Operation Beleaguer
Operation Beleaguer[4] was the codename for the United States Marine Corps' occupation of northeastern China's Hebei and Shandong provinces from 1945 until 1949. The Marines were tasked with overseeing the repatriation of more than 600,000 Japanese and Koreans that remained in China at the end of World War II. During the four-year occupation, American forces engaged in several skirmishes with the People's Liberation Army while successfully evacuating thousands of foreign nationals. The United States Government attempted to mediate a peace treaty between the opposing Nationalist and Communist factions but was unsuccessful. The Marines departed Northern China in June 1949 a few months before the communists won victory in the Chinese Civil War and took control of mainland China.[1][5][6]
A United States Navy Curtiss SC-1 Seahawk scout plane over Shanghai in 1948. This aircraft was assigned to the cruiser USS Duluth. It was transported through the streets of Shanghai and fitted with landing gear instead of its normal floats.
Brigadier general Merritt A. Edson, Commanding General Service Command Fleet Marine Force Pacific, Major general DeWitt Peck (CG 1st Marine Division), Louis E. Woods (CG 1st Marine Aircraft Wing), Tianjin, September 1945.
