Battle of Nanpeng Archipelago

Battle of Nanpēng Archipelago was a battle fought between the s and the communists over the islands of Nanpēng Archipelago off the coast during the Chinese Civil War and resulted in communist victory. Nanpēng Archipelago is located off coast of Shantou, and named after the largest island, Nanpēng island , the home of fishing community of more than 400 people. The archipelago was deemed not important for most part of the Chinese Civil War and the therefore did not deploy any troops on any of the island, and when Guangdong fell into the communist hands, the archipelago also fell. The communists believed the same thing the s had believed and did not deploy any troops to the archipelago either after the withdraw, but small patrol teams of 2 to 3 were regularly sent to many of the islands.

First Stage

As the s launched their insurgent strikes against the communists, the strategists believed that archipelago may serve as a steppingstone to launch assaults against mainland and decided to take the archipelago. On September 20, 1952, over 150 strike force members riding in four large speedboats launched a surprise attack on the main island, the Nanpēng island . The token communist force patrolling the island was consisted of only three members: a deputy naval infantry platoon commander with last name Zhang , who was the patrol team leader, a sailor named Qiu An , and a militiaman named Lin Xiaofa . After a futile resistance, all three were killed by the overwhelming enemy force.

Second Stage

The communists would not let the 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 illprepared 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.

Third Stage

Once the training was complete, the communist battalion rode in and departed on October 19, 1952 at 5:00 pm. At 10:00 pm, the communist force landed successfully on Nanpēng island and after two hours of fierce battle, the 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 the main island of Nanpēng , including the commander, major general Huan Songsheng , and his deputy commander, also a major general. 37 troops were captured alive on the main island of Nanpēng , and the highest ranking prisoner of war was the director of the political directorate, Major Gao Xueqian . Another 27 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.

Outcome

The defeat proved that it was impractical to setup forward base at the enemy’s doorstep while the base is far away from the strongholds, because it was impossible to reinforce the distant base in time during combats. The communists, on the other hand, had paid a heavy price in its attempt to retake the archipelago because they have 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 communist only 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.