What iron bridges are there on the Yalu River?

At the beginning of March, 195 1, the 506th regiment of the Northeast Military Region Air Defense Force was transferred from Benxi to Dianhekou, Kuandian County, Liaodong Province to cover the Yalu River Railway Bridge and the river pontoon from Shanghekou Village to Qingshui Town, North Korea.

There are three iron bridges on the Yalu River: Anton, Ji 'an and Changdian Estuary. Defending the railway bridge at the mouth of Changdian River is not only to defend the traffic arteries, but also to cooperate with brothers to defend Shuifeng Power Station. Therefore, the 506 regiment defense zone is one of the main air combat zones, and the air situation is numerous and complicated.

At this time, the number and scale of American bombing are increasing day by day.

After receiving this task, the leaders of the 506th regiment felt that this task was very arduous and glorious. In order to accomplish this task, the regiment leaders decided that Chief of Staff Miao would first lead the regiment headquarters and battalion commander cadres to survey positions.

Both the Yalu River Railway Bridge and the pontoon bridge on the river are high mountains, where the mountains are undulating and the terrain is steep. The north bank of Yalu River is Shanghekou Village and Xiahekou Town in Kuandian County, and the south bank is Qingshui Town in North Korea.

It takes a lot of time to explore under such complicated terrain conditions. To this end, chief of staff Miao led everyone to use their brains.

After discussion, we decided to adopt the method of casting nets generally and focusing on catching fish, and divided the whole exploration process into three stages: general investigation, subtle investigation and fixed-point investigation.

At the beginning, Miao led the cadres of the Communist Youth League, government departments and postal departments to conduct a four-day census.

Comrades climbed mountains, cut through thorns, and stamped out a winding and rugged mountain road with their feet. It's remote and uninhabited, and pheasants and all kinds of birds often fly suddenly.

After the census, a three-day intensive investigation was conducted.

In the process of micro-reconnaissance, it is necessary to study the problem of taking the mountain as the king and which artillery company occupies which hill, so that the cadres in the camp can know fairly well and do ideological work for the cadres in the company according to the requirements of the task.

Although the survey took a little less road, it took longer to squat on the mountain.

The last three days are fixed-point exploration, and the positions of artillery companies should be determined. At this time, new problems appeared. Everyone wants to occupy the top of the mountain. Only by standing high can they see far. If they can find the US plane as soon as possible, they will have more opportunities to attack the US military and greater confidence in victory.

In view of this problem, the leaders of the Youth League Committee have persuaded and educated the cadres of the Youth League Committee from the overall situation. The leaders of the regiment explained the tactical principles to the comrades, explaining that the tactical requirements could not completely occupy the top of the mountain. They asked everyone to establish an overall concept, start from the whole regiment, cooperate with each other, and strive for victory in the struggle with the US military.

After some work, cadres at all levels have settled down to accept the arrangement of the regiment.

After investigating the terrain, the regiment leaders calculated the circular zone of the combat route according to the parameters of the US bomber attack. Judging the attack direction of American fighter-bombers according to the terrain, according to the requirements of air defense tactics in important places, and according to the two intensive principles, we will attack the sneak attack points of American planes in the circular zone of the battle route with intensive fire in the main direction, and deploy medium and small artillery companies on the hills on the north and south sides of the bridge.

Due to the proper deployment, it meets the tactical requirements, which creates conditions for effectively attacking incoming American aircraft in the future, ensures the safety of guarding targets, and lays the foundation for the victory of air combat.

Erecting anti-aircraft guns on high mountains can be said to be a very good way to attack the US military. The shooting range on the mountain is very wide, where you can shoot high-altitude American planes and low-altitude American planes, with good vision and early detection of American planes.

However, although the method is good, it is not easy to get a few tons of anti-aircraft guns up the steep mountain. The difficulty faced by the anti-aircraft artillery regiment is that there is no automobile road, no engineers to repair it, and everything has to rely on itself.

In order to build a road for cars to pass, all the labor force in the whole regiment, from government officials to their families, went up the mountain to clear the way. Soldiers cut the mountain in front, and cadres and their families leveled the road behind.

After the road was repaired, each battalion organized artillery companies to climb the mountain. Although there is a road, it is still very difficult to push heavy anti-aircraft guns up the mountain. Several large trucks were transferred from the regiment to pull the anti-aircraft guns up the hill, but sometimes the trucks could not be pulled up and people had to push them behind.

Sometimes for an anti-aircraft gun, one or two big trucks are used to pull it forward, and there are many gunners pushing it forward behind. So, just pull the gun into position.

The position of the second battalion and the fifth company is located on a high mountain, which is steep and there is no way to go. In order to finish the task on time, the officers and men of the Fifth Company carried forward the spirit of ants gnawing at bones, disassembled the anti-aircraft guns into parts and transported them to the mountains. They organized the whole battalion to pull all the artillery equipment one by one to the top of the mountain.

Thanks to the joint efforts of all the comrades in the regiment. It took only a short time for all the artillery and observation instruments to go up the mountain for positioning.

After the whole regiment company entered the position, the urgent problem was to eat and sleep. The cooks took the initiative to go up the mountain, found stones on the hillside to build a stove, set up a marching pot, cooked meals, fried vegetables and sent them to the position.

But the problem of sleeping is not easy to solve. North Korea is located in Northeast Asia, with four distinct seasons and a large temperature difference between morning and evening. In the cold winter, the temperature at the top of the mountain is often around MINUS 20 degrees; In hot summer, the temperature on the mountain is as high as 40 degrees, mosquitoes bite and poisonous snakes haunt.

In order to solve this problem, comrades in the logistics department are in a hurry.

One day, Miao suddenly found a big log by the Yalu River. It turns out that March and April are dry seasons here. When the water is shallow, many big logs are exposed in the river.

This discovery made Miao Shu Ren overjoyed. Isn't this a godsend building material? It can be used to build houses and solve the problem of army accommodation. So the whole regiment, battalion and company sent soldiers to the river to fish for wood. The logistics department sent someone to borrow a saw, hired a worker, built a command post with a wooden house and a semi-basement by the Yalu River, and built an auditorium that can accommodate more than 300 people.

In this way, the dormitory, command post and regimental hall of the company position were solved without asking the superior for a penny.

195 1 in April, 2006, the 506th regiment of the anti-aircraft artillery made all preparations for the battle, and officially took on the air defense task of defending the Yalu River Bridge at the mouth of Changdian River according to the requirements of its superiors.

195 1 in may, the war situation on the Yalu river gradually eased after American imperialism invaded the Korean air force and turned to the traffic line behind Korea.

In September, the Volunteer Air Force began to undertake air defense missions in the northeast. Anti-aircraft artillery units have strengthened cooperative combat training with fighter aviation, and formulated cooperative combat plans for air guns under various circumstances.

1952 1 month, after the disastrous military and political defeat, the American invaders blatantly violated public international law and launched a germ war that destroyed humanity in Korea. After February, the US military expanded its germ warfare to the northeast of China. In March, U.S. military planes were active in the Yalu River and frequently invaded Chinese mainland for reconnaissance and bombing.

On April 13/23, the 506th Regiment of the Anti-aircraft Gun won a winning streak and shot down four American planes.

1952 April 13, sunny weather, blue sky, excellent visibility. According to past experience, the regiment leaders judged that there might be an air battle today. Miao, who is on duty at the regiment command post, asked the whole regiment to be vigilant and make full preparations for air-to-air coordinated operations according to the instructions of the regiment leaders.

At 9: 00/KOOC-0/0, four F-86 fighter planes of the US Army were found to meet two MIG-/KOOC-0/5 planes of our side over the northern part of the regiment position. In the case of different strengths, I Hawke carried forward the fighting spirit of being fearless and brave, and launched a fierce battle with enemy planes.

At 9: 0015, after our captain violently attacked the American fighter plane, our captain resolutely quit the battle and returned. After being slightly injured, an American plane fled southwest under the cover of three other American planes.

Miao judged that the US plane tried to return or fly over the Yalu River, and even if it fell, it would land in North China to escape its guilt of violating's airspace, so he immediately ordered anti-aircraft guns to shoot.

The artillery equipment of the 506th Regiment 1 Company and the 3rd Company of the anti-aircraft artillery had already been aimed and tracked, and the first volley hit the enemy plane. I saw the American plane braving thick smoke and falling near Huanghuagou, Changdian Township, 9 kilometers northwest of my location. It exploded and caught fire after landing. Within the range of 100 meters, there are wrecks and fragments of American planes everywhere. The flight number of the American plane is 0636. The major pilot of the U.S. army fell to the ground and died after parachuting, and the other three fled hastily.

This battle, the brilliant record of shooting down an aircraft in the United States for the first time, exposed the aggression crime of American imperialism. As a result, the CMC issued a general order to reward the regiment and issue plaques. The war photography team came to shoot a news documentary.

This battle greatly stimulated the fighting will of the whole regiment and provided experience for continuing to win air combat in the future.

On the morning of April 23, there was fog over the Qingshui town area of North Korea. At 6: 20, the long-range radar reported that a group of American planes with an altitude of 8000 meters were found 80 kilometers southwest of the defense target and were flying towards our defense target.

Miao was at the regimental command post at that time, and it was judged that the attempt of the US military was meteorological reconnaissance. In order to prevent the sudden attack of the US plane, the troops were transferred to the first-level combat readiness, and the remote surveillance post in the southwest was notified to pay attention to observation.

At 6: 24, the remote monitoring post reported that the plane was approaching.

The troops then searched southwest.

At 2500 hours, Company Two found four American F-86 fighter planes flying from south to north at an altitude of 6,000 meters. When the U.S. plane is about 10 km away from our defense target, each company is ready to shoot.

At this time, a train started from Qingshui Town Station and headed west. When the American plane found the train, it immediately lowered its altitude and hid in the mountainous area in the southeast.

Miao, commander of the regiment's command post, judged that the enemy plane had an attempt to attack and defend the target, that is, told the troops to pay attention to monitoring the low-altitude situation in the southeast.

At 6: 27, the US plane was divided into two batches, two in each batch. Among them, the first two planes suddenly appeared in the valley in the southeast, heading straight for the railway bridge along the river at an altitude of 500 meters, strafing the trains running on the railway.

The second company and the fifth company immediately opened fire, and other companies also opened fire one after another. At this time, two other enemy planes flew from the southeast at low altitude and attacked the positions of Company 7 and Company 8 in an attempt to suppress our ground fire and cover the first two to escape, but they were attacked head-on by Company 7 and Company 8 and immediately shot down one of them.

The rest of the American planes tried to escape from the position of the second company, but were intercepted by the gunfire of the second company. The American plane was caught in a sea of fire and the formation was chaotic. Our fourth and sixth companies shot down one each.

After a fierce battle of 1 min 1 5s, three American planes were shot down,1frame was injured, 76.2 shells were consumed, 70 shells were fired, 37 shells were fired and 688 shells were fired. We have no casualties and no war losses.

This battle defended the safety of the railway bridge, created a typical example of the total annihilation of American aircraft in World War I, and set a record for the Northeast Anti-aircraft Artillery Corps to shoot down American aircraft in one battle. Therefore, the 506th Regiment of the Anti-aircraft Gun was commended by the Air Defense Command of the Northeast Military Region and praised by the Central Military Commission by telegram.

In order to delay and destroy the armistice negotiations that have already started, the US military carried out the plan of bombing 78 towns and factories in northern Korea with its air superiority.

In response to the changes in air strike tactics of the US military, the Volunteer Air Force adopted the operational policy of defending the target and fighting a big battle, and formulated an operational plan to cooperate with friendly forces against the US military, mainly attacking the US attack aircraft and bomber groups.

After August 1952, American planes bombed the coastal areas of Yalu River crazily, and our air defense forces fought bravely with the US military.

On August 24th and September12nd, the US military dispatched B-29 bombers to attack Shuifeng Power Station in the middle reaches of Yalu River. The 506th Regiment cooperated with friendly forces and the 504th Regiment of antiaircraft artillery to resolutely fight back and defend the target without loss.

After the battle, the leaders of the 506th Regiment carefully analyzed and studied the situation of the US military, looking for the laws and characteristics of the US military aircraft activities.

Considering that China's National Day is coming, Miao, together with Zhang, Zhang and other relevant personnel, conducted special research and organized troops to prepare for air combat at night to ensure the security of the target.

Because searchlights and short-range radars have not been deployed in the 506th regiment defense zone. Medium and high-altitude guns can neither be fired by basic methods nor by radar.

The only way to shoot is to stop shooting according to the sonic boom. However, in order to stop shooting according to sonic boom, the position of each medium-high artillery company must be accurately marked on the battle sequence diagram, otherwise the shooting data of each artillery company to the base point of Battle.net cannot be calculated.

Three medium and anti-aircraft artillery companies belonging to the 506th Regiment 1 Battalion are deployed on the hills on both sides of the Yalu River, the first and third companies in China and the second company in North Korea.

Because of the mountains, none of the three artillery positions can be seen, and the only coordinate origin is the Yalu River Bridge. At the same time, the three cannons can't even see each other and can't measure.

After receiving the task, Zhang asked the commander to send two observation mirrors to both ends of the bridge. As night falls, the second company with the lowest altitude continuously fires red flares right above it. Two observation mirrors measure the azimuth and the high and low angles at the same time, and then calculate the coordinates of Erlian position based on the bridge.

Then, based on the position of the second company, in the same way, command the first and third companies to launch signal flares directly above, and measure the position coordinates of the first and third companies respectively. In this way, the positions of the three medium and high-altitude artillery companies were accurately marked on the battle sequence diagram. Then work on the map, calculate the shooting data of each gun company to the base point of the fire network, distribute it to each gun company, and conduct shooting command drills repeatedly.

In late September, just as the commanders and fighters of the whole regiment were happily rehearsing entertainment programs during the combat gap and preparing to celebrate the third anniversary of the birth of our youth, the leaders of the regiment ordered the whole regiment to further prepare for the battle according to the instructions of the Air Defense Command of the Northeast Military Region to strengthen the holiday readiness and prevent the US plane from taking advantage of our National Day to make a surprise attack.

At dawn on September 30, Miao led Zhang to all nine small and medium-sized anti-aircraft gun companies for war readiness mobilization inspection, and did not return to the command post until the evening. Then, the command company was ordered to send wireless walkie-talkies to the medium and high-altitude artillery to prevent the wired telephone from being used and ensure the smooth command when the bombing of the US military aircraft was interrupted.

On the evening of September 30th, the officers and men of the whole regiment were more alert and high-spirited, closely monitoring the night sky in the cold wind, ready to attack the invading American troops at any time.

10 On the morning of 1, 30 American B-29 bombers, with an altitude of 6000m, came at me from the east of position 4 along the Yalu River, one in each batch, with an interval of 1 min.

Miao Shu Ren, who was on duty, gave a decisive order: under the unified command of the regiment, the medium and anti-aircraft guns stopped shooting according to the sonic boom and attacked the US plane. Zhang ordered the distant surveillance post to closely monitor the US plane.

Soon, the fourth remote monitoring post reported that the sound exploded straight up!

Zhang immediately made up his mind to block the fire net on the battle sequence diagram, and immediately issued to the first battalion: fire net XX, height 6000!

After the medium and high-altitude artillery was connected to the command, the firing elements were quickly installed and the shells were loaded. The second gunner grasped the handle and prepared to fire.

At this time, from the regiment and battalion command post to the artillery company position, there was silence, and people held their breath waiting for the instant signal that the US plane arrived over the surveillance post.

A few seconds later, the remote monitoring post No.4 reported: Vertex!

Zhang immediately issued: Vertex!

After all the company commanders of medium and high-altitude artillery heard the order, they started the stopwatch at the same time.

Let the company commander know when the second hand points to the firing time of this company!

In front of the flight path of the US military aircraft over our No.4 direction, a fire wall with a width of1500m and a height of 250m consisting of 60 shells appeared.

Under the continuous obstruction of my strong artillery fire, most American planes deviated from the flight route, flew over the Yalu River along the Korean side, and dropped heavy bombs on the hills near Qingshui Town.

In the fierce battle, American planes bombed our 3rd Battalion positions in batches, and the nearest one was only more than 20 meters away from the 9th Company. The artillery platoon leader was hit by scorched earth and his shoulder was injured.

1: 30 or so, the US military dropped a batch of bombs near the Yalu River Bridge, and suddenly smoke billowed and filled the air.

Miao Shu Ren urgently ordered 3rd Battalion to see if the bridge was damaged. Lu Changshan, battalion commander of the 3rd Battalion, sent staff officer Yang. Staff officer Yang braved the bullets and went straight to the bridge in the night.

On the way, his calf was injured by shrapnel, but he bravely ran from one end of Qingshui Town to the other end of Shanghekou along the trembling bridge. Seeing that the bridge was intact, he returned to the battalion command post and reported to the regiment.

At the beginning of 1953, the US fighter-bomber adopted a new air defense flight tactic, that is, under the heavy blow of the ground anti-aircraft artillery fire of the Volunteers, it approached the defense zone at a height of 10,000 meters. After entering the effective firepower range of the anti-aircraft guns of the Volunteers, they glided to our defense target at a small angle of 10 to 15 degrees, then dive and bomb at a large angle of more than 60 degrees, and then dropped bombs at a height of more than 3,000 meters, and then escaped.

In this way, the medium and high-altitude artillery designed and manufactured by the volunteers according to the basic assumptions can not correctly calculate the shooting data, and the small anti-aircraft artillery with an effective shooting height of less than 3000 meters can not shoot.

Facing the new air defense tactics of the American plane, according to the instructions of Chu Mingyuan, the head of the American plane and political commissar, and under the leadership of Miao, he spent nearly a month carefully observing the flight parameters of the American plane, studying the relevant parts of anti-aircraft gun shooting and mechanics day and night, modifying the formula for calculating the dropping distance formulated by the Soviet Union, and creating a shooting method for diving the plane at high altitude, high speed and large angle.

That is, on the flight route before the US plane dropped the bomb, all the medium and anti-aircraft guns of the whole regiment concentrated to form a unified tactic to block it.

A certain unit of the Volunteer Air Defense Artillery used this shooting method to shoot down four American planes in one fell swoop. It was valued by the Soviet advisory group and promoted throughout the army.