Cenotaph

A high, trapezoidal monument, onto two plaques are inset (one in the front and the other in the back) commemorating LTC Medendorp. The plaques were written in Chinese and English in yellow and printed lettering. US military Lt. Col. Alfred Medendorp, a former member of the U. S. Army Military Assistance Group was killed in combat at the Kinmen Shuitou Wharf during the Artillery Bombardment of September 3rd (September 1954). He died in action under the fire of Communist China’s artillery. He was 47 years old.

On September 3, at 3:00 p.m., the Communist Chinese artillery began pounding the islands of Kinmen (Greater Quemoy and Lesser Quemoy) and sending surprise attacks on Shuitou Wharf. Kinmen Defense Commander Gen. Liu Yu-Chang immediately ordered the artillery troops to launch counterstrikes to suppress the Chinese attacks. Communist China pounded Kinmen for two straight hours that day and continued to launch fragment cannon attacks until 8 in the evening. None of the villages along the coasts of the Kinmen Islands had been spared. The military accounted for over 5,000 rounds that had been fired at Kinmen. The offensive was a prologue of the cross-strait artillery battles between Communist China and Taiwan.

In the fifteen days that followed September 3rd, Communist Chinese fired 8,767 cannon rounds towards the Kinmen area. The attacks damaged the Shuitou Wharf and several civilian housings, as well as killed over 10 military personnel; Lt. Col. Alfred Medendorp of the United States Military was among those killed in action.

 

In Commemoration

ALFRED MEDENDORP

(1907-54)

 

Lieutenant Colonel, Army of the United States

U. S. Army Military Assistance Group

first U. S. soldier killed in action

at this location during hostile artillery bombardment

3 September 1954

 

Colonel Medendorp, a National Guard officer from the

State of Michigan, volunteered to help defend freedom

After distinguished combat service in WWII.

 

Awarded the Republic of China

Order of the Cloud and Banner

November, 1954

 

 

Dedicated. 1992 Republic of China

in coordination with

National Guard Association of the United States