comes from "Shandong Eight Thousand Cadres Going South to Take Over Zhejiang"
Published by China Culture Publishing House
Author: Liu Dingqing
The difficult battle of landing island
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p0 p0 After the liberation of the mainland of Zhejiang, in the battle to liberate the Zhoushan Islands, our army was defeated in one battle. This was the landing battle on Dengbu Island. It was publicized by the Taiwan Kuomintang. Together with Kinmen Island, they said: "There is a step in the north and a step in the south. "Golden Gate" are two heavy blows given to the Communists by the national army.
In the First World War on Kinmen Island, our army only focused on the offensive after landing, and failed to organize the ship back to continue transporting the troops in time. As a result, a large number of ships were blown up on the tidal flats by planes. As a result, the 9,000 soldiers who landed were all without support. The army was annihilated, and more than 3,000 of them were taken prisoner and sent to Taiwan.
There is no dispute between the KMT and the Communist Party on the battle of Kinmen Island, but there are different opinions on the battle of Dengbu Island. According to Taiwan’s Kuomintang military information, “the landing on the island was a great victory, over 10,000 enemies were wiped out, and as many as 5,000 to 6,000 were captured. Later, it was revised to annihilate the 5,000 people of the People’s Liberation Army and capture 1,521.” The mainland did not disclose the failure and casualties of the landing on the island. Therefore, the battle and casualties of the landing on the island have been little known for many years.
Participate in the landing on the island. The fighting was the 61st Division of the 21st Army of the Seventh Corps. According to the "attack map of Dengbu Island" of the 61st Division of the 21st Army, only 3 battalions of the 182 Regiment and 2 battalions of the 183 Regiment participated in the battle, plus 3 direct companies There are about 6 battalions with a total force of less than 5,000.
Dengbu Island is a small island in the southeast of Zhoushan's main island, covering an area of only 14 square kilometers. It is adjacent to Taohua Island in the south and is 0.45 nautical miles apart. It faces Shenjiamen, the fishing port of Dinghai to the north. There are 4 battalions of the Kuomintang garrison.
The 61st Division of the 21st Army was ordered by the Seventh Corps to stay in the Ningbo area to cooperate with the 22nd Army to liberate the Zhoushan Islands under the command of the 22nd Army.
The 61st Division has been fighting continuously since entering Zhejiang. Liberated Hangzhou, fought to Shaoxing and Ningbo, cooperated with the 22nd Army and the KMT 87th Army, liberated many counties,There has been no rest. When the head of the 22nd Army handed over the task of liberating Dengbu Island to the 61st Division, the division commander Hu Wei felt a little pressure. First, the troops were too tired and needed to regain their strength; second, there were not enough ships crossing the sea to send enough troops to Dengbu Island. , Once suggested that the military postpone the time of the offensive to prepare for the cross-sea ships.
However, the head of the 22nd Army took into account the heavy rain and windy weather around November 3, and took advantage of the chance that enemy planes at Dinghai and Daishan airports could not take off, and crossed the sea to attack Dengbu Island. Therefore, it is still decided to launch the attack on November 3.
The division commander Hu Wei decided to leave the 181st regiment to guard Taohua Island, under the command of the division deputy political commissar Li Qingquan. The task of attacking Dengbu Island was undertaken by the 182 regiment and the 183 regiment. The 3 battalions of the 182 regiment served as the first echelon, and the regiment commander Tao Jifan and political commissar Cheng Zuguang commanded the landing operations. The first and third battalions of the 183 regiment are the second echelon, commanded by regimental leader Du Shaosan and political commissar Liu Chuanxin.
According to the "Chinese People's Liberation Army Third Field Army Expedition Record", the 61st Division of the People's Liberation Army began to attack Dengbu Island at 8 pm on November 3, and the first batch of 3 battalions of the 182 regiment of the landing troops set sail from Taohua Island under the cover of artillery fire. . Soon after sailing, the wind reversed and the tide retreated. After hard work, only 7 and a half companies of the 9 companies landed on Dengbu Island.
The 182 regiment landed on the tidal flat at the back door of Dengbu Island and attacked the east side of Dengbu Island, occupying Houtiangong and Shijietang Village. Later, the troops were divided into two groups: one way to capture Miaowan Village and Zhangwan Village; the other way to attack Qianshatou Village. After landing on the island, the troops fought bravely, annihilated 8 companies of the national army and captured more than 500 soldiers.
At dawn on the 4th, the 3 battalions of the 182 regiment had controlled three-quarters of the island and compressed the national army on the island to the northern Cockscomb Reef area.
At 7 o'clock on the 4th, the 4 regiments of the National Army were under the cover of aircraft and were reinforced by warships. Shenjiamen took the ship to reinforce the enemy on the island. They successfully landed on the Jiguan Reef and attacked in two directions after arriving on the island. The increase in the enemy's strength caused the situation on the battlefield to reverse. The landing troops were forced to retreat to Fortress Hill and Liushuiyan to organize resistance and withstand the fierce bombardment of enemy aircraft, naval guns and ground artillery.
At 9 pm on the 4th, the second echelon went into battle. The 2 battalions of the 183 regiment led by division commander Hu Wei personally and the division reconnaissance company, guard company, 92 artillery company and one and a half companies that failed to land in the first echelon boarded Step island,Fight side by side with the first echelon on the island and annihilated more than 800 members of the national army. However, due to the sudden large increase in the enemy's troops, the strength of the enemy and the enemy was greatly disparity between the enemy and the enemy.
At this time, our troops attacking the island are already in a rather disadvantageous position. There is no back-up unit or superior artillery support. The bullets are all out. They search for the enemy's corpse, hit them with stones, and fight with bayonets. The enemy rushed up, and many wounded killed with the enemy by blasting grenades.
The positions in Fortress Hill, Liushuiyan, and Wild Boar Pond Hill have changed hands several times, and the fighting conditions are extremely tragic. As the troops and artillery fire on the island are in absolute superiority, and the reinforcements are still being continued, the troops on the island have suffered heavy casualties. In the absence of boats to cross the sea for reinforcements, they can no longer hold on to it.
In this case, the division commander Hu Wei asked for the consent of the head of the 22nd Army and decided to take the initiative to retreat on the night of the 5th and command the troops to retreat to the original landing site.
After the troops arrived at the ferry, the division commander Hu Wei and the deputy chief of staff Wang Chao commanded at the ferry and boarded the ship in the order of the wounded, the remains of the martyrs, the organs, and the troops. The command post, the division chief and the cover team finally evacuated.
When they boarded the ship, they left their only life jackets for the comrades behind. The commander of the division Hu Wei also asked Liu Zhengchang, the chief of staff of the 82nd regiment, to ensure that he would not leave a comrade in arms. He returned by the last boat only when he was sure that no one was missed. During the retreat, our army had no casualties.
In the battle on the island, with about 6 battalions of troops, our army fought vigorously for more than 50 hours and fought more than 30 attacks from nearly 7 regiments supported by the enemy by sea and air, killing and injuring 3394 enemies. The commanders of the enemy's 200th, 224, and 661 regiments were all injured by me, and hundreds of prisoners were brought back.
In the battle of Denbu Island, our army suffered 1,487 casualties, of which 394 were killed, and none of the casualties were discarded. Only one soldier, Fu Xiangming, who lost contact during the battle, found out that the troops had retreated. He would rather die than be a prisoner. He took a trunk and jumped into the sea, and then floated to a reef island, relying on eating small crabs and wild vegetables. After 10 days and nights, he was finally rescued and returned to the team.
In the entire Zhoushan campaign, the battle of Dengbudao was the fiercest and cruelest. Our army has the largest casualties and the largest number of enemies wiped out. But because our army can't get reinforcements from backup troops,However, the enemy continued to increase its troops by 4 regiments, and our army had to take the initiative to withdraw when the strength of the troops was very different.
The battle of landing on the island revealed many problems with our army. One was that they did not grasp the changes in the enemy's situation, climate, and tides; the other was that the participating troops were insufficient and limited ships. The third is that both military and division levels have the idea of underestimating the enemy, underestimating the enemy's strength and reinforcements on the island, insufficiently prepared, and fought an unsure battle, and the lessons are extremely profound.
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