Retrocession Day - The Battle of Guningtou - Oct 25

This one is the most provocative coz it commemorates Taiwan's successful defence of Kinmen (Jin-men) in 1949.

Having been routed in southern China, KMT finally made a stand at Guningtou bay on Kinmen to repel an amphibious invasion by the PLA. It's an interesting story - apparently the tanks won the day - combined with a series of planning bungles by over-confident PLA forces & bad luck coincidences.

The invasion fleet was actually just commandeered wooden fishing boats & it was delayed two weeks coz they couldn't round up enough. That delay allowed the hero of the battle, General Hu Lien (胡璉) & his 12th brigade of tanks to arrive, coincidentally, as the invasion was happening - then play a pivotal role in defeating it.

Another mistake was the timing of the landing. They went for full-tide, which makes sense but left it a couple of hours late & landed as the tide was turning back. This resulted in many boats getting stranded - where they were blown to bits by the tanks. That was a disaster coz they didn't have enough boats already meaning the ones they had needed to go back to ferry more soldiers/supplies over. The troops that had landed were cut off from reinforcements.

There are other stories of tanks breaking down, fortuitously, in just the right strategic locations to repel the enemy, then 'coming back to life' when they were needed for action. Like a lot of war, it's part shambles on the actual front, but mixed with acts of real bravery.

It was quite a battle - not to trivialize it but like a great football game. KMT lost then regained key positions/towns - stormed home in the second half.
There were the tanks, which the PLA didn't have, but also intense close-quarters fighting. Of the 9 000 first/only landing force, 3000+ PLA were killed, 5000+ captured. Don't know what happened to the other 1000. Taiwan forces suffered 1 200+ fatalities. (fully AI-sourced)

It's posited that Guningtou ultimately prevented the invasion of Taiwan mainland. They never tried it again, which is curious in itself.

All of which makes for a great National Holiday ... whilst trolling CCP ... annually!

We've wondered if taking an outlying island might be a first move in a modern invasion, but probably not coz it would invite a drastic reinforcement (or not) of Taiwan proper, making it that much harder to invade.

Eerily, in The Drone Age, where we've come a long way from scrambling together a fishing fleet invasion, fishing fleets will still likely play a key-role in any modern amphibious assault. Those fishing families/businesses have worked the waters for generations, know them better than anyone. They have plain-sight proximity to launch, it's documented that CCP is co-ordinating with them in war games.

There will be higher-up bungling, but it won't be some thought-bubble low-tech Guningtou invasion in Xi's-time-around. The opposite - it's all calculated. But still that nod to the old days.

Also interesting how it was a rare, glorious KMT history highlight, but it took a DPP gov to recognize it as a National Holiday. There are some smart-cookies operating in Taiwan political-science.