Forgotten Battle 29

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This month's Forgotten Battle is...

The Battle of Kinman Island (Guningtou)

Intro

The battle of Kinman Island occurred from October 25 to October 27 of 1949. It was fought between the Republic of China Armed Forces (Taiwan) against the People's Liberation Army (China). This two day battle had massive repercussions for the two nations involved and would later be branded, "the battle that saved Taiwan". 

Part I

By the year 1949, the Chinese Civil War had finally been won. The communists led by Mao Zedong had defeated the nationalists led by Chiang Kai-Shek and taken complete control of China. The People's Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949. Chaiang Kai-Shek and those loyal to him began withdrawing from China to the island of Taiwan (formerly known as, Formosa). 

During the withdrawal, several thousand nationalist soldiers stayed behind on a few offshore islands in China's Fujian province. One of them was the island of Kinmen (mandarin for "golden gate"). At more than 116 miles from Taiwan, it was the furthest outpost that was still being held by the nationalists. And because it was also only six miles from mainland China, it was also one of the most contested pieces of real estate between the two sides.

Unwilling to recognize Taiwan as an independent nation, Mao Zedong of China's Communist Party immediately began making plans to invade it. In order to do so, they would have to capture the two islands being held by the nationalists off China's coast. They were islands of Xiamen and Kinmen. If both of these island were taken, the communists would have a direct unobstructed path to capture Taiwan. 

Part II

The two men that Mao chose to coordinate the invasion of Xiamen and Kinmen were Marshal Chen Yi and General Ye Fei. Both men had seen heavy combat in World War II and the Chinese Civil War. However, they were highly inexperienced when it came to conducting amphibious operations. Since his army lacked the transports needed to cross the strait, General Ye ordered his men to seize local fishing boats. On October 15, communist 29th and 31st Armies landed on multiple beaches on Xiamen. After just two days of fighting, they were in complete control of the island. 

Contrary to what the communists believed, the soldiers of the Republic of China (the Taiwanese) 12th Army Corps stationed on Kinmen numbered close to 40,000 strong. The man chosen by Chiang Kai-Shek to command this garrison, was General Hu Lien A surprising addition to the Taiwanese command structure was a Japanese general named, Hiroshi Nemoto. General Nemoto had seen combat against the Soviet Red Army in Manchuria during World War II. After the Japanese surrender and the forced demobilization of his army, Nemoto had stayed behind to oversee the evacuation of 40,000 Japanese citizens from the area. In June of 1949, he was transferred to Taiwan to aid Chiang Kai-Shek in securing control over the island.

Upon learning of the communist capture of the Fujian Province, General Nemoto was shipped to Kinmen to help General Hu bolster the defenses. Anticipating that the communists would attack the beaches with tanks, Nemoto advised Hu to put anti-tank obstacles on the island's beaches and concentrate the garrison in positions just beyond the beaches. Although he had no way of knowing when the communists would attack, General Hu did as Nemoto advised. He also had dozens of anti-tank mines placed all along the beaches of Kinmen. For the next few weeks he and his garrison awaited the oncoming invasion. It finally happened on the morning of October 25.

Part III

General Ye's plan was to land three infantry regiments on the beaches of the Kinmen town of Longkou on October 24 under the cover of darkness (to avoid being detected by enemy aircraft). After they established a beachhead, they were to hold it until the following morning when the boats returned with a second wave of reinforcements. This wave would include tanks that would enable the communists to breakout of the beachhead and press further inland.

After being delayed for a couple hours (due to a breakdown in communications among the commanders), the first wave of communists got underway. But as they approached Kinmen around midnight, multiple things went wrong. Because they had been ordered to sail without lights, many of the boats became separated and got lost across the channel. Then just after midnight, a nationalist sentry patrol accidentally caused one of their own landmines to detonate on the beach. The resulting explosion alerted the defenders, made them turn on their searchlights, and train all their guns on the beaches. As a direct result, they spotted the communist ships approaching at 12:30 AM and a firefight began.

As the communists struggled to land their troops ashore, many of the boats got snagged on underwater obstacles. This made them easy targets for the nationalist machine-guns, costal artillery, and tank units stationed on the beaches. Those that survived the sinking of their boats were gunned down as they tried to wade ashore. The ones who did manage to get ashore found themselves unable to move off the beaches. 

In spite of these setbacks, two of the communist infantry regiments were able to land to the north of Longkou. At 2:10 AM, the communist 253rd and 251st regiments landed over 5,000 soldiers near the town of Guningtou (where the nationalist line was weaker) and successfully pushed the defenders off the beach. They then advanced further inland, captured Guningtou (and two other towns), before setting up a strong defensive perimeter on Kinmen. From there, the awaited the arrival of the second wave to reinforce them.

However, by now it was low tide. This caused many of their boats to become stuck in the mud and easy prey for the nationalist air-force who took to the skies at first light. As a direct result, they could not return to China to pick up the second wave of troops. At 4:30 AM, the nationalists launched a massive counter-attack with tanks and planes. After two days of heavy fighting, the nationalists had retaken all the towns and surrounded the communists at Gunningtou. At 10 AM on October 27, the latter realized the situation was hopeless and surrendered.

Epilogue

The casualties for the battle of Kinmen Island were heavy for both sides. The nationalist soldiers suffered a total of 1,267 killed and 1,982 wounded. By contrast, the communist losses are reported as 3,873 killed and 5,175 captured (the entire landing force). Over the next few weeks, some of the captured communists were executed and some of them agreed to defect to Taiwan. The rest were all released in a prisoner exchange in 1950.

For Mao Zedong and the communists, the invasion of Kinmen Island was a disaster. Although he remained in complete control of mainland China for the rest of his days, he and his government would never again attempt to invade Taiwan. To this day, Kinmen Island remains under Taiwanese control and serves as a bastion to deter any invasions from China in the future.

For General Hu and his nationalist army, the battle was a hard-fought victory. He later named the units who won the battle, "the Bears of Kinmen". By defeating the invasion of Kinmen, they had saved their nation from being taken over by the communists. In May of 2025, October 25 became a national holiday for the people of Taiwan.

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/battle-of-guningtou-the-republic-of-china-fights-for-survival/

https://www.chinafile.com/photo-gallery/cold-war-island-thaws

https://www.eurasiantimes.com/looking-back-at-history-when-taiwan-beat-china/

https://japan-forward.com/hiroshi-nemoto-the-japanese-general-and-chiang-kai-shek/