The Battle of Shangganling was a very difficult battle for our army. In this battle, the enemy had absolute firepower and air superiority. On the frontal battlefield, our army was basically under continuous bombardment by the enemy's artillery fire. But under such difficult circumstances, our army still achieved victory and forced the US military to retreat.
However, General Qin Jiwei, who was in charge of the battle at the time, was not satisfied with this battle in which the weak defeated the strong. He later expressed some regrets about the Battle of Shangganling in his memoirs, believing that he had misjudged the direction of the US military's attack.
Before the war, Qin Jiwei believed that the US military would mainly attack from the direction of the Western Mountains, but in fact the US military carried out the main attack from the direction of the Five Sacred Mountains. This resulted in our army being ill-prepared at the beginning and falling into a passive position. Therefore, General Qin Jiwei asserted that if we had not made strategic misjudgments at that time, the US military would not have been able to climb up at all.
Premonitions of the US military's attack on the Five Sacred Mountains
In fact, before the US military's attack, our army had learned from two aspects that the US military might launch its main attack from the direction of the Five Sacred Mountains. The first aspect is the intelligence of surrendering to the Korean army. More than a week before the Battle of Shangganling broke out, a Korean captain surrendered to our army.
This person's name is Li Jigu, a regimental staff officer of the 32nd Regiment of the 2nd Division of the Korean Army. He bypassed the U.S.-South Korean coalition blockade and reached the position of the 45th Division of the 15th Volunteer Army. His arrival brought important information to our army, that is, the Korean 2nd Division will assist the US military in attacking the Five Sacred Mountains.
The second aspect is the various behaviors of the US military before the war. When an army wants to attack a certain place, it will inevitably find a way to attack the place. In mid-September 1952, our army discovered that many US tanks and jeeps were wandering around the 597.9 Highlands and the 537.7 Highlands, and these two places were very close to the Five Sacred Mountains. Many years later, we learned that it was many middle- and low-level officers of the US military who were visiting these two highlands to explore the terrain.
In addition, the number of US military reconnaissance aircraft circling the Five Sacred Mountains was significantly higher than the number circling the Western Mountains. Before the Battle of Shangganling broke out in the defense area of the 7th Division of the U.S. Army, various logistics vehicles came and went, replenishing a large amount of supplies for the U.S. Army in preparation for the attack. These signs can be said to be precursors for the US military to prepare to attack the Five Sacred Mountains.
However, Qin Jiwei did not believe the intelligence of Li Jiqiu who came to surrender, and he did not prepare for the signs that the US military was preparing to attack the Five Sacred Mountains. He still firmly deployed artillery positions in the direction of the Western Mountains and was well prepared for the US military to attack the Western Mountains. Later, when the US military came from the direction of the Five Sacred Mountains, our army was at a loss.
Why did Qin Jiwei misjudge
So why did Qin Jiwei insist on identifying the direction of the Western Mountains as the main offensive direction of the US military at that time, which led to the misjudgement?
In fact, Qin Jiwei was hesitant to guess the direction of the US military's attack at the time. He identified Western Mountain as the main direction of the US military's attack, which was a completely conservative strategy.
Because the terrain in the west mountain direction of is relatively flat, the US military's mechanized army has a great advantage here. The terrain in the direction of the Five Sacred Mountains is steeper, which is more suitable for light infantry to fight here. In other words, if the US military attacks from the direction of the Western Mountains, it will have an advantage over them. If they attack from the direction of the Five Sacred Mountains, it will have an even greater advantage over the volunteers .
So according to normal thinking, the US military is more likely to attack from the west mountain direction. In addition, the consequences of losing the first echelon positions in the two directions of Western Mountain and Five Sacred Mountains are also different. By attacking from Xishan Mountain, the U.S. military can maximize the advantages of its own mechanized troops. If Xishan Mountain is lost, all the U.S. troops rushing up will be mechanized infantry armed to the teeth.
If this happens, the second echelon of defense will be useless. As a party with completely inferior equipment, if the first echelon of Xishan Mountain is lost, the volunteer soldiers will have to use their bodies to deal with the tanks. Even if we can push back, the casualties will be unbearable for the volunteers.
If the first echelon of defense line is lost in the direction of the Five Sacred Mountains, the pressure faced by the volunteers will be much smaller than in the direction of the Western Mountains.
Because of the terrain, it is difficult for US tanks and armored vehicles to rush over from the Five Sacred Mountains. So even if the first echelon of the Five Sacred Mountains defense line is lost, the American troops that rush over are basically light infantry. As the volunteers at the pinnacle of light infantry, they seem to be able to handle this kind of battle between light infantry and light infantry. If we organize our defense quickly, we have a great chance of pushing them back.
Therefore, from the perspective of the overall commander, placing the main defense direction on the Five Sacred Mountains is an extremely risky behavior. Qin Jiwei demanded stability and maximized the possibility of the volunteers winning the Battle of Shangganling. It was safest to put the defense direction in the Western Mountains.
The cost of misjudgment
Of course, because of strategic misjudgment, our losses are also relatively large. In the initial stage of the Shangganling battle, the US military carried out fierce shelling on our positions deployed on the Five Sacred Mountains. On our side, because the artillery is basically deployed in the direction of the Western Mountains, we are unable to retaliate against the U.S. military's artillery fire.
This caused the first echelon of the Volunteer Army's defense line to quickly fall, and our army quickly moved into tunnel operations. However, the more serious problem was material preparation. At that time, because everyone believed that the US military would attack in the direction of the Western Mountains, a large amount of medicine, food and fresh water were prepared for the positions there, while very few preparations were made for the positions on the Five Sacred Mountains.
When our army moved into tunnel operations, it became very difficult for the volunteers to transfer supplies due to the fire blockade of the US military.
During this period, the story of "an apple" also happened. At that time, the party committee of the 45th Division of the 15th Army ordered that anyone who could deliver a basket of apples into the front tunnel would be credited with second-class merit once. Finally, after a large number of logistics transporters sacrificed, a transporter named Liu Mingsheng picked up an apple that rolled out of the basket of the sacrificed transporter in front, and sent the apple to the position of the 7th Company of the 135th Regiment of the 45th Division.
But overall, the Battle of Shangganling was a pretty good battle. Our army was constantly hit by enemy artillery fire, but it survived tenaciously by relying on the tunnels, and blocked the US light infantry that rushed up later. After fighting for a month and a half, the US military gave up the attack on Shangganling, and our army won the battle of Shangganling.
