At about 2:00 a.m. on August 6, 1965, the "Eighty-Six" naval battle between our People's Navy and the Kuomintang Navy entered the most white-hot stage. Our army's 4 gunboats No. 598, 558, 601, and 6114 are pursuing and intercepting the enemy submarine hunting ship "Zhangjiang."
During the pursuit, the 611 boats of our army rushing in front were continuously shot, and the rear engine room engine stopped. After losing some of its power, the 611 boat suddenly slowed down. It should be known that the full load displacement of the enemy's "Zhangjiang" submarine hunting ship is 450 tons, while the displacement of each of the four gunboats of our army pursued by the enemy is just over 100 tons.
Therefore, without 611 boats, the remaining 3 gunboats will be difficult to take down the enemy "Zhangjiang" submarine hunting ship, and may even be killed. Not to mention, there is also a nearby enemy "Jianmen" minesweeper with a full load displacement of 1250 tons. At this critical moment, the power of the 611 boat suddenly recovered. Therefore, the 4 boats joined forces to sink the enemy submarine hunting ship "Zhangjiang", and in conjunction with our torpedo boat troops, the enemy "Jianmen" minesweeper was also sent to the bottom of the sea.
Later, there were also views that the fierce combat effectiveness displayed by our people's navy in this battle forced the Kuomintang authorities in Taiwan to abandon the big dream of "counterattacking the mainland." Then, what happened to the "Eighty-Six" naval battle that shattered Chiang Kai-shek's dream of "counterattacking the mainland"?
In 1965, it had been four years since the Taiwan authorities had shouted the slogan of "counter-attacking the mainland." After a "ten-year gathering" style of "lying down and tasting guts," Chiang Kai-shek thought that the time was ripe, so he began to stir.
In particular, the People's Republic of China successfully tested the first atomic bomb on October 16, 1964, and at the latest, as long as 1-2 years at the latest, the People's Liberation Army will put the atomic bomb into actual combat, and the window period of counter-offensive is rapidly disappearing. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek was eager to launch a "counter-offensive" operation as soon as possible.
Taiwan's Kuomintang troops are undergoing amphibious landing training
After entering 1965, the preparations for taiwan began to accelerate. In mid-January, Chiang Kai-shek replaced Yu Dawei, the "defense minister" who had a negative attitude toward "counter-attacking the mainland," and appointed his son Chiang Ching-kuo to this important post, ordering him to supervise and inspect the preparations for war in the whole army.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="136" > Chiang Kai-shek was bent on counterattacking the mainland and dispatching agents to test Dongshan Island</h1>
On April 29, 1965, Chiang Kai-shek, after learning that the PLA's nuclear weapons testing and equipment work was progressing rapidly, deeply felt that if he did not immediately take counter-offensive action, he would lose this "good opportunity" at present. Out of his usual gambler mentality, he was determined to launch a "counter-offensive" in the second half of 1965.
On May 14, 1965, after the People's Republic of China successfully conducted its second nuclear test, Chiang Kai-shek decided to send his son Chiang Ching-kuo to the United States to seek U.S. support.
The US side saw through Chiang Kai-shek's intentions and repeatedly delayed the time for replying. But Chiang Kai-shek could not wait any longer and was determined to take the risk without the permission of the United States.
Therefore, in mid-June, Chiang Kai-shek replaced Peng Mengji, the chief of staff who had no experience in amphibious combat, replaced him with Li Yuxi, and secretly launched the "Guoguang Operation" that counter-attacked the mainland.
The main content of this plan was that in August 1965, a landing force was sent from Kinmen to make a large-scale amphibious landing on the opposite side of Xiamen, and then use Xiamen as a springboard to further attack the Xiamen Zhangquan area.
Taiwan's Kuomintang troops will dispatch about 20 divisions, and Chiang Kai-shek hopes that this large-scale operation, when launched, will eventually achieve the goal of dragging the US side into the water.
In order to find out the PLA's fortification along the coast, the Taiwan Navy decided to send two warships of the Patrol 2nd Fleet under the command of the commander, Rear Admiral Hu Jiaheng, to carry out operation "Tsunami No. 1".
The operation was to transport armed agents disguised as the "Intelligence Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense" disguised as the People's Liberation Army to Dongshan Island on the border between Fujian and Guangdong provinces on the mainland coast. Its mission included destroying our army's radar station on Dongshan Island and waiting for an opportunity to capture prisoners to obtain intelligence on our coastal garrison.
Kuomintang agents captured by the People's Liberation Army and militia on the mainland
This is not a simple "infiltration behind enemy lines" mission, but an outpost of "Operation Guoguang". Jiang's father and son strictly ordered: only success, not failure!
The Kuomintang Navy attached great importance to this operation, and Vice Admiral Feng Qicong, the "deputy commander-in-chief of the Navy," personally took the lead and formed a "supervision group" composed of 10 senior naval officers, responsible for carrying out and directing the entire operation.
At 6:00 a.m. on August 5, the nationalist gunboats "Jianmen" and "Zhangjiang" formed a task force. Under the command of Hu Jiaheng, he quietly sailed out of the Zuoying Military Port in Tainan and began to implement the so-called "Tsunami No. 1 Plan."
In order to confuse our army's coastal radar and guantong sentry in order to achieve the purpose of surprise attack, the Taiwan military task force selected the common route for merchant ships from Kaohsiung to Hong Kong.
However, the enemy underestimated the vigilance and identification ability of our army, and after the enemy ship left the left camp, the PLA's radar station in Xiamen had already discovered these 2 suspicious targets and tracked them for a long time.
After judging the radar signal, our radar station used radio at 15:12 on the same day to report to the superiors that an unknown target had been found, but initially our army judged that it might be a US warship.
Taiwan's military is extremely dependent on U.S. aid, so it is very much looking forward to dragging the United States into the water
At 17:45 on the evening of August 6, after a long period of monitoring and judging of two enemy ships, the People's Liberation Army South China Sea Fleet finally determined that this was a warship of Taiwan's Kuomintang Navy.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="138" > radar detects the enemy situation, and the South China Sea Fleet is dispatched</h1>
After reporting the enemy's situation to his superiors, Wu Ruilin, commander of the People's Liberation Army's South China Sea Fleet, ordered all radar stations and observation posts along the coast to continue to closely monitor the actions of the enemy ships, and on the other hand ordered the Shantou Marine Police District to prepare gunboats and torpedo boats to intercept the enemy ships; and set up a maritime command post headed by Kong Zhaonian, deputy commander of the marine police district, and Wang Jin, chief of staff, with Kong Zhaonian as the commander-in-chief of the maritime formation.
Four gunboats of the 41st Escort Boat Brigade and 6 torpedo boats of the 11th Torpedo Boat Group in the Marine District formed the first attack echelon and went to Nan'ao Island to wait.
At 21:00 that night, 10 speedboats set sail and left the port one after another, and then at night in the dark, they directly attacked the standby sea at high speed and met off The Island of Nan'ao.
At 21:30 p.m., Wu Ruilin received an order from the naval headquarters:
First of all, it is necessary to find out that these 2 warships are indeed warships sent by the Taiwan Kuomintang Navy to carry out sabotage activities along the mainland coast;
Second, the attack on enemy ships can not be limited to the territorial sea, but can be relaxed to about 30 nautical miles;
Third, do not accidentally injure foreign warships, merchant ships and fishing vessels;
Fourth, neither the Naval Headquarters nor the Guangzhou Military Region participated in the command of this campaign, and the South China Sea Fleet was responsible for specific command.
The South China Sea Fleet reported directly to Li Tianyou, deputy chief of the General Staff of the General Staff, who was also responsible for coordinating the air force of the Guangzhou Military Region to provide air cover to our Navy.
Contrary to the situation in which our army was preparing for war in an intense manner, the enemy at this time had no idea of the movement of our army. Hu Jiaheng commanded 2 enemy ships to cross the middle line of the strait and continuously approach the coast of the mainland.
After nightfall, the 7 agents of the "Defense Intelligence Bureau" on the "Sword Gate" put on the uniforms of our army, then boarded the deck and began to prepare rubber boats.
At about 23:00, 2 enemy ships were close to the continental coastline. In order to prevent being caught off guard by the People's Navy, the enemy ships entered the first level of combat readiness.
At 0:00, the 2 enemy ships turned as planned in the direction of Dongshan Island, which was due north, and then the "Jianmen" ship slowed down, and 7 agents boarded rubber boats and headed towards Dongshan Island.
Due to the limited performance of our army's shore radar, it failed to detect in time that the enemy ship formation had turned north, so when the command post issued the order to receive the enemy at 0:30, it gave the wrong position and guided 2 brigades to detour to the outer sea to intercept the enemy ship.
As a result, the two sides went against the grain, and the distance quickly expanded from 4 nautical miles to 14 nautical miles. But after my radar station finally found the accurate position of the enemy ship, it immediately guided the gunboat formation to meet the enemy at high speed.
Enemy gunboat "Zhangjiang"
After the two enemy ships found our formation at sea in pursuit, they immediately accelerated to flee to the open sea. But my formation, with the advantage of speed, soon spotted the enemy gunboat "Zhangjiang" behind the palace at 1:42 a.m.
Our 4 gunboats then engaged the enemy at high speed, and 2 enemy ships, taking advantage of the long range of their artillery, preemptively blocked and fired at our gunboat formation. The famous "Eighty-Six" naval battle broke out.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="140" > our gunboats with snacks and bayonets at sea</h1>
Kong Zhaonian then ordered four gunboats to approach the enemy ships in battle formations. When my command boat was close to 500 meters away from the enemy ship and had seen the mast of the enemy ship, he ordered all the boats to shell in unison. Our formation first cut off the contact between the 2 enemy ships, and then concentrated its fire on the smaller tonnage of the "Zhangjiang" ship.
The four gunboats fought until they were about 100 meters away from the enemy ships, and then turned around and turned to remain parallel to the "Zhangjiang" ship, in order to concentrate all their firepower on the enemy ships.
Gunboats of our army conducting real combat exercises
Our torpedo boat carried out the first torpedo attack on the "Zhangjiang" ship, but did not hit the target. Commander Wu Ruilin, who then received the report, ordered the boats to use armor-piercing shells to concentrate their firepower and hit the enemy ship's command tower and the area below the waterline.
Kong Zhaonian then organized gunboats to attack the "Zhangjiang" ship in turn. Under the command of Captain Li Zhun, the "Zhangjiang" ship engaged in a battle of trapped beasts and desperately shot at our gunboats.
In the fierce battle, our 611 boat was shot continuously, and Yang Yingsong, the sergeant major of the mechanical and electrical sergeant major, was shot and killed. Two shells hit the engine room, causing the main engine in the rear cabin to stop turning and the power to be interrupted. After losing some of its power, the 611 boat suddenly slowed down. The injured captain Cui Fujun loudly ordered deputy instructor Zhou Guiquan to immediately get out of the cabin to check the situation.
At that time, the mechanical and electrical department's engineer Mai Xiande was sticking to his former cabin post. Two enemy shells entered the cabin, and shrapnel flew in the narrow cabin, and the captain of the engine fell to the ground.
Mai Xiande was hit by a piece of shrapnel in the head, and the shrapnel penetrated from the right frontal bone, as deep as two inches into the brain, all the way into the left frontal lobe. Blood and cerebrospinal fluid suddenly flowed from his head, pasting Mai Xiande's eyes, and he was unconscious on the spot. The other comrades, who were slightly injured, hurried up to bandage the wounds of the wounded squad leader and Mai Xiande.
At that time, the situation was very critical, and the enemy shells caused 2 of the 4 main engines of the 611 boats to be stopped, and the speed was greatly reduced. Not only could the 611 boat not bite the fleeing enemy ship, but because the speed slowed down, it became the target of the enemy ship's firepower!
What is more dangerous is that without 611 boats, the remaining 3 gunboats will be difficult to take down the enemy "Zhangjiang" submarine hunting ship, and may even be killed. The nearby enemy "Jianmen" minesweeper is also eyeing the tiger. If the power of the 611 boat is not restored, the tide of battle will take a sharp turn.
"People's Hero Mai Xiande", Qiushi, No. 1, 2020
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="142" > hero engineer Mike Hyun-tak</h1>
At this critical moment, the unconscious Mai Xiande gradually woke up. He felt the sound of the main engine weaken and the speed slow down. A strong sense of responsibility prompted him to endure the great pain, slowly climb up, and touch the front cabin in the darkness.
There, Mai Xiande found that the host computer had stopped. Without hesitation, he began to grope in the dark, trying to fix the console.
In the case of serious trauma to his brain, Mai Xiande, relying on the skilled skills he mastered in his daily training, judged from the sound of the host, it may be that the screws of the gas valve or oil valve in some place are loosened, causing air leakage or oil leakage, resulting in the normal operation of the host.
But there are dozens of large and small valves on a main engine, and there are even more screws, as well as crooked pipes. The cabin was dark at this time, and five fingers could not be seen. Although there was a flashlight, Mai Xiande's eyes were covered with blood and he couldn't open them at all.
Mai Xian had to come up with a way, and he touched them one by one with his hands to troubleshoot the problems. Relying on solid basic skills, Mai Xiande began to touch the valves, screws and pipes one by one in the cabin.
Finally, in dozens of pipes, thousands of screws, and dozens of valves, he found a loose screw, and he found a wrench in the darkness and tightened the screw.
Finally, the main engine began to roar slowly again, and the power gradually recovered. But the keen Mai Xian felt from the roar of the machine that the fault had not been completely ruled out, that there seemed to be a problem with the brakes, that the power of the engine could not be increased, and that the ship was still unable to sail at high speed.
So, despite the fact that he had lost too much blood, he touched the pipe again, and sure enough, the explosion caused the wavebox to shift. However, Mai Xian, who was seriously injured and had lost a lot of blood, was very weak, unable to reset the wavebox, and he could only use his entire body to pounce on the wavebox, while his hands were dead pressed against the lever.
Our naval commanders and fighters sat around the rear deck of the gunboat and sang
Finally, the main engine regained its power, and the 611 boat regained its speed, kept up with the other 3 gunboats, and re-engaged in the battle against the "Zhangjiang" ship.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="144" > the "Eighty-Six" naval battle, and our army won a complete victory</h1>
The "Zhangjiang" was soon overwhelmed by our gunboat formation. When the dizzy enemy ship approached 100 meters from our gunboat, it suddenly threw its right rudder at our formation, trying to fight to the death and hit our army's speedboat to break through the heavy encirclement.
This stupid move was flexibly circumvented by our high-speed gunboats, and the result was not only unsuccessful, but instead caused the "Zhangjiang" ship to fall into the encirclement of our 4 gunboats.
The four gunboats clung to the "Zhangjiang" ship and concentrated their firepower to attack the enemy ship below the waterline with armor-piercing shells, causing a large amount of water to enter, reduce the speed, and fail to maneuver. Subsequently, our 6 torpedo boats were divided into three groups of boats and launched a torpedo attack on the "Zhangjiang" ship.
At 2:20 a.m., the "Zhangjiang" ship was hit by a torpedo, immediately caught fire and exploded, and sank about 25 nautical miles southeast of Dongshan Island at 3:30 a.m.
The "Jianmen" took advantage of our formation to besiege the "Zhangjiang" ship, took the opportunity to break away from the east and left the battlefield. However, after Discovering that the "Zhangjiang" did not follow, Hu Jiaheng did not dare to abandon the warship and withdraw to Taiwan without authorization, but did not dare to turn around and return to reinforce the "Zhangjiang", so he had to wander in the open seas, hoping for the appearance of a "miracle."
After receiving the news of the sinking of the "Zhangjiang" in the Command Office of our South China Sea Fleet, we saw that the "Jianmen" was still hovering in our coastal waters. In order to expand the results of the battle, at 3:35 a.m., our side dispatched 5 torpedo boats and 1 large gunboat from the Shantou Marine Police District to reinforce the first echelon from Yun'ao.
Our speedboat formation rushed to the battlefield at a maximum speed of 42 knots, and the four gunboats that had originally besieged the "Zhangjiang" ship, except for the 611 boats that had been hit by 17 shells, returned home with serious injuries, and the other three also received the order to attack the "Jianmen" at 4:10 a.m.
Our formation still uses gunboats to suppress enemy ship fire, and when enemy fire weakens, the torpedo boats will attack again.
Three gunboats began to engage the enemy in the darkest hours before dawn, and the "Jianmen" began to fire indiscriminately with 76 mm main guns at a distance of 11,000 meters. When the distance between the two sides was shortened to 7500 meters, the enemy ships' 40 mm and 20 mm machine guns also began to shoot wildly.
But in the darkness of the night, none of the enemy shells hit. Our speedboat formation advanced until it was 180 meters away from the enemy ship before firing violently, and in only 4 minutes it completely suppressed the fire of the enemy ship.
After the end of the Battle of August 6, the formation of our ships that returned to the Shantou base in victory handed over the captured officers and men of the Taiwan Navy to the base guard unit
Our fierce artillery fire hit the 20-millimeter machine shells stacked on the helm platform of the enemy ship, and Hu Jiaheng and the 11 officers and men on the pilot platform were all killed by the detonated ammunition. The captain, Lieutenant Colonel Wang Yunshan, was also injured by the explosion, but fortunately did not hurt the point.
At 5:20 a.m., five torpedo boats arrived at the battlefield from the direction of Yun'ao and quickly occupied a favorable firing position. My formation fired a total of 10 torpedoes, 3 of which hit, and the Sword Gate sank quickly in just 2 minutes.
At this point, the "Battle of The Eighty-Six Seas" ended in the complete victory of our army.
At the cost of 2 gunboats and 2 torpedo boats wounded, 4 killed and 28 wounded, our army achieved a major victory of sinking 2 enemy ships, killing more than 170 people under the enemy major general Hu Jiaheng, and capturing 33 people under Lieutenant Colonel Wang Yunshan.
Only about 10 people on the two enemy ships were rescued by Taiwanese fishing boats, foreign merchant ships and American warships.
After salvaging the captives, our fleet returned to the shantou base in victory and arrived at the Shantou base at 10:15 a.m. on August 6, where it was warmly welcomed by the local cadres, masses, and fraternal troops.
The crowd on the dock welcomed my gunboats back triumphantly
After the 611 captain Cui Fujun withdrew from the battle, he immediately flashed a flashlight down to the cabin. He saw a touching scene on the console console in the front cabin, where the tall, bloodied Mai Xiande was unconscious, but still maintained his entire body pressed against the wave box, his hands clutching the lever, standing there like a sculpture.
Choi Fuk-joon stepped forward and gently patted Mai Xiande on the shoulder and loudly ordered him to rest, but Mai Xiande did not react at all. Cui Fujun then asked someone to gently carry Mai Xiande out of the cabin, first placed on the deck, and then returned to the Shantou base with difficulty.
When the 611 boat arrived at the dock, the ambulance that had been waiting on the dock immediately took the wounded, including Mai Xiande, to the hospital. In order to rescue the wounded, the entire hospital was mobilized, and the nearby masses spontaneously went to the hospital to donate blood to the wounded.
On the morning of August 8, Shantou Hospital performed the first operation on Mai Xiande. However, due to the fact that the shrapnel was too deep into its brain, with the technology of Shantou Hospital at that time, the operation was too difficult, and the first operation failed to remove the shrapnel.
On the morning of August 11, the brain surgery experts from the General Hospital of the Guangzhou Military Region, who were urgently transferred by their superiors, performed a second operation on Mai Xiande. The operation lasted a full 18 hours, but the shrapnel was still not successfully removed.
After careful treatment and care by medical staff, Mai Xiande gradually recovered
After Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai learned that the hero of the "Eighty-Six Naval Battle," Mai Xiande, was extremely seriously injured and that the rescue and treatment work was deadlocked, they immediately instructed them to send helicopters to send Mai Xiande and three other seriously injured people to the General Hospital of the Guangzhou Military Region in better condition.
The General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Region has set up a special rescue and treatment medical team to provide all-weather nursing care for Mai Xiande. After a long period of careful conditioning, Mai Xiande finally gradually woke up.
On May 18, 1966, nine months after Mai Xiande was injured, a centralized expert group from the General Hospital of the Guangzhou Military Region operated on Mai Xiande again, and finally removed the shrapnel. Only then did Mai Xiande truly get out of danger and gradually recover.
Chairman of the Central Military Commission Mao Zedong received the meritorious men of the Eighty-Six Naval Battle
Our victory in the "Battle of August 6" caused a shock in Taiwan that was no less than an earthquake.
An enraged Chiang Kai-shek removed Liu Guangkai, the commander-in-chief of the navy, from his post on August 30. A month after this fiasco, Chiang Ching-kuo visited the United States as "defense minister," and when he peddled chiang kai-shek's plan to counterattack the five southwestern provinces of the mainland, he was rejected by the US side.
The US side even openly said that the counter-offensive would undoubtedly be defeated without the participation of the US troops in the war, and the US side also expressed its dissatisfaction with Chiang Ching-kuo that the Taiwan authorities had sent a fleet to raid the mainland coast without the knowledge of the US side.
In the face of the sneers of the US side, Chiang Ching-kuo eventually returned to Taiwan empty-handed. This also made Chiang Kai-shek finally helplessly cancel the "counter-offensive to the mainland" plan, which was already on the string.
On September 17, 2019, Mai Xiande was awarded the national honorary title of "People's Hero".
Resources
Contemporary Chinese Navy, Contemporary China Publishing House