling, and I don't know where they have been sent. I sent a lot of photos anyway. Once I charged more than 700 yuan for the manuscript, and my salary was only 2 1 yuan! Later, I didn't know where these negatives were. Some may be in the military museum, and some may be in the People's Liberation Army pictorial. After the Korean War, we published a photo album, which also used many of my photos.

It seems that many good photos should be taken at the scene today. There was a soldier named Wang Shiyou, who fought with two other soldiers in tunnels and trenches and wiped out hundreds of enemies! I came back covered in dirt and blood, and I couldn't hear anything-I was deaf! How touching this photo is. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to take it. I only took a photo of him writing letters to the people of the motherland in the tunnel. If I had the present technology and concept, I would definitely take a lot of photos. This is my biggest regret, and it is a "regret of the times".