Battle of Guningtou

Battle of Kuningtou
Part of the Chinese Civil War
ROC-held islands (red) off the coast of Mainland China (light grey), relative to Taiwan (yellow, in inset). Kinmen is the large red highlighted island group.
Date October 25–27, 1949 Location Greater Kinmen Island, Fujian Result ROC victory; halt of Communist attempt to take the island
Belligerents
Republic of China Armed Forces	People's Liberation Army
Commanders and leaders
Chiang Kai-shek Tang Enbo Hu Lien	Mao Zedong Chen Yi Su Yu Ye Fei
Strength
Roughly 40,000 garrisoned troops from the ROC 18th Army (many only arrived after the battle however), air support from ROC Air Force, maritime support from ROC Navy.	19,000 infantry from PLA 29th Army Corps and the 244th, 246th, 251st, 253rd regiments from the PLA 28th Army Corps (Only 9,086 actually landed); 200 landing vessels (mostly confiscated fishing boats), mainland artillery support.
Casualties and losses
1,267 killed 1,982 wounded 2500+ killed (PRC estimate)	3,873 killed 5,175 captured

1,267 killed
1,982 wounded

The Battle of Guningtou or Battle of Kuningtou (simplified Chinese: 古宁头之役; traditional Chinese: 古寧頭之役; pinyin: Gǔníngtóu zhī Yì), also known as the Battle of Kinmen (simplified Chinese: 金门战役; traditional Chinese: 金門戰役; pinyin: Jīnmén Zhànyì), was a battle fought over Kinmen in the Taiwan Strait during the Chinese Civil War in 1949. The failure of the Communists to take the island left it in the hands of the Kuomintang (Nationalists) and crushed their chances of taking Taiwan to destroy the Nationalists completely in the war.

Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, the government of the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek began withdrawing its forces from mainland China to Taiwan. However, ROC garrisons remained stationed on the islands of Kinmen and Matsu, located off the coast in Fujian Province. Commanders of the PRC People's Liberation Army (PLA) believed that Kinmen and Matsu had to be taken before a final assault on Taiwan. The PLA planned to attack Kinmen by launching a first attack with 9,000 troops to establish a beachhead, before landing a second force of roughly 10,000 on Greater Kinmen Island, expecting to take the entire island in three days from an ROC garrison not expected to be larger than two divisions. The Communists had incorrectly estimated that there were only 12,000 Nationalist soldiers on the entire island–a calculation that would contribute to their calamitous defeat. Expecting that a PLA attack was imminent, ROC commanders ordered the immediate construction of fortifications. By October, ROC troops had laid 7,455 land mines, and constructed roughly 200 earthen bunkers on the shores of Kinmen, as well as several anti-amphibious landing beach obstacles. The ROC garrison on Kinmen was also reinforced with more armor, troops and supplies. In the opening hours of October 25, the PLA's armada (consisting of hundreds of wooden fishing boats) set sail for Kinmen. They intended to land near the village of Longkou on the narrowest part of the island. But due to the crudeness of their craft, choppy waters and winds, many of them were scattered and carried past Longkou and northwestwards toward the shore of Guningtou instead.

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