The Washington times., 1914-11-07
TS|NGTAU CAPTURED
At BAYONET POINT
General Yamada. at Head OF
Picked Column. Took Central
Fort in Brilliant Charge.
Continued from First Page

the losses of the garrison have been
are not known. but the official Japanese
and British reports have indicated that
Tsingtau has been taken at heavy cost
Oe men.
1t was on August IS that Japan threw
herself into the European war as an
ally of Great Britain, after demanding
that Germany withdraw or intern all
German warships in Asiatic waters, and
relinquish possession Of Kiaochow.
Her demands ignored. when the ult-
matum expired a week later, Japan
proceeded cautiously with plans to
seize the German settlement on the
Chinese mainland.
Although the operations in this iso-
lated Far Eastern theater of the war
have covered only some 200 square
miles. yet on that account they have
been none the less interesting. Aero
planes and all other accompaniments
of modern warfare have figured in both
the Japanese and the German opera
tions.
The strength Of the attacking force.
as compared with the garrison and
the few German vessels at kiaochow,
was so diSproportionate that at the
beginning of the campaign 1t was
taken for granted that the German
possession soon would fall The sur
prise was that SO small a force was
able to hold out so long and inflict
a considerable loss both to the land
and naval forces of the allies. Re
ports from various sources picced to-
gether indicate that the allies loss
around Kiaochow has been upward
of 1000 men and several second-rate
warShipS.
The details Of the movements have
been secret, but the first general
operation undertaken by the Japan
eSe was the sweeping of the waters
around Kiaochow for mines. In this
connection 100 Japanese women shell
divers offered their services. thinking
that they, unseen by the enemy, could
dive and release the mines. But the
the Japanese mine-dra gging boats
was blown up.
The next move was 10 seize the Ger
man-owned railroad running west from
Tsingtau.
This was done under violent protest
from the Chinese government.
Fighting continued from the middle Of
September until the fall of the fortress
yesterday. Both German and japanese
warships and aeroplanes engaged in
the bombardment of each others posi-
tons in one of the most severe of these
engagements on october J.
It was announced that Japan lost LOO
killed and 500 wounded. It was then re-
ported that the Japanese would await
the arrival of siege guns before continu-
ing operations.
On the night of October Il occurred
the most serious of the Japanese naval
losses, Wnen lne cruiser IdhaIhliio was
blown up by the German torpedo boat
$50 It was reported on October % that
The Japanese had finally installed their
siege guns under cover on Prince Henry
Mountain and other hills near the town.
The German fOrtresses included three
lines of defenses. The first Of these, on
the outskirts, appears to have been
! evacuated some time ago and the Sarrl-
son concentrated in Forts Moltke and
Bismarck and Iltis, which occupy COM
manding positions on the range of the
precipitOus hills that circle the harbor
city. The Germans also had five forts
exclusively for shore defense.
The heights back of the city are pene-
trated only by the railway line and it IS
probably through this path that the
allies entered. once the defending
fortresses had been silenced.