Battle of Nanpeng Archipelago | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Cross-Strait conflict | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Republic of China | People's Republic of China | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Huang Songsheng † | Liu Cunzhi Zhang Wannian | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
More than 150 soldiers | Around 400 soldiers | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
106 killed and 40+ captured | 89 killed and 300+ wounded |
The Battle of Nanpeng Archipelago was fought between the Chinese nationalists and the communists over the islands of the Nanpeng Archipelago off the Cantonese coast. The Nanpeng Archipelago is a small island chain in Nan'ao County off the coast of Shantou, and is named after the largest island, Nanpeng island (Nánpēng Dǎo, 南澎岛), home to a fishing community of more than 400 people. The archipelago was deemed not important for most of the Chinese Civil War and the nationalists therefore did not deploy any troops on the island, and when Guangdong fell into the communist hands, the archipelago also fell. The communists believed the same thing the nationalists had believed and did not deploy any troops to the archipelago either after the nationalists withdrew, but small patrol teams of 2 to 3 were regularly sent to many of the islands.
As the nationalists launched their insurgent strikes against the communists, the nationalist strategists believed that archipelago may serve as a steppingstone to launch assaults against the mainland and decided to take the archipelago. On September 20, 1952, over 150 nationalist strike force members riding in four large speedboats launched a surprise attack on Nanpeng island. The token communist force patrolling the island consisted of only three members: a deputy naval infantry platoon commander with last name Zhang (张), who was the patrol team leader, a sailor named Qiu An (邱安), and a militiaman named Lin Xiaofa (林小发). After a futile resistance, all three were killed by the overwhelming enemy force.
The communists would not let the nationalists have the opportunity to set up a forward base at their doorstep and immediately began to plan a counterattack. However, due to the urgent defense needs from other parts of the vast coastal regions, the job of retaking the archipelago was given to the ground force, and a strengthened battalion of the communist 41st Army was assigned the mission. However, it was soon discovered that the unit was ill-prepared for an amphibious landing and as a result, the schedule had to be pushed back to first allow more than 20 days of training to be completed.
With training complete, the communist battalion rode in junks and departed on October 19, 1952 at 5:00 pm. At 10:00 pm, the communist force landed successfully on Nanpeng island and after two hours of fierce battle, the nationalist resistance on the island ceased and the survivors attempted to hide. The mop up operation and skirmishes on other islands completely stopped the next day at 4:00 am, with the archipelago firmly back in the hands of the communists. The communists managed to kill 79 enemy troops on Nanpeng island, including the nationalist commander, major general Huang Songsheng (黄颂声), and his deputy commander, also a major general. 37 nationalist troops were captured alive on Nanpeng island, and the highest ranking nationalist prisoner of war was the director of the political directorate, Major Gao Xueqian (高学谦). Another 27 nationalist troops were killed and more than a dozen captured alive from other islands and islets of the archipelago. The communists suffered 86 fatalities and more than 300 wounded, almost all soldiers in the battalion reported as casualties.
The nationalist defeat proved that it was impractical to establish forward base at the enemy's doorstep while the base is far away from the nationalist strongholds, because it was impossible to reinforce the distant base in time during combat. The communists, on the other hand, had paid a heavy price in their attempt to retake the archipelago because they had gravely underestimated the enemy and although the mission was a success, it was a very costly victory, resulting in almost every task force member becoming a casualty. The communists had numerical superiority but infantry armed only with rifles, light machine guns and hand grenades had a very difficult time in exterminating the numerically inferior enemy that was much better armed with superior weaponry.
The Battle of Kuningtou or Battle of Guningtou (Chinese: 古寧頭之役; pinyin: Gǔníngtóu zhī yì; Wade–Giles: Ku3-ning2-t’ou2 chih1 i4), also known as the Battle of Kinmen (金門戰役; Jīnmén Zhànyì), was fought over Kinmen in the Taiwan Strait during the Chinese Civil War in 1949. The failure of the Communists to take the island left it in the hands of the Kuomintang (Nationalists) and crushed their chances of taking Taiwan to destroy the Nationalists completely in the war.
The Battle of Luding Bridge of 1935 was a controversial crossing of the Luding Bridge by the soldiers of the Fourth Regiment of the Chinese Workers and Peasants' Red Army during the Long March. The bridge, situated over the Dadu River in Luding County, Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan, China, was located about 80 kilometers west of the city of Ya'an and was a river crossing vital to the Red Army.
The Battle of Xinkou was a decisive engagement of the Taiyuan Campaign, the second of the 22 major engagements between the National Revolutionary Army and Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
The Shangdang Campaign was a series of battles fought between Eighth Route Army troops led by Liu Bocheng and Kuomintang troops led by Yan Xishan in what is now Shanxi Province, China. The campaign lasted from 10 September 1945, through 12 October 1945. Like all other Chinese Communist victories in the clashes immediately after Imperial Japan's surrender in World War II, the outcome of this campaign altered the course of the peace negotiation held in Chongqing from 28 August 1945, through 11 October 1945, resulting in a more favourable outcome for Mao Zedong and the party.
The Battle of Old Baldy was a series of five engagements for Hill 266 in west-central Korea. They occurred over a period of 10 months in 1952–1953, though there was also vicious fighting both before and after these engagements.
The Battle of Nan'ao island took place between the nationalists (Kuomintang) and the communists. Nan'ao Island of Swatow remained in the nationalist hands after Guangdong fell into communist hands. On February 23, 1950, the 121st division of the 41st Army of the People's Liberation Army attacked the island. Faced with such overwhelming enemy, the defenders stood no chance and after eight hours of fighting, the communists succeeded in wiping out the entire nationalist garrison and thus taking the island. 27 nationalist troops were killed, and 1348 were captured, including the nationalist local commander, the deputy commander-in-chief of the 1st Cantonese Column Wu Chaojun (吴超骏/吳超駿), and the deputy commander of the nationalist 58th division Guo Mengxiong (郭梦熊/郭夢熊). A total of 1304 firearms were also captured.
The Battle of Nanpeng Island was fought between the Chinese Nationalists and the Chinese Communists. After Guangdong fell into communist hands, a detachment of the Nationalist troops held out on Nanpeng Island of Yangjiang. This remnant of the Nationalist forces proved to be a major headache the Communists because the island is strategically located between the Pearl River mouth and the Qiongzhou Strait, controlling the shipping line that was vital to the local economy.
The Wanshan Archipelago Campaign (万山群岛战役) was a campaign fought between nationalist and communist forces for the control of Wanshan Archipelago, and resulted in communist victory. The archipelago consists of 48 islands strategically located at the mouth of the Pearl River, a chokepoint on the communication lines to Hong Kong and Macau. The largest island is the Laurel Mountain Island, which was formerly known as Trash Tail Island. Other major islands include Outer Linding Island, Dong'ao (东澳) Island, Tri-gate Island, Greater Ten-thousand Mountain Island, Lesser Ten-thousand Mountain Island, Burden Pole Islands, and Jianpeng (佳蓬) Islands.
The Dongshan Island Campaign was a battle fought on Dongshan Island, Fujian between the Nationalists and the Communists during the Chinese Civil War when the Nationalists unsuccessfully attempted to retake the island from the Communists. The campaign was the last and largest battle between the two sides after the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan. After this defeat, the Nationalists realized that it would never be practical to launch a large scale counterattack against the mainland on a similar scale again. Instead, the Nationalist strikes against mainland China were reduced to limited infiltration and skirmishes.
The Battle of Yiwu (伊吾) is also called the Battle to Defend Yiwu (伊吾保卫战) by the Chinese Communist Party and resulted in the communist victory. After the local nationalist commanders in Xinjiang defected to the communist side, many nationalists loyal to Chiang Kai-shek refused to join the communists and one detachment of these loyal nationalists decided to take the town of Yiwu to turn it into a guerrilla base in order to fight on until the eventual return of Chiang.
The Siping Campaign (四平战役) was a nine-month struggle between the communist and the Nationalists for Siping in Jilin, China during the Chinese Civil War in the post World War II era, and resulted in communist victory.
The Battle of Phoenix Peak is also called the Battle to Check Enemy's Advance at Phoenix Peak by the Chinese Communist Party, and it was fought during Laiyang Campaign between the nationalists and the communists during the Chinese Civil War in the post World War II era.
Heshui Campaign, consisted of several fierce battles fought between the communists and the nationalist Ma clique's force, which consisted mostly of cavalry. The campaign was fought in the post-World War II era in the eastern Gansu province in northwestern China during the Chinese Civil War, and it was one of the few conflicts from which the nationalists emerged as the victor.
The Menglianggu campaign was fought between the nationalists and the communists during the Chinese Civil War in the post-World War II era and resulted in communist victory. The campaign was later used by the communists as a specific battle example in their military science and history, as well as a propaganda piece. The battle mainly took place in Menglianggu of Linyi region in Shandong Province.
The Wudi Campaign (无棣战役) was a campaign fought in Wudi County in northern Shandong, and it was a clash between the communists and the former nationalists turned Japanese puppet regime force who rejoined the nationalists after World War II. The battle was one of the battles of the Chinese Civil War in the immediate post World War II era, and resulted in communist victory.
The second encirclement campaign against the Honghu Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy Chinese Communist Party's Honghu Soviet and its Chinese Red Army. The Red Army successfully defended their soviet republic against Nationalist attacks from 1 March, 1931 to early June, 1931.
The Yetaishan Campaign (爷台山战役), also known as the Chunhua Incident (淳化事变) by the nationalists and dubbed the Yetaishan Counteroffensive (爷台山反击战) by the communists, was a series of battles fought between the nationalists and the communists during Chinese Civil War shortly before the end of World War II, and resulted in the communist victory.
The third encirclement campaign against the Shaanxi–Gansu Soviet was an encirclement campaign launched by the Chinese Nationalist Government that was intended to destroy the communist Shaanxi–Gansu Soviet and its Chinese Red Army in the local region. It was responded by the Communists' third counter-encirclement campaign at Shaanxi–Gansu Soviet, also called by the communists as the third counter-encirclement campaign at Shaanxi–Gansu Revolutionary Base, in which the local Chinese Red Army successfully defended their soviet republic in the border region of Shaanxi and Gansu provinces against the Nationalist attacks from August 1935 to October 25, 1935. Some Chinese communist historians also consider the Zhiluozhen Campaign fought a month later as part of this third counter-encirclement campaign at Shaanxi–Gansu Soviet.
The Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Guangxi was a counter-guerrilla / counterinsurgency campaign the communists fought against the nationalist guerrilla force that mostly consisted of bandits and nationalist regular troops left behind after the nationalist government withdrew from mainland China. This campaign is the last stage of the Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Guangxi, after which the last nationalist force left in Guangxi was annihilated. The campaign was fought during the Chinese Civil War in the post-World War II era in the western Guangxi, and resulted in communist victory.
Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Longquan was a counter-guerrilla / counterinsurgency campaign the communists fought against the nationalist guerrilla that was mostly consisted of bandits and nationalist regular troops left behind after the nationalist government withdrew from mainland China. The campaign was part of the Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Northwestern China, and resulted in communist victory.