Tuesday, June 19, 1900. China asks legations to leave.

The Chinese government delivered an ultimatum in response to the attack on the Taku Forts to eleven ambassadors in the legation quarter demanding  that all foreign residents, including diplomats, missionaries and their families leave Beijing by 4pm the following day.  The demand accompanied a promise to provide troops for a safe exit.

Last edition:

Monday, June 18, 1900. The Taku Forts surrender.

Labels: Battle of Taku Forts, Boxer Rebellion, China, Eight Nation Alliance

Monday, June 18, 1900. The Taku Forts surrender.

The Taku Forts surrendered after a sixteen hour bombardment by ships of the Eight Nation Alliance. Chinse casualties were very heavy.  One Russian ship was sunk in the engagement.  Four Chinese destroyers were captured, and recommissioned in Western navies.

Last edition:

Sunday, June 17, 1900. Invading China, drafting Roosevelt.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Boxer Rebellion, China, Eight Nation Alliance, law, Qing Dynasty, Republican Party, Theodore Roosevelt

Sunday, June 17, 1900. Invading China, drafting Roosevelt.

Ships from the Eight-Nation Alliance consisting of  Germany, Japan, Russia, Britain, France, the United States, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.started a bombardment of the Taku Forts in China and began an invasion.

There was no declaration of war by this US, making the action arguably illegal, although the point can be debated.

China was, of course, an incredibly weak nation and the mercy of European powers, something that its never forgotten.

At the Republican Convention a movement started to draft Theodore Roosevelt for Vice President.

Last edition:

Friday, June 15, 1900. No Boxers.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Boxer Rebellion, China, China (Beijing), Qing Dynasty

Friday, June 15, 1900. No Boxers.

Chinese Empress (Tzu Hsi) Cixi decreed that Boxer rebels could not enter Beijing.

Last edition:

Thursday, June 14, 1900. The end of the Republic of Hawaii.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Automobile racing, Boxer Rebellion, China, China (Beijing), Germany, Hawaii, Personal comments

Thursday, June 14, 1900. The end of the Republic of Hawaii.

The "Act to Provide a Government for the Territory of Hawaii" took effect formally ending Hawaiian sovereignty.

I may have had relatives living on Oahu at the time.

German embassy guards fired on Boxer rebels outside the legation quarter, killing twenty and sparking mass crowd reaction.

The first Bennett Cup auto race was run.

Last edition:

Wednesday, June 13, 1900. Reacting violently.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Boxer Rebellion, China, China (Beijing), Christianity, religion

Wednesday, June 13, 1900. Reacting violently.

Western diplomatic missions began violent reactions to Chinese Boxers on this day, starting with the German legation.

Violence started spreading against Chinese Christians. 

Last edition:

Monday, June 11, 1900. Chinese troops murder a Japanese diplomat.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Boxer Rebellion, China, China (Beijing), Chinese Army, Japan, Qing Dynasty

Monday, June 11, 1900. Chinese troops murder a Japanese diplomat.

Japanese diplomat Sugiyama Akira was murdered by Imperial Chinese soldiers who dragged Akira from his carriage and hacked him to bits, then displayed his severed head at the railway station in Beijing.

Last edition:  

Sunday, June 10, 1900. Leaving for Beijing.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Boxer Rebellion, China, China (Beijing), Railroads

Sunday, June 10, 1900. Leaving for Beijing.

A multinational force departed Tianjin for Beijing to protect the citizens of their respective countries but only made it to Langfang before they had to detrain because of rail destruction. The troops would have to march the rest of the way.

Last edition:

Friday, June 8, 1900. Boxers attack the racetrack.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, 1903, Boxer Rebellion, Canada, China, Chinese Army, It was because of World War One, Military, War Department, Weapons, World War One, Yukon

Friday, June 8, 1900. Boxers attack the racetrack.

Boxers burned the grandstand of the horse racing track at the country club for western diplomats in Beijing.  It unfortunately turned lethal when British horsemen at the track rode out to investigate and one drew a pistol and killed a Boxer, causing the Chinse government to surround the foreigners at the Peking Legation Quarter.

The War Department authorized the production of telescopic sights for rifles.  The rifle at the time was the Krag–Jørgensen rifle, which had proven unsatisfactory in comparison to the M93 Mauser used by Spain in the Spanish American War.

The sight consists of a telescope which is attached by means of brackets to the left side of the rifle. The front bracket is secured to the lower band by two screws, and the ring through which the telescope passes has a horizontal motion to provide for drift and windage. A ball-and-socket joint in this ring allows the telescope to be moved in any direction … The rear bracket is screwed to the side plate of the receiver, and the ring which holds the telescope has a vertical movement for changes of elevation.

Telescopes of three different powers are submitted for trial, viz. 8 diameters, 12 diameters, and 20 diameters. The medium power (12 diameters) gave the best results.

The telescope is of practically universal focus; that is, it does not require readjustment for different marksmen or for different ranges. The eye can be placed close to the eyepiece or several inches away without any apparent difference in the focus. Danger of being struck in the eye when the piece recoils can therefore be avoided.

The lenses are large and are held in place by having the metal of the tubes in which they are mounted spun over their outer edges. The telescope is light, but at the same time strong. The brackets for attaching the telescope to the rifle are strong and durable and there appears to be no tendency to jar loose.

The sight was tested by actual firings up to a range of 2,000 yards, each member of the board participating in the firings. As a result of this test, the board is of the opinion that the use of this telescopic sight appears to be of especial value in hazy or foggy weather and at long ranges. In either case the target can be seen with remarkable clearness, and the marksman can be absolutely sure that he is aiming at the proper object. This would be of especial importance to sharpshooters acting independently.

The ordinary sight is useful for accurate firing at a regular target up to about 2,000 yards; but it is impossible to see a man or even a small body of men clearly at that range unless projected against the sky or under other very favorable conditions. It is for this reason that volley firing is so largely resorted to at long ranges.

With a telescopic sight a man could be distinguished easily at 2,000 yards, even with an unfavorable background.

The board is of the opinion that this sight is suitable for use in the U.S. service, and recommends a number of them be purchased for trial by troops in the field. If found to be satisfactory, a sufficient number should be purchased to supply such a number of the sharpshooters of each organization as experience in the field shall indicate to be desirable.

Only seven scoped Krags were produced. Work was already commencing on a replacement for the Krag which would soon produce the M1903 Springfield, a rifle much more suitable for a scope, but which was not equipped with one for sniping purposes until World War One.

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, June 8, 1900.

Last edition:

Thursday, June 7, 1900. Carrie Nation's first act.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Alcohol, Kansas, Women's Christian Temperance Union

Thursday, May 31, 1900. Marching into Beijing.

337 Western troops from the US, Italy, Japan and Russia arrived in Beijing. The entry was not opposed, but not welcome.

The governing body of the Free Church of Scotland voted 592 to 29, to unite with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland creating the United Free Church of Scotland.

Last edition:

Sunday, May 27, 1900. The Vietnamese Martyrs.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, 1980s, 1988, Apostolic Christianity, Catholic, Christianity, Pope Leo XIII, Pope St. John Paul II, religion, Vietnam

Easter Sunday, April 12, 1925. Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsy (Pyotr Fyodorovich Polyansky) installed as the Patriarch of Moscow.

Portable radio?

Radio in the Canadian Rockies, 1925

Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsy (Pyotr Fyodorovich Polyansky) was installed as the Patriarch of Moscow on the same day as the funeral for his predecessor, Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow. 

Peter had been identified in Tikhon's will as one of his three potential successors.  He was selected by the council of 59 bishops because "the first two were already in prison."  Peter would later suffer imprisonment himself and was executed by the barbarous Soviet state in 1937.  The Russian Orthodox Church has declared him to be a Hieromartyr.

Tikhon's funeral in Moscow was the last major public Russian Orthodox Church event and the last major religious event in the Soviet Union for over 60 years.

It should be noted that in the Orthodox East, it was not Easter Sunday, like it was in the west.  Easter for the Orthodox would fall on April 19.

France, following the UK's example, agreed that its indemnities for the Boxer Rebellion should go to railway construction in China.

Last edition:

Holy Saturday, April 11, 1925. East of the Sun, West of the Moon.Labels: 1920s, 1925, Central Asia, Easter, Exploration, Holy Week, hunting, James Simpson-Roosevelt Asiatic Expedition, Roosevelt

The United States Marine Corps in World War One (and before, and beyond).

It was the Battle of Belleau Wood that gave us the modern Marine Corps.

Just the other day I posted an item on the U.S. Second Division during World War One.

Now, there has been a United States Marine Corps since 1775, as somebody will surely point out if I do not.*  The Marine Corps claims a "birthday" only five month junior to that of the U.S. Army's, although the dates of those creations are a bit dubious in that neither organization has had a continual existence since that time.  The National Guard's is actually older, tracing back to 1636 in the form of colonial militias.  But whatever the history of those creations may be, the early Marines are not the same force that exists today in terms of its role and combat abilities.

To look at that force, you have to go back to September 21, 1917, when the 2nd Division was constituted.

The military establishment of the US was so small that when the government went to form divisions for service in France it was faced with a daunting problem, and massive internal strife. A lot of U.S. Army officers regarded the war as their show and their show alone. The Navy anticipated that the American role would really be on the North Atlantic and the concept of even forming a significant ground force in time to fight in France was an utter joke.  That joke became no laughing matter, however, when the Allies sent over delegations to the United States and the country learned, really for the first time, that in spite of Allied offensives in 1917, the Allies were on the verge of collapse and defeat.  When this became apparent, punctuated as it soon was by the Russian Revolution, it became rapidly obvious that the Army was going to have to be increased enormously in size and sent to France.

The Army, however, had only enough men to form a few divisions. And not even that many.  And on top of it, Army units were already stationed around the globe in places that the Army could not readily abandon.  Army units in the Philippines really couldn't abandon that mission. Some troops had to remain in Hawaii.  The Canal Zone had to be garrisoned, particularly during wartime.  And the Mexican border, while no longer looking like it was about to become the front-line in a war with Mexico at any moment, was still a long frontier that had to be manned and on which fighting continued to occur. The US, for that matter, still had troops in China (including Marines).

And in spite of these commitments, on April 6, 1917, when the United States declared war on Germany, it had just 127,151 men in the standing U.S. Army.  An additional 181,620 were in the National Guard.  Of that 127,151 there were a not negligible number that would have to remain overseas right where they were.  The 181,620 men in the National Guard had all been recently hardened by 1916 and 1917 border service, but even at that there were men who were not fit for continued service.

A daunting problem.

The Marines, part of the Navy, had just under 14,000 men, however.  Not a large number. . . but one that was significant in context.

They weren't, however, the force we imagine now.  They became that because of World War One.

The United States Marine Corps was modeled on the British Marines at the time of their formation.  Marines, in that context, were "soldiers of the sea", as the phrase goes, but their role was very ship oriented.  Marines in naval engagements at that time, the 1770s, filled  a role that's very well depicted in the film Master and Commander.  They formed a trained body of musket infantry for when ships were close to each other, with their targets being the sailors on the opposing ships.  They were part of the boarding parties, when that occurred.  And they formed an armed body to go ashore in small units when that was called for, which it frequently was.  It was not as if, after all, the Navy could depend upon the Army to provide infantrymen in small units for ships that were at sea for months, or in some cases even years.  A ship's commander, who had almost complete operational independence in those days, needed a body of infantrymen for any contingency that required putting men ashore, and it did fairly frequently.

 Continental Marines going ashore during the Battle of Nassau, March 1776.  They likely weren't this well dressed in reality.

Marines also formed the commander's police force against his own crew, something we don't think of much now but which was necessary then.  Sailors in 18th and early 19th Century navies were incredibly tough and independent bodies of men whose allegiances were often passing.  Unlike later navies of the steel and steam age, in the age of sail sailors were uniformly of that odd port culture that existed around the globe.  Most navies included men who were drawn from all over. The United States Navy, as an example, was integrated at the time in the enlisted ranks, and even slightly in the officer ranks, and included men who hailed from other countries as well as from American ports.  All that mean that experienced sailors, who were in demand for their skills, and who tended to regards ports as homes rather than nations, were liable to become disenchanted with military service and cause problems, even serious problems, for their officers.

Marines from every nation formed the officers bulwark against that.  Marine units were small and cohesive and kept apart from a ship's crew as much as possible.  In the case of the early United States Marines, the service was the most segregated in the regular establishment (the Navy was not segregated, as noted, and while the Army was, there were always odd exceptions in the Army).  That's not pleasant to contemplate, but it is the case.  The creators of the early Marine Corps wanted a racially cohesive separate body on teh theory that if they had to use it against the crew this mean that they were that much more likely to be loyal to their officers than to anyone else.

And so the Marines were first formed in 1775.  They were disestablished after the Revolution. But they were shortly brought back in.  And they've been in existence ever since.

 U.S. Marines, 1864.

Be that as it may, however, up until the Spanish American War their role remained the traditional one.  You can find exceptions, they were at Harper's Ferry for example, but they truly are exceptions. They filled the role that they were first created to fill.

Starting around the turn of the prior century, however, and a little before that, that began to slowly evolve.  As the steam and steel navy came in, the ability to project power, and to stay in touch with the US, increased.  The Navy had always been used that way to some extent, but you no longer saw individual ships sail off to distant lands and, frankly, do something weird.  Ship commanders didn't engage in local punitive expeditions in Korea anymore, for example, or get into naval battles in Japanese rivers.

But the Navy did start flexing American muscle in the Gulf.

 Marines with new khaki uniforms. These had probably just been issued prior to this 1898 photograph.  Prior to this they would have worn blue uniforms much like the Army had, with this pattern of campaign hat which the Army also wore.  Bending up the brims of the hats was particularly common for Marines.  As these Marines are all fairly young, there's a good chance that at least one of them would have still been in service during World War One, which if true would mean that he would likely have seen combat all over the globe by that time.

The change from sail to steam, and from wood to steel, had an impact on the Marine Corps that would be only slightly less substantial than the impact of the same on the Navy, and indeed it was because of the impact on the Navy that the role of the Marine Corps significantly changed.  Even in the waning days of sail it had often been the case that naval vessels were dispatched to far distant regions of the globe and basically left to the complete discretion of their commanders.  With steam, however, vessels moved more rapidly, and less independently, and greater operational control came in.  By the same token, however the ability to project power with a navy hugely increased, but not int he same fashion for every naval power.

For nations with empires, like the United Kingdom, the role of the navy greatly expanded, but the role of their marines did not.  This is at least in part because if colonial nations needed to project ground power, they usually had it nearby or at least within a transportable distance.  Contrary to what some might expect, the British Army prior to World War One was quite small, but it was widely dispersed around the globe.  The French army, in contrast, was large, but it also had a global deployment.  The U.S. Army, up until the Spanish American War, was deployed entirely in the United States and its few overseas territories as well as . Even after the Spanish American War this did not change greatly, although it did change a bit, particularly in regards to the Philippines, which the US found itself engaged in a guerilla war and occupation in, following its capture during that war.

So, given this, the Marines started to fill another role. With the only real way for the US to project power around the globe, the Marines, part of the Navy, started to become the US's rapid reaction, small scale, intervention force.  They became particularly active in deploying throughout the Caribbean Basin and Central American whenever the US decided it needed to show the flag, which it quite often felt it needed to.  They became so associated with intervening in Central America in this period, and became such effective fighters in that context, that they remain legendary as a nearly unbeatable force in that region.  But it even meant that part of the Marine Corps would find itself more or less permanently stationed in Asia, in China specifically, following the Boxer Rebellion.

Marines in  China, 1900.

Deployment to China was a groundbreaking change in the role of the Marines.  For the first time they were assigned to an open ended land based mission that separated them from ships on a continual basis and guaranteed that they'd be seeing land based action continually.  The Army actually shared the role, something that is commonly missed, and so this also formed the first instance in which the role of the Marines came to over shawdow that of the Army even where they were both present.

The Banana Wars, a series of Central American and Caribbean interventions, would really cement that image. These interventions, which commenced following the Spanish American War and went on into the early 1930s, meant that joining the Marines meant you would see combat.

 Marines boarding for deployment in Nicaragua in 1912.

All but forgotten now in the United States, and bitterly remembered in Central America, the wars were US efforts to influence the affairs of developing Central American nations. The wars also had a distinctive economic aspect to them. Navy and Marine Corps affairs, the Army was left out of them.

Sailors in Nicaragua in 1912.

These interventions were numerous, and even detailing them now would make for a much more expansive post than anyone would be interested in reading. Suffice it to say, however, their continual nature is impressive.

Marines in Haiti, 1915.

Just prior to World War One this role expanded out to include intervention in the Mexican Revolution prior to the Army doing the same in the Punitive Expedition.  In 1914 the Marines were put ashore in Vera Cruz, Mexico, and occupied the town in a direct, but limited, intervention in the Mexican War.

Marines and Sailor raising U.S. flag at Vera Cruz, 1914.

So when the United States went to form divisions of regular soldiers to be deployed to France, taking Marines and adding them to the 2nd Division made a lot of sense. They were extremely tough and very experienced infantry.

And they served in that role extremely well. An experienced body of men, they more than lived up tot their reputation.

Bain News Service photograph of U.S. Marines in France, June 6, 1918.  Note that these "Soldiers of the Sea", assigned to the U.S. 2nd Division, are wearing a stripped down uniform and are marching without their service coats, something that in June 1918 you will would not be likely to find in regards to soldiers of the U.S. Army.  The Marine Corps expanded for World War One, but even more than the Army it contained a high percentage of pre war enlistees, many who were rather salty.

 

The Marines became an integral part of the 2nd Division during World War One, even contributing to the division two of its divisional commanding officers.  It came out of World War One with its reputation as a potent ground force assured.

After the war, the Marine Corps returned to its former role, but its reputation was for ever changed. While the Marines continued on in the Banana Wars and in China, they also began to plan for the future.

 

Marines in Nicaragua, 1932.

And planning for the future, in the eyes of the Marines, meant building and expanding on the ground role they'd played in World War One. That meant, in their view, developing a seaborne landing capacity that was nearly independent in some ways from the Navy, although obviously not completely.  Between World War One and World War Two, the Marines, with the cooperation of the Navy, took amphibious landing to a new height, making it nearly a unique American deal.  The lessons and equipment they developed in this period would end up being used by the Army as well when World War Two came to include the United States and, ironically, the largest amphibious landing of all time, Operation Overlord, would not include a single landing Marine.  But the war in the Pacific certainly did, and in a major way.

Marines fighting on Iwo Jima during World War Two.

It was World War Two, of course, that gave us the fully modern Marine Corps.  Ironically, perhaps, the Marines of World War Two were distinct from that of World War One in that by the wars end most of them were wartime volunteers, not the salty professionals that made up the Great War Marines. They were molded around that example, however, and by the wars end the wartime Marines closely resembled that of the "Old Breed" that made up the core of the pre war Marine Corps.

Following World War Two the Marine Corps refused to accept what the Army, Navy and Air Force did and assume that all future wars would be nuclear wars with little ground action. They couldn't accept that, as that would mean no future for the Marine Corps. They continued to hone their seaborne abilities and expanded very early to include airborne assault.  Their saving example at Inchon during the Korean War guaranteed that they'd have a prime place in the post World War Two military, which they've preserved ever since.

The soon to be killed Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez scaling the seawall at Inchon.  Mere minutes after this photo was taken, Lopez intentionally dropped on a live grenade to save fellow Marines.

_________________________________________________________________________________
*The 1775 body was actually the Continental Marines. The United States Marine Corps did not come into existence, under that name, until 1798, at which time, which re established a corps of marines.

Thursday, May 24, 1900. A battleship to China.

The USS Oregon arrived in China at Taku Forts to protect American citizens.

Pope Leo XIII canonized Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (1651–1719) and Rita of Cascia (1381–1457).  de la Salle was the founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and is the patron saint of teachers.Saint Rita of Cascia, the mother of two and the wife of an abusive husband is one of the patron saints for domestic problems.

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 23, 1900. Sgt. William Havey Carney.

Labels: 1860s, 1863, 1900, 1900s, Army, Civil War, Ethnicities, Heroes, personal, The Press

Monday, May 21, 1900. Ultimatum to the Empress Dowager

An ultimatum to the Empress Dowager Cixi of China to arrest and punish Boxers was issued by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan)

Last edition:

Thursday, May 17, 1900. The Siege of Mafeking broken.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Boer Armies, Boer War, Boxer Rebellion, British Army, China, Robert Baden-Powell, Siege Mafeking, The written word

Thursday, May 17, 1900. The Siege of Mafeking broken.

The Siege of Mafeking was broken.  It had started on October 13, 1899.

Robert Baden-Powell had lead the defense of the city.  He'd shortly thereafter form the Boy Scouts.

Chinese Christians were murdered at Kaolo.

The first copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, came off the press.  The first run of 10,000 copies had been sold prior to publication.

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 16, 1900. Milk.

Labels: 1900, 1900s, Chicago Illinois, Food, Government, Health, Illinois (Chicago)