Battle of Nanpéng Island - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Battle of Nanpéng Island (南鹏岛战斗) was a battle fought between the nationalists

Kuomintang

The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...

and the communists during the Chinese Civil War

Chinese Civil War

The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...

and resulted in the communist victory. After Guangdong

Guangdong

Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...

fell into communist hands, a detachment of the nationalist

Kuomintang

troops held out on Nanpéng Island (南鹏岛) of Yangjiang

Yangjiang

Yangjiang , historically known as Yeungkong, is a prefecture-level city in southwestern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. It borders Maoming to the west, Yunfu to the north, Jiangmen to the east, and looks out to the South China Sea to the south. It is famous for being the base of...

. This remnant of the nationalist

Kuomintang

force proved to be a major headache the communists because the island is strategically located between the Pearl River mouth and the Qiongzhou Strait

Qiongzhou Strait

The Qiongzhou Strait , also called the Hainan Strait, is a body of water that separates the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong, southern China, to the north from Hainan Island to its south...

, controlling the shipping line that was vital to the local economy.

The communists decided to rid of the nationalist

Kuomintang

force and take the island. In the morning of August 9, 1950, the third battalion of the 364th regiment of the 41st Army of the People’s Liberation Army attacked the island. After two hours of fighting, the entire nationalist

Kuomintang

garrison of Nanpéng Island (南鹏岛) of 421 was lost and the island was firmly in the communist hands. The communist succeeded in capturing one motorized vessels, twenty junks

Junk (ship)

A junk is an ancient Chinese sailing vessel design still in use today. Junks were developed during the Han Dynasty and were used as sea-going vessels as early as the 2nd century AD. They evolved in the later dynasties, and were used throughout Asia for extensive ocean voyages...

, one artillery piece, ten machine gun

Machine gun

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....

s, and another 194 firearms.

The nationalists

Kuomintang

did not have any chance against the overwhelming enemy because the island is located too far away from any friendly bases, and in the event of breaking out of the battle, no nationalist

Kuomintang

reinforcement could reach the island in time. The local commanders had repeatedly asked the permission to withdraw to Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

but their pleas were ignored due to political reasons because holding out at the enemy’s doorstep far away from any friendly bases had very significant symbolic meaning, but in doing so, the fate of the local defenders was sealed.

See also