How our gunners fired with heated shells

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

On August 23, 1958, our gunners successfully shelled the islands in the Taiwan Strait.

It was August 1958. Relations between the PRC and Taiwan have sharply deteriorated once again. China was then our ally, and our gunners armed with 130-mm M-46 cannons were on duty on the shores of the Taiwan Strait. These guns were designed to defend the Chinese coast from Taiwanese ships, which every now and then tried to approach the shores of the recently lost homeland and shell it from ship guns.

However, this time the Chiang Kai-shek decided not to risk the ships. They installed a large number of long-range 203-mm guns on the islands they controlled, after which they began to methodically fire at the coastal facilities of the PRC.

Our artillerymen could not oppose this in any way: the shells of 130-millimeter cannons did not reach the islets occupied by the Kuomintang - they lacked only two or three kilometers in range.

And then one of our advisers suggested heating the powder charges to 35 degrees. The heated charge, according to his calculations, should have led to an increase in the muzzle velocity of the projectile by 8-10%. We decided to do so. To further increase the range, it was decided to fire with a tailwind.

130 mm M46 cannon

At 18:30 on August 23, 1958, when the wind blew towards the Taiwanese, a hail of Soviet shells unexpectedly fell on the position of the Chinese nationalists on Kinmen Island. Within two hours, 50 thousand of them were produced. The command post, observatory and artillery positions were destroyed on the island. 440 people were killed. Among the dead were two deputy commanders of the fortified area and two American officers, and among the wounded was the Minister of Defense of Taiwan Yu-Dawei (俞大維), who arrived on the island to watch Taiwanese gunners under the command of American officers shell communist territory with impunity.

Taiwan's Defense Minister Yu-Dawei, injured by hot shells.

The war of guns, as the Chinese called the second Taiwan crisis, continued at a lesser intensity until October 10. It was supplemented by air battles between Communist and Kuomintang pilots. The conflict nearly led to a war between China and the United States, which threatened to use nuclear weapons. Indeed, a 280-mm M65 gun and four nuclear W19 shells with a capacity of 20 Kt in TNT equivalent were delivered to Kinmen. However, the firm position of our diplomats, who threatened the Americans with a retaliatory nuclear strike against Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, did not allow the war of guns to grow into a war of atomic bombs.

280 mm M65 gun, designed specifically for firing nuclear projectiles

Subsequently, local craftsmen began to make knives from the fragments of our shells, which became very popular in Taiwan, thanks to the high-grade steel used in these shells.

Memorial cemetery for those killed during the shelling on 23 August 1958.

Chiang Kai-shek arrived at the scene of the abated fighting on January 24, 1959

Memorable monument erected in honor of those events