EARLY YEARS
Born in the Tsarist Russian capital of Saint Petersburg on November 27, 1864, Alfred William Moritz Meyer was the eighth of ten children belonging to Friedrich Meyer and Dorothy von Boursy. Friedrich was a professor of German literature and editor of the Deutsche Zeitung newspaper in Saint Petersburg.
In 1874, the family moved to Heidelberg, Germany… where Friedrich became professor at the prestigious university. As an author, Friedrich called himself Meyer von Waldeck. The family name later became Meyer-Waldeck… and it stuck.
Young Alfred attended the gymnasium in Bonn and Heidelberg… and finished school with the abitur in 1883. He studied two semester at the University of Heidelberg… but then entered the Imperial German Navy in 1884 as a midshipman (Kadett). Alfred would rise through the ranks, becoming a sub-lieutenant (Leutnant zur See) in 1887 and a full lieutenant (Oberleutnant zur See) in 1890.
In the autumn of 1893, Alfred began working for the Supreme Command of the Imperial German Navy, a position he would hold for two years. In 1897, he became a lieutenant-commander (Kapitänleutnant) and attended the Imperial German Naval Academy for two years.
From 1899 to 1901, Alfred was a first officer aboard the small cruiser Geier. The warship was original on the American west coast, but when the Boxer Rebellion started, the Geier was sent to China, arriving in Yantai (Chefoo) on August 29, 1900. In October of that year, the Geier was in the German port city of Tsingtau (a.k.a. Tsingtao). Later that month, the boat traveled to Shanghai, where it stayed until February 1901. From April 5th through the 29th, the Geier was again in the port of Tsingtao.
In the autumn of 1901, Alfred Meyer went to Berlin to join the admirality staff of the Imperial Navy. Two years later, he officially changed his name to Meyer-Waldeck and was promoted to Korvettenkapitän.
For six months in 1905, Meyer-Waldeck was a first officer on the warship Wettin. Then, from the autumn of that year until the summer of 1908, he was a member of the admirality staff of the first navy squadron on board the warship Wittelsbach.
Meyer-Waldeck attained the rank of commander (Fregattenkapitän) in 1907. He was later named Kapitän zur See on January 27, 1909.
On June 24, 1908, Meyer-Waldeck was appointed chief of staff for Tsingtao, arriving there on Christmas Eve of that year. During his term of office, Meyer-Waldeck was also deputy-governor of Jiaozhou Leased Territory from April 6, 1909 until April 2, 1910 (during which time Governor Truppel was in Germany).
After a long train ride through Siberia, Meyer-Waldeck returned to Germany on February 22, 1911. A few months later, he was appointed governor for Tsingtao, succeeding Truppel (who left on May 14, 1911). Meyer-Waldeck arrived in Tsingtao just over six months later on November 22nd. In the interim period, the chief of staff, Captain Wilhelm Höpfner, served as a substitute governor.
IMPERIALISM AND WAR IN EAST ASIA
Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Germany joined other European powers (alongside the United States and Japan) in a scramble for colonial possessions. As with the other world powers, Germany began to interfere in local Chinese affairs. After two German missionaries were killed in the Juye Incident of 1897, China was forced to agree to the Kiautschou Bay concession in Shantung (now Shandong). It was given to Germany in 1898 on a ninety-nine-year lease.
The Germans then began to assert their influence across the rest of the province. The city and port of Tsingtau (a.k.a. Tsingtao) was constructed, and it became the base of the German East Asia Squadron of the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy), which operated in support of the German colonies in the Pacific.
The British viewed the German presence in China with suspicion. They leased Weihaiwei (also in Shantung) as a naval port and coaling station. Tsarist Russia leased its own station at Port Arthur (now Lüshunkou). Even republican France had a station at Kwang-Chou-Wan.
Britain also began to forge close ties with Japan, and diplomatic relations became closer with the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance on January 30, 1902. The Japanese saw the alliance as a necessary deterrent to its main rival, Russia. Japan demonstrated its potential with victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. As such, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance continued into the First World War.
As the conflict spread across Europe, Britain promptly requested Japanese assistance. On August 15, 1914, Japan issued an ultimatum, stating that Germany must withdraw her warships from Chinese and Japanese waters and transfer control of Tsingtao to Japan. The next day, Major-General Mitsuomi Kamio, General Officer Commanding (GOC), 18th Infantry Division, was ordered to prepare to take Tsingtao by force. The ultimatum expired on August 23rd, and Imperial Japan declared war on imperial Germany.
At the beginning of hostilities, the ships of the East Asia Squadron under Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee were dispersed at various Pacific colonies on routine missions. Spee’s ships rendezvoused in the Northern Mariana Islands for coaling. The SMS Emden then headed for the Indian Ocean, while the rest of the squadron made their way to the west coast of South America. The squadron engaged and destroyed two obsolescent ships of a small British Royal Navy squadron at the Battle of Coronel, before itself being destroyed at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic as the year 1914 drew to a close.
GERMAN DEFENSES AT TSINGTAO
The Boxer Rebellion at the beginning of the 20th century had led Germany to consider the defense of Tsingtao. The port and town were divided from the rest of the peninsula by steep hills. The main line of defense lay along three hills: Mount Moltke, Mount Bismarck, and Mount Iltis, from the Kaiserstuhl to Litsuner Heights. Guarding the left wing was Fort Moltke (on the hill of the same name) with two 9.4-inch (240mm) guns. The heaviest firepower was concentrated in the four 11-inch (280mm) howitzers of Fort Bismarck. On the right wing, Fort Iltis contained two 9.4-inch guns at the hill’s summit. A second defense line measuring eleven miles (17 kilometers) was set up along a closer line of steep hills. The final line of defense was along hills 660 feet (two hundred meters) above the town. A network of trenches, batteries, and other fortifications had been built in preparation for the coming siege. Germany had strengthened the defenses from the sea, laying mines in the approaches to the harbor and building four batteries and five redoubts. The fortifications were well manned and equipped… though some with obsolete Chinese artillery.
PRELUDE
On August 27th, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) sent ships under Vice-Admiral Sadakichi Kato, flying his flag in the pre-dreadnought Suwo, to blockade the coast of Kiaochow. The British Royal Navy (RN) strengthened the Japanese fleet by sending the China Station’s pre-dreadnought HMS Triumph and destroyer HMS Usk. On October 14th, the Triumph was slightly damaged by a German shore battery, killing one member of its crew and injuring two others.
The blockading fleet consisted mainly of nearly obsolete warships, though it did at times include a few modern vessels. These included the dreadnoughts Kawachi, Settsu, the battlecruiser Kongō, her sister Hiei, and the seaplane carrier Wakamiya, whose aircraft became the first of its kind in the world to attack land and sea targets. These Japanese aircraft would also take part in another military first, a night-time bombing raid.
The 18th Infantry Division was the primary Imperial Japanese Army formation that took part in the initial landings, numbering some 23,000 soldiers with support from 142 artillery pieces. They began to land on September 2nd at Lungkow, which was experiencing heavy floods at the time, and later at Lau Schan Bay on September 18th, about eighteen miles (twenty-nine kilometers) east of Tsingtao. China protested against the Japanese violation of her neutrality… but did not interfere in the operations.
The British Government and the other European powers were concerned about Japanese intentions in the region and decided to send a small symbolic British contingent from Tientsin in an effort to allay their fears. The 1,500-man contingent was commanded by Brigadier-General Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston and consisted of one thousand soldiers of the Second Battalion, The South Wales Borderers; later followed by five hundred soldiers of the 36th Sikhs. Following a friendly fire incident, British troops were given Japanese raincoats to wear so they would be more easily identifiable.
Germany responded to the threat against Tsingtao by concentrating all of their available East Asian troops in the city. Kaiser Wilhelm II made the defense of Tsingtao a top priority, saying that:
“… it would shame me more to surrender Tsingtao to the Japanese than Berlin to the Russians”.
The German garrison, commanded by Navy Captain and Governor Alfred Meyer-Waldeck, consisted of the marines of III Seebataillon, naval personnel, Chinese colonial troops, and Austro-Hungarian sailors, for a total strength of 3,625 men. He also had a modest complement of vessels:
– the torpedo boat S-90
– the decommissioned unprotected cruiser Cormoran
– the auxiliary cruiser Cormoran
– former captured Russian steamer Ryazan manned with the crew of the Cormoran
– four small gunboats: the Iltis, Jaguar, Tiger, and Luchs
– the Austro-Hungarian protected cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth, whose crew was initially divided in two: half to man the ship, and half to fight with the German land forces.
On August 22nd, HMS Kennet of the China squadron, under the command of Lieutenant Commander F. A. Russell, while routinely monitoring the naval trade routes, encountered and was damaged in action by the German torpedo boat SMS S-90, the German gunboat SMS Lauting, and a 4-inch shore battery off Tsingtao. She was hit twice from the retreating S-90.
THE SIEGE OF TSINGTAO
As the Japanese approached their positions, Meyer-Waldeck withdrew his forces from the two outer defensive lines and concentrated his troops on the innermost line of defense along the hills closest to Tsingtao. The Austro-Hungarian cruiser, SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth, was stationed in Tsingtao at the start of the war.
On September 2, 1914, the German gunboat Jaguar sank the stranded Japanese destroyer Shirotaye. Three days later, a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft scouted the port and reported that the German East Asian fleet had departed. Thus, the Japanese ordered the dreadnought, pre-dreadnought, and cruiser to leave the blockade.
On September 6th, the first air-sea battle in history took place when a Farman seaplane launched by the Wakamiya unsuccessfully attacked the Kaiserin Elisabeth and the Jaguar in Qiaozhou Bay with bombs. Early in the siege, the Kaiserin Elisabeth and German gunboat Jaguar made an unsuccessful sortie against Japanese vessels blockading Tsingtao. Later, the cruiser’s 15‑cm and 4.7‑cm guns were removed from the ship and mounted onshore, creating the Batterie Elisabeth. The ship’s crew took part in the defense of Tsingtao.
One week later, the Japanese land forces launched a cavalry raid on the German rear-guard at Tsimo, which forced a retreat. Subsequently, the Japanese took control of Kiautschou and the Shantung railway. Lieutenant General Kamio considered this the point of no return for his land forces.
As the weather became extremely harsh, Kamio took no risk and fortified the troops at Kiautschou, returned the reinforcements that were on the way, re-embarked, and landed at Lau Schan Bay. On September 26th, Kamio resumed his advance, and the Germans were forced to retreat beyond the Litsun River. The Japanese made good time, crossing the Paisha River early in the day, swiftly crossing the seven-mile lowland plain and reaching the northern bank of the Litsun.
On September 27th, Kamio tried to take Prince Heinrich Hill vis frontal assault and was caught in a murderous crossfire. From the summit, the Germans rained down bullets from four Maxim machine guns. Out in the harbor, the Kaiserin Elisabeth and Leopard shelled the exposed slopes, nearly routing the Japanese right flank. However, the Japanese assault was saved by the Allied fleet.
As the siege progressed, the naval vessels trapped in the harbor (Cormoran, Iltis and Luchs) were scuttled on September 28, 1914. On October 17th, the torpedo boat S-90 slipped out of Tsingtao harbor and fired a torpedo which sank the Japanese cruiser Takachiho with the loss of 271 officers and men. But the S-90 was unable to run the blockade back to Tsingtao, and the torpedo boat was scuttled in Chinese waters when the ship ran low on fuel. The Tiger was scuttled on October 29th; the Kaiserin Elisabeth on November 2nd; and finally the Jaguar on November 7th.
While the siege continued, the Pacific islands of Mariana, Caroline, and Marshall fell into Japanese hands by mid October 1914. With the Australian seizure of Neu-Pommern (New Britain) in November 1914, German authority in Asia and the Pacific came to an end. All its shipping and protection had disappeared…
The Japanese started shelling the fort and the city on the last day of October 1914. They began digging parallel lines of trenches, just as they had done at the siege of Port Arthur nine years earlier in the Russo-Japanese War. The very large 11‑inch howitzers (in addition to the firing of the Japanese naval guns) brought the German defenses under constant bombardment during the night. Japanese forces were able to move their own trenches further forward under the cover of their own artillery.
For seven days, the bombardment continued… employing around one hundred siege guns with 1,200 shells each on the Japanese side. While the Germans were able to use the heavy guns of the port fortifications to bombard the Allied land positions, they soon ran out of ammunition… and surrender was inevitable!
The German garrison was able to field only a single Taube aircraft during the siege, flown by Leutnant Gunther Plüschow… as a second Taube piloted by Leutnant Friedrich Müllerskowsky crashed early in the campaign. The Taube was used for frequent reconnaissance flights, and Plüschow made several nuisance attacks on the blockading squadron (dropping improvised munitions and other ordnance on them). He claimed the downing of a Japanese Farman MF.7 with a pistol (the first aerial victory in aviation history). Plüschow then flew from Tsingtao on November 6, 1914, carrying the governor’s last dispatches, which were forwarded to Berlin through neutral diplomatic channels.
On the night of November 6th, waves of Japanese infantry attacked and overwhelmed the third line of German defenses. The next morning, the German forces (along with their Austro-Hungarian allies) asked for terms. The Allies took formal possession of the colony ten days later.
AFTERMATH
The German garrison was able to hold out for nearly two months… and despite the naval blockade with sustained artillery bombardment and being outnumbered six to one, the defeat nevertheless temporarily served as a morale booster. The German defenders watched the Japanese with curiosity as they marched into Tsingtao… but they turned their backs on the British when they entered the town. So deep was their anger that some German officers spat in the faces of their British counterparts!
Japanese casualties numbered 733 killed and 1,282 wounded; the British had twelve killed and fifty-three wounded. The German defenders lost 199 dead and 504 wounded.
The German dead were buried at Tsingtao, while the remaining soldiers were transported to prisoner of war camps in Japan. During the march to Tsingtao and the subsequent siege, Japanese forces killed ninety-eight Chinese civilians and wounded another thirty. There were also countless incidents of rape committed by Japanese soldiers against Chinese women.
The 4,700 German prisoners were treated well with respect in Japan, such as in Bandō prisoner-of-war camp. The German troops were interned in Japan until the formal signature of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919… but due to technical questions, the troops were not repatriated before 1920. Of the prisoners, 170 men chose to remain in Japan after the war.
Alfred Meyer-Waldeck was one of the men brought to Japan as prisoner of war, where he stayed until 1920. During his captivity, Meyer-Waldeck received further promotions.
On May 22, 1915, he became rear-admiral… and later on January 27, 1918 (the Kaiser’s 59th birthday), Meyer-Waldeck was named vice-admiral.
LAST YEARS
In May 1920, Meyer-Waldeck returned on the “Nankai Maru” to Germany. By September of that year, he was receiving a pension. For the final years of his life, Meyer-Waldeck lived quietly in Berlin.
But in the summer of 1928, Alfred Meyer-Waldeck was in ill health. He visited the spa at Bad Kissingen, where he died on August 25, 1928 at the age of sixty-three. He was buried in the family grave at Heidelberg.