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3BadgeMarine
07-24-04, 04:22 AM
The siege of the peking legations began on the June 21.1900.
The first of the actions took place on the 24th June,but the main combined operations USMC and Royal Marines took place a few days later when the Senior American officer, Captain John Twigg Myers USMC,led a combined force-thirty US Marines,twenty six British Marines in a daring raid,the first real offensive operation since the siege begun.The raid proved a turning point in the siege,and the Legations held out out untill relief arrived.

This was not the first time British and American Marines had fought side by side.They had hardly ceased fighting against each other,in the war of 1812,when they went into action together to clear pirates out of the Caribbean,common interests had led them to fight side by side against the Chinese at Shanghai and against the Egyptians at Alexandria.But they had never faced death togther so starkly as at Peking,the American Marines admiration for Captain Halliday V.C RM was matched only by the British appreciation of the heroism of Captain Myers USMC.

A bronze bas-relief was erected in the Mall, in London,commemorating the Royal Marines deeds at Peking, this is unique in national memorials: American Marines are shown with their British comrades in the place of honour,the figure of Captain Myers is conspicuoussly at their head.

Now Gentlemen Remember the Month of June.
Per Mare Per Terram and Semper Fidelis. Aye JR