In November 1990, a tragedy occurred on Gaven Reef in the Spratly Islands. 11 soldiers defending the island were mysteriously killed, 6 of them were killed, 5 of them are missing, and the ** behind the scenes is still unknown.
As a small island and reef on the southwestern edge of the Spratly Islands, Gaven Reef is not large. However, due to its proximity to the Philippines and Vietnam, our army can only deploy dozens of soldiers defending the island here, just in case.
The economic value of the South China Sea is huge, and both the Philippines and Vietnam have always coveted the South China Sea. In the 10s, China's naval construction was relatively backward, and this case has therefore become an unresolved case that has not yet been concluded.
What happened back then? What is the inside story of this **?
On November 17, 1990, the correspondents at the Nansha Command Headquarters transmitted information to the soldiers stationed on various islands and reefs in accordance with the usual practice, and called the soldiers to make daily reports.
But after several successive signals to Gaven Reef, the fighters on the reef did not respond. At first, the communicator thought that the weather at sea was unpredictable, which caused damage to the sea communication line, but he still waited patiently in front of the radio.
However, after half an hour, Gaven Reef still did not take the initiative to respond to the command, which made the communicator feel that something was wrong, so he hurriedly reported it to his superiors.
After receiving the news of the disappearance of Gaven Reef, the higher-ups personally sent a telegram to the fighters on the reef, and then tried radio. But the result can be imagined, no one on Gaven Reef responded.
As a result, the Nansha Command immediately dispatched a ship to Gaven Reef to check the situation.
Due to the relatively remote location of Gaven Reef, almost all of the islands and reefs in the surrounding area were illegally occupied by Vietnam and the Philippines, and the officers and men defending the island had only one squad, so it was difficult for the soldiers to make effective resistance in the event of an enemy attack.
Therefore, after determining that the situation on Gaven Reef had changed, the command ordered the soldiers on the nearby islands and reefs to cheer up and enter a state of readiness for war, and immediately dispatched patrol personnel to Gaven Reef.
When approaching Gaven Reef, the command personnel saw that the camp on the reef was intact, and there was no sign of foreign invasion.
Just as they were about to breathe a sigh of relief, the Command personnel noticed an eerie atmosphere permeating Gaven Reef. The area around the camp was so quiet that it was like a pool of stagnant water, with no sign of human activity at all.
Except for the continuous sound of the waves, there was no life on Gaven Reef, and the whereabouts of dozens of officers and soldiers guarding the island were unknown.
Inspectors scattered around Gaven Reef to search for clues, and after opening a door to a room in the camp, the inspectors finally witnessed this thrilling scene.
I saw that the large and small debris in the room were scattered on the ground, the documents on the table also had obvious traces of being flipped, and the walls were covered with bullet holes.
Apparently, there must have been a fierce shootout at Gaven Reef camp on the night of 16 November. However, after a careful search, the inspectors found only the remains of six fallen soldiers in the camp, and the whereabouts of five fighters are unknown.
After conducting a carpet survey of Gaven Reef, the inspectors found many traces of fighting on the island, and in the shallow waters of the reef, there were also many bullet casings and guns used by our soldiers.
After checking the list of missing items in the camp, the inspectors also found that the only lifeboat on Gaven Reef had also been driven away and its whereabouts were unknown.
Six people were killed in the camp and five people mysteriously disappeared, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, looking at the entire People's Liberation Army, this is an unprecedented event. After the incidents were reported one by one, the military top brass ordered the Nansha command to find out the truth at any cost.
However, after spending a lot of manpower and material resources, the Nansha command still failed to find valuable clues, and the truth of the matter still did not surface.
And as the mystery of the mysterious death and disappearance of Gaven Reef fighters has grown, and the public has made various speculations, conspiracy theories, Philippine invasions and other opinions have emerged, and the case has become more and more obscure.
What speculations did investigators have about what happened that day?
In 1990, China's officers and soldiers defending the island were attacked, 6 people were killed, and 5 people were missing, and the real culprit is still a mystery.
In February 1988, China sent troops to Gaven Reef, which put a lot of pressure on Vietnam. At that time, investigators at the Nansha command believed that the 11 officers and soldiers were most likely secretly attacked by Vietnamese frogman troops.
Although Vietnam's naval forces are relatively backward, Vietnam intends to take a share of the South China Sea, and Vietnam will not easily withdraw from the South China Sea, and the Vietnamese Navy has always implemented the strategy of asymmetric warfare.
Gaven Reef, located at the southwestern tip of the Spratly Islands, is under the control of Vietnam on all sides, and it is not difficult for frogman troops to quietly attack Gaven Reef.
As a key development project of the Vietnamese Navy, the frogman unit is fully capable of secretly approaching Gaven Reef by speedboat and launching a surprise attack on the officers and men of the camp at Gaven Reef under the cover of night.
In the early 90s, China's navy construction was relatively backward, and the troops guarding the islands and reefs were not equipped with relevant radar or sonar detection systems. In the face of the sneak attack of the frogman troops at night, the reef guards had almost no means of countermeasures.
In addition to having the strength to secretly capture Gaven Reef, Vietnam's overall layout in the Nansha Islands also gives it all the conditions to project frogman troops to Gaven Reef.
At the southwestern tip of the Nansha Islands, China only occupies Gaven Reef and Dongmen Reef, and the surrounding islands and reefs, such as Jinghong Island, Hongxu Island, and Guoqian Sandbank, are all occupied by Vietnam.
Except for Taiping Island to the north of Gaven Reef, which is under the jurisdiction of Taiwan**, the other three islands and reefs controlled by Vietnam have formed a trend of encirclement of Gaven Reef.
Hung Xuan Island is less than 5 nautical miles from Gaven Reef and is completely within the operational range of the Vietnamese frogman forces. In order to expand its influence in the South China Sea, Vietnam has also specially deployed a company of more than 100 people here to monitor every move of the Gaven Reef camp.
Vietnam has always coveted the South China Sea, and as recently as March 1988, China and Vietnam had a skirmish over Chigua Reef.
At that time, the Vietnamese HQ505 landing ship led a transport ship, quickly approached the Chigua Reef, and intended to land on the Chigua Reef.
After China's patrol navy discovered the abnormality, it kept shouting to Vietnam, indicating that Vietnam's Chigua Reef was Chinese territory and that Vietnam must leave immediately.
After our troops preemptively landed on Chigua Reef, they reinforced 58 people at Chigua Reef before and after, blocked the landing of the Vietnamese Navy, and cut the ropes on the Vietnamese army's transport board one by one.
Unexpectedly, the Vietnamese army was so angry that they even planted the Vietnamese flag on Chigua Reef in a grand manner after landing on Chigua Reef.
Seeing this, the officers and men of our navy naturally could not tolerate the absurd actions of the Vietnamese army, and then scuffled with the Vietnamese army, knocked the Vietnamese flag bearer to the ground in the melee, and tore the Vietnamese flag in half.
Seeing that they could not defeat the Chinese Navy empty-handed, the Vietnamese army directly picked up machine guns and pointed at the Chinese Navy**. Seeing the first shot fired by the Vietnamese army, Chen Weiwen, the chief of staff of the unit, immediately ordered a counterattack, and the gunfire on Chigua Reef continued one after another.
At that time, the Chinese Navy also dispatched the No. 502 ship, and seeing that the Vietnamese army planned to use the heavy machine guns on the landing ship to strafe fire, the No. 502 ship fired several artillery shots in succession, accurately hitting the Vietnamese landing ship, and sinking the landing ship in an instant.
Another transport ship was also beaten into a sieve by our army, and the fire soared into the sky, and the Vietnamese army was suddenly in a state of confusion, and it did not completely lose its fighting spirit to continue fighting.
Having lost logistical support and main firepower, some of the Vietnamese Navy on Chi Kua Reef rushed directly into the sea, while others were stunned and surrendered.
In the Battle of Chigua Reef, our army almost did not pay any price to defeat the Vietnamese Navy, so that Vietnam completely dispelled the idea of trying to occupy Chigua Reef.
Since then, China has continued to build an oceanographic observatory in the Paracel Islands and stationed troops at Gaven Reef, all of which seem to have been uneventful, and Vietnam has been on its own for a while.
However, the Vietnamese prisoners of war who surrendered in the Battle of Chigua Reef were refused to withdraw from the South China Sea due to the tense relations between China and Vietnam at that time, and the prisoners of war have been held in Zhanjiang.
Vietnam, which had suffered a defeat, did not give up and could not fight head-to-head with China, so it naturally had to secretly do some "indiscriminate" actions.
After the Battle of Chigua Reef, Vietnam continued to send spies to try to infiltrate China and spy on China's military deployments in the South China Sea. Gaven Reef, which has only one squad and is located in the hinterland of Vietnam's sphere of influence, will naturally become a target for Vietnam's retaliation.
Dozens of officers and men only patrol the small Nanyun Reef, and the material conditions on the island are already somewhat backward, and there is not enough guarantee for personal safety.
Although Vietnam has every reason and ability to launch an attack on Gaven Reef, according to the information obtained by the Nansha Command, there are no items or traces related to the Vietnamese side at the site of Gaven Reef.
But if Vietnam sends elite troops and adopts the method of silent combat, it is fully capable of leaving no trace. Although Vietnam is the most suspected perpetrator, China suffers from the lack of evidence and cannot take Vietnam accountable for granted.
In addition to Vietnam, the most unstable factor, the Spratly command has other speculations. There are some indications that Gaven Reef may have encountered pirates and infighting among officers and soldiers, but what are the facts to support these views?
In 1990, six officers and soldiers defending the islands in the South China Sea were killed and five were missing.
Perhaps unexpectedly, according to relevant data, the frequency of piracy in the South China Sea and Southeast Asian waters is second only to Somalia, the hardest-hit area of piracy.
Even in 2010, there were 13 incidents of piracy in Southeast Asian waters in a single quarter, not to mention the early 90s, when the objective conditions were relatively backward.
The South China Sea region is adjacent to many Southeast Asian countries, which are relatively backward, contradictions between various ethnic groups have arisen one after another, and social order is relatively chaotic.
Pirates who roam the South China Sea will pretend to be police and soldiers, approach passing ships in broad daylight, rob them of their money, and even kill people.
The pirates' armament is relatively backward, and they naturally dare not provoke some islands where a large number of companies are stationed, and some small islands and reefs with only a dozen people stationed have naturally become the best targets for the pirates.
Gaven Reef is located in a remote location, a considerable distance from the coastline of the mainland, and our army will send all kinds of military supplies to Gaven Reef on time, and pirates wandering around the sea are very likely to sack Gaven Reef for related supplies.
In addition, in addition to the pirate attack, there is another theory that is considered by the public to be more realistic, that is, there was a lot of infighting among the 11 officers and soldiers of the camp at Gaven Reef.
In the early 90s, more than a dozen officers and soldiers stationed on Gaven Reef lived in very difficult conditions. Usually they move on stilts to make a foundation out of a few pieces of wood, and then lay a few mats and a few pieces of oilcloth on it.
On rainy days, such stilt houses are completely unable to shelter from the wind and rain, and the weather at sea is cloudy and sunny, and the material conditions are scarce, and the various conditions for human habitation are lacking, so the long-term stationing here is extremely testing the resilience of the warriors.
Unlike other islands and reefs, Gaven Reef is still on the southwestern edge, and the supply ships responsible for transporting daily necessities only come to Gaven Reef once in a month or two.
Not only that, but the soldiers also need to carry a month's or two month's worth of living materials to the stilt house with the help of manpower. And the material hardship is not the most tormenting, but the mental torture makes people live like years.
In the early days of the construction of Gaven Reef, the island's telecommunications equipment and living and entertainment facilities were not perfect, and the soldiers could only talk to their families for a year and a half.
In addition, the Philippines and Vietnam are surrounded by the Philippines and Vietnam outside Gaven Reef, and the officers and men are often nervous, and at this time, a little friction can make everyone emotional, make the anchor section continue to intensify, and even appear to kill people with guns and abscond in fear of crime.
To a certain extent, this statement seems to have some truth, but it does not stand up to careful scrutiny, and it is unlikely that it will actually happen. However, it is an indisputable fact that the living conditions of the officers and men of Gaven Reef are extremely difficult.
In view of the suspicious situation in 1990, but the investigators could not find any substantive evidence related to **, which lasted for many years, this case has become an unsolved case.
However, no matter what the truth is, the 11 officers and soldiers stationed at Gaven Reef died in the line of duty, and our party still respects them as martyrs. This is not only a tribute to the sacrificed soldiers, but also an affirmation of the martyrs' achievements in defending China's inherent territory.
Without their perseverance, there would be no achievements in the construction of the Chinese Navy, and for this alone, the 11 martyrs who died are worthy of being remembered by us!
Today, the development of China's navy has changed rapidly, and no country can run amok in the South China Sea at will, and the tragedy of the Gaven Reef incident in 1990 is no longer being repeated.