Japanese heavy battery, Tsingtao, October 1914

Photograph, World War One, Far East (1914-1918), 1914.

On 23 August 1914 Japan declared war on Germany. Eight days later 20,000 Japanese troops, armed with over 140 artillery pieces such as the heavy gun pictured here, were landed near Germany's naval base at Tsingtao (Qingdao) in China. After a two month siege the Tsingtao garrison surrendered on 7 November 1914.

From an album of 24 photographs presented to Brig Gen, later Maj Gen, Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston.