Siege of Tsingtao – British Dead

I hadn’t realised until recently reading Jonathan Fenby’s The Siege of Tsingtao that any British troops died at the battle. Japanese casualties numbered 236 killed and 1,282 wounded while he German defenders lost 199 dead and 504 wounded

But, there in a very minor supporting role, was a British detachment – The British deployed the 2d battalion of South Wales Borderers, later reinforced by 2 infantry companies of the 36th Sikhs Regiment including:

• General Barnardiston
• 9 staff officers
• 910 non-commissioned officers and men of the 2nd Battalion South Wales Borderers
• 450 non-commissioned officers and men of the 36th Sikhs Regiment

It seems the British lost 12 killed and 53 wounded (though it’s not entirely clear which is the correct number, another source states that the British lost 74 Army and 9 Navy casualties with 13 Army and 3 Navy dead while yet another says the British suffered 65 casualties with 12 dead and 53 wounded ). That autumn was the wettest on record and the British turned up in summer kit rather unprepared for the terrible weather. Indeed it seems most of the British dead were either drowned or swept away in rain water – the water levels apparently rose a full two meters in under an hour. It is also suggested, though I’m not sure entirely proven, that the German artillery at Tsingtao sought out the British detachment thinking that prioritising killing them would mean they wouldn’t meet them later on the front in Europe. The Times correspondent, who wrote a rather thrilling account of the Siege in the December 17th 1914 edition of the paper gives few details of how the soldiers died, except that one succumbed to disease.

General Kamio Mitsuomi (left) and General Barnardiston (right), in Tsingtao, September 1914