During the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1958, when the PLA unleashed a sustained artillery bombardment on the Republic of China’s frontline position on Kinmen (Quemoy), Charles Tang was aboard a landing ship that found itself surrounded by PLA torpedo boats and successfully fought them off despite being immobilized, an exploit unique in the history of naval warfare.
The incident is a highlight of the remarkable career of the retired Republic of China Navy commander, who was trained by Britain’s Royal Navy after World War II. The Chinese Civil War meant that Tang and the patriotic comrades with whom he trained would be faced with a cruel choice on their return to Asia and some would later find themselves on opposing sides.
Born in 1926 in the coastal city of Ningbo in Zhejiang province, Tang volunteered to join the Youth Army of China to fight the Japanese occupation as a 19-year old patriotic student, but he did not see action before the Japanese surrender in August 1945. He joined the navy in February 1946. With the United Kingdom having agreed to provide two S-class submarines to China, Tang and 102 other naval cadets were selected to be sent to Plymouth for training with the Royal Navy.
After three months of training aboard the battlecruiser HMS Renown, Tang and 22 other cadets were sent to the School of Engineering of the Royal Naval College. But during his further education in England, the course of the civil war in China would pose Tang with a tough choice regarding his future.
Fearing the defection of more ROC naval vessels to the newly established Communist regime, the British government cancelled the submarines for China after the Kuomintang (Nationalists) lost the civil war in 1949 and Tang wold never have the chance to serve aboard a sub.
Tang said that only 22 cadets managed to complete their training aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Ocean on their way to Hong Kong in Jaunary 1950. After arriving in Hong Kong, he and the other petty officers were given just five minutes to decide whether they wanted to go to Taiwan to rejoin the ROC Navy or return to their homes in mainland China.
Tang said he was one of 10 who chose Taiwan, while 12 other classmates headed back to the mainland to serve the winning side in the Chinese Civil War. After arriving in Taiwan, Tang was promoted to naval ensign. Because of his English language abilities, Tang was appointed as a translator in 1954 to help US military personnel in South Korea communicate with Chinese POWs captured in the Korean War.
During the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, Tang served as chief engineer aboard ROCN Chung Hai, a WWII-era LST (Landing Ship, Tank) provided by the United States. On Sept. 24, 1958, the Chung Hai was transferring supplies to Kinmen’s Liaoluo Bay when the bay came under a barrage of artillery fire from the mainland. Before the Chung Hai was able to unload all the supplies, the ship was ordered to evacuate offshore.
The island, known in the west at the time as Quemoy, lies only two kilometers from Xiamen on the Chinese mainland.
The Chung Hai and another landing ship, the Tai Sheng, were soon surrounded by eight PLA torpedo boats. Four of the PLA boats focused their fire on the Tai Sheng, which had been assigned to transport wounded soldiers back to Taiwan. The other four fired their torpedos at the Chung Hai.
Tai Sheng was sunk immediately, while Chung Hai was hit by a torpedo in the tail and lost power. Chung Hai returned fire with two 40mm twin guns, six 40mm guns and eight 20mm guns as Tang sought to restart the ship. Without power, the crew were desperate as they could see nothing within the compartment, he said.
With help of two petty officers, Tang was able to restart two generators and restore electricity and later managed to patch up the hole in the ship’s rear with four wooden pillars and screws. Tang said he learned later that the ship had destroyed two of the torpedo boats and damaged another two during the battle. Chung Hai was towed to Makung in the Penghu islands for repair.
Tang said the survivors from the Tai Sheng and the two torpedo boats that were sunk were picked up by Chung Hai. One of the captured PLA sailors told Tang that he had been trained by his uncle to operate a torpedo boat. This uncle was Zhang Zhongyu, one of Tang’s former classmates who had chosen to return to mainland China eight years before and was now a PLA officer.
Chung Hai holds the remarkable distinction of being the only LST in the history of naval warfare to engage and defeat fast and agile torpedo boats in combat, a record of which Tang is proud. Built in 1943, Chung Hai continued to serve in the ROC Navy another 40 years more before it was decomissioned in 2010. “The 823 Artillery Bombardment was an important event in the history of Taiwan,” said Tang. “As a veteran who took part in that conflict, I am proud to have preserved the freedom of our nation from Communism.”
References:
Charles Tang 湯寅山
Zhang Zhongyu 張仲毓
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