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PLA 60th Army

The predecessor of the 60th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was the 8th Column of the North China Military Region. The column was developed by some troops in Taihang Military Region and Taiyue Military Region.

On October 7, 1945, the troops belonging to the Taihang Military Region were reorganized into the 4th column of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army, Chen Geng was the commander, Xie Fuzhi was the political commissar, and it governed the 10th, 11th, 13th, and 22nd Brigade (formerly Yuji) Independent 2nd Brigade of Lu Military Region). On August 1, 1947, the 22nd Brigade of the 4th Column of the Jiluyu Field Army and the 23rd Brigade of the Taiyue Military Region, as well as the organs directly under the Taiyue and three basic regiments of the 19th, 20th, and 21st Military Divisions, formed Jinji Luyu Field Army's 8th Column, under its jurisdiction of the 22nd, 23rd and 24th Brigade, Wang Xinting as commander and political commissar, Zhang Zuyan as deputy commander and chief of staff, Zhou Zhongying as deputy political commissar and Gui Shaobin as director of the political department.

Immediately after the birth of the 8th Column of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Field Army, they launched a counterattack in the National Liberation War.

In October 1947, the first battle in Yuncheng, Shanxi, was equipped with inferior equipment, fighting against Yan Xishan troops with better equipment and solid fortification cities. First, the outer periphery of Yuncheng was cleared in 37 days, followed by the liberation of Yuncheng on December 28. In May 1948, the 8th Column of the Jinjiyu Field Army was changed to the 8th Column of the North China Field Army. It was affiliated to the 1st Corps of the North China Military Region and participated in battles such as Linfen, Jinzhong, and Taiyuan. The 23rd Brigade of the column, fought bravely in the battle of Linfen, first of all boarded the city, and was awarded the title of "Glorious Linfen Brigade" by the 1st Corps of the North China Military Region.

In February 1949, the 8th Column was renamed the 60th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and was affiliated with the 18th Corps of the North China Military Region, in accordance with the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China's order to unify the establishment of the whole army and the number of troops. Wang Xinting served as military commander and political commissar, Zhang Zuliang served as deputy military commander and chief of staff, Zhou Zhongying served as deputy political commissar, and Gui Shaobin served as director of the political department. The 22nd Brigade was renamed the 178th Division, Hu Zhengping was the division head, and Liu Jukui was the political commissar; the 23rd Brigade was renamed the 179th Division, Huang Dingji was the division chief, and Xiao Xinchun was the political commissar; the 24th Brigade was renamed the 180th Division, Deng Shijun was division, and Wang Guanchao was a political commissar.

On April 25, 1949, the army reorganized with the formation of the First Field Army, marched to the northwest and southwest, and participated in major battles such as Fumei, Qinling, and the liberation of Chengdu. On December 30, Chengdu was peacefully liberated. The army stationed in Chengdu with its troops, and the military and the Chengdu Security Command took on the role of urban defense. In March 1950, the 60th Army and the West Sichuan Military Region were subordinate to each division. Then, the armed bandits in the west of Sichuan attacked. Using secret tactics such as secret infiltration, inside and outside attack, rush attack, surprise attack, violent pursuit and black-and-white attack, 57 operations were carried out in 11 months, clearing the bandits in western Sichuan, consolidating the new people’s political power, and making the social order in the region.

In March 1951, the 60th Army participated in the ranks of the Chinese People's Volunteers and entered the North Korean battle. Commander Wei Jie, political commissioner Yuan Ziqin. In April, the army assembled in Yichuan, North Korea. Participated in the fifth battle. In the first phase of the battle, the task of cutting off the links between the 25th Division of the US Army, the Turkish Brigade, and the 3rd Division of the US Army was completed, and the missions of Puguli and Dongdouchuan were cut off to retreat and cooperate with the main force of the Corps to destroy the enemy; the second phase When the South Korean army attacked on the east line, it obtained a victory, but the 180th Division was surrounded by the enemy and retreated in the areas of Tuodong, Nashili and Hedeshan.

In the 5th campaign, PLA had its biggest embarrassment ever: the 180th Division of the 60th army was totally lost. Except the 3,000 men who withdrew earlier, the majority of the division were captured by UN. The division commander and other high ranking officers escaped, but they were investigated and demoted back home. In the eyes of many Chinese, this was a shame in PLA history.

During the withdraw phase of the 5th campaign, the main force of 180th Division was encircled by UN forces, after 6 days of hard fighting, most of its men were either wounded or sick, the division commanders panicked, and ordered the troops to disperse and escape by disguising as Koreans. Consequently, most of the soldiers (about 5000) were captured. Many of the wounded were killed immediately by UN troops, those who were sent to the POW camps suffered torture and even death during the POW repatriation.

Other units of PVA encountered similar situations but most of them successfully returned. For example, the 194th Division was encircled, but the commanders stayed cool and brought the men out through a gap in the encirclement . The 27th army was also cutoff, but it retreated successfully with all the wounded ones. Till today, many are still debating on the reason of the collapse of the 180th Division. There are books published researching on this question.

There were many misjudgments/misunderstanding and incorrect orders (in hindsight) issued by the 3rd Army Group and 60th Army. A series of delays and misunderstandings resulted the 180th being trapped by enemy forces 5 times their own strength, and the division commander did not improvise and carry out a working break-out plan. 180th division fought heroically, faithfully carried out its orders. Its division commander Zheng Qigui failed to act differently based on the situation, in author's opinion, the defeat was not his fault, but more of the 60th Army commander, who misunderstand an order from the 3rd Amry Group and ordered 180th Division go back and forth alone to move wounded soldiers of the Army Group, when all other units had withdrawn. The US did not know that PVA lost a full division (less the 3000) in the Korean war until 1980s, when US military officials visited China.

On June 8, the 180th was instructed to hand over the first line of defense to the 27th Army, and entered the Gushan area for training on the 12th. In the autumn of 1952, the army was attached to the 20th Corps and took over the defense of the 68th Army from Wendengli in the east to the North Hanjiang in the west. At this time, Commander Wei Jie was instructed to work in the Military Academy, Political Commissioner Yuan Ziqin was assigned to work for the chief cadre of the Military Commission, Zhang Zuliang was the commander, Wang Chenghan was the deputy commander, Deng Shijun was the deputy commander and chief of staff, and Zhao Lantian was the deputy political member.

In the summer of 1953, it was ordered to focus on the 5th Division of the Lu Army of the Southern Dynasty, and the main goal was to combat the square mountain and 883.7 highlands and their southern highlands. On June 10th, the enemy was captured by stealth means to occupy 883.7 highlands. Most of the defenders were annihilated. The first example of annihilating an enemy regiment was commended by the Volunteer Command. On the 14th, the 60th Army attacked and occupied the highland at 949.2; on the 26th, it attacked and occupied the highland at 938.2, and then participated in counterattack operations south of Jincheng and west of North Hanjiang.

In the National Liberation War and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid the Southern Dynasties, the 60th Army emerged with heroic model units such as the "Linfen Brigade" and tens of thousands of people including Che Yuanlu, Zhang Guiyun, Huang Daoming, Yang Taizhong, Dong Guangrong, Zheng Chaoyuan, and Zhang Shuming. Heroes, heroic role models.

It left North Korea in 1953 and belonged to the Nanjing Military Region. It was laid off in 1985 and transferred to the First Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.