| Battle of Kuningtou | |||||||
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| Part of the Chinese Civil War | |||||||
ROC held islands (red) off the coast of Mainland China (light grey), relative to Taiwan (yellow, in inset). Quemoy is the large red highlighted island group. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Republic of China, Republic of China Armed Forces | People's Republic of China, People's Liberation Army | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Jiang Jieshi, Tang Enbo（湯恩伯）, Hu Lian（胡璉） | Mao Zedong, Chen Yi, Su Yu（粟裕） , Ye Fei（叶飞） | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| M5 Stuart, North American B-25 Mitchell | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Roughly 40,000 garrisoned troops from the ROC 18th Army, air support from ROC Air Force, maritime support from ROC Navy. | 19,000 infantry from PLA 29th Corps and the 244th, 246th, 251st, 253rd regiments from the PLA 28th Army (Only 9,086 actually landed); 200 landing vessels (mostly confiscated fishing boats), mainland artillery support. | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1,267 killed, 1,982 wounded.[1] | 3,873 killed, 5,175 captured.[1] | ||||||
The Battle of Guningtou (simplified Chinese: 古宁頭之役; traditional Chinese: 古寧頭之役; pinyin: Gǔníngtóu zhī yì), also known as the Battle of Jinmen (simplified Chinese: 金门战役; traditional Chinese: 金門戰役; pinyin: Jīnmén zhànyì), was a battle fought over Kinmen (Quemoy) 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 defeat the Nationalists completely in the war.[2][3][4]
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Following establishment of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, the government of the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek began withdrawing its forces from mainland China to Taiwan. However, ROC garrisons remained stationed on the islands of Quemoy and Matsu, located off the coast in Fujian Province. Commanders of the PRC People's Liberation Army believed that Quemoy and Matsu had to be taken before a final assault on Taiwan. The PLA planned to attack Quemoy by launching a first attack with 9,000 troops to establish a beachhead, before landing a second force of roughly 10,000 on Greater Quemoy Island, expecting to take the entire island in three days from an ROC garrison not expected to be larger than two divisions. Expecting that a PLA attack was imminent, ROC commanders ordered the immediate construction of various fortifications. By October, ROC troops had laid 7455 landmines, and constructed roughly 200 earthen bunkers on the shores of Quemoy, as well as several anti-amphibious landing beach obstacles. The ROC garrison on Quemoy was also reinforced with more armor, troops and supplies.[1]
At around 2AM on October 25, 1949, People's Liberation Army troops from regiments 244, 251, and 253 landed on the north side of Greater Quemoy Island at Guningtou (古寧頭), Huwei (湖尾), and Longkou (壟口). Regiment 244 was the first ashore landing near Lungkou where Nationalist defenders raked them with machine-gun fire, artillery, and mortars. They suffered heavy casualties. Regiments 251 and 253 fared better, landing near Guningtou and Huwei respectively where they broke through ROC defenses and continued to head inland. Arriving at high tide, many of the PLA landing vessels became caught on submerged anti-amphibious landing beach obstacles and immobilized. When the tide went out, the PLA landing vessels became beached and were unable to return to the mainland to transport the second wave of reinforcements. The beached PLA vessels were destroyed shortly afterwards by gunfire from two ROC Navy vessels patrolling off the northwest coast of Guningtou, as well as by ROC troops who burned the mostly wooden boats using flame-throwers, grenades, gasoline and oil.
The advancing PLA forces were met by the ROC 18th Army and U.S.-made M5A1 tanks of ROC 1st Bn, 3rd Tank Regiment. PLA Regiment 244 held high ground at Shuangru Hill (雙乳山), but were beaten back by ROC armor by early morning. PLA Regiment 253 holding Guanyin Hill (觀音山) and the Huwei Highlands (湖尾高地) were also forced to fall back by noon after an overwhelming ROC counter attack of infantry, tanks, some soldiers with flame-throwers to burn the PLA ships. They were supported by mortars and artillery.The PLA troops were attacked from three sides. PLA Regiment 251 managed to break out of an ROC encirclement and entered the village of Guningtou, and dug in at Lincuo (林厝). Shortly afterwards, Regiment 251 was attacked by the ROC 14th and 118th divisions, with the ROC 118th division suffering heavy casualties. By the end of the day, the PLA had lost its beachheads at Huwei and Lungkou.
In the early morning hours of October 26, around 1000 troops in 4 companies from PLA Regiment 246 and the 85th division landed on Quemoy to reinforce PLA forces already on the island landing again at Huwei and Guningtou. At dawn, Regiment 246 managed to break through ROC forces surrounding the village of Guningtou, making a rendezvous with the surviving PLA troops holed up in the town. At 6:30AM, the ROC 118th division launched a counterattack along the northern coast on PLA forces in Guningtou at Lincuo. The resulting battle was extremely bloody and soon turned into urban warfare in the streets and alleyways of Guningtou. With air support from the Republic of China Air Force, ROC forces eventually prevailed, taking Lincuo by noon and Nanshan (南山) at 3PM. Surviving PLA forces began falling back to the coast.
By the early morning of October 27, the surviving PLA forces had exhausted their supplies. 1300 PLA troops retreated to the beaches north of Guningtou. After a final ROC assault, the remaining PLA troops surrendered to ROC forces at 10AM on October 27. All of the PLA troops who had landed on Quemoy were effectively lost.
Following the failure at Guningtou, PLA General Ye Fei submitted an official apology to Mao Zedong asking to be punished for his failure. General Yeh attributed the failure of the operation to three factors: An insufficient number of landing vessels, failure to properly secure the beachheads, and the lack of an overall commanding officer to oversee the three regiments involved in the first wave. As Yeh was one of Mao's favorite generals, Mao never took any action against him.
For ROC forces accustomed to defeat after defeat against the PLA while fighting on the mainland, the victory at Guningtou provided a much needed morale boost. The failure of the PRC to take Quemoy effectively halted its advance towards Taiwan. With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 and the signing of the US-ROC Mutual Defense Treaty, the PRC's plans for the assault on Taiwan were forcibly put on hold.
Due to its defeat, the Battle of Guningtou was not widely publicized in the PRC until recently with the publication of articles within the PLA examining reasons for its failure due to lack of amphibious landing experience, not enough landing crafts, no armor or anti-armor ability, and expecting to win the battle after one day of fighting and therefore not bringing enough ammo, supplies and water with the first wave.[5] The battle is seen as being highly significant in Taiwan as it laid the foundation for the current status quo between mainland China and Taiwan.
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