Peiping, Oct. 12.
The capture of Paotingfu claimed as the greatest victory of the Japanese army since the Russo-Japanese war, was anything but a remarkable military achievement. The disparity in armaments between the two armies almost equalled that of rifes against bows and arrows.
The Japanese were equipped with hundreds of motor lorries, about 30 tanks, every kind of modern artillery from one-pounders to—five-inch howitzers and heavier guns, and an air fleet of over 100 planes, These latter, in fact, appear to have done most of the fighting, and with complete impunity, as the Chinese forces had not a single anti-aircraft gun to ward off their attacks, Fifty planes in the air at one time rained down death on the unscientifically entrenched Chinese troops, broke up all their formations in the rear, harassed them continuously in their retreat and prevented them from making a stand anywhere or rallying on a fresh line. It was more than flesh and blood could stand, and it says much for the morale of the Chinese soldiers that they put up any fight at all.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.