Themes

Conflict and Change

• Introduction

• In Focus: 1900

• In Focus: World War One

• In Focus: Interwar

  • Surface Fleet

  • Submarines

  • Royal Marines

  • Fleet Air Arm

• In Focus: World War Two

• In Focus: Post War Conflict

• In Focus: Cold War Climate

• In Focus: Falklands and Beyond

• Special Exhibition: Falklands 25

Learning

• How To: Understand Propaganda

• Propaganda Image Galleries

• Education Project: Sea With Your Own Eyes

Land service

Article highlights

• Sea soldiers on land again

• Russia 1918 -1919

• Shanghai 1927

Shanghai, 1927

Unrest in China prompted the Commander in Chief of the China Fleet to ask for the aid of 1000 Marines to guard international settlements at Shanghai.

Royal Marines stationed outside the British Cigarette Company with machine guns. (RMM)

The Corps formed the 12th Battalion in the January of 1927 to be part of multi-national Shanghai Defence Force.

The Force consisted of 17 700 men who were deployed to defend the 70 - 80 000 foreigners who lived and worked in the city and to defend foreign property during troubles in China.

British Refugees leaving Nanking 26 March 1927. (RMM)

Officials chose a Royal Marine Battalion in favour of an Army battalion due to the quickness of its formation - it would have taken the Army several weeks to form a battalion, whereas it took the Royal Marines a matter of days.

The 12th Battalion Royal Marines arrived and were operational in Shanghai by early March and served until December protecting British lives and property and building defences throughout the city for this purpose.

A platoon made by men of the 12th Battalion Royal Marines to defend the China Navigation Company in Pootung Wharf, Shanghai. (RMM)