Combat· U.S. Occupation of North China
Anping Ambush
The Anping Ambush was the most serious clash between Marines and Communist forces in the occupation and a turning point in American attitudes toward the mission.
A 1st Marine Division motorized patrol, escorting a United Nations relief convoy along the Peiping-Tientsin highway, was ambushed near the village of Anping by a large Communist force concealed in roadside ditches and standing crops. The Marines fought back in a sharp engagement that drew immediate diplomatic attention, becoming the subject of a contentious joint investigation by the Executive Headquarters truce teams. Coming amid the breakdown of the Marshall mission's cease-fire, the ambush hardened the perception that the Marines could not guarantee peace in China and accelerated planning for their withdrawal. It demonstrated that the Corps' railway-guarding and convoy-escort duties had become genuine combat, fought in the middle of someone else's civil war.
Record no. 603