Main battles of the Northeast Field Army

From October 31 to November 2, 1946, the 4th Column of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army (Commander Hu Qicai) annihilated the invading Kuomintang troops in the Xinkailing area northwest of Kuandian County, Liaoning Province The 25th Division of the 52nd Army had more than 8,900 people, including more than 5,800 prisoners, and 2,128 casualties in the 4th column. This battle was the first example of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army annihilating an entire division of the Kuomintang Army in one battle, and initially shattered Du Yuming's strategy of "attacking from the south and defending from the north, first from the south and then from the north." The 25th Division was Du Yuming's starting unit, so this defeat hit him hard. Strictly speaking, the victory of this battle did not rely on good strategic foresight and organization. From the beginning, South Manchuria's military strength was dispersed. The troops were divided into 4 verticals to guard the key passes. They relied too much on natural barriers such as Motian Ridge and Lianshan Pass and too little. He accurately estimated the attack power of the national army, and suffered successive defeats. The Liaonan Independent Division on the right in front was also dispersed, and the 3rd column on the left did not fight well, which made Mr. Lin very angry, but the 4th column was very He quickly learned his lesson and boldly lured the enemy to Xinkailing and mobilized the 10th Division to concentrate their forces to encircle and annihilate them. The Motian Ridge and Shuanglingzi battles ahead were not won, especially Motian Ridge. In terms of terrain, no matter how dangerous Xinkai Ridge is, it is not as dangerous as Motian Ridge. The 11th and 12th Divisions can block the 25th Division. This should be a question mark. Yes, at least I am drumming in my heart. In order to cover the rear organs, the battle must be fought. Fighting in Xinkailing can at least create an ambush and eliminate an enemy. From this point of view, it can be inferred that the people in Xinkailing were forced out of desperation. There is no difference between victory and defeat. I was sure that during the battle, I saw the possibility of annihilating the 25th Division, and then worked hard to turn it into a fact. Comments afterwards agreed that the victory of this battle was a reflection of the idea of ??concentrating forces, but the 4th Column did not They did not concentrate so many troops. In fact, they did not. After the victory, even the Democratic Alliance Army itself was puzzled and thought it was a fluke. With the strength of the 4th Column, it should be safer to fight a regiment (unfortunately, the horse racing battle on the 26th , and actually let the enemy troops run away), so the victory in Xinkailing was also an unexpected gain for Mao Zedong. He emphasized in the telegram that all larger battles (implying Xinkailing) must focus on 10 8 The strength of one or even 12 regiments is also a way of pushing the tide, but in any case, the courage of the Democratic Alliance Army to fight against the odds in the 4th column is still worthy of praise. The 2nd Division of the 52nd Army only took advantage of the opportunity to seize Anton, and did not cooperate with the 25th Division in time and space to complement each other, allowing the People's Liberation Army to concentrate its forces to encircle and annihilate the 25th Division. When it comes to responsibility, the commander of the two divisions is Zhao. Responsibilities of the Public Armed Forces. The Battle of Dehui was part of the Second Battle of Jiangnan of the "Three Campaigns to the South of the Yangtze River, and the Fourth Campaign to Protect Linjiang". In late February 1947, the 6th Column of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army launched an attack on the enemy defenders in Dehui with the support of artillery fire. Due to underestimating the enemy's paralysis, lack of preparation, and poor coordination of infantry, artillery, and tanks, they rushed into the battle. After three days of fierce fighting, they failed to win the battle and were forced to stop the siege and return to Jiangbei. Defending the enemy in Dehui is the 50th Division of the New 1st Army of the Kuomintang Army, which has jurisdiction over the 148th, 149th, and 150th regiments and directly affiliated units such as artillery, communications corps, and cavalry. In addition to two local security groups, there are approximately more than 7,000 people. The 50th Division is all equipped with American equipment. In this battle, the Democratic Alliance Army concentrated 4 divisions and 80 artillery pieces, which can be said to have an absolute advantage. The troops had just won a battle and their morale was high. But the attack failed. The cadres of the Sixth Column conducted a profound review of their experiences and lessons after the war. The main reasons are: ideological paralysis and underestimation of the enemy, unclear enemy situation, and lack of preparation. Before the war, it was believed that Dehui was only defending the enemy with the remnants of the 150th Regiment, and that it was an isolated enemy and might run away in a single attack. I did not expect that he would hold on. The New 1st Army is the main ace force and is especially good at organizing defensive operations. This was the first time that the Sixth Column had artillery to cooperate with the operation. It had never fought a city offensive in the past, so it adopted a reckless fighting style under the influence of the thought of underestimating the enemy. The troops and firepower were equally divided, and they were besieged on all sides, with no main direction of attack. The Battle of Dehui was the first large-scale coordinated infantry and artillery operation on the Northeast battlefield. Column commanders and staff at all levels lack this knowledge and do not understand the technical and tactical performance of larger-caliber artillery and tanks. They do not even understand what "shooting Zhu Yuan" means, let alone infantry and artillery, How do infantry and tanks work together?

Therefore, when the column deploys its troops and weapons, it disperses the artillery to each division and regiment, and generally stipulates when the artillery will conduct test firing and when it will conduct effective firing (i.e., fire preparation). After the artillery is effective, the general attack will begin. There was no map work for coordinated infantry, artillery, and infantry-tank operations in advance, nor was there a joint survey of the terrain, nor was there a clear target for artillery fire and infantry impact, nor was it proposed how the artillery firing time would be related to the infantry's movement to engage the enemy and the impact timing. Coordinated requirements; only requiring the artillery to start test firing one hour after entering the position, the artillery does not have the necessary preparation time at all.

The two Longhua battles were two contests between the main force of the Jireliao Military Region of the Northeastern Democratic Alliance and the 13th Army of the National Army. Although this battle had little impact on the overall situation, it had a significant impact on the 11th Column of the Democratic Alliance. The training and improvement of combat effectiveness are of great significance, especially the 11th Column produced a military hero Dong Cunrui, who was glorious in the Longhua battle. Longhua belonged to Rehe Province at that time and was an important barrier to the north of Chengde, the capital of Rehe. In early May 1947, various troops scattered throughout Reliao, Hebei, Chahar, and carrying out land reform and suppressing banditry and anti-hegemony began to gather in the west of Rehe. The frontline headquarters decided to first encircle and annihilate the 3rd Battalion of the 10th Regiment of the 4th Division of the 13th National Army and the local security team who were isolated in the paddock. By May 15th, the 13th Brigade of the Hebei-Chahar-Liao Military Region successfully annihilated the national army defenders in Weichang after a day of fierce fighting. Encouraged by the victory, the forward headquarters decided to expand the results to capture Longhua. This task was handed over to the 17th Brigade of Jicha Reliao. The Seventeenth Brigade (Brigade Commander Zhou Renjie, Political Commissar Xie Boringzhong) was formerly an old unit of the Eighth Route Army. The predecessor of the 49th Regiment was the First Battalion of the First Regiment of the Second Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Teaching Brigade. Previously, this regiment was the First Battalion of the 115th Independent Regiment of the Eighth Route Army. If you go back further, its glorious history can be traced. During the Jinggangshan struggle; although the history of the 50th Regiment was shorter than that of the 49th Regiment, it was still a heroic unit with great military exploits. Its predecessor was the 18th Regiment of Jizhong during the Anti-Japanese War. Originally, the 17th Brigade also had a 51st Regiment. This regiment was newly reorganized from the local militia. At this time, it only existed in the 17th Brigade and did not participate in the first Longhua battle. On the eve of the first battle of Longhua, the headquarters of the 10th Regiment of the 4th Division of the 13th National Army led two battalions to garrison in Longhua (the other battalion was stationed in the paddock under the leadership of the deputy commander of the 10th Regiment, which had been occupied by Hebei Province at this time). Encircled and annihilated by Chare Liao Thirteenth Brigade). At dusk on May 19, the 17th Jicha Reliao Brigade occupied the offensive starting positions in the southeast and northeast of Longhua. At 0:00 on the 20th, the troops began to attack. The 49th Regiment quickly occupied Dongshan and the forward positions of the defenders in the southeast of the city. After fighting until dawn, the troops defeated the national security team and broke into Longhua City. In the following half-day day battle, they again Captured half of the city. On the night of the 21st, the 17th Brigade occupied almost all of Longhua City. On the morning of the 22nd, a regiment of the 16th Brigade, the 47th Regiment, was ordered to come to reinforce the 17th Brigade. That night, the 17th Brigade launched another general attack. Three regiments attacked at the same time, but the effect was not great. The troops were killed and wounded by the defenders' artillery fire during the assault, resulting in a large number of casualties. As a result, the 17th Brigade was unable to organize a decent attack all day on the 23rd. They had to ask forward again for help and requested that the entire 16th reserve brigade be mobilized to participate in the war. On the 23rd, Huang Zhiyong, the chief of staff of the front command of the Hebei-Chahar Reliao Military Region, came to inspect the battle situation, and finally decided to transfer all the remaining two regiments of the 16th Brigade to attack from the west side of Taishan Mountain, and attack with the 17th Brigade from the north and south, and finally eliminate the enemy defenders in Taishan Mountain. In the early morning of the 24th, the 17th Brigade made its third general attack. This time, the offensive troops of the 17th Brigade were attacked by firepower from both sides of Longhua Middle School and the Taishan garrison, causing heavy casualties. However, the 16th Brigade to the west of Taishan did not launch the attack on time, so the battle Lost again. There was a confrontation between the two sides on the 24th. Huang Yongsheng, the former deputy commander, also came to observe, but Huang Yongsheng left without expressing any opinions. That night, Cheng Zihua convened a meeting with the commanders of each brigade to solicit everyone's opinions, and finally decided to mobilize the 13th Regiment of the 5th Brigade to participate in the battle, with Huang Yongsheng personally commanding the attack. From the 25th to the 28th, the People's Liberation Army launched the fourth and fifth attacks in succession. The 16th Brigade attacked the southern half of Taishan; the 17th Brigade attacked from the urban area, and the 5th Brigade and the 13th Regiment attacked Longhua Middle School from the north of the city. The battle was very fierce. The defenders of Taishan used various artillery shellings continuously, causing heavy casualties to the attacking People's Liberation Army.

The First Company of the 13th Regiment of the 5th Brigade took advantage of the darkness to attack Longhua Middle School on the night of the 26th. Because the follow-up troops could not follow up in time, the breakthrough was blocked by the defenders. Except for some of the troops who broke into the school, they withdrew, and the rest were on the 27th. During the day, they ran out of ammunition and food, and all of them were killed. After several days of fighting, the PLA troops suffered heavy casualties. The 17th brigade alone suffered a combat loss of more than 1,200 people. Zhou Renjie recalled: "The troops were gradually increased in a round-robin manner, and the number of troop casualties increased day by day... The troops were weakened and suffered heavy losses. "On the night of the 29th, the People's Liberation Army launched its final attack, which again had no results. At this time, the 21st Division of the Chifeng National Army was preparing to withdraw south. In front of the Hebei-Chare-Liao Military Region, the brigades were ordered to withdraw from the siege of Longhua and rushed to Chifeng to intercept the National Army moving south from Chifeng. The first battle in Longhua ended. In this battle, according to Zhou Renjie's recollection, "more than 500 enemies were killed and injured, and more than 200 enemies were captured." However, due to "insufficient reconnaissance and understanding before the war, no specific preparations for the attack, lack of unified organizational command, lack of artillery and ammunition, etc., the suppression resulted in failure to conquer the city, failure to bring reinforcements, failure to realize the planned combat attempt to attack the city, and casualties." The number of soldiers reached more than 2,500 and they paid a heavy price." After the first battle of Longhua, the 10th Regiment of the 4th Division of the 13th Army was transferred from Longhua due to heavy casualties. The 265th Regiment of the 89th Division of the 13th Army took over its defense. Department and two battalions. The 265th Regiment is not the backbone of the 13th Army. Half a year ago, the 89th Division of the 13th Army reinforced Liaoxi and was defeated by the Northeastern Democratic Alliance. At this time, the 89th Division was a new unit reorganized after the last blow, and its combat effectiveness was far inferior to the main force of the 13th Army. The Fourth Division of the Army. In March 1948, the Northeast Field Army formed the 11th Column in Chaoyang. The team directly under the Dongye 11th Column was drawn from the agencies directly under the former Hebei-Chahar Reliao Military Region and some troops from the Reliao Military Region. The commander of the 11th Column is He Jinnian, the political commissar Chen Renqi, and the deputy commander Zhou Renjie. The main force of the 11th Column is the 31st Division. The 31st Division was formerly the 1st Independent Division of the Hebei-Chahar Reliao Army, which was the 17th Brigade in the first Longhua battle in May 1947. The 32nd Division was the former Hebei-Chahar Reliao Independent Division. The 2nd Division was formerly the local cadre troops operating in the Pingbei area. The 33rd Division was the Third Independent Division of Jicha Reliao, formerly the 5th Independent Brigade of the Reliao Military Region and the local cadre troops. On May 16, 1948, the 11th advanced into Chengde. After winning the battle at Elephant Trunk Mountain, they surrounded Longhua on the 18th with the cooperation of the Hebei-Chahar-Liao Artillery Brigade. The Hebei-Chahar-Liao Artillery Brigade has 21 mountain guns and 7 howitzers. In order to cooperate with the 11th Column in the siege of Longhua, the Hebei-Chahar-Liao Independent Sixth Division was ordered to block the national army from Chengde. Defending the enemy in Longhua were the 265th Regiment of the 89th Division (missing the third battalion) and a company of engineers from the division. They also had part of the artillery, equipped with 3 combat defense guns, and more than 2,000 people. Distributed in Moshan Mountain and Longhua City. Moshan Mountain in the west of the city is the focus of defense. Tang Chi, the commander of the 265th Regiment, led the regiment headquarters, the third battalion, the battle defense artillery company (4 battle defense guns) and the mortar company to garrison the main position of Moshan Mountain; the second battalion was stationed at Longhua Middle School. The core stronghold in Longhua City; the engineering company and the security regiment are the first-line defensive forces in the group of bunkers in the southeast of Longhua City. There are more than 40 semi-permanent bunkers built in the north of Longhua City. At 1 o'clock on the 25th, the troops entered the position. At 4:20, the artillery fire was prepared for 30 minutes. At 5 o'clock, the troops began to attack. The 31st Division in Moshan learned the lessons of the first Longhua battle. Before the attack, the two forward companies of Jiandao quietly climbed up the cliff on the northern slope of Mossy Mountain at night and lurked. After the artillery preparations were completed, they suddenly launched an attack and quickly cleared the enemy bunkers. The commanding heights of Moss Mountain were controlled 35 minutes after the launch of the general offensive. The defending enemy, led by regiment leader Tang Chi, was compressed into several bunkers at the southern end of Moss Mountain. But there were mistakes in the troops attacking the city. During the artillery preparation period, artillery fire destroyed some of the defenders' forward fortifications, but the artillery bombardment was still in progress. The 1st Battalion of the 98th Regiment of the 33rd Division unexpectedly launched an attack without authorization, and was accidentally injured by its own artillery fire. Under the emergency situation, the 33rd Division command post was forced to change its original plan and hurriedly ordered the artillery to extend firing. At this time, the First Company of the 1st Battalion of the 98th Regiment had carried out two consecutive blasts and destroyed the barbed wire fence. While continuing to blast the outer trench, the defenders began a fire blockade, the blasters were sacrificed, and the company suffered heavy casualties. It took a lot of hard work to open a gap. At this time, the sharp knife company had less than 40 people left, and it still launched a rapid attack. Attack, quickly broke into the city, and started street fighting with the cooperation of the second echelon of the battalion.

The most troublesome thing is the direction of the 32nd Division. The 32nd Division started its offensive from the northeast of Longhua, which was the area with the densest defenses of the defenders. However, it was in this area that there was no artillery support. The assault troops could only rely on manual blasting to destroy the defenders' fortifications. During the preparation of artillery fire in other areas, the 96th Regiment of the 32nd Division blasted three bunkers in 20 minutes. After the general offensive began, intensive firepower from the remaining garrison bunkers blocked the troops' offensive path. Although the 94th Regiment of the Division detoured from the 33rd Division's breach to support the enemy's flanks, it was not able to completely clear all the garrison fortifications. These remaining bunkers were outside the range of artillery fire. By noon, 11th Zongzhi was forced to order a suspension of the attack. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, after three hours of preparation, the 11th Column launched another fierce offensive against the Longhua garrison. In fact, there were only two strongholds left by the defenders at this time, one was the regiment command post at the southern end of Mossy Mountain; the other was at Longhua Middle School. The defenders at the southern end of Mossy Mountain once again withstood the attack of two regiments of the 11th Column and 31st Division. The PLA suffered serious casualties in this battle. Not only did Dong Cunrui appear, but Li Rongshun, deputy commander of the 31st Division, was also sacrificed. In addition, the tenacity of the moss mountain defenders is quite surprising. When the 32nd Division attacked Longhua Middle School, other troops were busy collecting the airdrop supplies of the national army. At this moment, the defenders on the south side of moss mountains suddenly opened fire, and 4 of the 94th Regiment More than 30 soldiers under the company commander Gao Xinggui died on the spot, which shows the stubbornness of the Mossy Mountain defenders. 11th Column attacked Longhua for the second time, and its troops were not weak, with three divisions plus an artillery brigade. There is also a Du 6th Division responsible for providing reinforcements. The firepower is not without fierceness. In addition to an artillery brigade, there are also independent artillery battalions from each division participating in the battle. The morale is not low. The whole column wants to avenge the defeat in the first battle of Longhua a year ago. However, such a disparity lasted a whole day, with three divisions and one brigade against one regiment, and the regiment was still short of a battalion. In the end, the regiment commander was asked to run away with more than 20 people.

Three battles and four draws are the battles of four draws. During the summer offensive in Northeast China in 1947, the First Column, Liaoji Column (later the 7th Column) and the Sixth Column of the Northeastern Democratic Allied Forces launched a critical battle against the Kuomintang army entrenched in Siping City, Jilin Province. The former enemy commander was Li Tianyou, the commander of the 1st Column, and later changed to Hong Xuezhi, the commander of the 6th Column. In mid-May, after winning four battles to protect Linjiang and three battles south of the Yangtze River, the Northeastern Democratic Alliance launched a summer offensive and successively recovered Huaide, Gongzhuling, Changtu, Kaiyuan, Shancheng Town, Dongfeng, Meihekou, and Xi'an (today's Liaoyuan City), Xifeng, Qingyuan, Shuangshan, Zhengjiatun, Yitong, Shuangyang, Huadian, Huinan and other places connect the north and south together. Most of the main forces of the Northeastern Democratic Alliance joined forces in the area south of Siping. On June 2, Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan sent a telegram to Deng Hua, commander of the Liaoji Column, ordering the Liaoji Column to surround Siping from the east, west, north and west. In early June, the headquarters of the Northeast Democratic Alliance decided to encircle and annihilate the enemies in Siping and ordered the First Column, Liaoji Column and the 17th Division of the Sixth Column to participate in the siege operations. All troops attacking Siping and defending the enemy are under the unified command of the first column. On June 11, the headquarters of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army ordered the 11th and 12th divisions of the fourth column to advance towards Fushun and Shenyang, and seize Fushun at the opportunity to contain the enemy's reinforcements in Siping. On the same day, the Northeastern Democratic Coalition's attacking troops in Siping launched a battle to clear the enemy's outlying strongholds in Siping. On June 12, the First Division of the Independent 1st Division of the Liaoji Column of the Northeastern Democratic Alliance Army captured the Siping Xijiao Airport. Annihilated more than 600 people from the transportation battalion of the 71st Army and a battalion of the security regiment defending the enemy. At 2 o'clock in the evening on the 14th, the siege troops of the Democratic Alliance Army launched a general offensive, and the Siping battle began. The First Column, the First Division, and the Second Division attacked from the southwest of Siping, and the Liaoji Column attacked from the west. 40 minutes later, the Second Division broke through the enemy's defense line and broke into the city in one fell swoop. In the early morning of the 15th, one column and one division of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army broke through the Kuomintang defense line in Siping from the southwest of Siping to Haifengtun and broke into the city. Subsequently, the first and second divisions fought side by side and spread deep into the city. On the 16th, the only division of the Liaoji column of the Northeastern Democratic Alliance broke through the Ermai Road defense line from outside the west area of ??Siping City, opening up the "second battlefield" and forcing the enemy to reduce or stop their counterattack. On the 17th, the 49th Regiment of the 6th Column and 17th Division of the Northeastern Democratic Alliance siege force reserve team entered the urban battle. They entered the position from the left side of the 1st Column and 1st Division, and the 1st Division of the 50th Regiment went deep into the direction of the 2nd Division of the Liaoji Column. Make plans to attack. On the 18th, the Second Division of the Liaoji Column of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army cleared the perimeter from the east entrance of Ermai Road in the northwest corner and began to break through.