Battlefield Taiwan

Like Sardines in a Can

It was 0300 hours and the smells of seawater and fish were strong in the air as the wind provided a gentle breeze for the 46 soldiers of Private Lei’s platoon. While it was still dark, the soldiers of the 27^th Infantry Regiment were standing in platoon-sized formations, waiting for the dozens upon dozens of Type 067 utility landing crafts to finish pulling up to the beach.

As each landing craft aligned itself to the beach, it slid forward in the water until the flat bottom of the boat eventually ran aground and it stopped moving. The crews immediately lowered the ramps and signaled to the soldiers on shore to load up the ammunition and supplies that were waiting on the shore. Each of the landing crafts was 28.6 meters in length, large enough to carry one light tank or two small vehicles, or a company of soldiers. Three-quarters of the landing crafts assaulting Juguang would be carrying soldiers and their supplies, while the remaining ships would be landing several light tanks.

Despite the early hour, there was plenty of light as dozens of portable floodlights had been set up along the beach. Thousands of soldiers formed up into lines that stretched from the supply trucks on the beach to the numerous landing crafts and hovercrafts. While the men loaded the small ships, the thunderous roar of dozens of artillery guns and missile trucks broke the morning silence. The bombardment of Juguang Island, fourteen kilometers away, had begun.

As Private Lei passed another crate of ammunition to the soldier next to him, he paused long enough to look off to the horizon and saw hundreds of smoke trails from the rocket artillery heading to the small island they would themselves assault in a few more hours.

“I hope the artillery wipes the enemy out and we do not encounter any serious resistance,” he thought as the soldier next to him nudged him to take the next crate of ammo.

Ten minutes later, their sergeant yelled at them, “It’s time to load up! Everyone, get on the landing crafts. We’re going to push off shortly to head towards Juguang Island,” he shouted.

The soldiers obediently headed towards the water, wading up to their ankles before walking up the ramps to line up in the ships. Because the island itself was not very large, their assault force would not be landing with a lot of armor support. The goal was for them to quickly capture the islands and then be prepared to join the other units assaulting Formosa.

Private Lei waited anxiously in the dark, surrounded by the smell of nervous sweat. Thirty minutes went by before his landing craft finally backed off the beach and headed out into the channel that would lead them to Juguang Island. Once in the channel, their landing craft picked up speed until it reached ten knots, falling in line with the waves of other landing crafts, all headed towards the same objective. From time to time, a wave would crash against the side of the craft, splashing seawater over the men sandwiched inside.

A soldier standing next to Lei nudged him. “How long do you think it’ll take us to get to the island? I think I’m going to get sick if we stay on this boat any longer.”

Another large wave hit their boat, rocking it hard to one side, and the young soldier proceeded to throw up all over Private Lei’s boots.

Lei was about to yell at him when the unmistakable scream of an artillery round rushed nearby.

“That was close!” Lei thought, panicked.

Another scream pierced the air, then another. Lei poked his head above the metal lip of the boat just in time to see a lucky round land in the center of the landing craft next to them. It exploded in a ball of flames, throwing burning soldiers into the air like ragdolls.

Just as Lei thought it couldn’t get any worse, a long object that was on fire landed in his craft, falling mere feet away from him. Upon closer inspection, he saw it was the leg of one of the soldiers from the landing craft that had just blown up. As he screamed at the sight of it, he heard, ping, ping, boom, ping! His ears were assaulted as dozens of machine gun rounds bounced off the front ramp of their landing craft.

“We’re almost to the beach! Prepare to leave the landing craft!” their platoon sergeant shouted above the overwhelming percussion of machine gun fire. Lei looked up just in time to see a geyser of water splash down on them from a nearby explosion.

“I can’t take this anymore! I need to get off this boat before we all die!” Lei thought.

He didn’t have long to wait before the front ramp of the landing craft dropped into the water. The first row of soldiers ran off the landing craft into the water and then up the beach, quickly followed by the second and then the third row.

Private Lei clutched his rifle as he shuffled towards the front of the landing craft. As he neared the exit, an enemy machine gun fired directly into their craft, cutting down row after row of soldiers in front of him. Without thinking, Lei hurled himself over the metal edge of the landing craft, plopping into waist-deep water. Dozens of other soldiers did the same, trying to escape the certain death that would have met them if they had stood still.

“Get to the beach! Grab cover!” Private Lei heard himself yelling to the soldiers around him.

He clutched his rifle firmly in his hands and trudged through the water to get to the beach. The soldiers around him rallied to him and followed his lead. Within a minute, he had broken free of the water that was slowing him down and he ran up the pebbled beach.

Lei charged at the closest enemy position he could see. He had spotted a cement machine gun bunker, pitted with scars and missing chunks of cement from the hundreds of bullets and artillery fragments that had already hit it. The position was roughly 200 meters inland from the beach, and the gun position continued to rake the beach with relentless fire, cutting down the invading soldiers like a scythe. It had to be taken out or they would all die on this beach.

Yelling at the top of his lungs, Private Lei charged the gun position, waving with his right arm for everyone to follow him forward. In that instant, anyone who was still alive around him lurched to their feet and yelled at the top of their lungs with him, rushing forward towards the enemy position.

As Lei neared the bunker, he fired his entire magazine into the gun slit, desperate to kill the occupants before they killed him or his remaining friends. Just as he made it to within ten meters of the bunker, Private Lei saw several soldiers running out of a back entrance. He stopped momentarily, raising his weapon and firing into the backs of the retreating soldiers, killing them instantly as he emptied his thirty-round magazine. His fellow soldiers began ran past him and overran the bunker. A couple of soldiers threw some grenades into it to ensure no one else was in there.

The fight for Juguang Island lasted another hour before the entire island had been completely overrun. Not a single defender surrendered, inflicting horrific losses on the militia forces that had assaulted this small plot of land. However, with the capture of Juguang, the PLA and the militia forces could now shift their focus towards their primary objective, the island of Formosa.