Posted on Aug 25, 2018
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On this day in 1945, John Birch, an American missionary to China before the war and a captain in the Army during the war, is killed by Chinese communists days after the surrender of Japan, for no apparent reason.
After America had entered the war, Birch, a Baptist missionary already in China, was made a liaison between American and Chinese forces fighting the Japanese. But on August 25, Birch, commanding an American Special Services team, was ordered to halt by Chinese communist troops. A scuffle ensued, and Birch was shot dead.
In the 1950s, Robert Welch would create a right-wing, anticommunist organization called the John Birch Society. For Welch, Birch was “the first casualty in the Third World War between Communists and the ever-shrinking Free World.”
After America had entered the war, Birch, a Baptist missionary already in China, was made a liaison between American and Chinese forces fighting the Japanese. But on August 25, Birch, commanding an American Special Services team, was ordered to halt by Chinese communist troops. A scuffle ensued, and Birch was shot dead.
In the 1950s, Robert Welch would create a right-wing, anticommunist organization called the John Birch Society. For Welch, Birch was “the first casualty in the Third World War between Communists and the ever-shrinking Free World.”
The first casualty of the Cold War - Aug 25, 1945 - HISTORY.com
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WWII World War Two
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John Morrison Birch (May 28, 1918 – August 25, 1945) was an American Baptist minister, missionary, and U.S. Army Air Forces captain who was a U.S. military i...
Thank you my friend TSgt Joe C. for making us aware that on August 25. 1945 American missionary to China and former WWII U.S. military intelligence Army Captain in China John Morrison Birch was killed by Chinese communists.
Background from /prabook.com/web/john.birch/3714126
"John Birch
Military , minister , politician
John Birch was an American Baptist minister, missionary, and United States Army Air Forces captain who was a U.S. military intelligence officer in China during World War II. Birch was killed in a confrontation with Chinese Communist soldiers a few days after the war ended. He was posthumously awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal.
Background
Birch was born to Presbyterian missionaries in Landour, a hill station in the Himalayas now in the northern India state of Uttarakhand, at the time in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.
Education
He graduated from Gore High School in Chattooga County, followed by Georgia Baptist–affiliated Mercer University in 1939 magna cum laude. "He was always an angry young man, always a zealot", said a classmate many years later. In his senior year at Mercer, he joined a student group to identify cases of heresy by professors, seeking to uphold the Scriptural definition of conversion and other doctrines.
Career
In April 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his crew bailed out in China after the Tokyo raid. They had flown from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8), bombed Tokyo, then flown to the Chinese mainland. After bailing out, they were rescued by Chinese civilians and smuggled by river beyond Japanese lines in Zhejiang province. Birch met them by accident and assisted them.
When Doolittle arrived in Chongqing, he told Colonel Claire Chennault, leader of the Flying Tigers, about Birch's help. Chennault said he could use a Chinese-speaking American who knew the country well and he commissioned Birch as a second lieutenant on July 4, 1942 to work as a field intelligence officer, though Birch had expected to work as a chaplain.
Birch served with the China Air Task Force, which became the Fourteenth Air Force on 5 March 1943, and was later seconded to the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He criticized the OSS, wanting only to work for Chennault. He built formidable intelligence networks of sympathetic Chinese informants, supplying Chennault with information on Japanese troop movements and shipping, often performing dangerous field assignments, during which he would brazenly hold Sunday church services for Chinese Christians. In his diary, Major Gustav Krause, commanding officer of the base, noted: "Birch is a good officer, but I'm afraid is too brash and may run into trouble." Urged to take a leave of absence, Birch refused, telling Chennault he would not quit China "until the last Jap" did.
He was promoted to captain and received the Legion of Merit on July 17, 1944, and was approved for an oak leaf cluster in lieu of another Legion of Merit in January 1946. In November 1945, he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Cloud and Banner by the Republic of China. Colonel Wilfred Smith recommended Birch for a posthumous Silver Star but neither the Silver Star nor the Purple Heart was approved based on eligibility for the award.
V-J Day, August 14, 1945, signaled the end of formal hostilities, but under terms of the Japanese surrender, the Japanese Army was ordered to continue occupying the areas it controlled until they could be surrendered to the Nationalist government, even in places where the Chinese Communist-led government had been the de facto state for a decade. This led to continued fighting as the People's Liberation Army (PLA) sought to expel all Japanese imperial forces, which it perceived to include U.S. personnel, who were then openly collaborating with the remaining Japanese forces.
On August 25, when Captain Birch was leading a party of eleven Americans, Chinese Nationalists, and Koreans on a mission to gather intelligence in Xuzhou, they were stopped by a PLA force in a small town where the Communists had been fighting Japanese troops. Birch refused to surrender his revolver and harsh words and insults were exchanged. Birch was shot and killed, and a Chinese Nationalist aide was shot and wounded, but survived. The rest of the party was taken prisoner, but were released two months later.
Personality
John Birch was a simple, but highly intelligent man, who worked hard to serve God, spread God's word, and fought for the freedom to do so. During his service in the war, he longed for the day when he could once again work the land, raise a family and dutifully serve God, as seen in the prose he wrote four months before his death called "The War Weary Farmer."
John Morrison Birch
John Morrison Birch (May 28, 1918 – August 25, 1945) was an American Baptist minister, missionary, and U.S. Army Air Forces captain who was a U.S. military intelligence officer in China during World War II.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlJc8C9a-5A
FYI Maj William W. "Bill" Price Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown 1stSgt Eugene Harless CW5 John M. MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Michael Thorin SGT (Join to see) SGT Robert George SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SP5 Robert Ruck SPC Margaret Higgins Maj Marty Hogan SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSgt Brian Brakke
Background from /prabook.com/web/john.birch/3714126
"John Birch
Military , minister , politician
John Birch was an American Baptist minister, missionary, and United States Army Air Forces captain who was a U.S. military intelligence officer in China during World War II. Birch was killed in a confrontation with Chinese Communist soldiers a few days after the war ended. He was posthumously awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal.
Background
Birch was born to Presbyterian missionaries in Landour, a hill station in the Himalayas now in the northern India state of Uttarakhand, at the time in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.
Education
He graduated from Gore High School in Chattooga County, followed by Georgia Baptist–affiliated Mercer University in 1939 magna cum laude. "He was always an angry young man, always a zealot", said a classmate many years later. In his senior year at Mercer, he joined a student group to identify cases of heresy by professors, seeking to uphold the Scriptural definition of conversion and other doctrines.
Career
In April 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his crew bailed out in China after the Tokyo raid. They had flown from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8), bombed Tokyo, then flown to the Chinese mainland. After bailing out, they were rescued by Chinese civilians and smuggled by river beyond Japanese lines in Zhejiang province. Birch met them by accident and assisted them.
When Doolittle arrived in Chongqing, he told Colonel Claire Chennault, leader of the Flying Tigers, about Birch's help. Chennault said he could use a Chinese-speaking American who knew the country well and he commissioned Birch as a second lieutenant on July 4, 1942 to work as a field intelligence officer, though Birch had expected to work as a chaplain.
Birch served with the China Air Task Force, which became the Fourteenth Air Force on 5 March 1943, and was later seconded to the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He criticized the OSS, wanting only to work for Chennault. He built formidable intelligence networks of sympathetic Chinese informants, supplying Chennault with information on Japanese troop movements and shipping, often performing dangerous field assignments, during which he would brazenly hold Sunday church services for Chinese Christians. In his diary, Major Gustav Krause, commanding officer of the base, noted: "Birch is a good officer, but I'm afraid is too brash and may run into trouble." Urged to take a leave of absence, Birch refused, telling Chennault he would not quit China "until the last Jap" did.
He was promoted to captain and received the Legion of Merit on July 17, 1944, and was approved for an oak leaf cluster in lieu of another Legion of Merit in January 1946. In November 1945, he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Cloud and Banner by the Republic of China. Colonel Wilfred Smith recommended Birch for a posthumous Silver Star but neither the Silver Star nor the Purple Heart was approved based on eligibility for the award.
V-J Day, August 14, 1945, signaled the end of formal hostilities, but under terms of the Japanese surrender, the Japanese Army was ordered to continue occupying the areas it controlled until they could be surrendered to the Nationalist government, even in places where the Chinese Communist-led government had been the de facto state for a decade. This led to continued fighting as the People's Liberation Army (PLA) sought to expel all Japanese imperial forces, which it perceived to include U.S. personnel, who were then openly collaborating with the remaining Japanese forces.
On August 25, when Captain Birch was leading a party of eleven Americans, Chinese Nationalists, and Koreans on a mission to gather intelligence in Xuzhou, they were stopped by a PLA force in a small town where the Communists had been fighting Japanese troops. Birch refused to surrender his revolver and harsh words and insults were exchanged. Birch was shot and killed, and a Chinese Nationalist aide was shot and wounded, but survived. The rest of the party was taken prisoner, but were released two months later.
Personality
John Birch was a simple, but highly intelligent man, who worked hard to serve God, spread God's word, and fought for the freedom to do so. During his service in the war, he longed for the day when he could once again work the land, raise a family and dutifully serve God, as seen in the prose he wrote four months before his death called "The War Weary Farmer."
John Morrison Birch
John Morrison Birch (May 28, 1918 – August 25, 1945) was an American Baptist minister, missionary, and U.S. Army Air Forces captain who was a U.S. military intelligence officer in China during World War II.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlJc8C9a-5A
FYI Maj William W. "Bill" Price Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown 1stSgt Eugene Harless CW5 John M. MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Michael Thorin SGT (Join to see) SGT Robert George SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski SP5 Robert Ruck SPC Margaret Higgins Maj Marty Hogan SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSgt Brian Brakke
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SFC Shirley Whitfield MSG Mark Million COL Lee Flemming LTC (Join to see) PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SSgt Harvey "Skip" Porter SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell Alan K. LTC Greg Henning SSgt (Join to see) MSgt Stephen Council Sgt Trevor Barrett Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MSG Andrew White SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth Cpl Scott McCarroll LTC John Shaw LTC John Griscom
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