AMERICAN ARMY IN CHINA: Tientsin, Peking, Shanghai, Hankow, Hong Kong And Others

[China n.d. ca. 1927-1928]. Brown simulated alligator cloth covers, 37 x 27.5 cm., black pages, spine ribbon-tied, ca. 400 b.w. photos corner mounted, images very good, sharp and clear images NOT faded,solid,nicely done. V E R Y R A R E ! **** *** **** . . SUPERB PHOTO ALBUM OF THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR: . . Beginning of The Communist Party led led by Mao Tse-tung . . V.S. the Kuomintang [KMT] or Chinese Nationalist Party . Led by Chiang Kai Shek. . The United States Supported the KMT. In this album, we see how the KMT soldiers hosted the American Army in China, using their trains and military bases throughout China. * This unusual album contains 400 original b. w. photographs & and is an historic photographic record of American military deployment showing Dough-boys in China, probably from the U.S. Army's 2nd. Battalion, 15th. infantry, per the flag and insignia found on a group formation photograph. A minority are with written captions, by and large taken by the person who made the album, also enhanced with a small percent of professional Chinese photos, some of which have in-negative captions. * There are ca. 3 or so photos missing else completely filling 32 pages or 64 sides + one on the inside back cover. The inside of the front cover has five attractive period color luggage type adverts from various hotels: Hotel Lankershim & Coast Line Military & Naval Hotel San Francisco, Cal; The Court Hotel, Tientsin North China; Grand Hotel des Wagons Litz; Astor House Hotel Ltd., Tientsin. * The album begins with photos of a Chinese playing a Pi-pa [snake skin banjo], then there are three other photos: first two show a Chinese military camouflage train engine from which a Yank soldier in his campaign hat descends, and a long train of cars with a large howitzer mounted upon one, last shows French [?] troops at parade rest with their rifles and white gloves and crested helmets with anchors [naval or marines] with others in the background with some officers. * The next two pages show Chinese coolies swing a basket from the creek top water a field, a mother suckling her baby with her family at the farm, a large water tower in the wet slums and a group of Doughboys at attention in formation, they wear boots, leggings, chrome World War I type dress helmets, a rifle, back pack with bayonet, cartridge pouch belts with green wool hip-length jackets. The opposite page shows another view of the Chinese military train, a pair of large mounted guns on an armored train car. To the right is a Chinese officer pointing to a large pierced hole in the train with a foreign engineer peering out from the small window. The train sports the Republic of China flag with a Chinese military unit flag painted on the side. Another view shows a group of abandoned Chinese coffins that went to the dogs; a group of soldiers in garrison caps at attention with fixed bayonets as the officers salute someone near the person taking the photo, some Chinese officers also present. * Next 2 pages show Chinese on a wheel barrow, some Japanese women by a pond in Kimono and a group of British troops from their colonial Empire: blacks, Indians, white trumpeter, Chinese, and others with musical instruments all wear white cork-type pith helmets. A group of Japanese officers mugging for the camera. Photos of the railhead and large number of Chinese troops with rifles, and kit at the railway station, some on march carrying their flags others in open box cars with touring cars that are on the move, another of camouflaged armored train cars, one shows a number of foreign soldiers looking out of a train car window, some are with tiny embossed stamp at right corner: "Mei Lee Tien Tsin." * The album continues with a mixture of images of civilian Chinese, Chinese military, their trains, moving air planes, weapons, war refugees in tents, military views of barbed wire fortifications, trenches, machine gunners Russian soldiers, Chinese officers, Chinese air force, funerals, rickshaw pullers, camel trains, captured & wounded prisoners, foreign soldiers at their sand-bagged posts. Photos of the great wall, magnificent Chinese architectural monuments, buildings and pagodas, religious icons, coffins, more coffins, mortars & Chinese junks and a plethora of others. * The American Consulate General's compound in Tientsin, American military band welcoming the newly arrived replacement troops. A large photo group shot of the American officers seated for a memorial photograph, with their Battalion flag proudly posted on the wall where they pose [source of our citation at the top of the unit name]; two buglers are at each outside position, the commander is ram-rod straight and taller than all others seated in the front & center; he and only two others on his sides wear full leather knee boots, probably indicating the highest ranking officers; others are in boots & leggings. * Photos of Doughboys aboard a ship showing the Naval officers with one stunning photo of an American high officer with his Japanese & Chinese counter parts posing for the camera. And a photo of the "Mail Boat Gazun Panama" and a few others of Panama giving credence to the fact that some of these soldiers came from the American East coast via Panama to San Francisco, then on to China. Nice photo of semi-nude Panamanian family, men, women, children. Doughboys at target practice, photos of Chinese poverty, coolies pulling great loads and street vendors. * More showing Chinese life style, street life, horse & bullock carts, and yet more caskets left in the open unburied and abandoned, train cars full of horses, Chinese troops, smoke rising from a burning city, another with "Tian jin" written in Chinese, catholic church, more parading of American soldiers within the Tientsin American Consulate parade grounds, trooping of the colors. And a nice photo of the "U.S. Army Transport Thomas," Chinese junk &c. A U.S. soldier in a necktie, his rifle at fixed bayonet at parade-rest before the Consulate General compound with sand bags, inside a photo of a U.S. soldier with his Colt-45 on his hip with canteen looking at some communications connections, another photo of two mini U.S. tanks, and a very long bridge over the water. * Photo of the Tientsin downtown with a Sikh Indian policeman directing traffic. Next page shows a public Chinese street execution: the guilty on his knees with the executioner ready to swing a very large sword and another headless corpse is before him, the Tientsin YMCA compound, opposite which is likely the inside of the American Consulate offices showing very ancient typewriters and three women staff and one other female Navy person. They all mug for the camera with a good number of U.S. Army or Marine officers, behind three desks. * Chinese hauling "magnum gold" brand ammunition on hand- trucks, a U.S. Army band performing before the Consulate's office. At this point, we find a few photos with penned captions: "One of China's Department Stores [it shows a bird vendor]; Peanut Gambler [a mountain of P-nuts]; Chinese Shimboo [photo of the office and maker of the album and his Chinese officer friend ?]; "A Chinese Taxi" [shows him in a Rickshaw], "Me and the boy friend 11/3/28" [shows a tiny goat cart carrying a child's coffin with a Chinese man. This penned date gives substantial proof of the date range of the entire album which was placed about the center of the whole work. * The next page shows two more penned captions: "Chinese cavalry" and "Note mud house and fence" [shows two Chinese officers on horse-back and a very, very poor house with very starved animals]. The next shows six Chinese undercover men, two each holding a Chinese being readied for execution; and a very grizzly photo of a Chinese officer actually executing a Chinese man with his pistol who is seated on a rock: the photo captures the action as the shot blows away the mans brains. Behind the execution scene is a crowd of American soldiers in campaign hats and Chinese military officers who are witness to the event. * More views of Chinese street life, vendors, pullers, haulers & horse carts, religious icons and a stunning Chinese roofed gate, more Chinese troops on the move via train, with a very horrible view of a large number of dead Chinese in the muddy filthy waters by a bridge. Homeless Chinese at a "soup kitchen," war refugees hauling their belongings, house boat, street barbers, a group of 7 photos by the ocean. They show American soldiers at leisure looking at Chinese fishermen nets, naked fishermen hauling in a net of fish to the beach, a burning waterfront village, the jetty where several large [American ?] transport ships are at anchor, and a great assembly of Yankee soldiers on the beach with duffel bags and their gear at the railhead. * The last photo shows a great number of various whisky bottles lined up for display. More photos show a coffin maker, large coffin, basket seller and "chow" sellers on the street. A military formation of 100's of either Scottish, or Irish soldiers with fixed bayonets, marching down the main street before the "RNC Electricity Dept.," below which is a very long line of British soldiers on one side of the street, opposite from a good number of American soldiers, who are on the side of the street, a British Union Jack flies over a castle-like structure, this is clearly some kind of grand military parade. * More photos of the Great Wall, the military parade and army chaplains, with an Australia flag flying over another castle tower. Chinese river scene with large numbers of native boats in a canal, a beggar's camp with straw -mat tents, a canal crossing ferry for people, a photo of a U.S. officer stand on top a wooden coffin for a closer look. More poverty-stricken Chinese, haulers, fortune tellers, graves, tethered horses, log sawyers, rice haulers, electric trolley with English and Chinese language sign on the roof, panorama post card of Shanghai's Bund. * The album now shifts to photos of the Peking area. Shows the Ming tombs and the camel-lined road; military train [the Americans were transported by that train], a large bivouac and tent city where the U. S. military troops camped, some Chinese "house boys" proudly holding the American troop's unit flag. More photos of two U.S. soldiers posing near Chinese coffins in a wet ditch. A group of very young Chinese boys posed near the railroad; one is so poor that he has no clothes at all and is in nude. A large group of Nationalist Chinese soldiers marching along a street, one classic photo of a single American soldier on guard, standing at attention as stands vigil on a barbed-wire barrier, his rifle at fixed bayonet. * A group of five Chinese young "ladies" who pose for the camera who seemed NOT to be bewildered by the photographer, they look like "Sing-song girls" [hookers] who entertained the U.S. troops. Chinese Buddhist priests in white robes with shaved heads, a great gate to Peking, Shanghai harbor views, shanty huts, captured Chinese criminal or traitor guarded by Chinese soldiers, train car full of rifles, more Chinese soldiers on trains, marching in formation on the road. And a good photo of several American officers: one with a whip posing for the camera in garrison hat. * Chinese bivouac, and American soldiers with bullet and pouches for ammo with rifles at parade rest. More barbed-wire barricades, Chinese & British soldiers, armored train-mounted gun. More Chinese prisoners [traitors?] being executed, heads hoisted on power poles in baskets as a form of public warning and display for other would-be traitors. An American tent bivouac camp, at the train yard, two more public exec executions by beheading at the moment of loosing one's head, an executed dead man lying in the street. Photos of Peking's Forbidden City, a Chinese hung to death from a tree, a Yank soldier in overalls carries a Chinese bamboo "yoke" with two baskets and smokes a pipe, while Chinese look on and laugh. * Two photos of lines of Rickshaws waiting for passengers. One comic photo with negative caption: "Find the Chinaman;" it shows two American soldiers sitting among Chinese. Nice shot of the Summer Palace, Peking, and a U.S. soldier riding in a Rickshaw. The very last photo inside the back cover shows the whole battalion dressed up, wearing their chrome helmets standing at attention in formation for a classic and most historic memorial photograph. Their commanding officer is front and center; all have their rifles, ammo belts and very polished boots, with back packs. They could be standing in the Tientsin American Consulate compound grounds. Followed by a few other photos of Chinese, a Chinese soldier, et al. * This work shows the typical things seen in China during this period of political and military chaos. The feuding war lords and political parties at war; the landing of American military to protect American diplomatic interests. Support & assistance given to the Americans and other foreign military groups by the Nationalist Chinese army. The desperate situation of the tragic Chinese people caught in the grips of upheaval and the summary punishment of traitors in a public display of the swift and ruthless law of China. A riveting and most compelling true record of a U.S. military officer's sojourn to and deployment in China. * THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND THE SIZE OF PHOTOGRAPHS: This is not a professional group of photographs, but there a very small amount which were obviously purchased by the maker of the album and inserted. The vast majority are his personal photographs, these again are obvious to anyone who looks at the album. This is an excellent example of private work of an unknown American Army officer stationed in China during a very chaotic period. He was interested in recording for posterity his experiences and the sights that he saw while on duty. We thank him for giving us privy to this slice of American and Chinese military history. * SIZE OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS: The size varies considerably, sizes in cm.: the smallest are 8 x 5, most are 14 x 9, 3 larger photos 24.5 x 18 and the last 30 x 10. CONDITION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS: These are original period photos, they are all very clear, sharp images, no fading and in excellent condition. They have been corner mounted. * RARITY: Photographic albums of this period in China are NOT commonly found; one made by an American Army officer stationed in China at this time is exceptionally unusual and RARE ! This is a charming primary source with a large number of clean & sharp images, taken by an actual participant in this historic period of China. The officer and photographer of these photographs shared for posterity his keen insight and view of these events. We thank him for giving us privy to this slice of American & Chinese military history. * .