fter
offering faint opposition. When the British troops, after a circuitous
march of 40 miles, much hampered by bad roads, came up in the rear of
the Japanese, then preparing to assault the enemy's advanced positions
on high ground between the rivers Pai-sha and Li-tsun, the part that it
had been arranged they should take in the Japanese attack, on September
26, fell through owing to a disinclination of the Germans to fight.
Their resistance was so meagre that the Allies were hardly engaged, and
next day gained without difficulty the easterly banks of the Li-tsun and
Chang-tsun rivers, only seven miles north-east of Tsing-tao. The enemy
at all points fell back, and the advance upon the town continued. The
Japanese had now drawn their lines across the neck of the narrow
peninsula upon which Tsing-tao stands. There were indications that the
main forces were now in contact. The only obstacle, but a formidable
one, between the invaders and the forts themselves was constituted by
the dominating height of Prince Heinrich Hill, from whose crest, rising
some five miles from the town, all the forts could be bombarded. General
Kamio estimated that three days of fighting would be required for its
capture: it was as all-important to the defence as to the attack, and
was sure to be strongly held. The forts themselves, of the latest type,
were elaborately constructed, and equipped with concrete and steel
cupolas, mounting high calibre pieces. They commanded both landward and
seaward approaches to the town, those nearest the invading Japanese
being situated upon, and named Moltke Berg, Bismarck Berg, and Iltis
Berg. Earth redoubts and trenches between formed the German line of
defence. Plans for the most considerable engagement, the assault of
Prince Heinrich Hill, that had so far taken place, to begin on Sunday,
September 27, were made by the Japanese General. It developed more
speedily than had been expected. German artillery opened a terrific
cannonade upon the Japanese lines, while three warships shelled the
attacking right wing from the bay. The German fire was heavy and
accurate. Japanese warships and aeroplanes, and also the British
battleship _Triumph_, however, created a diversion that relieved the
assaulting forces. Two of the forts were shelled from the sea, and
suffered serious injury, a barrack-house and other buildings being,
moreover, damaged. For many hours the great guns, thundering their
challenges from sea and land a