Fourth Marines
Leathernecks Served in China and the Philippines
The Fourth Marines odyssey in China began in 1927, when they were ordered to Shanghai by President Calvin Coolidge. China was in turmoil, and American lives and property were at risk. General Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) and his Nationalist party was trying to unite China, but were opposed by powerful warlords. Chiang won, but later Japanese aggression made China a war zone once again. The Fourth Marines stayed until 1941
China Marines in the International Settlement
China duty was considered a plum assignment. Labor was cheap, and Chinese servants did the routine work around the barracks. Their main task in the 1930s was to guard the International Settlement from invasion and war. Other nations also had troops in Shanghai, most particularly the British. An average day mainly consisted of guard duty, route marches, and leisure time. Even luxury items like silk and jewelry were fairly cheap, making Shanghai a paradise to marines used to Depression-era America.
Shanghai Night Life
There were many places where a marine could have a good time when off duty. Old Shanghai was a hedonistic place, and seemingly every block had a movie house, brothel, night club or cabaret. For night life there was the Del Monte, Little Club, and any others. Some clubs featured “taxi dancers” where one could get a dance, companionship, and maybe sex—for a price. Many were White Russian women who had escaped the Russian Revolution.
Fourth Marine bandsman Don Versaw remembered that in the clubs “you’d buy a ticket and choose your lady. While dancing you could ask the lady to come to your table for a drink. A client could order just about anything but the dancer would only drink Cherry Brandskies—non alcoholic tea at cocktail prices”
In 1938 the Fourth Marines Club opened, which boasted a noncom’s bar, a private’s bar, a bowling alley, billiards room, library, and gymnasium. Men could take their girlfriends—often Russian or Chinese—there without problems. The building still exists in modern Shanghai
The Sino-Japanese War of 1937
In 1932 Chinese and Japanese forces stationed in Shanghai clashed in the so-called “Shanghai Incident.” There was an emergency declared in the International Settlement, and the Marines were assigned a defense sector along Soochow (now Suzhou) Creek. The fighting ended in three months, but a more serious war broke out in 1937. Admiral Harry Yarnell, commander of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, ordered the Fourth to execute "Plan A,” which once again had the Marines defend the Suzhou Creek boundary.
The Years Before Pearl Harbor
The Japanese expelled the Chinese from Shanghai after a bloody struggle. For the next few years the International Settlement was called the “lonely island,” a neutral zone in a Japanese-occupied “sea.” Tensions increased as Japanese soldiers continually tried to violate the Settlement’s neutrality. When, for example, four Japanese threatened a Chinese man on Robinson Road, a Marine patrol from Company H arrived on the scene. The patrol was led by Gunnery Sergeant Milton C “Slug” Marvin, a tough old leatherneck famous in the Corps. He arrested the Japanese, and when one didn’t come willingly, he was “persuaded” by a rifle butt.
In 1940-41 the legendary Lewis “Chesty” Puller was executive officer-later commander—of the Second Battalion, Fourth Marines. It was said that he too would not stand for any nonsense from the Japanese. Puller later became the most decorated marine in Corps history.
Withdrawal from Shanghai, World War II, and Corregidor
By 1940 the Fourth Marines— now around 1,000 men--- were guarding the Settlement, opposed by roughly 300,000 Japanese. In late November, 1941, the regiment was finally withdrawn from Shanghai and shipped to the Philippines. When World War II broke out the Fourth Marines were part of the garrison that heroically defended Corregidor against a massive Japanese onslaught. When Corregidor finally fell, the marines faced another three and a half years in the hell of Japanese captivity.
Sources:
Brig.General Robert Hugh Williams, The Old Corps: A portrait of the U.S. Marine Corps Between the Wars (Naval Institute Press, 1982)
George B. Clark, Treading Softly: U.S. Marines in China, 1819-1949 (Praeger, 2001)
Fourth Marine Warren G. Jorgenson
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Fourth Marines Leave Shanghai 1941
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