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The Yellow Sea Incident
Richard
Franklin Bishop
©
Copyright 2016
by Richard Franklin Bishop
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This
is the Story of Tsingtao, China
It
also includes a critical review of the book:
DRAGON
MASTER - The Kaiser’s One-Man Air Force in China, 1914
(This
is an expanded
“critical review”. Portions of the following have
appeared in
Amazon’s
Book Listing
and appear here - with their approbation)
The
Yellow Sea lies between the north-central mainland of China and the
Korean peninsula. Once upon a time, there was a ripple on the Yellow
Sea near China that most modern Americans never heard of.
But,
using the right search words in Google.com: “The
Aviator of Tsingtao”
(English spelling) will turn up 8,950 “hits” placing the
location and the events at least as a footnote in History. If you
shift to Google.de (Germany), the search words: “Der
Flieger von Tsingtau”
(German spelling) will get you 53,800 (six times as many) “hits”
illuminating the person and the events easily recognizable by almost
every person in Germany, as well as by many people in Chile and
Argentina.
The
mentioned Aviator
(Flieger)
was named Gunther
Plüschow
and he was an Oberleutnant with one stripe on his sleeve (equivalent
to a Navy Full Lieutenant
or Captain in our Military) in the Imperial German Navy’s
Flying Corps. He became a Hero in Germany during WW I and, later-on,
became famous in South America, as well.
It
all was highlighted in the World newspapers when the Japanese showed
their aspirations for international power as a result of their
unbelievable victory over the Russians in 1904-1905.The entire world
was amazed by their sinking the Russian fleet in the Tsushima Strait
(between Japan and Korea) during the Russo-Japanese war.
Other
World-powers had kept colonialism alive, e. g., the British acquired
Hong Kong in 1842 together with a protectorate Wei-Hai-Wei on the
Shantung (Shandong) north coast. Germany was envious and also wanted
their piece of the colonial “cake”. Russia
leased their Colony at Port Arthur (now Lüshunkou) and France
established a Colony at Kwang-Chou-Wan. When
the United States acquired the Phillipines from Spain in 1898, that
about ended our taste for colonialism in the Pacific. We were only
interested in trading and “business as usual.”
Not
so for Japan, their “Victory” brought about an active
rise in nationalism and the accompanying militarism began to alarm
other countries. Apparently, the Japanese were not especially
interested in forming trading “Colonies” and had
formulated some other motive. High on the list of those countries in
a sudden apprehension of danger were China and Germany.
China
had established a strategic military post at Kiaochow Bay on the
Shantung (Shandong) Coast as early as 1891. So, after a couple of
German missionaries were murdered in China, Germany used this as an
excuse to force a treaty of 99 years duration (together with a lease
on a German Colonial Trade Protectorate) onto the military garrison
of the Manchu Government in March of 1898 - using “gunboat
diplomacy”.
Tsingtau
(the Chinese word means Green
Island)
and the treaty-lease district around it includes some 315 square
miles. It is located at 36
of north Latitude (the 36th
parallel). Tokyo, Japan is located at 32
of north Latitude (the 32nd
parallel) and is 1,097 miles or 19
further east of Tsingtau. The former German colony lies on the east
coast of China 440 miles north of Shanghai and 558 miles northwest of
the Japanese naval base of Nagasaki. Was this really a threat (too
close for comfort) for the Japanese?
The
Germans spent the next 16 years (from 1898 until the beginning of WW
I in 1914) establishing a commercial port and naval supply station at
the former Chinese military base on the Shantung (Shandong) coast
(now-a-days called Qingdao
with
the new Chinese
Pinyin
system
for spelling and pronunciation). They built a giant crane and a
floating drydock (the largest in Asia) and turned the little fishing
village into a model “little Germany” complete with
hundreds of European-style houses, a modern sewage system, a brewery,
and parks and administration buildings of the finest kind. Their
placement of “homelike” memoirs of the “Fatherland”
included pensions, hotels, boulevards and a race track. Their
Governor’s Mansion was grandiose! It is amusing to see blogs on
the Internet from tourists who visited there recently. They
innocently describe the present Qingdao
as: “A little Switzerland” !
After
several Declarations of War in Europe, the World “girded-up”
for WW I in 1914. Amazingly, England, Japan and now Russia became
wartime Allies. Japan decided (and the English agreed) that the
German port of Tsingtau was a thorn in their side and needed
trashing. On 15 August 1914, the Japanese sent an ultimatum to the
German Governor of Tsingtau calling for an unconditional surrender by
September 15th.
This ultimatum would expire on 23 August 1914.
The
British didn’t wait. The day before it expired, the British
Destroyer H.M.S. Kenet
attacked the German Torpedo Boat S-90
which
was
accompanying
a ship named Lauting
that
was laying mines outside the harbor entrance. Although much slower,
the S-90 resisted
with deadly aim. After a running battle in which the British vessel
suffered a destroyed bridge, and six more hits, the damage inflicted
was three dead (including the ship’s Commander) and six
wounded. The British finally broke off its “dogged pursuit”
when it came too close to the German guns of Hweichuen Fort that put
a geyser from a 240 mm (9.4 inch) gun extremely close to them.
In
the subsequent blockade and bombardment of Tsingtau, the Japanese
used 5 Battleships (the British furnished 1 more), 12 Cruisers, 14
Destroyers (the British furnished 2 more), 7 Gunboats, and 18 other
ships for mine-sweeping and other duties including a sea-plane tender
(the British added 1 Hospital ship). This was a total of 60 vessels
not including Troop-transports for the landings.
In
their inevitable invasion, the first landing was made about 185 miles
north of Kiaochow Bay on 2 September 1914. The beachhead was on the
opposite side of the Shantung (Shandong) Peninsula entirely in
neutral Chinese territory. This major incursion force consisted of 26
Troop transports and used 36 out of the 60 warships already in the
area to cover the landing. This
landing was deemed later to have been a grave mistake because
a severe rainstorm beginning on August 31st
(and lasting 10 days) had turned the entire area into a quagmire.
This landing was duly halted on 3 September and many of the ships
were re-deployed together with their Troops who had re-embarked.
Fifteen
days later, on September 18th the
final amphibious landing placed more than a hundred siege cannons,
thousands of tons of equipment, almost three hundred horses, and
nearly 30,000 men on the beachhead south of the village of Wangko
Chuang; again in neutral Chinese territory. The Japanese Headquarters
would be only about 25 miles north of Tsingtau. Eventually, two giant
floating cranes were used to offload the heaviest equipment such as
big 15-ton Siege guns. Large diesel generators powering search-lights
provided lighting for 24-hour operations. They seized several hundred
big sampans for use as “lighters” in transporting men,
horses and supplies from the transport ships. More than 500 large
Chinese single-wheel wheelbarrows (2 men to a barrow) and half a
thousand two-wheel carts pulled by ponies were commandeered. Also, a
narrow gage railway was constructed. Thus
continued an invasion and siege of gigantic proportions for the
times.
On
19 September, after a small raiding party in which 6 German Soldiers
at an outpost were overwhelmed without firing a shot, the first
Japanese soldiers acquired “German” soil on their boots. The day-by-day
relentless Infantry “push” by the Japanese
Infantry and the exhausting of the ammunition of the Germans both
contributed to an early end to the resistance. Counting the British
preparations in late August, the siege ended with the German
unconditional surrender on 7 November 1914; having lasted 72 days.
Oberleutnant
Plüschow flew reconnaissance flights piloting a shaky Rumpler
Taube (Dove). This 6-cylinder Mercedes-powered airplane was one of
those primitive monoplanes whose control was effected by wing
warping. Two aircraft had arrived in Tsingtau as cargo and weeks of
100% humidity enroute had badly eroded the spare parts and the 5
laminated wooden propellers were useless because they were all
warped.
In
the Americas, we would always ask: was this strange-looking flying
object an obscure and unknown European aircraft ? No, not by any
means ! It was a popular 1909 design from Ignaz
“Igo”
Etrich
(an Austrian-Hungarian designer & inventor)
that first flew in Europe in 1910. He became fascinated by the
characteristics of the seed of the Zanonia
microcarpa, a
vine like climbing plant (a liane) from the Malay Archipelago and
Indonesian islands whose seeds flew like a “flying wing”
for long distances “from up high in the forest canopy”
(some were found on the decks of passing ships). This was his
starting point for the unusual design of the Etrich
Dove.
In its favor, we would have to say: it really did look more like a
bird than other designs of the times !
About
five hundred Doves
of various types were mass-produced by scores of aircraft
manufacturers. This aircraft was built within Germany by 14
Companies; Rumpler,
Gotha
and twelve other factories. It was a “natural” for use in
observation because the translucent fabric made it invisible when it
flew above a thousand feet of altitude. This first “stealth”
aircraft was used by 10 different countries.
The
second aircraft, also a Rumpler, was piloted by German Marine
Lieutenant Friedreich Muellerskowski and had crashed on takeoff just
after assembly on 31 July 1914. Oberleutnant Plüschow had tried
in vain to persuade Muellerskowski not to fly that day because of
unpredictable winds. The Marine Lieutenant was hospitalized with
multiple fractures. It was a total loss and his perseverance caused
the Germans to lose half of their local Air Force.
Oberleutnant
Plüschow solved the propeller problem by using Chinese
fine-furniture craftsmen who laminated a propeller by gluing &
pressing together 7 thin seasoned oak boards and then, using
centuries-old techniques, they hand-carved it into a new one. After
each flight of the one remaining aircraft, they had to re-glue the
propeller and dry it to a resinous hardness in a press. They also
used a tape resembling modern “Ducting Tape” to give the
propeller added strength and duration. The heavier wood dropped the
engine speed by 100 RPMs.
With
something like thirteen to 1 odds against them, the Germans stoutly
defended their colony against the invaders. Oberleutnant Plüschow
did his part in the defense plan in spite of the fact that his
one-man Air Force was pitted against nine aircraft: five Imperial
Japanese Army aircraft and four Imperial Navy aircraft that were
fitted with pontoons. 8 aircraft were French
designed Maurice
Farman
MF.7s;
one Imperial Army Air Corps aircraft was a Nieuport Monoplane.
In
his diary on September 28th, Plüschow claimed to have shot down
a Farman firing 30 rounds from a 9 mm automatic pistol known as a
“broomhandle” Mauser (1896 Model).
Did
he do it, knowing that he was disobeying a direct order not to
unnecessarily jeopardize his aircraft ? Perhaps that is why it
appeared only in his diary and never appeared in “official”
reports. History only credits him with an “unofficial”
kill.
Oberleutnant
Plüschow, under orders on the last day as the fortress fell,
flew out of the besieged town and landed in Haichow in China. After
destroying his aircraft, he was escorted as a celebrity to Nanking.
There, to avoid internment, he posed as a Swiss businessman and
surreptitiously made his way by train to Shanghai where he caught an
American ship to San Francisco. After having his experiences in
Tsingtau printed in an article in Sunset Magazine, he made his way to
New York. There, posing as a Swiss locksmith, he caught an Italian
ship to Gibraltar where he was captured by the British and interned
as a Prisoner of War in Donington Hall in England. He escaped from
there, and from London, swam out to a Dutch ship and made his way as
a stowaway to Holland where, at the German border they tried to
arrest him. He had a large tattoo of a Dragon on his shoulder which,
together with British Newspaper clippings, facilitated his
identifying himself as the escaped German Naval officer urgently
sought by Scotland Yard.
He
was decorated by the Kaiser with the Royal Order of Hohenzollern and
the Iron Cross (First Class and, later, Second Class), and promoted
to Kapitänleutnant with two stripes on his sleeve on 17 October
1915 (equivalent to a Navy Lieutenant Commander or Major in our
Military). He was also awarded the Imperial Pilot’s Shield and
the Imperial Flying Cross that were both fashioned
in gold.
It was said that he would have been given Germany’s highest
Decoration, the Blue
Max,
except for the fact that the Kaiser abdicated before he could sign
the orders.
Kapitänleutnant
Gunther
Plüschow
was given command of the Imperial German Naval Air Force Base at
Libau near Riga, Latvia. He was married in
June 1916, in an airplane hangar there. His
wife was named Isot
and gave birth to their only Son, whom they named Guntolf,
in September, 1918. She died in 1979 at the age of 90 in Berlin. The
Son, now named Gunter Guntolf Plueschow II, lived in Winnipeg,
Canada.
After
the War, Plüschow
became an explorer and photographer; chiefly in the uncharted
southernmost tip of South America. Three sources; (1) Internet
Wikipedia
(.com - in English) and (2) Internet Wikipedia
(.de – in German) and (3) a special one-of-a-kind Wikipedia
Disk (a DVD – produced only in the German language) have
displayed him as a prominent person in History.
Some
of the Wikipedia
details follow. This is not a precise and exact translation of the
two German sources, but rather is shown as a compendium of all three
of the Wikipedia sources (both English and German) in the words of
the present author:
Gunther
Plüschow (* 1886
-
†
1931). He was an Officer and Pilot of the Imperial German Navy
achieving the rank of Kapitänleutnant with two stripes on his
sleeve. He became famous during WW I as Der
Flieger von Tsingtau.
After
the hostilities were over, he became equally famous as an explorer
and film-maker in the Argentine Tierra del Fuego. As a flight
pioneer, using an open-cockpit Heinkel HD 24 biplane with floats, he
was the
first to carry airmail to
Ushuaia, the southern-most town in South America. He was also the
first to overfly the Darwin-Cordillera, Torres del Paine of
Patagonia, the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and Cape Horn.
On
28 January 1931, on his third expedition, Plüschow, together
with his Flight Engineer, Ernst
Drablow,
died when his new Heinkel HD 30 biplane equipped with pontoons,
crashed while operating out of Ushuaia, Chile
in Tierra del Fuego Province. They were exploring near the
Perito-Moreno Glacier and Lake Argentino. Witnesses said there were
two parachutes deployed - - but in vain.
His
aerial films were used by both the Governments of Chile and Argentina
in the discovery and mapping of some of the wildest, most
inaccessible landscapes on the planet. For such services over several
years ending in his death, those two Countries still provide undying
gratitude with monuments and ceremonials. A partial list follows:
A
monument was set up across the border in Argentine Patagonia near the
Perito-Moreno Glacier and Lake Argentino, where the death of he and
his Flight Engineer are regularly remembered to this day by the
citizens of Argentina.
In
Chile,
a monument was dedicated in the TORRES
DEL PAINE National Park,
not far from the shores of Lake Sarmiento where there had been
established a special Warehouse/Depot.
At
the 75th anniversary of the date of his death (28 January 1931) in
the year 2006, in Germany at his grave in the Parkfriedhof
Berlin-Lichterfelde (Cemetery), members of the Staffs of both of the
Consulates of Chile
and Argentina
participated in honoring him with a ceremony.
On
December 12th, 2006, in Punta Arenas (Chile)
a locality was named after him; a GUNTHER-PLÜSCHOW-PLACE
was
dedicated on the Magellan Street, in a central location.
The
Gunther Plüschow Glacier in Tierra del Fuego is named in
his memory.
In
Germany, a Sport ship, a Caserne, a Navy Squadron, and several
streets have been named after him. There is also an
organization: Gunther
Plüschow e.V., whose
dedicated members are producing various publications that preserve
his memory
for posterity.
After
August 2006, a traveling exhibition was displayed in Europe, first in
different German towns where one could see photos, books,
contemporary documents and objects, all of which are memorials to the
War Hero, Adventurer, Film-Maker, Writer, Flight Pioneer, Explorer and
Researcher.
CRITICAL
BOOK REVIEW
In
the United States there are at least 27 books and 8 articles extant
in English on this topic. Of those, perhaps the best one is a
masterfully written book entitled:
“DRAGON
MASTER - The Kaiser’s One-Man Air Force in Tsingtau, China,
1914” by Robert E.
Whittaker, COMPASS BOOKS, Cleveland, Wisconsin, 1994: Hardcover:
ISBN
978-0-9639310-1-6
Paperback:
ISBN
978-0-9639310-0-8
The
author, Robert E. Whittaker, as the book indicates, has written for a
variety of Magazines and Newspapers in addition to creating 47 film
and video scripts and this level of experience really shows; the
reader is carried along effortlessly as if watching a film
documentary on television. He moves the reader seamlessly between the
experimental air
war, the
sea
war on the Yellow Sea and the ground
war in the trenches (on the Japanese Attack, he describes: ‘the
empty battlefield advance’; on the German Defense, he
describes: ‘the backward march’).
The
author had spent 17 years in Tsingtau (now Qingdao) and thus became
intimately familiar with all the events described. Readers
will also get a dose of what “Old China Hands” already
know; the sights, and sounds, and, yes, even the smells of the early
20th
Century in China. His description of a unique Chinese transportation
invention was as amazing as it was precise. It was the northern
Chinese wheelbarrow that: “had an enormous single wooden wheel
in the center and could carry 6 people, three seated (backs against
each side of the wheel) and drawn by a man or boy and guided and
balanced from behind by another.”
The
author, Robert
E. Whittaker,
firmly anchors the events (that I have labeled as The
Yellow
Sea
Incident)
in an honored niche in History and said: “While this
Lilliputian struggle was not as large as the European conflict, it
was historically more significant. ….. This battle field
‘laboratory experiment’ tested nearly every known piece
of equipment and technique of modern warfare, except chemical. …..
Most notable was the recognized contribution of air power.”
The
author, Robert
E. Whittaker,
consulting Japanese records with the translation assistance of
Professor Susanne Kawatsu, further said: “A Japanese Aviator,
Lieutenant Shigematsu, flying a Maurice Farman, was listed as killed
in action in 1914, the only one that year.” Whittaker leaves
you to draw your own conclusions about whether or not Oberleutnant
Gunther Plüschow
was,
on September 28, 1914, the first airman in History to shoot down an
enemy airplane. Despite French claims to the contrary, perhaps
Plüschow should be OFFICIALLY
awarded the first aerial “Kill” of all time.
In
addition to the memorializing events listed by the present Author
from the three Wikipedia sources, the author Robert H. Whittaker
indicated in his book: “In 1991, a bicentennial (sic) memorial
ceremony was held and documented by a German television crew. A large
bronze plaque cemented on a rocky cairn commemorates the site.”
This
was not a bicentennial
but actually was the 60th
anniversary
of his death.
As
evidenced by the citations and quotations above, this book is an
especially thorough recounting of the invasion and siege of Tsingtau
and the exciting life of Gunther
Plüschow; both during the hostilities and after World War I.
The
book is available by mail at a bargain price from Amazon and is an
easy read (there are 64 photographs and illustrations). Aviation
buffs and other Historians will enjoy the listing of all the Military
and Aviation “firsts” (eleven of them plus two
“possibles”) achieved at the beginning of WW I in Asia.
It’s a good read and those who love History and especially
Aviation History, will appreciate this highly affordable book.
I
was lucky. My Amazon
paperback
book supplied by GOODWILL
OF DENVER showed
a personally inscribed dedication to the purchaser, by the late
author Robert E. Whittaker in his own handwriting (more than likely,
it was a book “return” from a “book giveaway”
& autograph-signing session).
A
really nice keepsake! Mine reads:
“All
the best from an old flyer to a younger one. All the best.
Robert
E. Whittaker”
(Unless
you type
the author's
name
in
the subject
line
of
the message
we
won't know where to send it.)
Richard
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