Conclusion Landing Operation on Hainan Island

people celebrated hainan island liberation in haikou on may 1, 1950

on april 23, 1950, haikou fell. in morning of april 24, 1950, second wave of communist landing forces arrived @ celestial tail harbor (tianwei, 天尾), , joined comrades in pursuit of retreating nationalists on 3 fronts. communist eastern front consisted of 119th , 120th divisions of 40th army, 128th division of 43rd army, 3rd division , independent regiment of qiongya column advanced objective of capturing regions including jiaji, wanning (万宁) , lingshui (陵水) in haikou , wenchang. communist central front consisted of 127th , 129th division of 43rd army, , objective capture regions of beili (北黎) , basuo (八所) in chengmai. communist western front consisted of 118th division of 40th army , units of 43rd army, pursued nationalist troops retreating westward.

by april 30, 1950, yulin (榆林) , sanya @ eastern front fell. may 1, 1950, beili , basuo fell hands of communist 43rd army , 1st division of qiongya column. regiment of 90th division , 286th division of nationalist 4th army destroyed while covering retreat of other nationalist units in last battle of campaign. communists achieved complete victory @ end.

the communists achieved victory in hainan despite having little experience in amphibious warfare , pla able restore morale after similar unsuccessful attacks @ jinmen , dengbu in fall of 1949. communist casualties totaled 4,500 while nationalist losses estimated around 33,000. remainder of nationalist troops retreated taiwan.