Known as the 1958 second Taiwan Strait crisis, the Red’s shelling of Kinmen was primarily a political blitzkrieg rather than a military invasion. After the outpost islet was obscured by the dust of exploding volleys, the U.S. 7th Fleet escort dumped the ROC Navy’s landing craft and escaped from the scene. As such, Mao Zedong clarified that the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty for Taiwan was simply a half-assed US ploy to later pave the way for 1979 US-China normalization. However, the crisis aftermath was a subtle win-win situation for both ROC and PROC, while ROC refused to retreat from Kinmen under the US pressure. Kinmen remained a geopolitical link between the mainland and Taiwan and Chinese on both sides successfully shunned the US’s China-splitting policy.
Hard pressed to withstand the Red’s onslaught, the first three newly-arrived M-55 self-propelled howitzers roared to life on September 26, and immediately their 8-inch guns overwhelmed the enemy shellfire. After the conflict, the cross-strait barrage became the Chinese Civil War’s longest running battle, though both sides merely exchanged desultory harassing fire on odd days of the month, then used pamphlet shells only. It also bears remembering that in 1958 Kinmen was bleak and the casualties were over 7,000 in the series of battles from Aug. 23 to Oct. 5, but by then the ROC serviceman were not made of fine China. They were very good at their job, and luckily the islet saw the urgent deployment of twelve 8-inch guns that were decisive in the 8.23 Barrage Battle.
The Reds unleashed the shelling at the height of the Cold War, and ever since the US nukes had stayed in Taiwan until 1974 with the US Matador cruise missile standing ready at Tainan Air Base when the crisis erupted. In storage on the revetments adjacent to the Tainan AFB flight line, the Matador TM-61Cs were operated by the 868th Tactical Missile Squadron, and supported by the 6214th Air Base Group. In 1959, surface-to-surface nuclear warheads were deployed, the Matador could deliver a 20 kt W5 warhead to a range of 965 km from Tainan. On Okinawa and Guam, three types of nukes - Mk.6 (only Guam), Mk.36 Mod 1, and Mk.39 Mod 0 - were available to defeat the possible attacking PROC forces. Unsurpringly, in 1978 the US recognized the PROC as the sole legal government of China, also ended official relations and its defense treaty with Taiwan.
Hard pressed to withstand the Red’s onslaught, the first three newly-arrived M-55 self-propelled howitzers roared to life on September 26, and immediately their 8-inch guns overwhelmed the enemy shellfire. After the conflict, the cross-strait barrage became the Chinese Civil War’s longest running battle, though both sides merely exchanged desultory harassing fire on odd days of the month, then used pamphlet shells only. It also bears remembering that in 1958 Kinmen was bleak and the casualties were over 7,000 in the series of battles from Aug. 23 to Oct. 5, but by then the ROC serviceman were not made of fine China. They were very good at their job, and luckily the islet saw the urgent deployment of twelve 8-inch guns that were decisive in the 8.23 Barrage Battle.
The Reds unleashed the shelling at the height of the Cold War, and ever since the US nukes had stayed in Taiwan until 1974 with the US Matador cruise missile standing ready at Tainan Air Base when the crisis erupted. In storage on the revetments adjacent to the Tainan AFB flight line, the Matador TM-61Cs were operated by the 868th Tactical Missile Squadron, and supported by the 6214th Air Base Group. In 1959, surface-to-surface nuclear warheads were deployed, the Matador could deliver a 20 kt W5 warhead to a range of 965 km from Tainan. On Okinawa and Guam, three types of nukes - Mk.6 (only Guam), Mk.36 Mod 1, and Mk.39 Mod 0 - were available to defeat the possible attacking PROC forces. Unsurpringly, in 1978 the US recognized the PROC as the sole legal government of China, also ended official relations and its defense treaty with Taiwan.
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