Shuangduiji Campaign

Shuangduiji Campaign was a major campaign fought between the and the during the Chinese Civil War in the post-World War II era and resulted in communist victory. The campaign was part of Huaihai Campaign.

Strategies

After Nianzhuangwei Campaign in which the nationalist Huang Baitao Corps was completely annihilated, the communists were divided on deciding the next target. After fierce debate, it was finally decided on November 22, 1948 that the next target should be the nationalist Huang Wei Corps commanded by Lieutenant General Huang Wei . A total of 7 columns of the communist Central China Field Army and 2 columns of the communist Eastern China Field Army would be tasked to annihilate the nationalist Huang Wei Corps in the region to the south of Kuai River, while the main force of the communist Eastern China Field Army would be tasked to prevent any nationalist troops in Xuzhou and Bangbu from reinforce the nationalist Huang Wei Corps.



The nationalists, on the other hand, had much more solid objective of reestablish the communication / transportation line between Xuzhou and Bangbu by eradicating the enemy force in the region. To achieve so, the nationalists would launch a pincer movement from both south and north, with Qiu Qingquan Corps and Sun Yuanliang Corps in the north, and Li Yannian Corps and Huang Wei Corps in the south, with Huang Wei Corps would be attacking toward Xiu County from Mengcheng.

Order of Battle

Nationalists

* Huang Wei Corps commanded by Lieutenant General Huang Wei

**10th Army

**14th Army

**18th Army

**85th Army

Communists

*Central China Field Army commanded by Liu Bocheng

**1st Column

**2nd Column

**3rd Column

**4th Column

**6th Column

**9th Column

**11th Column

*Eastern China Field Army commanded by Su Yu

**3rd Column

**7th Column

**13th Column

**Artillery units

*Independent Brigade of the Hubei – Anhui – Jiangsu Military District

*12th Brigade of the Southern Shaanxi Military District

Initial deployment

On November 23, 1948, the nationalist Huang Wei Corps begun its attack on Nanping Village on the southern bank of Kuai River by deploying the 10th Army to the left, the 14th Army to the right, the 18th Army in the center and the 85th Army behind the 18th Army. The 4th Column of the communist Central China Field Army engaged the advancing nationalists, retreating gradually to lure the nationalists toward the communist trap by eventually abandoning Nanping Village in the evening of November 23, 1948. In the morning of November 24, 1948, the nationalist Huang Wei Corps crossed Kuai River, and entered the trap communists had setup in the regions of Dongpine Village , Ren Family’s Village , Seven Miles Bridge, , Red Mouth . Realizing that his forces was trapped, Lieutenant General Huang Wei ordered his troops to retreat southward, and planned to join another nationalist corps commanded by Lieutenant General Li Yannian in Hu’s Ditch Village and Solid Town by traveling along the southern shore of Kuai River. Once the two nationalist corps had joined together, they would travel northward along the Tianjin-Pukou Railway.



At the dusk of November 24, 1948, the communists launched their full scale attack in three fronts. In the western front, the 3rd Column of the communist Central China Field Army attacked from Sunding Village , the 1st Column of the communist Central China Field Army attacked from Five Ditch Village , the 2nd Column of the communist Central China Field Army attacked from White Sand Village , and the 6th Column of the communist Central China Field Army attacked from Cao’s Market Village . In the eastern front, the 11th Column of the communist Central China Field Army attacked from Jin County Village . In the northern front, the 4th Column of the communist Central China Field Army attacked from the region of Wu Family’s Lake , and the 9th Column of the communist Central China Field Army attacked from the region of Shao’s House with Roof Tiles . By the early morning of November 25, 1948, the nationalist Huang Wei Corps was surrounded in a 7.5 km wide region centered at Shuangdui Village .

Breakout attempt

On November 26, 1948, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek gave the permission to breakout toward southeast before the enemy’s encirclement fully enclosed. Lieutenant General Huang Wei ordered four divisions, the 11th Division and the 118th Division of the nationalist 18th Army, the 18th Division of the nationalist 10th Army and the 110th Division of the nationalist 85th Army, to attack the enemy position held by the communist 12th Brigade of the Southern Shaanxi Military District and the 6th Column of communist Central China Field Army. Despite supported by tanks and air cover, the nationalists were repeatedly beaten back by the stubborn enemy resistance.



The commander of the 110th Division of the nationalist 85th Army, Major General Liao Yunzhou suggested to Lieutenant General Huang Wei that four divisions going together would create too big a target that was obvious for the enemy to converge on. Since the enemy had not mustered enough force to complete the encirclement and must deploy their force as mobile strike force, it would be unlikely for the enemy to bother to stop smaller nationalist force attempting to breakout. Therefore, the breakout attempt should be led by a single division instead so that the enemy would be fooled into believing such breakout was only attempted by a small unit as a decoy, and would not bother to waste their strength, saving their efforts to stop the perceived large scale breakout attempt. Once the single division had slipped through the opening, other units would follow, and when the enemy had finally realized the consecutive attempts of smaller nationalist forces were in fact, the breakdown of a larger attempt, hopefully it would be probably too late and most of the nationalists would have been succeeded in breaking out.



Facing with previous setbacks, Lieutenant General Huang Wei felt that Major General Liao Yunzhou ’s suggestion appeared to be worth a try and gave the go-ahead, and Major General Liao Yunzhou volunteered to lead his 110th Division of the nationalist 85th Army as the vanguard of such attempt. However, unbeknown to Lieutenant General Huang Wei , Major General Liao Yunzhou was actually a communist spy, and let his 110th Division of the nationalist 85th Army to defect to the communist side after the latter allowed his division to pass through safely. Witnessing what they believed to be the successful breakthrough, other nationalist divisions followed, but they were immediately ambushed by the waiting enemy and were forced to turn back.

Redeployment

After the failed attempt to breakout, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek ordered Lieutenant General Huang Wei to hold his position and wait for reinforcement. Lieutenant General Huang Wei made the following new plans to consolidate his positions: the nationalist 18th Army was deployed to guard the regions of Gudui and Jiangu , the nationalist 85th Army was deployed in the west to guard the region from Waist Size to Li’s Village , the nationalist 14th Army was deployed in the east to guard the regions of Zhanweizi and Yangsimazi , and the nationalist 10th Army was deployed in the south to guard the region from Maweizi to Yang’s Village and Li Village . Lieutenant General Huang Wei ’s corps headquarter was setup in Little Horse Village to the north of Shuangdui Village .



To counter the nationalist defense tactic that depended on bunkers and other fortifications, the communists adopted what themselves called “Bunkers to bunkers and trenches to trenches” tactic to breach the nationalist defense: the communists would built their own bunkers and trenches to protect themselves as they approach the nationalist positions and fight the defenders in close-quarter combats. By the early December, 1948, the nationalist defense sector was further shrunk, and with the exception of only seven or eight regiments that were still capable of fighting a mobile warfare, all other nationalist units were only capable of static defense.

The End

At 4:30 PM on December 6, 1948, the communist Central China Field Army launched its final assault on the besieged nationalists in three fronts: the eastern front was consisted of the 4th Column, the 9th Column, and the 11th Column of communist Central China Field Army, augmented by most of the artillery units of communist Eastern China Field Army and the Independent Brigade of communist Hubei – Anhui – Jiangsu Military District. The western front was consisted of the 1st Column and the 3rd Column of the communist Central China Field Army, augmented by the 13th Column and the remaining artillery units of communist Eastern China Field Army. The southern front was consisted of the 6th Column of communist Central China Field Army, augmented by the 7th Column communist Eastern China Field Army and the 12th Brigade of communist Southern Shaanxi Military District. The fighting was extremely brutal and bloody and communists were able to gradually gaining more ground.



By December 13, 1948, nationalist force under the command of Lieutenant General Huang Wei only held a small area of 1.5 km across. Liu Bocheng and issued an ultimatum to Lieutenant General Huang Wei , ordering his immediate surrender, but Lieutenant General Huang Wei refused and organized the last but futile attempt to breakout. The nationalists put a gallant fight which was not expected by their enemy, and as result, the communists had to reinforce their southern front by deploying additional troops of the 3rd Column and 13th Column of the communist Eastern China Field Army. However, the end was inevitable and luck was not on the nationalist side: as Lieutenant General Huang Wei attempted to breakout, his tank broke down and he was captured alive by his communist enemy, and his corps was totally annihilated at the dusk on December 15, 1948.

Outcome

The communist victory of Shuangduiji Campaign further ensured their victory of Huaihai Campaign, and the victory at Shuangdui Village resulted in killing more than 46,000 nationalists, and capturing over 50,000, including the nationalist Lieutenant General Huang Wei , the nationalist commander-in-chief of Huang Wei Corps. A huge quantity of hardware was also captured by the communists, including 870 pieces of artillery, 15 tanks, and over 300 motor vehicles, and large amounts of munitions, all of which were immediately used against their former nationalist owners. The communists suffered 36,000 casualties, with the 4th Column of the Central China suffering the most casualties: 6,827 wounded and 1,853 killed.



The campaign had a very significant for the communists, particularly the communist Central China Field Army which faced absolute technical inferiority due to the lack of artillery and other heavy weapons, and the communist victory of Shuangduiji Campaign not only annihilated a significant portion of nationalist troops deployed in Huaihai Campaign, thus ensuring final victory, but also provided the communist Central China Field Army with much needed heavy weapons.