Propagandalass
New Member
I tried searching 'Luding' and there was no thread about it.
I am from Taiwan and heard a lot of this battle, but would like to know more, like who were the soldiers who fought there on CCP or KMT side (our history classes tend to get a bit incosistent when its about Communist China's successes... in my lessons back then Pingxingguan battle had no communists XD).
Supposedly, the communists were retreating, but lacked boats to cross the Dadu river forcing them to capture this bridge:
(it usually has planks to walk on, but they got mostly dismantled/set on fire by the defending forces)
22 Soldiers climbed these chains to capture the other side so sapper crews could restore the planks and let the main forces cross, the other side was defended by a KMT detatchment with a larger KMT force moving in so that if the communists were delayed, the retreat would be cut off for good.
(Epic looking picture. Be it propaganda, its still epic.)
22 people on this bridge, inching forward on the chains under enemy fire, failure or not capturing in time will result in the elimination of the Communists by KMT encirclement... I hear a lot that "the battle was exaggerated as propaganda", but such a feat is still very admirable IMHO even if there were only few enemies that had bad weapons and put up half-hearted resistance. I dare to say if te 22 were American G.I.s they'd get medal of honours, a James Ryan Movie and have the citizens boasted about it at every occassion... Heck, look at the damn thing, just climbing to the other side is already a great feat!
I am from Taiwan and heard a lot of this battle, but would like to know more, like who were the soldiers who fought there on CCP or KMT side (our history classes tend to get a bit incosistent when its about Communist China's successes... in my lessons back then Pingxingguan battle had no communists XD).
Supposedly, the communists were retreating, but lacked boats to cross the Dadu river forcing them to capture this bridge:
(it usually has planks to walk on, but they got mostly dismantled/set on fire by the defending forces)
22 Soldiers climbed these chains to capture the other side so sapper crews could restore the planks and let the main forces cross, the other side was defended by a KMT detatchment with a larger KMT force moving in so that if the communists were delayed, the retreat would be cut off for good.
(Epic looking picture. Be it propaganda, its still epic.)
22 people on this bridge, inching forward on the chains under enemy fire, failure or not capturing in time will result in the elimination of the Communists by KMT encirclement... I hear a lot that "the battle was exaggerated as propaganda", but such a feat is still very admirable IMHO even if there were only few enemies that had bad weapons and put up half-hearted resistance. I dare to say if te 22 were American G.I.s they'd get medal of honours, a James Ryan Movie and have the citizens boasted about it at every occassion... Heck, look at the damn thing, just climbing to the other side is already a great feat!
Last edited:
