(2 of 3)
The LSMs push on toward the island, at 3:30 report that two of their number had beached. In fact, the two lead LSMs are not on the beach but on a sand bar, 20 yds. of neck-deep water from shore. One of them drops its ramp, and an amphibious duck scurries out onto the beach. After a protracted argument between the LSM's captain and the troop commander —"If you're so brave, why don't you take your damn ship closer to shore?"—50 Nationalist replacement troops struggle ashore through the swirling surf. Then a Communist shell smacks into the water close to the port bow. Within ten seconds, high explosives are whistling in at the rate of 10,000 an hour. In frantic haste, the two beached LSMs back off the sand bar. Miraculously, neither is badly hit. Twenty minutes later, all four Nationalist transports of convoy No. 3 are out of Communist range and on their way back to the Pescadores.
Aboard Gregory, Squadron 17's commander swears softly. "I'll tell you one damn thing," he says. "Those Chinese have guts. I'd hate to have to go into that beach knowing what was coming." Beside him. on the bridge a Nationalist liaison officer, Lieut. M. S. Liu, silently watches the flight of the LSMs. "Does this mean the end of Quemoy?" someone asks him. "No, no," he says quietly. "Not so, not so."
Friday — Nationalist frogmen begin clearing away coastal mines and underwater spikes to open a new Quemoy landing beach sheltered by a sheer, soft. cliff. At Makung naval base in the Pescadores, Admiral Smoot holds a strategy session with a tight-lipped Chiang Kaishek. In three tries, U.S.-escorted cargoes have so far unloaded 300 tons of supplies, one amphibious duck, 50 Nationalist soldiers, one U.S. Marine attached to the Military Assistance Advisory Group. Nationalist Chief of the General Staff Wang Shu-ming ("Tiger" Wang), asked how Chiang feels about the convoy operations, shakes his head and says, "Not happy, not happy." To the same question, a U.S. destroyer officer replies: "Put it this way—I'd hate to get paid by the ton delivered."
Saturday—The fourth convoy tries—this time under the cover of predawn darkness. But Communist guns have been zeroed in. At 5:10 a.m. they begin a saturation barrage. After facing the bombardment for 23 minutes, the four LSMs flee with all but a smattering of their cargo still unloaded. At 4 p.m. the same four LSMs try it again. Same result. By this time the air is full of recrimination. Major General Kao Yin-fen, deputy commander of the Quemoy garrison, bitterly declares that so far the convoys "have subjected our troops to damage instead of giving them support," argues that the Seventh Fleet should sail in and shell the Communist artillery bombarding Quemoy. U.S. naval men reply that naval gunfire is of limited effectiveness against well dug-in shore batteries, charge that Nationalist transports are inexcusably slow and sloppy in their offloading.