The Siege of Tsingtao (August-November 1914)

By the late nineteenth century, China had a handful of colonies from the imperial European powers, ranging from Macau and Hong Kong in the south to Beijing and Port Arthur in the north. Germany officially became a nation on January 18, 1871 and remained hungry for colonies all over the world, to catch up with the other imperialistic powers. After the Berlin Conference of 1884, Germany gained colonies in Africa. After the deaths of two German missionaries in 1897 in the Shangdong province of China, Germany used their deaths as an opportunity to form a defensive base the following year at Kiaochow, which they leased for 99 years. The Germans then increased their influence in the region and built Tsingtao as their port and home base for the German East Asian Squadron.

At the turn of the century, Chinese anti-imperialists began the Boxer Rebellion (August 1899-September 1901) as they tried to seize the colonial strongholds in China, like Beijing. The Boxer Rebellion then led to the Germans increasing their defenses at Tsingtao, by building trenches, batteries, other fortifications, and the laying of mines in the harbor.

The German presence at Tsingtao was viewed as a threat by the many of the other European powers. Great Britain then built a colony at Weihaiwei, Russia built a colony at Port Arthur, and the French at Kwang-Chou-Wan. Japan, another significant power in the region, began to have good ties with Britain, to offset German presence in the region. On January 30, 1902, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was signed. This alliance was also to deter their mutual rival, Russia. Japan managed to prove itself as a significant power after defeating Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).

After the assassination of Austria-Hungarian Archduke Francis Ferdinand in June 1914, and shortly after Europe became at war in August 1914, the British called for assistance from Japan against Germany, and they began to move on the German port of Tsingtao. Japan was more than obliged to assist Britain in fighting Germany, because they had been gaining land thought the Pacific region and desired to grab colonial lands as well.

The main force that arrived against the Germans in Tsingtao were from the Japanese, assisted by some British soldiers (to prevent Japan from gaining more territory). Japan's navy was under the command of Admiral Sadakichi Kato and along with some English warships, they began a blockade of Tsingtao on August 27, 1914. On September 2, the Japanese land at Lungkow to the north of Tsingtao and on September 18, at Laoshan, to the east. The Japanese forces were under the command of General Kamio Mitsuomi and numbered about 60,000 strong, which included the small British force of about 1,000 men and 500 Sikhs under the command of Brigadier General Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston. Defending Tsingtao was about 3,650 soldiers under the command of German naval captain and governor Alfred Meyer-Waldeck and the Austria-Hungarian captain, Richard Macovicz, of the protected cruiser, SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth.

Admiral Sadakichi Kato

General Kamio Mitsuomi

Brigadier General Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston

Captain and Governor Alfred Meyer-Waldeck

In addition to the 60,000 allied troops were 142 Japanese artillery pieces, a Japanese seaplane carrier (with an unknown amount of aircraft), 5 battleships, 2 battlecruisers, and 2 destroyers. In addition to the 3,650 German defenders, 324 Austria-Hungarians from the Kaiserin Elisabeth, helped to defend Tsingtao. The Central Powers also had a protected cruiser, a torpedo boat, and 4 gunboats, as well as an unknown, small number of aircraft.

As the Japanese troops drew closer to the defenses of Tsingtao, the German defenders pulled back from the first and then the second lines of defense to concentrated their forces closer to the port. On September 6, the first air-sea battle of history took place outside of the harbor. On September 17, Japanese calvary raided the German rear guard at Tsimo, forcing them to retreat even closer to Tsingtao. Throughout the campaign, the German torpedo boat managed to sink multiple allied warships, until it was scuttled on its return to harbor on October 17. On October 31, the Japanese began shelling the fort and digging trenches around Tsingtao. Seven days later, on November 6, waves of Japanese soldiers overwhelmed the 3rd line of German defenses and captured the port. The next day negotiations began and Tsingtao became under Allied control on November 16.

During the campaign for the capture of Tsingtao, the Allies had 727 dead and 1,335 wounded. They lost a destroyer, a protected cruiser, and a battleship was damaged. The Central powers had 199 dead, 504 wounded and all of their ships were scuttled. The German dead were buried at Tsingtao and the 4,700 soldier who became prisoners were brought to war camps in Japan where they were treated very well. Tsingtao was a major loss for the Germans, as the Kaiser Wilhelm II. said, "It would shame me more to surrender Tsingtao to the Japanese than Berlin to the Russians." Although a major loss for the Germans, the battle of Tsingtao was a great morale boost for them, since they held out for so long under a six to one ratio of infantry. Now that Japan was in the war, they began to seize the German islands of Micronesia, the Caroline Islands, and the Marshall Islands. Great Britain invited Australia and New Zealand to take many of the southern Pacific islands to keep them out of Japanese control.

Bibliography

Duffy, Michael. "The Siege of Tsingtao, 1914." August 22, 2009. http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/tsingtao.htm.

Hoyt, Edwin Palmer. The Fall of Tsingtao. A. Barker, 1975. Print.

Pattee, Phillip G. At War in Distant Waters: British Colonial Defense in the Great War. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2013. Print.

Young, A. Morgan. Japan Under Taisho Tenno: 1912-1926. New York, NY: Routledge; 1 edition, 1928. Print.