Revised: Images of the North China Marine Winter Hat

[knd643]

Figured I would bump up this thread to see if anyone else could contribute to it.

[Dirk]

Thank you for bumping it up. I had forgotten about it. I have added some additional pictures to my collection and am in the process of interviewing a surviving pre-war China Marine I recently met via my web site. For course I have asked him about the fur caps. One little tibbit I also recently learned was General Butler ended up ordering fur caps after he arrived in China, as they found the winter far colder than they expected. Surprising because Butler did a superb job of preparing for his 1927 expedition.

[suwanneetrader]

Here is mine, I bought it without any EGA on it. As I thought it was later than China era (maybe Iceland) I put a WWII EGA on it. Did I get its age correct? I do not know if the "fur" is wool or animal, It is thin in some places and if you are not careful some more will come loose. But I was very happy when I got it and still am. Richard

 

 

 

[suwanneetrader]

Here is another from the side. Richard

 

[doyler]

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Dirk - As we discussed I have a couple of nice China-side Marine albums from Pekin in the 1935 - 1939 period. Many of Marines are wearing 'Mongolian pisscutters'. The above photo came from one album belonging to a fellow named Anderson and shows three Marines being 'chased' by a guard. Note that they have no USMC insignia or unit plate on their fur hats. The fellow on the far left sports 2 hashmarks on his overcoat; none show any chevrons of rank. My surmise on this pic was that they had just been convicted at a General Courtmartial and had had their USMC insignia removed as they had dishonored it, and were on their way to confinement. The photo is uncaptioned in the album. However, while going through another Pekin Marine's album/scrapbook, PFC Svoboda, a communicator, I found the following original message dated 5 Sept 1936 pasted in. I don't know for sure that the Marines in the photo are the same culprits described but believe there's good chance they are. Anyway an interesting sidebar to your fine 'fur hat' thread. Any 'Old Corps' collectors have any further knowledge of this incident? Semper Fi......Bobgee

 

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BOB

great photo.Looking at the guard it appears the holster is darkened to match the garrison belt.Recently found a couple that are more Cordova color than the black and always assumed to be done in the 50s.

 

Intresting about the court martial.Have you ever been able to research if further? Would the Marine museum or archives have further documents or photos of the offenders?

[Dirk]

Funny you should ask. The China Marine I spoke to several weeks ago told me about this incident as he witnessed it. It started out as a drunken prank and ended with these men doing serious time in prison. Their desertion and one Marine who laid down his weapon and deserted from Guard post 1 lead to a series of actions that got them sentences of 15 years.

 

BTW Bob thanks for helping tie this Marines story to an image of the guilty. As you said small world!

[knd643]

Dirk, what is your website?

[Dirk]

It is chinamarine.org

[knd643]

Ahhh. I have been on your site a lot. It really helped me when I first got into China Marines. Also I just noticed that it's in your signature.