Menglianggu Campaign Memorial Hall 孟良崮战役纪念馆

About Menglianggu Campaign Memorial Hall

The battle was fought in the hills south-east of Mengyin. Following instructions to wait for an opening rather than divide their forces, the East China Field Army under Chen Yi, who served as both commander and political commissar, with Su Yu as his deputy, concentrated against the Nationalist Reorganized 74th Division when it pushed ahead of the units on either side. Duozhuang fell on the morning of 15 May, cutting the division's line of retreat, and by late afternoon on the following day the 74th, counted among the Nationalist army's five main forces, had been destroyed and its commander Zhang Lingfu killed. The ground itself shaped the fighting: Menglianggu's main peak links north-west to two 540-metre points and a 520-metre point, with Lushan to the south-east and Diaowo to the east along a ridge running roughly ten kilometres, steep and cliff-bound, with no water on the mountain and little vegetation.

The commemorative site has two parts. Central government funds were allocated in 1954 for the Menglianggu Martyrs' Cemetery, which is a nationally protected revolutionary memorial structure, and the burial ground behind the exhibition hall holds 2,865 East China Field Army dead; only 103 of the graves carry names and more than 2,700 are unnamed. The present exhibition building is a 2007 rebuilding with a total floor area of 3,682 square metres, its name inscribed by Chi Haotian, the former defence minister and Central Military Commission vice-chairman. It is divided into four galleries covering the course of the battle, civilian support for the front, a scenario-experience space and a multimedia screening room, and the displays combine a relief model of the battle with historical photographs, documents and objects recovered from the fighting. The site serves as one of the Shandong Yimeng party-education bases.

What to look for

• The gallery tracing the course of the battle, built around a relief model of the Menglianggu terrain
• The gallery on civilian support for the front, a theme central to the Yimeng account of the campaign
• The martyrs' burial ground behind the hall, where 2,865 East China Field Army dead are buried and only 103 graves are named
• Historical photographs, documents and objects recovered from the 1947 fighting
• The ridge itself, with the main peak, the 540- and 520-metre points, Lushan and Diaowo along about ten kilometres of steep, cliff-bound ground

Location & getting there

Getting to Menglianggu Campaign Memorial Hall

Confirm the venue or campus, reservation channel and exhibition calendar. A museum name may cover more than one building.

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