"The Marines Showed Every Mark of Good Sportsmanship"

[Dirk]

To soldiers and Marines serving prior to World War II, marksmanship was very serious business. Not only was ones meager pay increased upon qualifying for a Sharpshooter or Expert Rifleman badge, but the prestige of ones Company, Regiment and Service was at stake every time the opportunity arose to participate in inter-service competitions. Nowhere was this felt more keenly than in China, when the 15^th US Infantry and the Marines of the Peking Legation Guard Detachment squared off for their annual rifle competition.

 

Currently I only have the Armys account of what happened that hot and humid day when 16 men competed at the International Rifle Range just outside Peking. On 8 July 1924 each company from the 15^th Infantry sent its best marksmen to their Tientsin Compounds Recreational Hall for several days of perfecting the mechanical functioning of their rifles, correcting trigger squeezes and getting their bolts to work smoothly. After a day of baking heat of the rec hall, the men would return to their barracks bruised and dripping with so much sweat that they were described as appearing to gone swimming. On 13^th July the men left for the Armys shooting range at Nan Ta Ssu for three days of intense shooting, which continued despite the pouring rain storms which soaked the range. On 18 July the Army team left for Peking. Two days later 8 Soldiers and 8 Marines competed. Firing at 600 yards (no 1,000 yard course existed at the time in Peking) they competed in two separate stages. When the shooting was over, the Army won by only 152 points. A silver cup was presented to the Regiment. The Army politely noted that whatever friction may have existed between the 15^th Infantry and the Marines in the past was not to the slightest degree evident at this meet. Over the next few years the Marines would come to dominate the event followed again by the Army and so it, went back and forth until the 15^th left China in 1938.

 

Apart from the silver trophy, it appears at least for that year, each member of the two teams must have been awarded small silver shooting badges. So maybe, at best, a few more than 16 of these little silver badges must have been commissioned to be made by a local Chinese silversmith. Here is one, recently acquired. Somewhat crude in its design and finish and no bigger than a normal Expert badge, it is a reminder of a hot July afternoon in Peking when the honor of the Army and Marines were at stake.

 

[Dirk]

And the reverse

[uplandmod]

Holy!!! That's one rare shooting badge!

 

Thanks for the short history of this event!

 

LF

[Dirk]

Thanks LF! I think it was Brig that reminded me there could not be too many of these things out there. Not even sure they awarded them each year.....although I do know of trophy cups existing for these events as well as for the top rifleman in China.....and those, when they show up on the market are unaffordable to me. Until I saw this little one I really had not paid attention to these Matches in detail apart from knowing they existed....now I think I got some "learnin to do".

[cutiger83]

I have never seen one of these. It is very nice! Is that a hallmark at the bottom of the badge?

 

You have shown amazing items lately. Congrats on another great addition!

 

...Kat

[Dirk]

Kat thank you....it has been a long drought, then these appeared. There is a chop mark on the reverse that I will hopefully have translated by a skilled Chinese historian/linguist soon...although he did point out such Chinese marks are very stylized and hard to decipher.

[Jack's Son]

Thank you for the historical recreation of the event, and the material reward of excellence. The medal is a showpiece.

[Dirk]

JS thank you. It will go on my web site but probably be overshadowed by more glamorous items. But as you pointed out even something as small as this can still have a great history behind it.

[bobgee]

Great medal and very excellent story about it. Congrats......Semper Fi......Bob

[normaninvasion]

Dirk, that is the best of both worlds, 15th and Marine China combo! Have you found any being worn in photos? Jeff

[Dirk]

Bob as always thank you!

 

Jeff I have not....right now I do have the 1924 15th Infantry Annual....which has a nice write up on the match but no photos of the men with their awards. I will keep looking but I am afraid the chances of finding such are slim.

[Brig]

It looks even better here than it did at auction. Being a marksmanship fan, this is indeed a unique piece...even though the Marines lost to the doggies

 

It wouldn't surprise me if there's an official group photo of the team wearing these and holding the cup, along with their rifles and maybe the score board somewhere. As we've seen, this was very common practice with winning teams after a match

[Dirk]

Tim at some point I am sure I will stumble across something more about this match in the course of my general research and that photo or a small side note will be found about the medals! until then I have my hopes pinned on the Linguist who hopefully will be able to tell me what the chop mark says. Until last week I did not even know these things really existed.

 

Have spent the morning transcribing that gunboat Marines diary we spoke about to get it ready for its own page on the web site.....simultaneously a boring task yet strangely interesting as I begin to see patterns in how that gunboat operated and what the Marine considered important to record. Just found, and I don't know how I initially missed it, when he won his sharp shooter badge in 1907 he wrote out long hand a copy of the orders saying he qualified for the award and HQ USN's reply authorizing him to receive the award which was sent by the Bureau to his commanding officer for presentation 2 months later.

[kanemono]

That is a beautiful and unique medal Dirk. I can't wait to see the diary on your website.

Dick

[Dirk]

Thanks Dick am working on it....this one is a slog...given the Marine's writing style.

[Dirk]

A small additional piece of info the chop mark on the reverse, it has been translated to "Si Chang". Will have to scan local publications to see if this matches to a jeweler who was known to be active during that time.

[teufelhunde.ret]

Very unique, perhaps,the hardest to find USMC shooting medal, the Far East badges are nearly impossible to find. This badge is very, very similar to those used by the NRA,in the era. Perhaps,one was used as donee to fashion these?

[Dirk]

D: you could be right....clearly based upon a marksmanship qual badge, but the gentleman who I spoke with today noted the sun burst was a classic Chinese jewelry design...like the jeweler used inspiration from both East and West to design this (I am sure with either a Soldier or Marine giving him some steerage along the way) The guy I worked with today even cracked the Peking Spoon chop mark but it's translation does not make it understandable to us non-experts....I wish we knew more about construction of these, the diamonds and the spoof medals....maybe we will in good time!