麥·卡拉漢的韓戰故事：美國版與中國版

麥·卡拉漢曾擔任兩任內華達州州長。內華達州最大日報Las Vegas Review-Journal引用國防部資料，報導他如何斷腿：

"While his company was being subjected to a barrage of heavy artillery from Chinese Communist forces during a night attack, Sgt. O'Callaghan was informed that men on an out-guard post had been cut off by this enemy action. Immediately ... he voluntarily exposed himself to enemy fire, located the men and brought them, together with a wounded member, safely back to the trenches."

Shortly thereafter, he took a direct hit on the lower leg from an 82 mm mortar round. "It killed my squad leader, a kid named Johnny Estrada," remembered O'Callaghan 46 years later, showing no expression. He rigged a tourniquet out of telephone wire, using a bayonet to twist it tight around his mangled leg.

The subsequent official account relates: "He crawled back to the command post and, from that position, controlled platoon action for the next three and one-half hours, giving orders over the phone. Not until the enemy had withdrawn did he permit himself to be evacuated."

中國官方出版的NewsChina Magazine的內容就是本壇引用的內容:

O’Callaghan left this world with an unfulfilled wish – to visit China, a country against which he once harbored a bitter hatred.

‘Fire at Me!’

O’Callaghan’s hatred originated from his battlefield experiences during the Korean War, according to No War in Heaven, a memorial article published in the Family magazine last year, which described O’Callaghan’s recollections as relayed to Tan Liangxian over eight years.

During the Battle of Triangle Hill in 1952, O’Callaghan led over 100 squad members as they fought to take control of the hill.

Amid fierce fighting, O’Callaghan and his troops charged to the summit. Once there, they encountered a lone, unarmed “young and callow” Chinese soldier leaning against a naked tree trunk, shouting loudly. 

Instinctively, O’Callaghan ordered his men not to shoot. “Cease fire! He’s just a child.” The Chinese soldier was shouting too, but nobody understood what he was saying until someone found he was carrying a walkie-talkie. It was too late. A barrage of mortar fire soon reigned down on O’Callaghan’s squad, killing everyone, apart from three survivors, including O’Callaghan himself, who lost the lower part of his left leg during the incident.

For years O’Callaghan has agonised over his act of mercy. During conversation with Tan, he made it clear that he would never have given the order to spare the young boy’s life if he thought it would have resulted in the death of his companions. He told Tan he often woke up from a nightmare in which the event was replayed, while his leg served as a constant reminder of his dead friends and the unknown Chinese soldier.

However, O’Callaghan did not meet Tan Liangxian until 1995, a full 42 years after the end of Korean combat operations. Tan, from Hong Kong, was the then head of a commercial Chinese delegation to the United States.

During their first encounter in Las Vegas, O’Callaghan shared his memories of that unforgettable battle with Tan. Reminded of a scene in the 1960s Chinese Korean War movie, Heroic Sons and Daughters, Tan suddenly found himself in tears.

“Mr O’Callaghan, let me tell you what he (the Chinese soldier) was shouting,” he said.

“He was yelling, ‘the enemy has surrounded me. Fire at me ... for victory, fire-at-me!’”

Tan’s answer would have been familiar to many Chinese. In the movie, Heroic Sons and Daughters, leading man Wang Cheng, a radio operator similar to the one encountered by O’Callaghan, requested artillery fire on his position and perished alongside his enemies. 

O’Callaghan was shocked. He lifted his trouser leg and exposed his prosthesis, telling Tan he hated “Wang Cheng,” but also respected him.

The Real ‘Wang Cheng’

“Wang Cheng” is not a fictional character, according to Hong Lu, a Chinese war correspondent during the Korean War, and whose report Fire at Me partly supplied the source material for the movie Heroic Sons and Daughters. He told NewsChina “Wang Cheng” was based on three real Chinese soldiers – Ding Shuchang, perhaps the very “young and callow” soldier O’Callaghan met on Triangle Hill, Yang Gensi, who charged at the enemy with a pack of dynamite, and Jiang Qingquan.

As far as Hong remembers, Jiang Qingquan was the first one who shouted “fire at me” and in turn inspired the eponymous article. However, when he was about to publish the report, he was told not to publicize Jiang any more, because he had been captured by US troops.

Jiang was repatriated back to China after the war and has spent his life working as a farmer in relative obscurity in his home village in the northeastern province of Liaoning. No villagers knew about his past until Hong finally tracked him down after 40 years of persistent searching.

When Heroic Sons and Daughters was first screened in 1965 in his home village, Jiang was immediately taken back to his time on the battlefield. He told Hong that after watching the film, he wept all night. Despite his obvious trauma, he remained tight lipped about his past. He was ashamed of his experience as a prisoner of war and thought he did not deserve the title of “hero” given to Wang Cheng in the film. 

“Why didn’t they [the artillery] fire at me? If they had done so, I would not have been a POW,” he said. 

However, in Lu Hongkun’s eyes, Jiang is a “true hero.” Lu, also a radio operator responsible for communicating with Jiang’s forward position, told our reporter that he clearly remembered how Jiang stood his ground, even as his companions went down in flames around him.

“The enemy is 50 meters (165 feet) away from me,” he heard Jiang shouting over the walkie-talkie, “30 meters (100 feet), 10 meters (33 feet) … fire over me at the pillbox!”