Outbreak at 0030 Oct 25, 1949, the Battle of Guningtou (古寧頭) hold back the Red tide at an outpost islet of Taiwan. In three day’s Kinmen meat grinder, the 22 M5A1 tanks of the 3rd Tank Regiment played a pivotal role in countering the PLA 28th Army’s human waves. Depleted their ammo, the tank crews used their vehicles as road rollers to crush the invaders. 0400 the 28th remainders were encircled by the five defender regiments at Guningtou highland. At the first light, there were the 1st, 8th Bomber Groups, and 3rd, 4th, 5th Fighter Groups laid down an interdict blanket suffocating the enemy. On the beach, 356 out of 400 plus wooden junks, countless bamboo rafts were destroyed by the ground and aerial firepower. All 9,086 landing troops met their grave ending, and the cross-strait reinforcement of about 10,000 men standing by in Xiamen Bay and Ming River area were cut off. 1000 Oct 27, Kinmen was declared secured, with 3,873 PLA’s POWs and 5,175 body counts.
Aligned with the Red regime’s priority, in 1958 PROC posed a threat to Kinmen again. The 8.23 Barrage Battle was a series of fights unleashed by Mao Ze-Dong from Aug. 23 to Jan. 7, 1959. In seven slashing offensives and hundreds of minor assaults, the Reds had fired more than 400,000 shells, but their quantity-superior batteries had not been able to obliterate the targets. In the first day the Reds hurled 31,757 shells at the islets, aiming to clear and smash the artillery batteries, command posts, radar station, shop dock at Kinmen and adjacent islet Little Kinmen. Facing the Red’s almost 460 guns, 380 artillery pieces were operated by the 18 battalions under six divisions and the 600th Artillery Group of the Kinmen Defense Command, which included three M-101 105mm, three M-114 155mm howitzer, two M-59 155mm canon battalions, and one 90mm flak company.
Coordinated by the Fire Direction Center, all the batteries made a stand in the siege stage. In the counter-blockade and counter-offensive, the 600th’s dozen newly arrived 203mm long range howitzers successively suppressed the enemy. During the titanic battle, the Reds lost 32 guns, plus 32 MiG-17s, three torpedo boats, and some 460 soldiers. From all the three stages saw the artillery punch far above its weight, except Little Kinmen’s 9th Division. After the siege stage, 9th’s 24 75mm pack howitzers, two 105mm howitzer battalions, one 155mm howitzer battalion and one 155mm canon company were boosted to 57 pieces. Even so, the CO of the 9th, Gen. How, was too coward to fire back with this powerful counter-barrage strength. It’s the Kinmen batteries - especially the 600th - did the heavy lifting, which constantly commenced all-out action, even covered How’s duty. During all the 44 days of the siege stage, How only left his shelter in seven days, and symbolically visited few batteries in a Stuart tank.
Sadly, all unsung hero were deliberately bypassed in favor of forgery, and How was not the only free riders; a tailor-made leadership propaganda was in the making. Nevertheless, the rulers on both sides manipulated the campaign, in order to fortify their ruling and purge the dissidents. Though Chiang Kai-Shek entirely misjudged Mao’s political and military intentions, he saw an opportunity to squelch the truth and made a fake war hero - his heir. Manipulating the defensive, Chiang started drifting its corona over his elder son for future presidency. As for Mao, his vice-like grip not only on the campaign, but also removed the powerless commanders who kept questioned his strategy, and opposed his dictatorship. The 8.23 Barrage Battle was over, the political turmoil was about to begin.
