Is anyone out there interested in topics such as
Foreign military in Shanghai and the other treaty ports pre WW2 ?
Shanghai Volunteer Corps ?
Grahamsh
I am researching these, in the context of the Boxer Rebellion 1900-01. The SVC I have little:
Shanghai Volunteer Corps (SVC)
Organisation & OOB
1853. The Shanghai Volunteer Corps (SVC) was created when the Consuls of the original Treaty Powers, Great Britain, United States, and France, met with foreign residents and decided to organise a Volunteer Corps for protection of the Settlement. [Shanghai]
1900. 27 ‘riding men’ who all knew the surrounding country thoroughly, were formed into a Company of Scouts, paying for their own uniforms and mounts. Officers were J S Fearson and A W Burkhill. [Kounin].
Customs Cyclist Company (CCC) formed as part of the SVC, apparently largely due to, Max Hey , an Austro-Hungarian bicycle enthusiast. Hey enlisted as a Corporal, later promoted to Sergeant. [AHA]
17 August 1900. Foreign troops garrisoned the Settlement. [Shanghai]
1902: Foreign garrison withdrawn. [Shanghai]
Operations
Very little is known about the CCCs activities but it was reported that it existed between May 1900 and March 1901. In British war history, the SVC only appears in footnotes and the CCC is largely unknown. [AHA]
20 June 1900. As precautionary measure defence of International Settlement placed in hands of the SVC pending arrival of foreign troops. under British control. [Shanghai]. Included in the preparations for trouble were the loosening of planking on the Soochow Creek bridges, arrangements of wire entanglements for all bridges across the Yangkingpang and construction of 26 ambulance stretchers. [Kounin].
Uniforms
This company wore British style uniforms made of local khaki fabric and Australian style slouch hats. Corporals wore 2 chevrons on the upper sleeve, Sergeants with three chevrons. [AHA]
Hey wore the Austro-Hungarian 1898 Signum-Memoriae-Medal, probably the only occasion it was worn on a British uniform. [AHA]
Weapons & Equipment
The guns and side arms were supplied by the British Army. The bicycles of the CCC came from the Customs Service. [AHA]
Sources
All About Shanghai, Appendix 2 - Chronology and historical digest of modern Shanghai, in Tales of Old China, at . [Shanghai]
Annand, Maj A McK, Ed. ‘A Report on the Tientsin Volunteer Corps in 1900’. JSAHR Vol 39, 1961. [cited as Boyce Kup, the author of the original report.]
Annand, Maj A McK. ‘The Tientsin Volunteer Corps in the Boxer Rising, 1900’. JSAHR Vol 36, 1958.
Hey, Maximilian, at . [AHA]
Kounin, I I. Eighty-five Years of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps. Shanghai: Cosmon Press, 1938.
Morrison, George Ernest - Papers, 1850-1932 - Selected Diary Entries, 1900. Citation No: MLMSS 312, Heritage Collection, Nelson Meers Foundation, State Library of New South Wales, at .
I would be delighted with anything you can add, please.
Mike
Foreign Military In China Pre Ww2
- Thread starter grahamsh
- Start date
Where does one start? By 1900, nearly every major and some minor European Powers had some military presence in Imperial China.
The British (Hong Kong & Wei-Hai-Wei); The Germans at Kaoutschou (QingDao)
The French in Shanghai, the Italians at Tientsin (Tianjin) the Austrians, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese in various places on the coast, The Russians at Port Arthur(Manchuria), the Japanese in Formosa, and the Americans with a military detachment at the Peking legation and also at the (Remington) Arsenal at Tientsin, as well as in Shanghai (USMC).
Most of these detachments were either Navy related, these countries basing a Pacific or East-Asian squadron in China (Germany, Italy,Britain and France), or Colonial troops drafted from other areas of Asia and Africa. (the British had both British Army and British Indian Troops, the French also had, besides Naval Infantry, Senegalese from West Africa. The germans had a specific Unit, the Ost-Asiatische Shutztruppen, a battalion specially raised for service in Asia. and suitably equipped for tropical and subtropical service.
After 1900, with the crushing reparations imnposed by the Allied Powers on Imperial China, the numbers and Postings of Foreign troops increased, until 1914, when WW I changed the arrangements of foreign Powers.
Also, the 1904-5 Russo japanese war removed the Russians as a major Power in Chinese affairs, and the 1911 SunYat Sen revolution also started to change the rapport between China and Foreign occupation.
The Japanese rapidly expelled the Germans from China(Shandong peninsula) in late 1914, and of course the Austro-Hungarian Empire also disappeared from the Chinese scene.
With the passing of the 1920s, and the assertion of the KMT throughout China (Local warlords notwithstanding, the Foreign Military outpost grew smaller, concentrating on the major Port Cities (Tientsin, TsingTao, Shanghai and Hong Kong; Of course, the events of 8-18-31 (Japanese Annexation/invasion of Manchuria and establishment of Puppet state of Manch-kuo again changed the whole aspect of "Foreign" Military establishments in China. By the 1930s, most of the Foreign Military posts in China were to protect European intertests in the trading Cities from depredations caused by the ongoing Fighting between various Warlords and of course, the Communists. The original reason for the presence of Foreign troops (the collection of Taxes and reparations from the Boxer Rebellion treaties) had long since passed from the political scene.
So when the Japanese lauched the war against China proper (Marco Polo Bridge incident, 1937), the other nations "secured their backyards" and assited the refugee Chinese as and where they could.
Of course, the Japanese hostilities upset the position of the german and the italians, who in the 1920s and early 30s had larege Military Missions in China, traing the Chinese Army and Airforce (in order to combat Communism, and the Influence of Stalinist Russian Military advisors to the Chinese Communist Party. Japan finally convinced Hiotler and Mussolini to withdraw their Military aid, but by this time ( 1939,) those dictators wetre fully involved in a European War. The Italian Squadron in China finally was interned by the Japanese in September 1943 ( as had been the US Marines in 1941); Only the Germans remained ( in difficult relations) with the Japanese till 1945, sending important raw materials to Germany by "Cargo Submarines", the last reaching Germany after the end of the European War. ( Rubber, Tin, Tungsten, etc).
There is still very much to research on the presence and activity of foreign Military groups in China from 1900 to 1945, quite apart from the major WW II Players.
Regards,
Doc AV
AV Ballistics Film Ordnance Services.
The British (Hong Kong & Wei-Hai-Wei); The Germans at Kaoutschou (QingDao)
The French in Shanghai, the Italians at Tientsin (Tianjin) the Austrians, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese in various places on the coast, The Russians at Port Arthur(Manchuria), the Japanese in Formosa, and the Americans with a military detachment at the Peking legation and also at the (Remington) Arsenal at Tientsin, as well as in Shanghai (USMC).
Most of these detachments were either Navy related, these countries basing a Pacific or East-Asian squadron in China (Germany, Italy,Britain and France), or Colonial troops drafted from other areas of Asia and Africa. (the British had both British Army and British Indian Troops, the French also had, besides Naval Infantry, Senegalese from West Africa. The germans had a specific Unit, the Ost-Asiatische Shutztruppen, a battalion specially raised for service in Asia. and suitably equipped for tropical and subtropical service.
After 1900, with the crushing reparations imnposed by the Allied Powers on Imperial China, the numbers and Postings of Foreign troops increased, until 1914, when WW I changed the arrangements of foreign Powers.
Also, the 1904-5 Russo japanese war removed the Russians as a major Power in Chinese affairs, and the 1911 SunYat Sen revolution also started to change the rapport between China and Foreign occupation.
The Japanese rapidly expelled the Germans from China(Shandong peninsula) in late 1914, and of course the Austro-Hungarian Empire also disappeared from the Chinese scene.
With the passing of the 1920s, and the assertion of the KMT throughout China (Local warlords notwithstanding, the Foreign Military outpost grew smaller, concentrating on the major Port Cities (Tientsin, TsingTao, Shanghai and Hong Kong; Of course, the events of 8-18-31 (Japanese Annexation/invasion of Manchuria and establishment of Puppet state of Manch-kuo again changed the whole aspect of "Foreign" Military establishments in China. By the 1930s, most of the Foreign Military posts in China were to protect European intertests in the trading Cities from depredations caused by the ongoing Fighting between various Warlords and of course, the Communists. The original reason for the presence of Foreign troops (the collection of Taxes and reparations from the Boxer Rebellion treaties) had long since passed from the political scene.
So when the Japanese lauched the war against China proper (Marco Polo Bridge incident, 1937), the other nations "secured their backyards" and assited the refugee Chinese as and where they could.
Of course, the Japanese hostilities upset the position of the german and the italians, who in the 1920s and early 30s had larege Military Missions in China, traing the Chinese Army and Airforce (in order to combat Communism, and the Influence of Stalinist Russian Military advisors to the Chinese Communist Party. Japan finally convinced Hiotler and Mussolini to withdraw their Military aid, but by this time ( 1939,) those dictators wetre fully involved in a European War. The Italian Squadron in China finally was interned by the Japanese in September 1943 ( as had been the US Marines in 1941); Only the Germans remained ( in difficult relations) with the Japanese till 1945, sending important raw materials to Germany by "Cargo Submarines", the last reaching Germany after the end of the European War. ( Rubber, Tin, Tungsten, etc).
There is still very much to research on the presence and activity of foreign Military groups in China from 1900 to 1945, quite apart from the major WW II Players.
Regards,
Doc AV
AV Ballistics Film Ordnance Services.