h heard the sharp report
of a field gun.

"Gentlemen, the show has started," said the British Captain, as he
removed his cap and started adjusting his "opera glass." No sooner had
he said this than the reports of guns came from all directions with a
continuous rumble as if a giant bowling alley were in use. Everywhere
the valley at the rear of Tsing-tau was alive with golden flashes from
discharging guns, and at the same time great clouds of bluish-white
smoke would suddenly spring up around the German batteries where some
Japanese shell had burst. Over near the greater harbor of Tsing-tau we
could see flames licking up the Standard Oil Company's large tanks. We
afterward learned that these had been set on fire by the Germans and
not by a bursting shell.

And then the warships in the Yellow Sea opened fire on Iltis Fort, and
for three hours we continually played our glasses on the field--on
Tsing-tau and on the warships. With glasses on the central redoubt of
the Germans we watched the effects of the Japanese fire until the boom
of guns from the German Fort A, on a little peninsula jutting out from
Kiao-Chau Bay, toward the east, attracted our attention there. We could
see the big siege gun on this fort rise up over the bunker, aim at a
warship, fire, and then quickly go down again. And then we would turn
our eyes toward the warships in time to see a fountain of water 200
yards from a vessel, where the shell had struck. We scanned the city of
Tsing-tau. The 150-ton crane in the greater harbor, which we had seen
earlier in the day, and which was said to be the largest crane in the
world, had disappeared and only its base remained standing. A Japanese
shell had carried away the crane.

But this first day's firing of the Japanese investing troops was mainly
to test the range of the different batteries. The attempt also was made
to silence the line of forts extending in the east from Iltis Hill, near
the wireless and signal stations at the rear of Tsing-tau, to the coast
fort near the burning oil tank on the west. In this they were partly
successful, two guns at Iltis Fort being silenced by the guns at sea.

On Nov. 1, the second day of the bombardment, we again stationed
ourselves on the peak of Prinz Heinrich Berg. From the earliest hours of
morning the Japanese and British forces had kept up a continuous fire on
the German redoubts in front of the Iltis, Moltke, and Bismarck forts,
and when we arrived at our seats it