

The assault on the forts.
There, the troops waited in trenches and behind the road under cover of the fire of the ship's guns. The terrain to the fort was a flat and smooth plain that rose without any cover; only the embankment of the road protected in some places against the enemy that fired from the fort. It was a sea fort, with the gorge open, but protected by 3 modern 12-cm fast-loading guns with armored shields and several cannons of older models. Around the entire fort was a wide pit, which had no escarpment in front of it. The Chinese had directed their fire not only to the ships, but also to Tongku and at the beginning of the day on the landing troops, so that Captain Pohl had to go back about 100 meters.
At 04:15 hours the assault began against the first fort of the north. To the extent that the terrain, which was very compartmentalized, allowed it, the lines of the shooters advanced, which returned the enemy fire increasingly weak. The bridge at the main crossing point of the road embankment, where the Germans and Austrians were advancing, had been blown up, so that all the advance had to be concentrated on a passage located in front of the right wing, where Captain Pohl was the First to reach the fort and immediately the German flag was hoisted in the southwest corner of the fort, at the moment when the "Iltis" made its way to just over 100 meters.
Three loud cheers greeted the brave ship, which returned the salute in the same way. Meanwhile, on the other side, the Japanese had climbed the walls, especially their brave Captain Hattori, who found his heroic death due to an ax of a Chinese. After the assault of the first, followed the second fort of the north in the series. It was first reached by the Germans, who occupied it without resistance. Captain Pohl immediately ordered that the heavy weapons, which had not yet been damaged, be aimed at the opposite fort of the south.
The Austrian Cadet Stenner managed to explode the ammunition depot in the fort bombed with the second shot of the weapon he was serving, then other shots of the "Iltis", which in the meantime had approached the mouth of the river with the "Algerine" managed to blast another. The two detonations with the immense cone of dust and fire, 400 meters high, were received with a merry hurray, and the silence of the enemy fire showed that this fort was ready for the assault.
Sources: https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin ... MDLOG_0001
THE WORLD'S NAVIES IN THE BOXER REBELLION (CHINA 1900)
https://repository.duke.edu/dc/friedric ... t001001034
Cheers. Raúl M
