Tientsin Marine
part Two
New arrivals in the May draft 1940 (above/below)
At least Duggan and Ormseth in the photo above also became POWs. They were transferred elsewhere in the Pacific in the months before Dec 1941.
Each summer the companies from both Peking and Tientsin would spend about two weeks on the rifle range - training and qualifying.The range was a few miles outside Peking. They lived in tents, the showers
were 55 gallon drums heated by the sun.
After training in the morning and cleaning their weapons the Marines had the afternoon free. Donkeys could be rented to tour the countryside - or not.
| The companies lived in tents while at the range. |
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Train hard and play hard.
Desmond Power of Vancouver told me about living in Tientsin during this time period. His family home can be seen to the left in the background of photo 10. He recalls playing softball against the Marines on Can Do field. He trained under the Marines while in the Tientsin British Volunteer Corps. He especially remembers the drill for the Thompson sub-machine gun. He would have to repeat after the training NCO "Thompson sub-machine gun, model of 28, caliber 45, air cooled, magazine operated" and so on. He says when he had a turn to fire the weapon it tried to jump out of his hands. Desmond especially remembers one Marine on the softball team who stood well over 6 feet tall and was built like an ox. This was Edward Kirkpatrick
Desmond knew Major McCauley before the war as Desmond's step-father, Jim Lambert, was a close friend of McCauley. McCauley owned a stable of racing ponies. Desmond knew Iris Greenland Sydow before the war and often saw her when they were all interned in Weihsien. He knew also Margo Simmons Bishop and her sister Bobbie (Pamela Masters) in Weihsien. Desmond has written a book which is included on the books page of this site. In the copy of his book, Little Foreign Devil, which he sent me, the inscription reads "with best wishes from Desmond Power who remembers with gratitude the warm spirit of camaraderie of the Tientsin Marines in 1941"
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| Photo from the files of Robert Haney. |
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