Prelude
After Hainan Island had fallen into the communist hands, the 3rd Fleet withdrew to Wanshan Archipelago and together with the various nationalist units as the local garrison, the nationalists planned to blockade the mouth of the Pearl River and cutting off the maritime links between the mainland and Hong Kong and Macau. The naval commander-in-chief Gui Yongqing organized the Wanshan Defense Command, and named commander-in-chief of the 3rd Fleet Qi Hongzhang as the commander, who set up his headquarter on board the frigate Taihe , the largest warship among more than three dozen naval vessels in the region, and the flagship of the 3rd Fleet. In response, the communist force decided to take the archipelago and eliminate the threat and crush the blockade of the mouth of the Pearl River. The communist deputy corps commander Hong Xuezhi was named as the commander of the Riverine Defense Force of the Cantonese Military Region to be in charge of the incoming operation, and the commander of force began to mass at Zhongshan on May 8, 1950 after a joint command headquarter was setup.
Order of battle
order of battle
Around 4,000, including:
*1 Marine regiment
*1 battalion from the 208th Division of the Youth Army
*6 infantry companies of various units
*Units of the Cantonese Assault Army
*The 3rd Fleet
**More than 30 naval vessels, later increased to more than 40.
Communist order of battle
Around 10,000 total, including:
*2 regiments from the 131st Division of the 44th Army
*1 Artillery battalion of the 132nd Division
*1 Artillery company of the 130th Division
*1 Artillery company of the South-central Military Region with 100 long range cannons
*1 Artillery company from the 50th Army with recoilless guns
*1 Artillery regiment of the Pearl River sub-Military Region
*Riverine Defense Force of the Cantonese Military Region
**5 gunboats
**1 Landing ship
**10 Landing craft
**8 Transports
First stage
The communist task force sailed to Wanshan Archipelago at the dawn of May 25, 1950. Shortly before dawn, the advance guard of the communist force in charge of fire support reached the anchorage at the Laurel Mountain Island. The communist gunboat Liberation, a former gunboat named Dancing Phoenix defected to the communist side commanded by its former commander, Captain Lin Wenhu , a brilliant naval officer, launched a surprise attack on the naval force at the anchorage under the cover of darkness. Fully aware that his 25-ton gunboat was completely incapable of sinking its large opponents each displaced over a thousand tons, Captain Lin skillfully ordered his crew to concentrate fire on the superstructures of larger enemy ships. Nearly every large warship in the anchorage had its bridge struck, and the flagship, the frigate Taihe suffered the most: nearly everyone on the bridge was either killed or wounded, and Qi Hongzhang , the commander-in-chief was severely wounded himself. With the commander-in-chief severely wounded and most of his staff killed, the command in charge of both land and naval defense was thus effectively paralyzed. The confined space of the anchorage severely limited the maneuverability of the warships for fearing collision in the darkness, and the communist gunboat was able to utilizing the blind spots of the larger naval guns by fighting at extremely close quarter when engaging the larger enemy ships after sinking a gunboat. In the meantime, two other communist gunboats, Vanguard and Struggle, managed to sunk two gunboats east of Ox Head Island, while two battalions of the communist landing force took Green Islet and Triangle Island.
After the sunrise, the fleet discovered that there was only a single small communist gunboat fighting them, and as the enraged sailors attempted to avenge the deaths of their comrades-in-arms, every naval vessel available joined the chase of the communist 25-ton gunboat Liberation. However, unbeknown to the fleet, it was drawn to a temporary but carefully and skillfully designed trap devised by the communist gunboat captain, who was luring his opponent away from the islands, thus opening the way for the communist landing force. Once the fleet realized its mistake, it was too late: although the fleet managed to severely damage the communist landing ship Guishan in the chase, the communist landing ship nonetheless successfully beached itself and unloaded all of the landing force it carried.
The fleet was soon faced another dilemma: continue fighting the two communist naval vessels or saving the dying sailors, including the severely wounded commander-in-chief, who was out of consciousness by already this time. The loyal subordinates of the commander-in-chief chose not to let their commanding officer to die like many other wounded sailors, and speed away from the battlefield to seek better medical help in attempting to save those who were dying. Fearing additional communist naval units that may launch another round of attack, all other naval vessels retreated from the battlefield around an hour after the first shot was fired, protecting the wounded flagship from possible enemy attacks, thus enabling the 25-ton communist gunboat Liberation to safely return to its mainland base in a hero’s welcome, but naval force nonetheless succeeded in killing the communist deputy political commissar of the flotilla on board the gunboat.
Unfortunately for the s, due to the chaos of the battle and the damage to the communication gears on board most of its naval vessels, the decision for the naval units to retreat from the battlefield to save the dying sailors and commanders was not relayed to force on the island, where the defenders interpreted such retreat as fleeing and abandoning them, and the morale of the land force collapsed as a result. In the meantime, the communist troops landed on the island believed the same and their morale was drastically boosted and their pressure on the defenders intensified. The demoralized defenders had managed to hold on their positions until the nightfall, and then asked and was allowed retreated from the island under the cover of darkness.
Once the main anchorage of the Wanshan Archipelago , the Laurel Mountain Island fell into the enemy hands, many other islands fell in a domino effect. From May 25, 1950 thru May 28, 1950, Ox Head island, Spider Islet , Dalu , Large Head Islet and other small islets fell into the enemy hands.
Second stage
On May 28, 1950, the naval force at the region was reinforced by 3 frigates, 2 landing ships, 4 , and several gunboats newly arrived from Taiwan. The naval force cruised in waters north of Little Green Islet and Ox Head island, attempted to bombard the enemy positions on lands and the transport fleet. As the enemy gunboats came out to meet them, the force still weary of previous naval engagement three days ago withdrew to open ocean, where the conditions favored the larger fleet because there was more space to maneuver. However, the enemy gunboats did not pursuit because the communists were fully aware their meek naval strength and once the mission of preventing the naval fleet from bombarding the communist assets was completed, the communists gunboats withdrew.
Although the bombardment mission ended early and thus was not a success, the s were quick to devise a plan based on the experience to counterattack by wiping out the enemy naval force after luring it out to the open ocean, and then retake the islands from the enemy who would not have any naval support of their own. However, the enemy also learned from earlier experience and reached the conclusion of not to engaging the much stronger naval force in the open ocean where the condition favored the latter. In attempt to search the enemy, a detachment of the fleet ventured too close to shore and three ships suffered damages from enemy shore batteries on the Large Head Islet and Triangle Island on May 30, 1950. The s consequently changed their tactics by letting the enemy come to them at the waters favored the s, instead of going to the enemy’s turf to seek out the enemy in the coastal regions that favored the enemy.
However, the enemy had learned from the engagement as well and correctly deducted the objective, and thus made a plan of their own to counter that of the : instead of falling into the trap by fighting the way s had wanted, the best way to engage the superior naval fleet was to utilize the long range shore batteries, and the much weaker naval force would act as auxiliary to the shore batteries.
Third stage
On June 5, 1950, the enemy force adopted the leapfrog tactic under the cover of shore batteries on adjacent islands and islets close by, succeeding in taking Dong’ao Island, Greater Ten-thousand Mountain Island, and Lesser Ten-thousand Mountain Island, forcing the to withdrew to Outer Linding Island, Burden Pole Island and other outlaying islands. At the night of June 26, 1950, the enemy had secretly set up the long range shore batteries on Tri-gate Island under the cover of darkness, and the enemy gunboats were also deployed accordingly.
Unaware the enemy’s plan, the naval fleet carried out their original plan with the help of three more warships newly arrived from Taiwan, including destroyers. More than a dozen warships were deployed in waters near Outer Linding Island, Burden Pole Islands, attempting to lure out the enemy naval units. In the early morning of June 27, 1950, the hidden enemy shore batteries suddenly opened up on the unsuspecting fleet, and defenders on the held islands, the fierce fight lasted for more than five hours.
After numerous extraordinarily brave but completely futile attempts to approach the shore to support the defenders on land which resulted in one gunboat sunk, one destroyer, two large patrol craft two and two gunboats damaged, it was painfully clear that the outgunned fleet must withdraw to the open waters further away in order to avoid annihilation by the superior enemy artillery on land. The enemy’s tactic of using numerically superior land artilleries with greater range than that of naval guns proved to be a great success and prevented any naval attempt to support their comrades-in-arms on lands. With the cover of superior firepower from the lands, the enemy was able to deploy the leapfrog tactic to take the remaining islands in the hands. By July 1, 1950, the Outer Linding Island fell into the enemy hands, and by August 3, 1950, Burden Pole Islands also fell. On August 4, 1950, Direct Bay , Northern Sharp , and Temple Bay and other islands fell into the enemy hands. Finally, on August 7, 1950, the communist campaign to take the Wanshan Archipelago ended in total victory after taking the Mosquito Tail Islet
Outcome
The communist takeover of the Wanshan Archipelago eliminated the threat to its vital shipping lines to Hong Kong and Macau and crushed blockade of mouth of the Pearl River. The Wanshan Archipelago Campaign was the first combined army and naval operation for the communists and in addition to damaging and sinking enemy ships, eleven enemy ships were captured and they provided valuable local defense asset once they were completely repaired and returned to the active service in the communist fleet. One of the major contributor to the success was the correct tactics of not engaging the overwhelmingly superior opposing naval fleet, but instead, utilizing the numerically and technically superior shore batteries that the communists did enjoy to engage opposing naval targets that were outgunned. The largest island, the Trash Tail Island, was renamed Laurel Mountain Island, in honor of the landing ship Laurel Mountain , the largest communist naval vessel participated in the conflict.
The control of the Wanshan Archipelago was mostly symbolic for political propaganda and the battle for the control of thearchipelago was destined to fail for the same simple reason just like the earlier Battle of Nan'ao Island: the location was just too far away from any friendly bases and thus it was difficult to support in war, and when the support was available, it was rather costly. Although the largest island provided a relatively good anchorage, there was just not enough land to build any comprehensive facilities and infrastructures to support a fleet. As a result, many of the repairs that could be done locally had the comprehensive facilities and infrastructures been available would require traveling back to the distant friendly bases, thus greatly increased cost. When a major damage occurred, tugs were needed to tow the damaged vessel, and in the event of war when tugs could not be available, the damaged vessels had to be abandoned. In contrast, the enemy had comprehensive facilities and infrastructures on the mainland and since the archipelago at the enemy’s doorstep, they could simply recover the abandoned vessels and repair them after taking them back to the mainland, and put them back into service to fight against the former owners of these vessels, as the case of the eleven naval vessels abandoned by the s after the battle.
As for the blockade of the mouth of the Pearl River, it certainly caused difficulties for the enemy. However, these difficulties could be overcame because there were and still are link between the mainland and Hong Kong, and Macau via land, and for the maritime traffic, the naval force could only cover the coastal region outside the effective range of the enemy’s land batteries and the enemy could simply move a little deeper into the Pearl River to avoid the naval force. Though this did indeed increased the cost for the enemy, the price tag for the operation of the naval task force performing this duty so far away from any support base was far greater comparatively speaking, because enemy transportation was mostly by wooden that only required wind, while the modern navy required much more, such as fuel and maintenance supplies. Many strategist and naval commanders had pointed out this disadvantage and along with the geographically disadvantage , wisely and correctly suggest to withdraw from the Wanshan Archipelago in order to strengthen the defense elsewhere, but their requests were denied because holding on something at the enemy’s door step would have a significant symbolic meaning of great political propaganda value, but when the inevitable fall had finally occurred, the resulting disaster had negated any previous gains in political and psychological propaganda.
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