Battle of Nan'ao Island

The Battle of Nan’ao island was a battle fought between the s and the communists during the Chinese Civil War and communists emerged as the victor. Nan’ao island of Shantou remained in the hands after Guangdong fell into communist hands. On March 3, 1950, the 121st 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 8 hours of fighting, the communists succeeded in wiping out the entire garrison and thus taking the island. 27 s troops were killed, and 1348 were captured, including the local commander, the deputy commander-in-chief of the 1st Cantonese Column Wu Qijun , and the deputy commander of the 58th Guo Mengxiong . A total 1304 pieces of firearms were also captured.

The defeat proved that it was impractical to hold on to the outlaying islands that were at the doorstep of the enemy but far away from any friendly bases, just like the Wanshan Archipelago Campaign would have done later. As the battle had shown, once the defenders learned that it was impossible to have any reinforcement, the morale completely collapsed and most of the defenders abandoned their weapons and attempted to hide after merely suffering 27 fatalities, and the enemy spend most of the 8 hour fighting in mop up operations to round up the demoralized defenders. Although holding on to a distant island may have the propaganda value, any initial political and psychological gains would be negated by the fallout after the inevitable defeat and the loss.