OVERVIEW
GREAT BRITAIN

• HMS PETEREL

FRANCE
ITALY
THE VOLUNTEERS - WEEKEND WARRIORS
UNITED STATES

• YANGTZE PATROL - 15TH INFANTRY - 4TH MARINES
• 31ST INFANTRY - USS PANAY - LEGATION GUARD
• USS WAKE - USS TUTUILA

In 1920 foreign land forces were maintained at Peking, Tientsin, Chinwangtao, Shanhaihuan, Shanghai, Tongshan, Leichwang, Fengtai, Laofa, Weihaiwei, Yangtsun and Tangku. Prior to the Boxer Troubles in 1900 the treaty powers maintained no regular garrisons except in their colonies and leased areas. Threats were met by sending naval and marine landing parties ashore or by applying tothe local Chinese officers for protection.

During the heydays of the treaty ports before 1914 several foreign nations maintained forces in China. Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, the United States, Russia, and after 1895, Japan all maintained a naval/military presence of varying qualities in one or more locations. These forces were concentrated at Peking, Tientsin and Shanghai with smaller forces at Hankow and other points. Britain, Portugal and France also maintained forces in their possessions of Hong Kong, Macau, and Kwangchowan. Landing parties and naval gunfire from the foreign flotillas were sometimes used to protect the lives of resident foreigners and their property.

From the 1920s to the beginning of World War II, Great Britain, Japan, the United States, France and Italy maintained naval and sometimes ground forces at various points in China. Japan maintained large numbers of forces in Shantung until 1922 and also in Manchuria even before the outbreak of hostilities in 1931-32.

Between 1927 and 1940 the standard British pattern was one brigade (three battalions plus support elements) at Shanghai and Hong Kong with one reinforced battalion stationed at Tientsin and one company detachment at Peking. Prior to relinquishing Weihaiwei in 1930 the normal garrison was only one rifle company drawn from either the Hong Kong or Tientsin garrison.

Great Britain, with the largest European economic stake in China, maintained a significant gunboat and destroyer flotilla in the Yangtze Valley based on Shanghai and on the coast based on Hong Kong and Weihaiwei (until 1931). Ground forces were posted at Tientsin, Shanghai, Weihaiwei until 1931, and Peking. During the disruptions following the Chinese Revolution in 1911-1912 there were also small garrisons at Canton and Hankow and other points depending on local conditions. Actual strength varied depending on conditions. During the troubles in 1926-1927 the British had the equivalent of a reinforced division posted in Shanghai and a rifle battalion in Tientsin. The 1932 and 1937 troubles caused the British to reinforce their Shanghai forces while the single battalion garrison at Tientsin was maintained at the status quo ante bellum.

Great Britain evacuated all its forces from China during August of 1940 except for a brigade in Hong Kong and some small naval units. These units along with two reinforcing Canadian rifle battalions at Hong Kong were essentially destroyed in December 1941 and surrendered on Christmas Day. Following the Japanese cease fire in mid-August, 1945, Britain re-occupied Hong Kong on August 30. Colonial civil government had been restored by surviving civil servants released from prison approximately two weeks prior to the fleet elements arriving.

Following the war, Britain re-established a naval flotilla on the Yangtze and in coastal China. Extraterritoriality had ended in 1943 but old habits died hard. Following a number of bloody and embarrassing incidents involving British naval ships and Chinese communist forces during the early part of the year, all British naval units were removed from the Yangtze Valley by the summer of 1949.

During the period between 1920 and 1940 France maintained two battalions of colonial infantry at Shanghai and two battalions based at Tientsin with detachments at Peking, Taku, and Shanhaikwan.

France put most of its energy in Asia into its French Indo-China colony. The Kwangchowan leased area was actually governed as an apendage of Tonkin (French Indo-China). The French concessions in China were generally garrisoned with French officered Vietnamese troops. Gendarmes were French and maintained a thin veneer of French control. During the inter-war period the French administration in Shanghai was known to be corrupt. In fact, the Shanghai French Concession's Chief of Detectives (a Chinese) was known to be the head of the Green Gang, one of the largest underworld organizations in Shanghai. One retiring French chief administrator at Shanghai was actually poisoned at his farewell banquet.

Italy garrisoned its concession at Tientsin, provided a legation guard at Peking. Italy was never a major economic player in China. It maintained battalion size marine garrisons at Shanghai and Tientsin along with a number of ships on station in Asian waters. These units and their ships' crews became isolated in 1939 and disintegrated as organizations early in the war. Personnel were left to their own devices for survival until repatriated individually to Italy in 1945-46.
 

THE VOLUNTEERS - WEEKEND WARRIORS Although not on the strength of any army, volunteer military corps were in existence at Canton, Hong Kong, Newchang, Weihaiwei, Shanghai, Hankow and Tientsin. The organizations were unusually international, sometimes allowing Chinese to participate, and almost always strictly volunteer in nature.  The United Kingdom seconded officers to supervise training and made equipment available to these formations at Shanghai, Hankow and Tientsin. In 1930 the strength of the British Concession's Tientsin Volunteer Corps was 169. The Shanghai Volunteer Corps contained both paid and un-paid members during the twenty years leading up to 1941. At its peak strength it had approximately 1,600 members. Company size units were organized along national lines with many nations represented. From 1931 until 1942 the Municipal Council maintained a paid Russian Battalion/Regiment made up of White Russians on retainer. The French Concession had a separate volunteer corps under the control of the French Consul. At Hankow resident Americans (and other foreign residents) formed a volunteer corps during the period 1914-1917 when the regular forces of warring nations were not allowed in neutral China. The United States Government made small arms available and the Russian consul allowed the volunteers to use the Russian barracks for drills and administrative quarters. The Hankow Volunteer Corps were disarmed in 1927. All volunteer organizations except the Hong Kong unit were disbanded with the Japanese takeover of the concessions and settlements in 1941-42. The Hong Kong Volunteer Corps saw sustained combat during the period December 8 - 25, 1941. It was destroyed in combat and surrendered with other British Empire (British, Indian and Canadian) forces December 25th, 1941.

Before 1900 the United States had no land forces permanently stationed in China. Following the Boxer Rebellion a permanent guard was maintained at the Peking Legation. In addition to fleet units the United States Navy maintained a variable strength squadron of small ships and gunboats in the Yangtze Valley from 1854 until 1942. Beginning in 1854 patrols were made along the Yangtze showing the flag and providing a visible American presence. This mini-squadron had, in the 1930s, eight ships on regular assignment with periodic visits by destroyers and cruisers venturing as far inland as Hankow.

The patrols were was organized as a part of the East Indies or later Asiatic Squadron until 1907 when all U.S. Navy ships in the Pacific were folded into the Pacific Fleet. In 1910 the Asiatic Fleet was established with headquarters at Manila, and the gunboats included in it. The gunboats evolved into the South China Patrol and Yangtze Patrol in 1919. Three of the five remaining gunboats evacuated to the Philippines in late November of 1941 where the separate patrols disbanded with units participating in the defense of the Philippines until May of 1942.

A small force of U.S. Marines and sailors participated in the defense of the Legation Quarter during the Boxer Rebellion's siege of 1900. Three U.S. Army infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment and a field artillery battery, a regiment of  U.S. Marines, and naval personnel  participated in the international force taking Tientsin and relieving the legations in Peking.

After the Boxer Rebellion the United States maintained garrisons of Marines and soldiers at three locations during much of the early 20th Century. The U.S. Army provided a legation guard at Peking from 1900 until 1905. U.S. Marines took over this assignment on a full time basis and maintained a Legation Guard in Peking from 1905 until December 8, 1941. This force varied in strength from less than 100 members to over 500 in 1930.

The U.S. Army's 15th Infantry Regiment was garrisoned at Tientsin and other nearby North China points from December 1911 until late 1938 when it was withdrawn to the United States. The principal mission was to safeguard American and other foreign interests during the revolution and perpetual civil war that plagued China from 1911 until 1949. A much smaller detachment of Marines assumed this duty in 1938 and were a part of the Legation Guard.

From March 1927, until late November 28, 1941, the 4th Marines were garrisoned in Shanghai's International Settlement to protect American interests and incidentally, the integrity of the the Settlement. They acted with other foreign garrisons as a tripwire protecting the International Settlement from incursion by Chinese forces and later Japanese forces fighting the Chinese.

During the troubled times of 1927-1928 a reinforced Marine Brigade supplemented the local American forces at Tientsin and Shanghai. Naval landing parties from fleet elements also supported the Marines ashore at Shanghai. Yangtze and South China Patrol sailors cooperated with British and other foreign forces at Canton, Chungking, Kuiking, Hankow, Changsha, Nanking, and other points protecting foreign nationals and assisting in their safe evacuation to Shanghai or Hong Kong when necessary.

In 1932 the U.S. Army's31st Infantry, normally garrisoned in the Philippines, was sent to Shanghai to reinforce the 4th Marines during the battles between Japanese and Chinese forces in districts adjacent to the International Settlement. Following a four month deployment it was returned to its normal station after hostilities moved further afield.

During the 1937-38 battles around Shanghai, Marines from fleet ships and the United States again reinforced the Fourth Marines.

On December 12, 1937 the well marked USS Panay was attacked by Japanese warplanes and sunk while at anchor in the Yangtze River with a convoy of neutral merchant ships near Nanking. Three Americans were killed. Not willing to create a major international incident at this time, Japan apologized and made reparations while the United States accepted the apologies.

By the end of 1939 all sea-going U.S. Navy ships had been withdrawn from regular assignments in China. This left the Marines at Peking, Tientsin, and Shanghai and the Yangtze and South China Patrol ships, five river gunboats in all, as the residual American military presence until just before the outbreak of World War II.

On November 27-28, 1941 three of the five remaining gunboats and the 4th Marines were withdrawn to the Philippine Islands where they participated in the Filipino-American defense. The Marine Legation Guard at Peking (now Beijing) and its subsidiary detachments at Tientsin and Chinwangtao (approximately 200 Marines) surrendered December 8, 1941. They were interned, treated as ordinary prisoners of war and held for the duration. By common international standards, these prisoners should have been considered part of the diplomatic staff and exchanged along with the civilian diplomats.

Following World War II American forces were posted in China for logistics support to the Nationalist government and to repatriate Japanese personnel. Naval, Marine and Army personnel in limited numbers remained at several locations in China, including Shanghai, Tientsin, and Tsingtao until the middle of 1949.

No American military personnel were stationed in China from late 1949 until the American Embassy was re-established at Beijing in the 1970s. The small Marine security detachment attached to the embassy continues a traditional function dating back to before the Boxer Rebellion in 1899 - 1900. 

The crew of the last American gunboat in China, the USS Tutuila, stationed at Chungking, was evacuated by air to India in January 1942 and the ship was Lend-Leased to the Chinese government in February 1942.