A Photograph Taken 76 Years Ago Reveals New China's First Naval Mine-Clearance Operation

New China's First Naval Mine-Clearance Operation

■ Chang Junbo

In 1950, naval officers and sailors searched for mines laid by the enemy in the Yangtze River estuary. Archival photograph.

In the military history gallery of a minesweeper flotilla of the Eastern Theater Command Navy, there is a photograph taken 76 years ago. In the photograph, several naval officers and sailors aboard a rubber dinghy are carefully towing a naval mine, its several "horns" clearly visible. The "horns" are the mine's fuzes—once a critical pressure threshold is reached, the mine will detonate. So why were the officers and sailors handling the mine in this way?

After the liberation of Shanghai in May 1949, Nationalist forces, in order to prevent our forces from pursuing and annihilating them and to blockade Shanghai's port—thereby exerting political and economic pressure on the newly liberated city—carried out the deranged act of laying mines in the Yangtze River estuary.

The Yangtze River estuary has numerous ports and shipping lanes, with vessels coming and going frequently. Laying mines and closing the port was tantamount to closing the gateway to overseas transportation and trade. Researchers at the CCP Shanghai Municipal Committee's Party History Research Office have noted that Shanghai's economy at the time was markedly dependent on foreign trade, and that the key commodities most closely tied to people's daily lives—the "two whites and one black" ("two whites" referring to rice and cotton, "one black" referring to coal)—relied primarily on imports. The laying of mines therefore posed a grave threat to Shanghai's economic reconstruction.

The Party Central Committee and Shanghai's municipal leadership attached great importance to this matter. Chen Yi, Commander of the East China Military Region and concurrently Mayor of Shanghai, instructed that, in order to smash the enemy's plot and ensure the unobstructed flow of shipping lanes and the safety of navigation, the mines laid by the enemy in the Yangtze River estuary must be cleared as quickly as possible. He assigned this important mission to the East China Military Region Navy, which had been established only recently.

Upon receiving the mine-clearance mission, Zhang Aiping, then Commander and Political Commissar of the East China Military Region Navy, immediately directed the formulation of a mine-clearance operational plan to open the Yangtze River estuary shipping lane. In the spring of 1950, the East China Military Region Navy Minesweeper Flotilla was formally established. Sun Gongfei, formerly Chief of Staff of the Third Field Army's Training Division, was appointed Flotilla Commander and Political Commissar.

Naval mine clearance is not only extremely dangerous but also highly specialized. The newly established minesweeper flotilla lacked both specialist personnel and dedicated minesweeping vessels, and the difficulty of executing this mission can well be imagined. In a memoir written by Sun Gongfei, the situation at the time of the flotilla's formation is described as follows: "We had all transferred to the navy from the army. None of us had ever been aboard a warship before, let alone seen what a naval mine looked like!"

To address the equipment problem, the East China Military Region Minesweeper Flotilla designated Vessel No. 111 of the "Zhong" class as its command ship, converted ten small landing craft captured from Nationalist forces into minesweepers, and began exploring and studying minesweeping techniques.

Where to make the initial breakthrough in conducting mine clearance in the Yangtze River estuary waters? After repeated deliberation, the minesweeper flotilla selected the area near Jiuduansha in the Yangtze River estuary as the zone for the first mine-clearance operation. They deployed sweep wires and other equipment underwater and began searching. However, no one anticipated that an accident would occur on the very first day. While the minesweeping officers and sailors were conducting their search, a tremendous explosion suddenly rang out on the sea surface not far away. It turned out that a foreign merchant vessel, the Fuhu, had struck a mine while venturing into the Yangtze River estuary.

Regarding this mine-strike incident, Sun Gongfei later recalled: "Suddenly, a tremendous explosion—a water column dozens of zhang high shot up from the sea surface… I immediately ordered the unit to halt mine-clearance operations and rescue the merchant vessel. Officers and sailors threw life rings to the crew members who had fallen into the water; some simply jumped into the sea to save people. The people were rescued, but our hearts felt as heavy as if filled with lead."

From photographs taken at the time of the salvage of the merchant vessel Fuhu, it is clear that a single mine could blast a large merchant ship in two—the enormous destructive power of naval mines can thus be imagined.

In fact, for safety reasons, there had been a proposal to blockade the Yangtze River estuary simultaneously with the mine-clearance operations. However, given that a blockade of the shipping lane would exacerbate the price fluctuations already appearing in the market and deal a severe blow to Shanghai's economy, this proposal was ultimately not adopted. The harsh reality made the mine-clearance work all the more urgent. Yet as the days passed, progress in mine clearance was not going smoothly. Officers and sailors battled wind and waves on the water for more than ten days without clearing a single mine. On July 2, 1950, Zhang Aiping made the decision to suspend mine-clearance operations. In the "Report on Mine-Clearance Work in the Yangtze River Estuary" submitted by the East China Military Region Navy Headquarters to Zhou Enlai on August 28, the reasons for the failure of this mine-clearance effort were analyzed and summarized. The second point stated explicitly: lack of equipment—no suitable minesweeping vessels were available, only small 25-ton landing craft used as substitutes; as a result, the strong winds, heavy seas, and swift currents of the Yangtze River estuary rendered the small vessels unable to operate. There were no scientifically sound and serviceable minesweeping tools; four sweep wires manufactured by our torpedo factory were all too thin to be of use, unable to drag the mines, and three of the four sweep wires broke.

On one side was backward equipment and technology; on the other, Shanghai's economy urgently awaiting recovery. Sun Gongfei and his comrades were under enormous pressure. It was at this juncture that, with the concern of the Party Central Committee and Premier Zhou Enlai, the minesweeper flotilla obtained new minesweeping tools, and Zhang Aiping transferred in the refitted 300-ton minesweepers Gutian, Zaozhuang, Zhoucun, and Zhangdian.

In September 1950, Sun Gongfei led the minesweeper flotilla back into the "mine-infested waters." At midday on September 24, a sweep wire on the river surface suddenly gave a sharp jerk. The minesweeping officers and sailors were both excited and tense. They boarded rubber dinghies, carefully approached the mine, tied a rope to the anchor mine's lifting ring, towed it to the shore, and then handed it over to ordnance disposal experts for processing.

This action demonstrated the feasibility of the minesweeping method and also inspired the officers and sailors of the minesweeper flotilla. By the end of October 1950, all mines laid by the enemy from Wusong Mouth to the Yangtze River estuary had been completely cleared, and the Yangtze River shipping lane was victoriously opened.

Sun Gongfei later served in positions including Deputy Chief of Staff of the Navy's East Sea Fleet and Chief of Staff of the North Sea Fleet. When the author sought out Sun Gongfei's descendants in Shanghai, it was learned that Sun Gongfei had treasured throughout his life more than 130 photographs taken during the execution of the first mine-clearance mission. In order to allow more people to understand the arduous journey of the People's Navy's first minesweeper flotilla—starting from nothing and cleaving through the waves—Sun Gongfei's children donated the more than 130 photographs he had treasured during his lifetime to a minesweeper flotilla of the Eastern Theater Command Navy. This gripping combat story has become all the more vivid and tangible through these old photographs.