A document titled History of the U-2, ca. December 1966, has a summary on U-2’s accomplishments during the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis:
The book The CIA and the U-2 Program, 1954-1974, released in 1998, summarizes the role of the U-2 during the crisis in one page:
Both documents dated the start of the crisis to August 11, 1958. This is confusing because I could not find anything significant taking place on that day. Chicom did shell some offshore islands on the 11th, but only about 50 rounds in total. Note that this kind of shelling was not unusual at that time. For example, the Central News Agency reported on July 12, 1958, that Chicom artillery fired 218 rounds on the previous day but incurred no loss on our side. In fact, the 1958 Crisis is most commonly referred to as the “823 Artillery Battle” in Taiwan, signifying the first day of heavy shelling (more than 40,000 rounds on that day).
Also confusing is that both documents implied more than four U-2 missions over China had been flown between August 11 and October 24. I could not find any other documents to support this. The following listing, compiled in 1968, shows only four China missions in the entire 1958. Of course, this does not mean the first two documents are wrong. But, given that they are wrong about the starting date of the crisis, I would place more confidence in the 1968 listing.
In this series of posts, I only cover U-2’s roles during the 1958 crisis, which by no means gives a complete picture of this important event. For more references written in English, you may want to check out the following sites.
Air Operations in the Taiwan Crisis of 1958
Fifth Air Force in the Taiwan Straits Crisis of 1958
Foreign relations of the United States, 1958-1960. China. Volume XIX