Combat· U.S. Occupation of North China
Hsin Ho ASP Raids
The Hsin Ho Ammunition Supply Point, a few miles northwest of Tangku, held vast stores of captured and surplus munitions and became the target of repeated Communist raids over many months.
The Marines guarding the depot fought a running series of night actions against raiders seeking to seize or destroy the ammunition, in what became the costliest sustained episode of the strained relations between the Corps and the Communist forces. The largest of these raids produced the worst single casualty toll the Marines suffered in their dealings with the Communists in North China. The Marines ultimately turned the supply point and its contents over to Nationalist troops as part of the American program of postwar aid. The Hsin Ho raids epitomized the occupation's central dilemma: guarding war materiel that both Chinese factions coveted, while trying to avoid being drawn fully into their conflict.
Record no. 604