50th Army (People's Republic of China)

The 50th Army was a military formation of the People's Liberation Army. Initially it was mostly composed of Chinese Nationalist soldiers surrendered to the Communist side during the Chinese Civil War.

During the Korean War, it was part of the People's Volunteer Army (Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV)) XIII Army Group. It was composed of the 148th, 149th, and 150th Divisions.

The 50th Army had a unique history amongst PLA armies. It was the former Kuomintang (KMT) 60th Army uprising from Changchun City of Jilin Province on Oct. 17, 1948. It had a long history and it could dated back to nineteenth Century during Qin Dynasty. During the anti-Japanese War of the Second World War, it had several serious battles against main Japanese armies in Taierzhuang Village and Burma. On April 19, 1938, the 60th Army reached the south of Shangdong Province and attended the Xuzhou Battle against Japan.

During Taierzhuang Village Battle, it resisted the serious attacks from main Japanese forces for 20 days and made several losses for Japanese Invading forces. Lu Han was the Army commander during the time of the World War Two. In the autumn of 1943, the 60th Army went to Indochina peninsular to attack Japanese forces and also hindered the advance of the Japanese forces. After the uprising from Changchun City of Jilin Province on Oct. 17, 1948, the 60th Army of KMT had been formed into the 50th Army of the Chinese Communist Party on Jan. 2, 1949. The 50th Army Commander was Zhen Zhesheng and the Political Commissar was Xu Wenlie.

After the 50th Army formation, the whole army was completely controlled by the Communists with the several kinds of political regulations such as the System of the Political Commissars and the System of Political Works. Another more than 5400 people from countrysides joined the Army. The whole army transformed from the old type army into the new one. Its fighting abilities had been reinforced greatly.

On June 14, 1949, the new 50th Army of CCF advanced towards the southeastern part of China and smashed several Kuomintang Army forces. During Chengdu Battle it captured 8100 soldiers of Kuomintang army and forced the surrender of 17,700 KMT soldiers with a large quantity of ammunition. In February 1950, it went to Sha city of Hubei Province to attend the farm production and build the dams of Han River. Another 27,000 KMT army forces joined the 50th army.

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