ABSTRACT
The only major land battle of World War I in east Asia. The battle pitted two powers against each other that would become allies twenty-five years later in World War II—Japan and Germany, Qingdao (Tsingtao) was a German fortress city on the tip of China's Shandong (Shantung) Peninsula. Located halfway between Tianjin (Tientsin) and Shanghai, it commanded the entrance to Jaiozhou (Kaiochow) Bay, which was the home base for Germany's fleet in the Pacific.
