Mussolini’s Marines: Italians in China

In September 1943, when Italy signed an armistice with the Allies, abandoning its Axis partners, Japanese forces moved swiftly to seize Italian military assets in areas under its control, including China. The Italian sector of the city was guarded by soldiers of the San Marco Battalion, the nation’s marines and clearly among the elite in the Italian armed forces. The Italian marines had manned the garrison in Tianjin since the middle of the 1920s, and prior to September 1943, relations with the Japanese Army in China appears to have been amicable.

Source: www.chinaww2.com