Landing Operation on Hainan Island
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| Landing Operation on Hainan Island | |||||||
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| Part of the Chinese Civil War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 National Revolutionary Army |
 People's Liberation Army |
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| Commanders | |||||||
 Xue Yue 薛岳 Li Mi 李彌 |
 Deng Hua 邓华 Lai Chuanzhu 赖传珠 Feng Baiju 馮白駒 Han Xianchu 韓先楚 |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 120,000+ | 115,000+ | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 33,000 | 4,500 | ||||||
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Landing Operation on Hainan Island (海南岛登陆战役, Pinyin: Hǎinándǎo Dēnglù Zhànyì)), also known as Hainan Island Campaign (海南岛战役) or Hainan Campaign (海南战役) for short, was a series of battles fought between the nationalists and the communists during Chinese Civil War in the post World War II era, and resulted in the communist victory.
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[edit] Nationalist strategies
The nationalist strategy was simple: defending the island by fending off the enemy’ attack that was immanent. The nationalists formed the General Headquarter of Hainan Defense and Xue Yue was named as the commander-in-chief. Five armies and two divisions, a naval fleet totaling more than four dozen warships, a marine regiment, and four groups of the air force with forty-five aircraft of various kind were assigned to for the island defense, and a 3-D defense was established. The nationalist 32nd Army was assigned to guard the eastern portion of the island, the nationalist Temporarily Organized 13th Division, the Training Division, and the 62nd Army were assigned to guard the northern portion of the island, the nationalist 4th and 64th Armies were assigned to guard the western portion of the island, the nationalist 63rd Army was assigned to guard the southern portion of the island. Nationalist 3rd fleet and air force units were tasked to patrol the waters and prevent enemy from approaching the island. Like his troops, Xue Yue and was confident in defending the island, and named the defensive system setup after his courtesy name as Boling Defensive Line (伯陵防线).
[edit] Communist strategies
The Communist high command, the central military committee (of the Communist Party of China directed the Communist IV Field Army to be very carefully in planning the takeover of the island, which would be best completed in the spring and summer of 1950. The XV Corps of the Communist IV Field Army headed by its commander-in-chief Deng Hua (邓华) and political commissar Lai Chuanzhu (赖传珠) with a strength of more than a hundred thousand troops was deployed to Leizhou Peninsula and adjacent coastal regions, and the 40th and 43rd Armies of the Communist XV Corps were tasked as the vanguard of the campaign to take the island in December, 1949. The Communists mobilized a total of twenty-one hundred thirty junks and over four thousand civilian sailors for their cause, and the fifteen thousand member strong Communist Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队) on the island itself was ordered to fight a counter eradication campaign against the attacking nationalist island garrison to tie down the nationalist troops, so that there would not be sufficient resistance on the beachheads when the actual landing took place.
On February 1, 1950, the future Communist field marshal Ye Jianying, who was then the First Secretary of the Southern China Bureau of the (Chinese) Communist Central Bureau, as well as the commander-in-chief and political commissar of the communist Guangdong Military Region held a conference at Guangzhou with the officers of the XV Corps of the Communist IV Field Army. It was decided at the conference that small scale landings would be conducted first to probe the weakness of the island defense, and to strengthen the communist force on the island by linking up with the communist Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队) to fight battles in accordance with the main landing.
[edit] Order of battle
Nationalists:
- 4th Army
- 32nd Army
- 62nd Army
- 63rd Army
- 64th Army
- Temporarily Organized 13th Division
- Training Division
- A marine regiment
- 3rd Fleet (50+ warships)
- 4 air force groups (45 aircraft)
Communists:
- XV Corps of the IV Field Army including:
- 40th Army
- 43rd Army
- Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队)
- 2,135 junks
[edit] Initial landing
To strengthen the island defense, the nationalist troops on the island were devoted to eradication campaigns against the communist Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队) on the island, which severely weakened the coastal defense on both the eastern and western flanks. Communists were extremely quick to exploit this opportunity and decided to launch small scale landings to probe the weakness of the coastal defense setup by the defenders. The enemy selected two landing spots on the island, with the region of White Horse Well (Baimajing, 白马井) in the northwest and Red Water (Chishui, 赤水) Port in the northeast. At 7:00 PM on March 5, 1950, a regimental sized battalion totaled over eight hundred troops from the 118th Division of the communist 40th Army in a total of thirteen junks sailed from the Cape Lighthouse (Dengloujiao, 灯楼角) at the southwestern tip of Leizhou Peninsula under the cover of darkness.
A company rode in several junks made the same navigational error and landed directly on the beach where the nationalist coastal defense was the strongest, and most of them were killed while the survivors committed suicides by blowing themselves up with hand grenades. However, this mistake produced an unexpected benefit for the attacking enemy because the defenders erroneously believed this would be the main spot of future landings and redeployed their forces to the region to boost the defense, thus leaving other places dangerously open to the enemy. At 2:00 PM on March 6, 1950, the bulk of the landing force successfully landed in the region of Chaotouxu (超头圩), to the south of the region of White Horse Well (Baimajing, 白马井), linked up with the 9th Regiment of the 1st Division of the communist Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队) in waiting. A regimental sized battalion totaling more than a thousand troops fromt eh 128th Division of the communist 43rd Division sailed at 1:00 PM on March 10, 1950 in twenty-one junks from Naozhou (硇洲) Island located to the southeast of Zhanjiang, and after more than twenty hours and a hundred ten nautical miles, at 9:00 AM on the next day, the landing force successfully landed in the region stretched from Red River (Chishui, 赤水) Port to Cupper Drum Ridge (Tongguling, 铜鼓岭), linked up with the Independent Regiment of the communist Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队) in waiting.
The high command of the communist XV Corps ordered its 40th and 43rd Army to organize further small scale channel crossing. On March 26, 1950, four regimental sized battalion totaling over three thousand troops of the 118th Division of the communist 40th Army sailed in eighty-one junks at Cape Lighthouse (Dengloujiao, 灯楼角) at 7:00 PM. Although the distance was only twenty-two nautical miles, the landing force failed to reach their destination on time due to the changes of tide and wind. It was not until 8:00 AM on the next day did the scattered landing force landed in a 20 km stretch region centered at Yubao (玉包) port. Fortunately, the 1st Division reached the area in time and linked up with the landing force. On March 21, 1950, four regimental sized battalions from the 127th Division of the communist 43rd Army totaling more than thirty-seven hundred troops sailed in eighty-eight junks at 10:00 PM from Boshe (博赊) port at the southeastern side of Leizhou Peninsula, and after sailing around twenty-two nautical miles, successfully landed on the Beichuang (北创) port at 5:00 AM on the next day, linked up with Independent Regiment and the 11th Regiment of the communist Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队) in waiting. After the successful landing of a series of small scale landing, the communist force was strengthened and would able to launch assaults against the nationalist coastal defense in the main landing followed.
[edit] Main landing
On April 10, 1950, the high command of the communist XV Corps decided to launch an amphibious landing in two waves in northern Hainan. The landing force was consisted of two waves, with the first wave being the main force, in two directions, east and west. Eight brigade-sized regiments, two from the communist 43rd Army and six from the communist 40th Army would ride in three hundred fifty junks to sail from Leizhou Peninsula at 7:30 PM on April 16, 1950. Another five brigade-sized regiments of the communist 43rd Army would follow the first wave as the second wave. The 1st Division of communist Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队) and units of communist 40th Army landed earlier would strike the nationalist coastal defense in the region to the north of Lingao (临高), in accordance with the landing force in the west, while the 3rd Division of communist Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队) and units of communist 43rd Army landed earlier would strike the nationalist coastal defense in the Fortune Mountain (Fushan, 福山) region of Chengmai (澄迈) County, in accordance with the landing force in the east. Nationalist defenders of the island did not detect the departure of the enemy landing force until hours after the enemy fleet left ports, which proved to be fatal and eventually caused them the island.
During the channel crossing, the communist escorting fleet of the 40th Army discovered that the nationalist 3rd Fleet with the destroyer Eternal Peace (Taiping, 太平号) as the flagship was approaching the communist landing force from behind in an attempt to intercept the landing force, and the armed communist junks escorts immediately took actions by outflanking the nationalist flotilla and attacking from the rear. The nationalist navy had gravely underestimated its enemy and did not expect that all of the armed junks of communist escort fleet were carefully disguised. Mistakenly believed these junks were just troop and cargo carriers, and attempted to capture them, the nationalist fleet allowed the enemy approached too close that the elevation of the naval guns could not be depressed low enough to have any effective aims and shelling on the enemy. As a result, the nationalist flagship was hit badly by the mountain guns installed on the armed junks of communist escort fleet at the initial stage of the naval engagement, and was forced to retreat.
With the flagships gone, the remaining nationalist warships fought gallantly against the enemy in the chaos, but their effort was largely ineffective due to another problem: in its haste to prepare the defense of the island, the nationalist navy failed change the ammo of the warships deployed. Most of the armor-piercing and semi armor-piercing rounds designed to be used against armored metal ships and fortified bunkers failed to detonate when hitting the wooden junks, but simply went in from one side and getting out from the other. Coupled with the problem of the naval guns could not be depressed low enough and thus most hits on the enemy junks were above the waterline, the hope of a nationalist naval victory to check the enemy advance was impossible. Despite the fact that only five badly damaged armed junks were left after the channel crossing, and the rest of entire escort fleet was badly damaged and thus forced out of action by the gallant attack of the nationalist flotilla, none of the armed junks were actually sunk. In contrast, rounds of numerically superior mountain guns of larger caliber mounted on the of armed junks of the communist escort fleet caused considerable damage on the nationalist fleet.
The nationalist fleet also faced a huge dilemma of choosing between the supporting their comrades-in-arms on the land and annihilating the enemy fleet. Opening up the gap with the enemy would allow the their naval guns to be depressed low enough to hit enemy junks below the waterline and sink them, but since the nationalist fleet was behind the enemy landing force, opening up the gap would mean that the enemy beachhead would be out of range, and they could not provide fire support to their comrades-in-arms on the land, who desperately needed the fire support because they were attacked by the enemy from both the front and rear. As a result, the nationalist fleet decided to stay and mingle with the enemy escort fleet in close range to support their comrades-in-arms on the land, a decision that caused them dearly. After two more badly damaged warships were forced to retreat in a fierce and chaotic battle that lasted for hours, the nationalist fleet finally begun to withdraw from the spot so that the gap would be large enough for the naval guns to be depressed low enough to hit enemy junks below the waterline, but by this time, the channel crossing was almost completed and the bulk of the enemy force had already successfully landed.
The nationalist naval dilemma was fully exploited by the enemy, who kept relentless pressure on the defenders at the beachhead. Being attacked by both sides, the nationalist defenders could not hold their position for long. By 3:00 AM on April 17, 1950, the nationalist defense at eastern and western flanks of Cape Lingao (Lingaojiao, 临高角) collapsed under the heavy pressure of advance guards of the enemy landing force and units of communist Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队) and the communist units who landed earlier. As more enemy troops landed, they established firmly on the beachhead and advanced inland. Two days later, regions including Lingao, (临高), Fortune Mountain (Fushan, 福山) Meitai (美台) and Jialai (加来) all fell into the enemy hands.
[edit] Counterassault
On April 20, 1950, Xue Yue ordered the nationalist 32nd and 62nd Army totaling six divisions to counterattack the communist beachhead at Meiting (美亭). The communists, in turn, planned to lure the defenders to the beachhead thus leaving other landing spot weakly defended, an opportunity that would be exploited by the follow-on communist landing force. Once the communist force was strong enough, the bulk of the nationalist force counterattacking the beachhead would be annihilated in the regions of Yellow Bamboo (Huangzhu, 黄竹) and Meiting (美亭). The 127th and 128th Divisions of the communist 43rd Army was order to hold Chengmai (澄迈), while seven regiments of the communist 40th Army would reinforce Chengmai (澄迈) from Meitai (美台) and Jialai (加来). Other communist landing forces would be led by the 3rd Division of the communist Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队) to surround the nationalist 32nd and 62nd Army, Temporarily Organized 13th and the Training Divisions that were attacking the 128th Division of the communist 43rd Army. After fierce battle, the 252nd Division of the nationalist 32nd Army was completely annihilated while all other nationalist units were badly mauled.
Realizing the situation was hopeless, Xue Yue made a wise decision to withdraw his remaining southward for the eventual retreat to Taiwan, and under the escort two fighters, he and his staffs were airlifted to Taiwan in a cargo airplane.
[edit] Conclusion
On April 23, 1950, Haikou fell. In the early morning of April 24, 1950, the second wave of communist landing force arrived at the Celestial Tail (Tianwei, 天尾) harbor, and joined their comrades in pursuing the retreating nationalists in three fronts. The communist eastern front was consisted of the 119th and 120th Divisions of the 40th Army, 128th Division of the 43rd Army, the 3rd Division and the Independent Regiment of Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队), and the objective was to strike regions including Jiaji (嘉积), Wanning (万宁) and Lingshui (陵水) from Haikou and Wenchang. The communist central front was consisted of the 127th and 129th Division of the 43rd Army, and the objective was to strike regions of Beili (北黎) and Basuo (八所) from Chengmai (澄迈). The communist western front was consisted of 118th Division of the 40th Army and units of 43rd Army to go after the nationalists retreating westward. By April 30, 1950, Yulin (榆林) and Sanya at the eastern front fell, and by May 1, 1950, Beili (北黎) and Basuo (八所) fell into the hands of communist 43rd Army and the 1st Division of Qiongya Column (琼崖纵队), and in the last battle to cover other nationalist units’ safe retreat, and a regiment of the 90th Division and the 286th Division of the nationalist 4th Army were completely destroyed. The campaign therefore concluded with the communist victory completed.
The communist victory cost them forty-five hundred casualties, but the successful takeover of Hainan provided valuable experience for the communist in the amphibious warfare, where the Jinmen and Dengbu assaults had failed in the previous fall. For the nationalists, although the island was lost, more than 70% of their troops were saved, successfully evacuated to Taiwan to defend the island which remain defiant to the communists until this day.
[edit] See also
- List of battles of the Chinese Civil War
- National Revolutionary Army
- History of the People's Liberation Army
- Chinese Civil War
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Primary participants |
[edit] Reference
- Zhu, Zongzhen and Wang, Chaoguang, Liberation War History, 1st Edition, Social Scientific Literary Publishing House in Beijing, 2000, ISBN 7801492072 (set)
- Zhang, Ping, History of the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Chinese Youth Publishing House in Beijing, 1987, ISBN 750060081X (pbk.)
- Jie, Lifu, Records of the Libration War: The Decisive Battle of Two Kinds of Fates, 1st Edition, Hebei People's Publishing House in Shijiazhuang, 1990, ISBN 7202007339 (set)
- Literary and Historical Research Committee of the Anhui Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Liberation War, 1st Edition, Anhui People's Publishing House in Hefei, 1987, ISBN 7212000078
- Li, Zuomin, Heroic Division and Iron Horse: Records of the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Chinese Communist Party History Publishing House in Beijing, 2004, ISBN 7801990293
- Wang, Xingsheng, and Zhang, Jingshan, Chinese Liberation War, 1st Edition, People's Liberation Army Literature and Art Publishing House in Beijing, 2001, ISBN 750331351X (set)
- Huang, Youlan, History of the Chinese People's Liberation War, 1st Edition, Archives Publishing House in Beijing, 1992, ISBN 7800193381
- Liu Wusheng, From Yan'an to Beijing: A Collection of Military Records and Research Publications of Important Campaigns in the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Central Literary Publishing House in Beijing, 1993, ISBN 7507300749
- Tang, Yilu and Bi, Jianzhong, History of Chinese People's Liberation Army in Chinese Liberation War, 1st Edition, Military Scientific Publishing House in Beijing, 1993 – 1997, ISBN 7800217191 (Volum 1), 7800219615 (Volum 2), 7800219631 (Volum 3), 7801370937 (Volum 4), and 7801370953 (Volum 5)
