August 23rd Artillery Battle Museum (Kinmen, Taiwan)
The August 23 Artillery Battle Museum / 八二三戰史館 is a museum in Zhongzheng Park, Jinhu Township, Kinmen. The museum was built in 1988 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the 23 August 1958 Artillery War during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis.
On the both sides of the museum main entrance are the carving of the names of the 587 ROC armed forces servicemen who lost their lives in the bombardment. On the left side are displayed the main air fighter used by the forces at that time and the main artillery piece. On the right side is one of the amphibious landing craft which played a vital role in transporting troops and materials during the battle.
The museum exhibits historical artifacts in 12 display areas for charts, photographs, documents, relics and models.
In 1958, Summer time as the worsening situation between Taiwan and China, in order to test the limits of the U.S.-Taiwan defense treaty, Mainland China planned to attack Kinmen and Matsu.
At 6:30 pm, on August 23, 1958, the Kinmen archipelago suddenly found them under massive artillery assault from Mainland China. When the Communists temporarily ceased fire on October 5, in just a short period of 44 days, 474,910 shells had landed on the islands. That calculated into an average of four shells per sq meter; the highest density in world record. It almost wiped out the entire Kinmen. The Communists officially stopped the war in 1978 when the United States officially recognized Beijing. The event is commonly referred to as “Battle of 823” in Chinese.