 On the morning of September 5, three carriers, a cruiser and three destroyers from the United States Seventh Fleet were standing by, patrolling the Taiwan Strait (Formosa Strait) a few miles from Kinmen (Quemoy).On September 7, the Chinese Nationalists responded to the attack with a seventy-six plane air raid on coastal mainland targets, claiming to destroy five of fourteen Chinese Communist artillery pieces, with (ROC) damaged sustained to only three Nationalist planes or (PRC) six Nationalist planes downed and twenty-five damanged.Beijing (Peiping) reported at least sixty deaths as a result of Nationalist bombing.