Mussolini’s Marines: Italians in China

One of the strangest military operations of World War Two featured Japanese opposing Italians on Chinese soil. In September 1943, when Italy signed an armistice with the Allies, abandoning its Axis partners, Japanese forces moved swiftly to seize Italian military assets in areas under its control, including China. This also involved moving in and occupying a small area of Tianjin city which had been under Italian administration since 1901.

The Italian sector of the city was guarded by soldiers of the San Marco Battalion, the nation’s marines and clearly among the elite in the Italian armed forces.

The Italian WW1 monument in the Italian sector of Tianjin. Part of the building can also be seen in the photo above.

The Italians were surrounded by Japanese forces and given the choice of either work for the Axis cause or captivity. According to some sources, one unit of the San Marco Battalion chose a third option, resisting the Japanese for 24 hours before finally surrendering.

The Italian marines had manned the garrison in Tianjin since the middle of the 1920s, and prior to September 1943, relations with the Japanese Army in China appears to have been amicable. The photos on this page are taken by Japanese photographers stationed in China during the war. They are part of a large batch of images taken in north China in the period from 1936 to 1945 that have recently been made available by Kyoto University. Many have never before been seen in public.

 

 

 

 

 


 

Categories: Media, War

6 Comments

  • Stephen Custadiro says:

    Fascinating information about a very obscure corner of WW2!

  • Giueseppe Paciacalope says:

    These guys were in constant off duty fights with US Marines of the 4th Regiment, USMC who were permanently assigned to similar duty in China. Several months before Pearl Harbor the “China Marines” were removed from China and sent to the Philippines.

  • Telnyashka says:

    Thank you very much for sharing these great sailor stories! The Russian navy had a similar situation in the northwestern sea!

  • Very interesting. The battallion San Marco still exists. And is the only one of the “fanteria di marina, Infantery who has the task of support an invasion mad by war ships caòòed also “LAGUNARI”,
    When I was at the odfficesr school the lacunar where with us )tanks cavalry).
    Mostly of them were coming from Venice and Trieste where the sea Makes LAGUNE.

  • Paolo Angioy says:

    The Italian Navy Marine Infantry is the San Marco Brigade, based in Brindisi on 3 regiments, the 1st beeing the Amphibious Force on 2 Battallions + supports, the 2nd providing boarding and ships’ defence teams and the 3rd the base defence and security. A school Battallion a landing craft battallion and an Honour Coy complete the Brigade, which emploies lhe landing ships from COMDINAV3 (1 LHA and 3 LPD) and the heloes (MH101 and MH90) from ELIASSALTO.
    The Italian Army parteciapes to the “Projection from the Sea Force (FPM)”
    with the Lagunari Regiment based in Venice and surrondings. Combat support units are taken from the same Army Cavalry Brigade (Pozzuolo del Friuli) of the Lagunari Regiment. They are: 2 Coys of Armoured 8×8 cavalry light tanks “Centauro”, 2 Btries of 155 howitzers FH70, 2 Coys of Engeneerig troops, 2 AA batteries, A/T A129 heloes and CH47 CHINOOK heloes. All unit trained at the Amphibious School of Brindisi, on board the Amphibious Ships and twice a year in big ambhibious exercises off Sardinia. Navy Officers are appointed with the tasked Army Units, while Army officers are tasked wiht the Navy units and the Amphibios force staff.

  • John Chapman says:

    Italian ships escaped from East Africa in 1941 to China, where they were based following the refusal of the Japanese Navy to allow them to be used to attack British shipping in the Indo-Pacific region. Ships employed to monitor Allied radio transmissions and worked with Abwehr KO China and the Japanese Army.

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