The Sixth Marine Division

by James R. Stockman

With general preparations for future combat operations against the enemy underway, the Sixth Marine Division launched an intensive training program in August. The main effort of the division was diverted, however, from 11-15 August to preparing and mounting out Task Group Able for the forthcoming occupation of Yokosuka Naval Base. This task group was a headquarters command headed by Brigadier General William T. Clement which was superimposed over the Fourth Marines (Reinforced), under the command of Lt. Col. Fred D. Beans. On 16 August, Task Group Able departed from Guam and three days later joined the Third Fleet.

As a part of the Fleet Landing Force, Task Group Able landed at Yokosuka Naval Base and Airfield on 30 August. There was no opposition to the landing. Here it remained as a part of the Sixth Marine Division until late in November when it passed from the administrative control of the division to that of Fleet Marine Force, Pacific. Its general duties consisted of demilitarizing the Naval area of responsibility, and in providing security for the Naval Base and Airfield. On 20 September, all reinforcing elements of the Fourth Marines and its superior command, Task Force Able Headquarters, returned to Guam, leaving the regiment under the operational control of the Eighth Army. By January the force had been reduced to the Third Battalion; the other two battalions, Weapons Company, and Headquarters and Service Company departed for the U. S. to be disbanded. Later a reduced regimental headquarters group left for Tsingtao to rejoin the division.

10. TSINGTAO

During the month of September the Sixth Marine Division prepared for an operation, the forthcoming occupation of Tsingtao, China. From 2 October until 11 October the division was aboard ship en route to China and commenced unloading at Tsingtao on the latter date.

While aboard the division command ship en route to Tsingtao, General Shepherd stated the general mission of his command:

“Our mission is to land and occupy Tsingtao and the adjacent Tsangkou Airfield; to assist local authorities in maintaining order and in preventing disease and starvation; to release, care for, and evacuate Recovered Allied Military personnel and Allied internees; to cooperate with Chinese Central Government forces; to accept, when necessary, local surrender of Japanese forces, as authorized by higher authority, and to assist the Chinese in effecting the disarming and confining of these forces.”

The city of Tsingtao, with 1,300,000 inhabitants is situated on a promontory on the southern coast of Shantung Peninsula. It is regarded as one of the finest ports in China, and is second only to Shanghai as a textile manufacturing center. When the division landed, it found the citizens of Tsingtao to be a polyglot group: Communist agents, former Nazis, White Russians, Koreans, Japanese civilians, Japanese military personnel, Europeans, Eurasians, and Chinese.

Politically, Tsingtao, as the most coveted city on Shantung Peninsula, was a hotbed of intrigue and strife. The Communists, with a stronghold at Chefoo, hoped to gain control of the peninsula, and the city. Resisting them were Japanese troops, protecting rail lines leading into the city. Here too, were independent factions ostensibly aligned with the Chungking government. Still in evidence, but ineffective, were puppet groups. At large, but not easily identified with either Chungking or Yennan, were small groups of brigands which terrorized Tsingtao despite the Mayor and his poorly trained and discipined troops.

Most of the interior of the Shantung Peninsula was controlled by Communists; their only access to the sea was at the port of Chefoo. Early in the month of October an emissary from the Commander-in-Chief of the Liberation Army of the Communists entered the harbor and sought an audience with General Shepherd. Permission was granted and a letter was presented which proposed, in essence, passive collaboration between the Marines and the Communists. Offering to enter the city to “restore order” by killing puppet troops, that is those troops who professed allegiance to Chiang Kai-Shek’s Chinese Central Government, the Communists promised not to disturb the Marines of the Sixth Division. To this General Shepherd replied firmly that he would have no part in a fratricidal war between factions in China, and that his combat veterans could prevent any disorders in the city.