Communist Heroes of 1941.

In a small booklet printed in China 1977, I found this story:

" In the autumn of 1941, the Japanese occupied parts of China. 

When they started what they thought would be an easy "mopping-up" campaign in the border region of Shansi-Chahar-Hopei they ran into "Chinese Communist Troops" who had their base there, but had decided and already started to move away and fight elsewhere.

And the Japanese enemy troops approached the Wolf´s Teeth Mountain.

The Chinese troops left a squad leader, his deputy and three soldiers (!!??) to delay the Japanese, but foremost to cover the movements of the main force.

And these five men fought, showed supreme self-sacrifice and courage it is being told.

They actually mislead the Japanese and lured them higher and higher up the mountain, saving their own ammunition and grenades. They even throw rocks at the enemies below them.

But, when they were down to their last granade, they hurled it away to kill yet another number of Japanese soldiers, the story tells me.

After having thrown the last granade they had nothing else to do but first smashing their rifles to bits and pieces shouting "Comrades, we won´t let the enemy get our weapons..."

Then, they leaped of the steep cliff!"

The story ends like this: 

"Their heroism exemplified the prowess and noble spirit of the People´s Army led by the Chinese Communist Party."

Remember when you read this, the story is from 1977 a year after Mao´s death and a little less then ten years after the Cultural Rovolution.

The artist behind the beautiful woodcuts you see is: Lou Chi-kuei