Battle of Nanpēng Archipelago
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| Battle of Nanpēng Archipelago | |||||||
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| Part of the Chinese Civil War | |||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||
 National Revolutionary Army |
 People's Liberation Army |
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| Commanders | |||||||
 Huang Songsheng黄颂声 |
 ? |
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| Strength | |||||||
| > 150 | around 400 | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| 106 killed 40+ captured |
89 killed 300+ wounded |
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Battle of Nanpēng Archipelago was a battle fought between the Chinese nationalists and the communists over the islands of Nanpēng (南澎) Archipelago off the Cantonese coast during the Chinese Civil War and resulted in communist victory. Nanpēng (南澎) Archipelago is located off coast of Shantou, and named after the largest island, Nanpēng island (Nanpēng Dao, 南澎岛), the home of fishing community of more than 400 people. The archipelago was deemed not important for most part of the Chinese Civil War and the nationalist therefore did not deploy any troops on any of the island, and when Guangdong fell into the communist hands, the archipelago also fell. The communists believed the same thing the nationalists had believed and did not deploy any troops to the archipelago either after the nationalist withdraw, but small patrol teams of 2 to 3 were regularly sent to many of the islands.
First State As the nationalists launched their insurgent strikes against the communists, the nationalist strategists believed that archipelago may serve as a steppingstone to launch assaults against mainland and decided to take the archipelago. On September 20, 1952, over 150 nationalist strike force members riding in four large speedboats launched a surprise attack on the main island, the Nanpēng island (Nanpēng Dao, 南澎岛). The token communist force patrolling the island was consisted of only three members: a deputy naval infantry platoon commander with last name Zhang (张), who was the patrol team leader, a sailor named Qiu An (邱安), and a militiaman named Lin Xiaofa (林小发). After a futil resistance, all three were killed by the overwhelming enemy force.
Second Stage The communists were not to let the nationalist to have the opportunity to set up a forward base at its door and immediately planned a counterattack. However, due to the urgent defense needs from other parts of the vast coastal regions, the job of retake the archipelago was tasked to the ground force, and a strengthened battalion of the communist 41st Army was assigned for the mission. However, it was soon discovered that the unit was illprepared for an amphibious landing and as a result, the schedule had to be pushed back to allow more than 20 days of training to be completed first.
Third Stage Once the training was complete, the communist battalion rode in junks and departed on October 19, 1952 at 5:00 pm. At 10:00 pm, the communist force landed successfully on Nanpēng island (Nanpēng Dao, 南澎岛) and after two hours of fierce battle, the nationalist resistance on the island ceased and the survivors attempted to hide. The mop up operation and skirmishes on other islands completely stopped the next day at 4:00 am, with the archipelago firmly backed in the communist hands. The communists managed to have killed 79 enemy troops on the main island, the Nanpēng island (Nanpēng Dao, 南澎岛), including the nationalist commander, major general Huan Songsheng (黄颂声), and his deputy commander, also a major general. 37 nationalist troops were captured alive on the main island, the Nanpēng island (Nanpēng Dao, 南澎岛), and the highest ranked nationalist prisoner of war was the director of the political directorate, Major Gao Xueqian (高学谦). Another 27 nationalist troops were killed and more than a dozen captured alive from other islands and islets of the archipelago. The communists suffered 86 fatalities and more than 300 wounded, almost everyone of the battalion is a casualty.
Outcome The nationalist defeat proved that it was impractical to setup forward base at the enemy’s doorstep while the base is far away from the nationalist strongholds, because it was impossible to reinforce the distant base in time during combats. The communists, on the other hand, had paid a heavy price in its attempt to retake the archipelago because they have gravely underestimated the enemy and although the mission was a success, it was a very costly victory, resulting in almost every member task force member was a casualty. The communist only had numerical superiority but infantry armed only with rifles, light machine guns and hand grenades had a very difficult time in exterminating the numerically inferior enemy that was much better armed with superior weaponry.
