This story is purely fictitious. If there are any similarities, we are grateful.
At about 18:00 on October 4, 1953, the cruiser "Yellow River" was conducting routine coordinated formation and live-fire training with the Sixth Fleet of the East China Navy in the waters of Zhoushan . Suddenly, I received a clear message for emergency help. The message came from the oil tanker "Bulaca" which was sailing in the Taiwan Strait about 200 kilometers east of the main island of Taiwan. In fact, the message was not sent to the "Yellow River", but to the "Yellow River". Issued to the headquarters of China-Polish Shipping Company in Tianjin. Because it was a clear code, it was received by the "Yellow River".
Chinese and Polish managers of the China-Polish Shipping Company took a group photo
The business license of the China-Polish Shipping Company
Oil tanker Braka
This oil tanker of the China-Polish Shipping Company, with a displacement of 8,300 tons and fully loaded with kerosene, attempted to use the Bashi Channel when heading to mainland China. The Taiwan Strait was designed to bypass the strict blockade of the US and Taiwan navies, but unfortunately it was discovered by the US CIA agency in Taiwan under the pseudonym "Western Company" and immediately informed the Taiwan side. In the early morning of October 4, a Taiwanese military reconnaissance aircraft intercepted the "Bulaka" over the Bashi Channel. The aircraft then reported its course, speed and other information to the "Danyang" on standby in Kaohsiung Port. destroyer.
The predecessor of the "Danyang" is the destroyer "Yukikaze" , one of the famous "auspicious" ships of the famous old Japanese Navy Combined Fleet (the other "auspicious" ship is the destroyer "Shigure" , However, it was in danger at the end of the year and did not survive until Japan surrendered). The ship had just visited Philippines in a formation with the escort destroyer "Taizhao" in August, and was idle for a while after returning to Taipei Island. Therefore, after receiving the notification from the Americans, Captain Yu Baisheng, the captain of the "Danyang" ship, was very positive and did not feel any shame for doing this pirate business. He urged his men to light a fire, weigh anchor, and leave the harbor to intercept the "Bulaca".
Yu Baisheng
After the "Danyang" was in position, it didn't take long for the Air Force to inform it of the location of the "Bulaka". Yu Baisheng was overjoyed and immediately ordered the "Danyang" ship to intercept it at full speed. In order to boost "morale", he promised a reward, claiming that those who boarded the "bandit ship" would be rewarded heavily. Even those who had no chance to board the ship, everyone would receive a reward! Sure enough, stimulated by the supplies, the crew members had high morale and quickly arrived at the predetermined standby position.
The destroyer Danyang in the 1950s
After receiving the notification from the aircraft, the "Danyang" ship accelerated to a speed of more than 26 knots and soon discovered the oil tanker "Bulaca". The tanker immediately accelerated in an attempt to escape after discovering the "Danyang" ship. However, this 32-year-old ship built in the United States in 1921 had a maximum speed of only a pitiful 9 knots and could not escape. Chasing troops.
In desperation, the "Bulaca" continuously sent distress messages in clear code to the headquarters in Tianjin. You can imagine how desperate the crew (there were 29 Polish crew members and 17 Chinese crew members on board at the time) felt: because the Western Pacific is dominated by the Americans, the Soviet Red Navy’s Pacific Fleet could hardly even travel far away along the way. They have to be "strongly watched" by a bunch of American warships and aircraft, let alone the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, which was just established a few years ago. Therefore, when they sent a distress call, they were just seeking medical treatment in case of emergency. As for whether anyone would come to save them, they had no expectations at all.
But by chance, the message from the "Bulaka" was received by the "Yellow River" ship.
At this time, on the bridge of the "Yellow River" ship, the new captain Su Jun, who had only been in office for a few months, was holding the message and thinking in silence, while the political commissar Zhu Jun frowned. To save or not to save, that is the question -
It would be very difficult to save the Soviet army.
.First of all, the superiors did not know about this matter. If the "Yellow River" ship acted rashly, it would violate our army's principle of "all actions are subject to command." However, requesting instructions at this time will definitely be intercepted by the enemy and reveal its intentions; secondly, now " Although the "Huanghe" ship is operating on the outer edge of the Zhoushan Islands, it is hundreds of nautical miles away from the Bashi Channel where the incident occurred. Even if reinforcements are used at the highest speed, it will take more than 10 hours to reach the sea area where the incident occurred. By then, the situation will happen No one can tell what changes have taken place; thirdly, the Western Pacific is the enemy's backyard. The enemy's situation is unknown and the enemy's strength is strong. Moreover, US military aircraft have been keeping aloof within the sight of the "Yellow River" ship. Once our ship rushes to the Bashi Strait for reinforcements at high speed, , the US military will definitely notify the Taiwan military and even set a trap to make the "Yellow River" ship never return.
The second view of the rearmed Yellow River ship drawn by our factory director
After the fierce ideological struggle, the belief that we could not ignore the death of our class brothers and fight the enemy was ultimately held by the two chief officers of the "Yellow River" ship. Thoughts took over. After a brief discussion, the Soviet army and Zhu Jun decided to take rescue operations without asking the headquarters. When something went wrong, the two went to the military court hand in hand.
Soon, a concise and concise plan was quickly formulated: radio silence should be maintained to prevent the enemy from discovering the "Yellow River" ship's attempt, but friendly ships could use light signals to inform their superiors of the "Yellow River" ship's plan; in addition, Considering which port the enemy ship would go to after intercepting the "Bulaka", after analysis, the Soviet army believed that because Hualien Port was a fishing port and could not berth large ships, it would almost certainly return to Kaohsiung Port in Tainan. . Moreover, it will be dark next, which is conducive to hiding the whereabouts of our ship. As long as we can find a way to get rid of the tracking US military aircraft and sail along the normal route at high speed under the cover of night, if we do not fly the five-star red flag and the August 1st military flag, relying on the British The appearance of Cruiser makes it very possible to "muddle through".
After making up his mind, the "Yellow River" ship signaled to the East China Navy "Nanchang" and "Guangzhou" two frigates that were training with him. They turned around and made a posture of returning to port. Sure enough, in the distance American reconnaissance planes also returned. After the echo of the US aircraft disappeared on the radar screen, the "Yellow River" ship informed the "Nanchang" with a signal: The ship is about to pass through the Bashi Channel to rescue the "Bulaca". Please report it to the Marine Corps and on your behalf. The Military Commission immediately turned around and headed straight for the Bashi Channel at the highest speed (at that time, "Nanchang" and "Guangzhou" also received a clear distress call from the "Bulaca", so they roughly knew what the "Yellow River" was going to do).
Nanchang frigate
Guangzhou frigate
What happened next confirmed that the Soviet army's judgment was very accurate: because the United States believed too much in its own sea and air superiority, after confirming that the "Yellow River" ship was heading towards the mainland, it identified the "Yellow River" and other The ship is about to return home after training, and the "game" is over. The tracking aircraft turned around and returned to Japan, and the warships on standby near China's territorial waters also changed their course. The "Yellow River" ship took advantage of the opponent's negligence and immediately turned at high speed and headed towards the Bashi Channel! Then the Soviet captain announced to all the officers and soldiers on the ship that the "Yellow River" ship would go to the Bashi Strait to perform the task of rescuing the oil tanker "Blaka" of the China-Polish Shipping Company! Although the whole ship had been physically exhausted in the previous drills, everyone's morale was very high when they heard that they were going to save their class brothers.
Fortunately, the "Danyang" ship got carried away after intercepting the "Bulaka" and continued to send power to Taiwan to ask for credit. The "Huanghe" ship's radio disappeared shortly after the "Bulaka" sent out a distress call. A number of encrypted radio communications were intercepted in the direction, and the band and frequency were completely consistent with those used by the Kuomintang Navy. Therefore, the general direction of the enemy ship was initially determined, and then bravely headed towards the unfamiliar sea area at a high speed of 29 knots through the waves.
After intercepting the "Bulaca", the "Danyang" ship sent an armed team composed of 2 officers and 12 soldiers to board the ship and detained all the crew members. However, they were soon dumbfounded: these sailors faced The equipment and instruments in Polish looked confused. None of them understood Polish. They couldn't control the Polish crew, so they couldn't control the ship! The Chinese crew members who were tied up by Wuhuada all refused to sail the ship in the face of threats and inducements.
After receiving the report from the boarding team, Yu Baisheng had no choice but to order the power to be sent to the Kaohsiung base and ask them to send a tugboat. At the same time, he ordered his men to prepare steel cables , intending to tow the "Bulaca" back to Kaohsiung . But it was already night, and high-risk operations such as mooring and towing could not be carried out in the dark. Therefore, the "Danyang" ship and the "Bulaka" could only float on the ocean surface of the Bashi Channel with their navigation lights on, waiting for the arrival of dawn.
At this time, the "Danyang" ship had no idea about the "Yellow River" ship that was approaching at full speed.
Returning to the "Yellow River" ship again, this moment is an extremely severe challenge for the "Yellow River" ship, although the ship once achieved a good result of maintaining a high speed of 28.5 knots for an hour during the trial. But this ship is an old ship after all, and it has old diseases (the keel damaged by the Italian sea mine has been repaired, but after all, it is not as good as the original state before it was damaged). Can it be maintained for 10 consecutive hours? No one is sure about the above maximum speed.
This was the longest night on the "Yellow River" ship. From the captain to the cooks, they stayed at their posts with both nervousness and excitement. The gunnery chief repeatedly checked the positions of the main gun, secondary battery and anti-aircraft gun . The radar soldier died. Staring at the screen, trying to find the target as soon as possible, while the lookout post wiped the telescope over and over again, looking into the dark sea, hoping to find any clues.
In the early morning of October 5, the "Yellow River", which had penetrated into the first island chain, continued to speed on the sea and was about to enter the Bashi Strait. Since this is a routine patrol area for Taiwan's navy and air force, enemy aircraft and ships may appear at any time. . Braving the severe cold, the "Yellow River" sounded the battle alarm, and all personnel were in place, ready to go into battle at any time.
html At about 06 o'clock, the radar department reported that two obvious radar signal echoes were found about 30 nautical miles away from the ship. The officers and soldiers of the "Yellow River" ship suddenly became energetic and rushed towards the suspicious target!The "Danyang" ship, like the "Yellow River" ship, also had a sleepless night. Fearing that Soviet naval vessels, mainly the submarine , would come to the rescue, the "Danyang" ship had to be extra vigilant. After a night of hard work, the sailors were exhausted. They thought they were the big fat sheep that they had easily caught, but they didn't expect it to be so troublesome. Everyone cursed the extra work.
Yu Baisheng is worried that something will happen. After all, this is "international waters". Once a foreign ship passes by and a "National Army" ship is found intercepting and kidnapping foreign ships on the high seas, if word spreads, even with the protection of the United States, it will cause diplomatic and public opinion Very passive, so he wanted to get this matter done as soon as possible. Yu Baisheng contacted Taiwan many times, requesting the dispatch of additional ship reinforcements in order to set up a warning circle around the "Bulaka" to drive away foreign ships and ensure the towing operation of the "Danyang" ship. After all the fussing, Yu Baisheng was already dizzy. He didn't even expect that a powerful People's Navy warship was rushing towards his side at full speed.
At about 7 o'clock in the morning, the "Danyang" ship was slowly preparing the steel cable. When the sailors on the ship raised their cable guns and shot out the towing ropes at the "Bulaca". A violent explosion suddenly sounded from the sea around the "Danyang", and four thick water pillars immediately surrounded the battleship, and soon four more water pillars rose up.This was nothing less than a blow to the head, causing all the officers and soldiers on the ship to immediately tremble: What is going on? Could it be that "Soviet Russian" warships came for reinforcements?
Schematic diagram of the cable gun structure
The lookout posts of the "Danyang" ship hurriedly raised their binoculars and looked to the north. They soon saw the fire from the "Huanghe" ship's gun muzzle on the horizon. The "Huanghe" ship was using its bow. The four B-2ПМ 130mm naval guns in turret A and turret B were firing at full speed at the highest rate of fire and constantly correcting their ballistics. The third round of salvo fire formed a flank attack on the "Danyang" ship.
Twin-mounted B-2ПМ 130mm naval gun
Under this situation, Yu Baisheng no longer had any dreams of promotion and wealth in his mind. He ordered the warship to speed up immediately, and at the same time ordered the gunnery department to immediately judge the opponent's incoming ship. Model, the gunners of a Type 89 twin-mounted 127 mm high-level dual-purpose gun at the bow and two Type 98 twin-mounted 100 mm high-level dual-purpose guns at the stern are all in place, ready to face the enemy!
The second view of the Danyang ship in the early 1950s drawn by our director
The lookout post of the "Danyang" ship soon saw through the telescope the menacing "Yellow River", which was galloping and firing at the same time. This familiar forward leaning style pierced the waves. The bow, British-style ship with long forecastle and double chimneys - this is clearly the "rebellious ship" that was severely damaged by the national army. It is said that it cannot go to sea to fight at all and can only be used for practice! But in the telescope, this battleship is cutting through the waves, and the four main guns on the bow are constantly spitting out tongues of fire. This is not like a paper training ship that cannot sail at full speed or fire guns. It is clearly a murderous one. Sea killer!
Yu Baisheng, who was complaining incessantly, made the most correct decision in his life almost instantly: the wind is tight - pull! Leave the "Braka" and the armed squad on board behind, and escape back to Kaohsiung at top speed!
Wait for me to rendezvous with the reinforcement ship, and then fight back!
After making up his mind, Yu Baisheng first ordered the "Danyang" ship to hide behind the immobile "Bulaka", using the huge body of the "Bulaka" as a barrier to avoid the artillery fire of the "Yellow River". Then, he desperately urged the engine department to pressurize the boiler quickly, hoping to reach the top speed as soon as possible. At the same time, he ordered the main gun to prepare for battle to fight against the trapped beast.
After all, the "Danyang" ship is the old foundation of the "Snow Wind". At this moment, it seems that the eight million gods in Japan are also blessing this famous "auspiciousness". After some twists and turns, the "Danyang" ship quickly accelerated to a high speed of more than 26 knots and fled towards the main island of Taiwan. Without regard for confidentiality, it repeatedly called in plain language, requesting the dispatch of warships and aircraft for reinforcements.
The front main gun of the "Huanghe" ship fired several salvos at the fleeing "Danyang" and finally scored: a 130mm shell accurately hit the rear hull of the "Danyang" ship, two 98 The twin-mounted 100mm high-level dual-purpose cannon and all 16 gunners were wiped out in a bright light. Fortunately: at this time, the "Danyang" was no longer responsible for anti-submarine warfare missions, and there were no depth bombs stored on the stern of the ship, so it finally did not trigger a detonation.
Yu Baisheng, who was already frightened, immediately ordered the smoke screen to be released, and at the same time took a Z-shaped route in an attempt to interfere with the aiming of the "Yellow River" ship's firing director. This move was indeed very effective. Although the "Yellow River" ship continued to fire at it from the flank, it never received a hit.
The Soviet army and Zhu Jun in the bridge saw the "Danyang" ship running away at full speed. Although they were determined to chase and destroy this guy, rescuing the "Blaka" was obviously the purpose of their trip. So the Soviet army ordered the "Yellow River" to slow down and stop sailing, and quickly organized an armed boarding team composed of more than 20 cadres and soldiers who were combat heroes in the army. Their mission was only one: to recapture the "Blaka" by motorboat tanker. In order to prevent the enemy from jumping over the wall and destroying the ship, the "Huanghe" ship turned all its turrets to the "Bulaka" and aimed at it. At the same time, it repeatedly warned it with a loudspeaker, asking the "Chiang bandit troops" on the "Bulaka" to surrender their guns. Surrender, the Communist Party treats prisoners preferentially, but if you resist to the end, there is only death.
At this time, the 14 "national troops" on the "Bulaka" were like ants on a hot pot, and the "Danyang" ship left them and left. They watched helplessly as the "Yellow River" ship approached like a murderer, with its main and secondary guns aimed at the tanker . They are determined to resist, but the long and short guns in their hands are like children's toys in front of the cannons on the opposite side. They will self-destruct together with the oil tanker. They are not that high-minded.
2 officers were more stubborn. They held hostage the political commissar Liu Xueyong and the second officer Yao Miaozhou of the "Bulaka". They pressed their pistols against their temples and shouted loudly at the approaching motorboat of the "Yellow River": "Don't come close, or I'll kill them." The remaining 12 sailors were undecided.
However, what they did not expect was that the two comrades Liu Xueyong and Yao Miaozhou who were tied up would rather die than surrender. Although they were restrained, they still struggled fiercely to resist, and were eventually shot one after another. At the same time, the two officers of the "Danyang" ship were also shot by the approaching officers. The "Yellow River" boarding team on the steamboat used submachine guns to shoot blood into the clepsydra. Seeing such a heated scene, the remaining 12 soldiers completely lost the courage to resist and waved white flags made of white sailor uniforms to express their willingness to surrender. After the motorboat docked at the "Blaka", the boarding team of the "Yellow River" quickly boarded the ship and quickly took control of them, rescuing the remaining Chinese and Polish crew members. A total of 2 pistols, 4 submachine guns and 58 carbines were confiscated.
After rescuing "Bulaka", the Soviet army knew that it was not suitable to stay here for a long time. The US-Chiang Kai-shek bandits, which had superior naval and air power, would soon launch a counterattack. After taking the prisoners into custody, the Soviet army immediately ordered the "Yellow River" to cover the "Bulaka" as it returned to the mainland. However, the speed of "Bulaca" is too slow. If it goes at this speed, it is very likely that the two ships will be surrounded by enemy ships before they can return to the mainland. The top priority is to contact their superiors immediately.
So the "Huanghe" ship took the initiative to break the radio silence and directly report the news of the successful rescue to the Military Commission ("Huanghe", as a special-class warship, has the password to directly contact the Military Commission in the most emergency situation), and requested that sea and air forces be sent immediately for reinforcements. Finally, It is good to coordinate the Soviet navy stationed in Lushun to take action together.
...
After the "Yellow River" left the East China Navy's friendly ship formation and embarked on the road to rescue, the Central Military Commission was extremely shocked after receiving the fighting determination of the "Yellow River" captain Su Jun and political commissar Zhu Jun forwarded by Tao Yong, commander of the East China Navy. Chairman Mao, who was shocked by the audacity of the Soviet army and Zhu Jun, immediately called members of the Military Commission in Beijing to hold an emergency meeting overnight to study the possible development of the situation. After the meeting, Chairman Mao made the decision to first put the naval and air forces along the coast on high alert and be ready for dispatch at any time, and then decide on the next move after the situation is clear.
General Tao Yong's family
At around 8:00 on October 5, good news suddenly came: the "Yellow River" ship has successfully rescued the "Bulaka" and is now returning to the Yangtze River Estuary. Now the "Yellow River" ship is facing The U.S. and Taiwan's navy and air force jointly intercepted the attack and requested emergency reinforcements.
After receiving the report, the Central Military Commission was overjoyed and quickly ordered the East China Navy's Sixth Fleet, which had been assembled at the Zhoushan base, to go to sea under the cover of the aviation force to meet the "Yellow River" and "Bulaca". At the same time, Premier Zhou Enlai, who was also the Minister of Foreign Affairs, immediately summoned the Polish Ambassador to China, John Burkin, to report the situation of the oil tanker "Blaka" being hijacked and rescued at sea, and asked Poland to negotiate with the Soviet Union together with China. The Soviet Union urgently dispatched a fleet to assist the two ships "Yellow River" and "Bulaka" in returning home. Poland immediately agreed after receiving the ambassador's report.
After receiving requests from China and Poland, the Soviet Union considered that the status and prestige of its "big brother" was at stake, Khrushchev immediately ordered the commander of the Soviet Navy's Lushun Base Kudlyangvtsev to send ships and The aircraft took action to contain the US military in the Far East and cover the safe return of "Yellow River" and "Bulaka".
Khrushchev
Almost overnight, almost all the socialist camp naval and air forces in the entire Far East were mobilized.In order to gain the initiative in public opinion, China immediately announced to the international media the despicable fact that the Kuomintang Navy, with the support and instigation of the United States, forcibly engaged in piracy and robbed third-country ships on international waterways (although the "Bulaca" was owned by China Polish Shipping Company, but actual ownership belongs to Poland). As soon as the news of
was made public, the whole world was in an uproar. Under pressure, U.S. Secretary of State Dulles, who is usually known as an extremely reactionary person, had to say at a regular press conference on October 5 that the United States has no intention of re-starting a war, and also put on a hypocritical face to "urge" Taiwan to The authorities "respect" the right to freedom of navigation. The Taiwan authorities had no choice but to deny it and withdrew the fleet that wanted to pursue the "Yellow River" ship and the "Bulaka".
The then US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
The socialist camp's preparations with both literature and force forced the United States and Taiwan to give up their attempts to intercept the "Yellow River". In the early morning of October 6, the "Yellow River" ship covered the "Bulaka" ship and rendezvoused with the Sixth Ship Group of the East China Navy that came to respond. When the "Yellow River" ship slowly sailed into the Wusongkou , it received a warm welcome. When asked how to evaluate this battle, Captain Su Jun summed it up succinctly: As soon as our ship's cannon fired, the enemy ship scurried away!
However, because the unauthorized action of the "Yellow River" ship was an act of disobedience, the Military Commission decided after research that the merits of this action would not be commended, and the responsibility for this action would not be held accountable. The China-Polish Shipping Company gratefully sent a message of thanks to the Military Commission and the Naval Command.
In order to avoid the recurrence of this situation, Navy Commander Xiao Jinguang, after seeking approval from the Central Military Commission, authorized the "Yellow River" ship to allow the ship's chief officer to act expeditiously when receiving a similar request for help. There is no need to ask for instructions in everything, which would delay the fighter plane. Just report it.
Xiao Jinguang
But in Taipei, it is a gloomy and gloomy situation.
In order to shirk the responsibility for losing the cooked duck, Yu Baisheng took 9 corpses on the "Danyang" ship (the corpses of another 7 gunners were thrown into the sea by the air waves of the explosion, and their bones were not found) and several others. On the way back to the ship, the wounded man locked himself in the captain's room and racked his brains to come up with a story. After returning to Hong Kong, he immediately reported excitedly that the "Danyang" ship had severely damaged the "bandit ship". At the same time, he disparaged the incompetence of the agent department in a subtle way: he scolded them for only eating and not working, which made " Danyang" was assassinated by a training ship that they said was incapable of combat. If the officers and soldiers of the whole ship had not fought bravely, using the weak to attack the strong, and repeatedly hitting the enemy ships, forcing the enemy ships to turn to avoid the ship's gunfire, the ship would have been able to escape. However, the team that boarded the "Bulaca" could not be taken back, and some died fighting hard, or died to become benevolent, and their loyalty moved the heaven and the earth!
In order to cover up this failure, the Taiwan authorities gave the 14 officers and soldiers who boarded the "Chengren" and the 16 gunners who were shot into the sky by the "Yellow River" a " Martyrs' Shrine ", built monuments for them and paid tribute to their families. But when mainland newspapers disclosed the details of the incident and distributed photos of the corpses of two officers and 12 surrendered sailors, the Taiwan authorities, who were in an extremely embarrassing situation, could only immediately remove the "martyr tablets" of the 12 people who had returned from the dead. They withdrew from the Martyrs' Shrine and threw their family members into the detention camp of "Green Island" to prevent these people from making trouble.
Today’s site of the Green Island Internment Camp
At the same time, the officers and soldiers of the "Huanghe" ship were also summarizing the gains and losses of this battle:
During the entire battle, the "Huanghe" ship fired nearly a hundred 130mm shells, but only hit the "Danyang" One flick. After repeated explorations by technicians, it was finally discovered that the Soviet-style fire control system was incompatible with the ship's sighting equipment, resulting in a large error in the impact point during high-speed navigation. Subsequently, technical personnel from China and the Soviet Union worked hard to solve the problem in just one week. After the test firing, the effect was good and the shooting accuracy was greatly improved, taking the combat effectiveness of the "Yellow River" ship to a higher level.
As for the United States and Taiwan, they finally realized that the "Yellow River" ship was not a training ship that could only operate in offshore waters. In its first attack, it broke through the island chain and went deep into the Bashi Strait to rescue the hijacked oil tanker. The earth boosted the morale of the "Iron Curtain side". Even the surface ships of the Soviet Red Navy, which had always been confined to the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, were inspired by this and began to be eager to try. The hegemony of the United States in the Western Pacific region was seriously threatened. ! Naturally, this tone cannot be tolerated, so the contest will continue.
