CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
THE STORMING OF NANSHAN HEIGHTS.
By midnight a change of weather had occurred; the wind, which at teno'clock in the evening had been blowing harder than ever, suddenlysubsided, the air grew close, almost to suffocation, and an immenseblack cloud settled down upon the summit of Mount Sampson, where itrested broodingly, the sure precursor of a thunderstorm, if I was anyjudge of weather lore.
The first troops to move consisted of a detachment of the 4th Engineers'Battalion, who were assigned the perilous duty of blowing down the gatesof Kinchau, of which there were four, corresponding to the four cardinalpoints of the compass. I volunteered to accompany this party, for thetask which devolved upon them was one that rather appealed to me; butOku was most emphatic in his refusal, explaining that he would more thanprobably require my services at daylight, or shortly afterward, tocommunicate with the squadron in the offing. Accordingly, I had tostand aside, somewhat unwillingly, and see them march off without me;which was perhaps just as well, for the attempt resulted in failure, andevery man who participated in it was killed.
Just as the Engineers marched out of camp on their way to Kinchau, thebrooding cloud on the summit of Mount Sampson began to send forth flashafter flash of vivid lightning, green, blue, and sun-bright, whichlighted up not only the rugged slopes of the mountain itself, but alsothose other and more deadly slopes of the Nanshan Heights, while pealafter peal of thunder crashed and rolled and reverberated among theravines which scored the sides of the mountain. It was a weird enoughscene of itself, but its weirdness was intensified by the Russiansearchlights, which were turned on with the first crash of thunder,which the Russians appeared to mistake for the roar of Japanese guns.As a matter of fact they appeared to be a bit panicky that night, fornot only did they turn on the searchlights at the first sound ofthunder, but the occupants of the forts and trenches on the crest andside of Nanshan Heights at once opened a terrific fire from every piece,great or small, that could be brought to bear upon the foot of theslope, which was instantly swept by a very hurricane of shrapnel andrifle bullets, while the Japanese, safely under cover, looked on andsmiled.
For two hours that storm raged with such fury that the volleying pealsof thunder quite outroared the booming of the Russian artillery andrifle-fire, which gradually died down as the Muscovites began to realisethat there was no attack; and about two o'clock in the morning the stormpassed away, still rumbling and muttering, to the eastward. But duringthat two hours of elemental fury, a Chinese village in the neighbourhoodwas set on fire and practically destroyed, while several Japanesesoldiers were struck by lightning, and either killed outright or more orless seriously injured.
With the passing of the storm a thick, white mist arose from the lowground, completely blotting out everything beyond a few yards distant;and under the cover of this mist the Japanese made their dispositionsfor the coming battle, entirely unseen by the enemy, and probablyunheard also, for it was a revelation to me to see how quietly largebodies of men could be moved when the necessity for silence had beenfully impressed upon them.
As the dawn gradually brightened the sky behind the ridge of MountSampson, the Russians again became uneasy, and their rifles once morebegan to speak from the trenches, a shot here, then another shot yonder,followed by quite a spluttering here and there all along their front;but their artillery remained silent, for the fog was still so dense thatnothing could be seen at which to aim.
Protected by the cover of the fog, the Japanese soldiers went tobreakfast, fortifying themselves with a good meal, in preparation forthe arduous labours of the day that lay before them; and I did the same,for I knew not how long it might be before I should again have theopportunity to eat or drink; also, following the example of several ofthe officers and men, I filled my jacket pockets with biscuit, andprovided myself with a good capacious flask of cold tea, having donewhich, I felt ready for anything.
We had barely finished breakfast when the sun showed over the ridge ofMount Sampson; and almost immediately the thick curtain of fog, whichhad thus far so effectually hidden the movements of the Japanese troopsfrom the enemy, began to lift and thin. This was the signal for thefinal movement prior to the storming of the Nanshan Heights; and thatmovement was directed against the city of Kinchau, it being known bythis time that the devoted band of engineers who had been dispatched atmidnight to blow in the gates of the city must have failed in theirmission, otherwise some of them at least would have been back to report.
To the 1st Division was assigned the task of taking the city; and theydid it in brilliant style. Marching upon the southern gate, a party offour engineers was sent forward to blow in the massive barrier, whichwas protected by steel plates and bands, secured by heavy steel bolts,and loopholed for musketry. The devoted quartette succeeded in placingtheir blasting charges and igniting the fuses under a heavy fire, notonly from the loopholed gate, but also from the walls, but in so doingthey were so severely wounded that after they had lighted the fuses theywere unable to effect their escape, and received further severe injurieswhen the explosion occurred and the gate was blown off its hinges. Thenthe waiting 1st Division, straining like eager hounds held in leash,rushed forward through the thick, acrid smoke, with levelled bayonets,yelling "Banzai Nippon!" as they ran; and as they charged impetuously inthrough the south gate, the enemy went streaming as impetuously outthrough the west gate, about half a mile away.
Kinchau was now in the hands of the Japanese; but this was notsufficient for them, they must needs pursue the flying Russians; andthey did so with such furious impetuosity that they literally drove theminto the sea--that is to say, into the waters of Kinchau Bay, where theluckless Russians, to the number of five hundred, were either shot downor drowned, almost to a man, only ten of them surviving and being takenprisoners. I had a distant view of the whole affair from a knoll on thenorthern spur of the Nanshan Heights, where I had taken up a positionwhich commanded a view, not only of practically the whole of the groundover which the stormers would have to pass, but also of the bay and ourfleet, to which I should probably be required to signal from time totime as the fight progressed.
Meanwhile, the mist had by this time lifted, revealing a flotilla of ourtorpedo-boats and destroyers feeling their way into the bay and keepinga bright lookout for possible mines. Well astern of them came the_Akagi_ and _Chokai_; and still farther out were the old _Hei-yen_ andthe cruiser _Tsukushi_, cautiously creeping in, with leadsmenperpetually sounding on either beam. The bottom, about where they wererequired to be, was flat, and the tide was on the ebb, the great fear ofthe skippers of those two craft, therefore, was that they might touchthe ground and hang there, left by the tide, exposed helplessly to thefire of the Russian guns. Thanks, however, to my labours of a few daysearlier, they were all able to get close enough in to open upon theRussian works at extreme range, although, until the tide should rise,they could not bring a thoroughly effective fire upon the Russianbatteries and so put them out of action.
But if we had ships, so, too, had the Russians, in the shape of thegunboat _Bobr_ and five small steamers in Hand Bay, on the side of theisthmus opposite to Kinchau Bay, the Nanshan Heights being between them,so that each was hidden from the sight of the other. The _Bobr_ waslikely to prove a very awkward customer for us; for she mounted one9-inch and one 6-inch gun, which, although they were a long way frombeing up-to-date, were still quite good enough to out-range the Japanesefield-guns and severely pepper our left, which occupied the ground atthe head of Hand Bay. The steamers which accompanied her were, ourspies discovered, fitted up expressly for the purpose of quicklyferrying troops across from one side of Hand Bay to the other, accordingas they might be wanted, instead of being obliged to march round thehead of the bay in the face of our troops. Thus the Russians were in aposition to either harass our left flank and rear, or to rushreinforcements across the head of the bay--a distance of about a mile--as circumstances might require.
The _Bohr_ began the day's
proceedings by opening fire with her 9-inchgun upon the artillery of our 3rd Division, which had taken up aposition upon the lower slopes of Mount Sampson, from which it couldreach the Russian batteries established upon the crest of the NanshanHeights. The gunboat's fire did very little mischief, but it seemed tobe regarded by both sides as a signal to begin the fight, for at onceour batteries got to work, their shells dropping with most beautifulprecision upon the guns and trenches of the Russians. I was sostationed that I had a most excellent view of practically the entirescene of operations, and no sooner did our artillery open fire than theRussian batteries replied with a crash that seemed to make the very airquiver.
A land battle is a very different spectacle from a sea battle, in thisrespect: that, in the latter, a shell either hits or misses its mark,and if it misses there is a splash or two and that ends the matter, sofar as that particular shell is concerned. But ashore, every shell,whether or not it finds its mark, hits something, though it be only theground, and immediately there is a violent explosion, a flash of fire, agreat cloud of smoke, and a violent scattering of dust, clods of earth,and stones--if nothing worse. Thus, I must confess that for a fewseconds I was perfectly amazed to see the slopes of Mount Sampson, onthe one hand, where our artillery was placed, and the Nanshan Heights,on the other, where were situated the Russian batteries, suddenly burstinto great jets of flame, clouds of smoke, and flying debris, as theshells showered down upon them. The explosions of shrapnel were easilydistinguished from those of common shell, for the former almostinvariably burst in the air, the smoke from the explosions standing outagainst the background of sky or hill like tufts of cotton-wool that hadsuddenly sprung into existence from nowhere.
Very shortly after the artillery duel began, I saw the Japanese infantrymoving out to storm the Nanshan Heights, and I smiled to myself at theacuteness of their leaders, for the men began their advance in such openformation that a shrapnel shell seldom succeeded in accounting for morethan one man, and often enough it failed to do even that. Of coursethey were seen from the trenches, and a terrific rifle-fire was openedupon them, but for the same reason it was very ineffective--at theoutset at least, for a rifleman had to be a crack shot to bowl over hisman at a distance of close upon a mile. And if one wished to get hisman, he had to aim at him, and correctly judge the distance too. This,of course, was at the beginning of the attack; later on, matters becamea good deal more favourable for the defenders and correspondinglyadverse to the attacking force.
I was interestedly watching the development of the attack upon theheights, when a galloper dashed up to me with a message from the Generalrequesting me to signal our ships in the offing to concentrate theirfire upon the Nanshan ridge; and so smart were our men, and so keen alookout were they maintaining aboard our ships, that within threeminutes of the receipt by me of the order, their 10-inch, 5-inch, and6-inch shells were dropping all along the ridge, busily searching it forthe Russian batteries, the positions of which, unfortunately, could notbe seen from the western side.
For the next half-hour I was kept incessantly employed in signalling ourfleet, directing their fire; but the shoal water of Kinchau Bay was allagainst us, and although our ships drew in so close that they touchedthe ground several times, they were still too far off to actuallysilence the Russian batteries, although they contrived to give them avery severe punishing and, to some extent, distract their attention fromthe stormers. Unfortunately, they could only muster six heavy gunsbetween them, and these, at the extreme range at which they were obligedto fire, were not nearly enough, though they certainly helped.
When at length I was once more free to turn my attention to what washappening on the eastern side of the heights, I saw that our foremostline of skirmishers had reached a spot about a mile distant from thefirst Russian defences, consisting of a perfect maze of wireentanglements, and were signalling back to the main body. Almostimmediately a detachment of Cossacks appeared, advancing at a galloptoward the signallers, from the direction of Linshiatun, a village onthe shore of Sunk Bay, and as the horsemen appeared every Japanesesoldier vanished, as if by magic, having flung himself down upon theground and taken cover. On swept the Cossacks, yelling, lashing theirhorses with their whips, and brandishing their long lances. Suddenly,down went a horse and rider, the next instant a Cossack flung up hisarms and collapsed inert upon his horse's neck, then another reeled andfell, then two or three went down almost at the same instant, then halfa dozen. And the curious thing about it was that there was nothing, nosudden spurt of flame, no smoke wreath, no crack of a rifle, to accountfor these casualties. That is to say, I could neither see nor hearanything; but the fact was that those Cossacks were going down beforethe calm, deliberate rifle-fire of the concealed Japanese infantry-men.Then a flash from one of the field-guns of our 3rd Division caught myeye, and before the sharp bark of it reached my ear, a white tuft ofcotton-wool-like smoke suddenly appeared in the air above the gallopingCossacks, and more of them went down. Another flash, and another, andanother, more tufts of cotton-wool leaping into view, tremendousdisorder and confusion among the Cossacks, men and horses falling rightand left, and then the survivors suddenly wheeled outward and gallopedback at headlong speed, leaving behind them a mangled heap of men andhorses, the greater number dead, but here and there a prostrate, kickinghorse might be seen, or a wounded Cossack crawling slowly and painfullyaway from the scene of carnage.
The flight of the Cossacks was the signal for the resumption of theadvance by the Japanese, whose skirmishers reappeared, still in veryopen formation, a man here and a man there showing for a few seconds as,in a crouching attitude, he rose to his feet, scurried forward a fewyards, and then again took cover, while the fire of the Russian gunsswept the ground over which he was passing. As yet, however, thereappeared to be very few casualties among our men; here and there Inoticed a prostrate form lying motionless, while others crept up andscuttled past him; he had been found by a shrapnel shell, and his shareof the work was done; but even shrapnel cannot do much harm if theformation is kept sufficiently open. And as man after man pushedforward, others crept out, following, until the whole of the groundbetween our lines and the base of the heights was dotted with Japaneseinfantry-men creeping ever closer up to the first line of the Russiandefence, the terrible maze of barbed wire entanglements.
Meanwhile, the whole of the Japanese field artillery, as well as that ofour ships, was concentrating its fire upon the crest of the heights,covering the advance of the stormers; and now my attention was once morediverted from that advance by the necessity for me to signal directionsto the fleet. And now it was that the full value of my previous laboursbegan to be manifested; for I had but to signal the ships to directtheir fire upon such and such a point--wherever, in fact, a Russianbattery was proving especially troublesome--and all that the gun-layershad to do was to refer to the maps with which I had supplied them, andthey were at once informed of the exact range of that point, with theresult that a hail of shells instantly began to fall upon thatparticular battery with the most deadly precision. Thus, after a littlewhile, every battery on the heights became in turn the focus of aterrific crossfire from the ships and the field batteries, the effect ofwhich soon became manifest in the silencing of several of the Russianguns, either by dismounting, or, as we afterwards discovered, by thecomplete destruction of the men working them.
With the guns of our fleet playing such havoc among the ten forts whichcrowned the heights, it now became possible for our field artillery toturn its attention upon the trenches, tier after tier of which lined theeastern slope of the heights, up which our stormers would have to pass.Those trenches were quite formidable works, roofed over with timber andearth to protect the occupants from artillery fire, and loopholed forrifle-fire; yet, thanks again to my labours of the previous day indetermining the exact range of them, our guns were able to search themfrom end to end, blowing the parapets to dust and matchwood, and hurlingthe wreckage among the gunners who were working the Russian quick-
firersand machine-guns, many of whom were thus killed or wounded. The carnagemust have been--indeed was, as we later saw for ourselves--frightful,yet the Russians maintained a most gallant defence, and clung to theirtrenches with unflinching determination. A lucky shell from one of ourfield-guns fell upon and exploded one of the many Russian mines whichwere scattered pretty thickly over the hillside, and the explosion blewa big gap in one of the lines of wire entanglements, a circumstancewhich without doubt resulted subsequently in the saving of many lives.
Hour after hour the artillery duel proceeded, our gunners doing theirutmost to cover the slow advance of the stormers, while the Russianartillery systematically swept with a crossfire every inch of the groundwhich our men would have to traverse. The crash of the artillery wascontinuous and most distracting, and the effect was intensified by theincessant scream of the shells and the sharp thud as they burst,interspersed with the everlasting hammering of the machine-guns andquick-firers; Nanshan was ablaze with the fire of the Russian guns andthe bursting of our shells, and the entire hill was enwrapped infantastically whirling wreaths of smoke which were every moment rentviolently asunder by the explosion of bursting shells.
Thus far I had occupied my position undisturbed, but about mid-morningcertain Russian sharpshooters chanced to detect me and my assistant inthe act of signalling to our ships, and they at once favoured me withtheir undivided attentions, to such purpose that I was compelled to beata hasty retreat. The change of position which I was compelled to makewas, however, advantageous rather than otherwise, for I found aperfectly safe spot behind two tall boulders standing close together,which, while effectually shielding me from the Russian bullets, stillenabled me to see all that was happening.
Yet, that "all" might be summed up in a very few words--just incessantflashes of fire, great volumes of smoke, and, interspersed with thesmoke, patches of flying debris. Very little else. No great masses oftroops advancing in serried lines, column after column, with coloursproudly flying, and burnished bayonets glistening in the sun; none ofthe old-fashioned pomp and circumstance of war when the opposing armiesmarched toward each other with bands playing, discharged their musketswhen they were near enough to see the whites of their opponents' eyes,and then charged with fixed bayonets, fighting it out hand to hand.That sort of battle went out of fashion with the introduction of thebreech-loading rifle and the machine-gun; and now, with between fiftyand sixty thousand men in action, there were periods when not a solitaryhuman being could be seen. And when any did appear, which was only atintervals, they were but few in number--just a man here and a man theredotted about sparsely over a large area of ground, visible for perhapshalf a dozen seconds, and then lost again, hidden behind cover of somesort.
It was getting well on toward noon when a message reached me from theGeneral to the effect that two batteries of Russian quick-firefield-guns had been discovered on the summit of Nan-kwang-ling--a hillsome eight hundred feet high, about a mile to the westward of theNanshan Heights--and requesting me to signal our ships in the bay togive their whole attention to those two batteries. Unfortunately forus, the tide in the bay was now on the ebb, and the _Hei-yen_ and_Tsukushi_ were obliged to haul off to avoid grounding; but the _Akagi_and _Chokai_ responded nobly to the call, creeping in until theyactually felt the ground, and enveloping Nan-kwang-ling knoll in flameand smoke.
I had scarcely finished signalling to the ships when a stir on the plainimmediately below me indicated that the General considered the artillery"preparation" complete, and that the actual storming of the Russianposition was now to be attempted. A battalion of our 1st Division,situated in the Japanese centre, suddenly deployed into the open, andcommenced its advance by making a series of short rushes through somefields of green barley, on the opposite side of the road from Kinchau toLinshiatun, dashing forward a few yards, and then, as the machine-gunsand rifles in the Russian trenches were turned upon them, sinking fromview into the barley, through which they crept on hands and knees untilthe whistle of the leader or the call of a bugle gave the signal foranother dash. The heroism of those devoted Japanese infantry wassomething to send a thrill through the heart of a man; no sooner didthey show than the whole of the ground which they occupied and that infront of them was swept by a devastating crossfire from the whole lineof the Russian trenches, which beat down the young barley as a heavyshower of rain might level it. To me, unaccustomed to this style offighting, it looked as though nothing might venture upon that shot-sweptzone and live; yet time after time the intrepid Japanese rose to theirfeet and, crouching low, made yet another short rush forward, thoughwith sadly diminished numbers. The uproar was deafening; the crash ofthe heavy guns upon the crest of the heights and from Fort Hoshangtao,near Linshiatun, which now joined in the fray, mingled with thehammer-like thudding of the machine-guns and the continuous rollingcrackle of rifle-fire from the trenches, was frightful. And then, asthough this were not enough, the Russian gunboat _Bohr_ turned her9-inch guns upon the advancing Japanese and, quickly getting the range,began to drop shells right among them. The slaughter, one understood,must be awful; yet, prepared as I was in a measure for what followed, Istood aghast when finally, out of that whole battalion, a mere handfulof men, numbering perhaps some fifty or sixty, emerged from the growingbarley and made a staggering rush toward the first line of wireentanglements, which they at once proceeded to attack with nippers,fully exposed all the while to the concentrated fire of the whole bodyof defenders. It was a forlorn hope of the most desperate description,and one after another the gallant fellows collapsed and died, pierced byinnumerable bullets. The first assault had resulted in failure, andthose who took part in it were wiped out!
And now it was that the Russians deemed the moment suitable for acounter-demonstration. The _Bohr_, doubtless in obedience to somesignal from the shore, steamed up toward the head of Hand Bay as far asthe shoaling water would permit, the five steamers loaded with troopsclosely following her and making as though it was their intention toland the troops upon a small promontory jutting out into the head of thebay. This was a distinct menace to the Japanese left, and although itmight be merely a demonstration, it was imperative to meet it, or itmight develop into a serious and most embarrassing attack; therefore,badly as it could be spared from the task of shelling the heights andthe Russian trenches, a battery of our field-guns placed on thesouth-western slope of Mount Sampson was turned upon the gunboat and heraccompanying flotilla of steamers, the latter being compelled to hastilyretire, while several of our shells struck the _Bohr_, and temporarilysilenced her fire. Judging from appearances generally, the gunboatappeared to have been rather severely punished; and about a quarter ofan hour later she slowly retired to her former position, farther downthe bay, and re-opened her fire, although with considerably less vigourthan before.
The fire from Fort Hoshangtao, occupying the promontory which separatesSunk Bay from Hand Bay, was a most galling factor in the fight, for itsguns had a range which enabled them to drop their heavy shells rightupon our left and centre, while it was out of range of our own guns.Therefore our men had to stand motionless, hour after hour, and endurethe pitiless shelling of the Russian gunners, with the bitter knowledgethat to silence the fort was quite out of our power.
The utter annihilation of the first battalion of stormers warned GeneralOku that to advance comparatively small parties was but to sacrificethem uselessly, while it also indicated that the task of artillery"preparation" had been by no means as complete as he had judged it tobe; he therefore sedulously continued the work of preparation allthrough the afternoon until five o'clock, when a message from theartillery commander warned him that the crisis was at hand. The messagewas to the effect that he had fired away practically his entire supplyof ammunition, only his reserve rounds remaining. What was he to do?
Situated as I was at a distance of more than two miles fromheadquarters, upon an outlying spur of the Nanshan Heights, and quitealone, save for the companionship of a solitary assistant signa
ller,with only occasional curt orders from the General in reference to thesignals which he wished me to transmit to our ships in the offing, I wasnaturally ignorant as to the critical pass at which we had arrived, andcould only draw my conclusions from what I actually saw happening. Whatoccurred at staff headquarters during this momentous day, and especiallyat this momentous hour, I did not learn until several hours later, but,so far as is possible, I propose to relate events in their chronologicalorder, that the proper continuity of my narrative may be maintained; Iwill therefore briefly state here that when the General received theartillery commander's message that his ammunition was practicallyexhausted, he summoned a few of his principal officers, and held a briefcouncil of war. What was to be done, under the circumstances? It wasnow five o'clock in the afternoon, and the bringing up of furthersupplies of ammunition would involve a delay of at least two hours, andprobably more, while to suspend all action meanwhile would practicallybe to defer the assault until the next day. Certain of the officerspresent strongly advocated this postponement, giving it as their opinionthat to attempt to storm the heights unsupported by adequate gun-firewas merely to make a useless sacrifice of whole brigades of sorelyneeded men; one or two officers, indeed, ventured to express theirconviction that the heights were impregnable.
The discussion lasted about a quarter of an hour, at the end of whichtime General Oku, who had been listening but saying nothing, abruptlybroke up the council by announcing his determination to risk everythingupon a single cast of the die; the gunners were to expend their reserverounds of ammunition upon a slow, carefully considered, deadlybombardment of the heights, while the entire infantry force was to moveforward simultaneously to the assault. The officers who had ventured toadvise delay shook their heads doubtfully, but at once proceeded totheir stations, fully prepared to loyally support the General to theirlast breath.
When the news of the General's decision was communicated to the troops,it was only with the utmost difficulty that they could be restrainedfrom cheering, and so putting the Russians on the _qui vive_, althoughthey had been warned beforehand to maintain strict silence.
The first step in the proceedings was for the officers commanding thevarious regiments to call for volunteers prepared to undertake the taskof preceding the main body of the stormers in order to cut a way throughthe lines of wire entanglements, and to sever the electric cablesconnecting the innumerable ground mines with the forts. Volunteers wereinvited to step six paces to the front, and in the majority of cases theentire regiment appealed to advanced six paces with the precision andpromptitude of a parade evolution. Under such circumstances there was,of course, but one thing to be done, and that was for each captain tochoose a certain number of men--those he considered best adapted for thework--and detail them for the duty.
These men, a veritable Forlorn Hope, discarding knapsacks, greatcoats,everything in the shape of impedimenta, even their weapons, and armedonly with a stout pair of wire-cutting nippers, dashed out of the rankslike unleashed greyhounds at the word of command, and with a great shoutof "Banzai Nippon!" went running and leaping through the fields of youngbarley, each eager to outdistance all the others. And as they went, thecrash of their own and the enemy's artillery, the fire of which had beenlanguishing, burst forth afresh, mingled with the hammering ofmachine-guns and the rolling volleys of rifle-fire. In a moment thewhole of the ground over which the pioneers would have to pass was beingswept by a crossfire of lead in which it seemed impossible that anythingcould live. Man after man was seen to go down, yet still his comradespressed on, in ever-diminishing numbers, until at length a mere handfulstaggered up to the first line of wire entanglements, and there fell,riddled with bullets, their task unaccomplished.
But not for a moment did their fate discourage those who were detailedto follow them. Like racers they dashed forward, in widely extendedorder, now leaping high in the air and anon crouching almost double in avain effort to dodge that terrible inexorable hail of bullets, and againman after man went crashing to the ground while other panting, gasping,breathless men staggered and stumbled past the prostrate figures, intentupon one purpose only, to reach that line of wire and sever a few of theentanglements before yielding up their lives. And a few of themactually contrived to accomplish their purpose before they died,although the damage which they were able to do was quite incommensuratewith the frightful sacrifice of life which it cost.
In accordance with Oku's plan, the main body of the stormers followedclosely upon the heels of the volunteer wire-cutters. The 1st Divisionled the way, dashing forward and losing heavily, until they arrivedwithin a few yards of the foremost line of Russian trenches, and herethey were brought to a standstill by the wire entanglements, while theRussian rifle and machine-gun-fire played upon them pitilessly, mowingthem down in heaps. In desperation some of them seized the firmlyrooted posts to which the wires were attached and strove to root them upby main force, while others placed the muzzles of their rifles againstthe wires and, pulling the trigger, severed them in that way. Someattempted to climb over the wire, others to creep through; but where onesucceeded, twenty became entangled and were shot dead before they couldclear themselves. Those, however, who contrived to get through at oncegave their attention to the mines, the positions of which were clearlyindicated by the settlement of the ground caused by the rain of thepreceding night, and thus it became possible to sever several of theelectric cables which connected them with the forts.
But those awful entanglements still held up the main body of thestormers, keeping them fully exposed to a murderous fire from thetrenches as they desperately strove to break through, and things werebeginning to look very bad indeed for our side when I chanced to noticethat the Russian lines on their left were weak, the bulk of the menhaving been rushed toward the centre, where the attack was being mostfiercely pressed. In an instant I recognised that here was ouropportunity, our only opportunity perhaps, to retrieve the fortune ofthe day. Turning to my companion, I said:
"I dare not leave my post here, for at any moment I may receive amessage to be signalled to our ships. But I can--I _will_--managesingle-handed for the next quarter of an hour or so if you are game tosprint across the open to carry a message from me to General Ogawa. Youwill find him somewhere yonder, in command of the 4th Division; and ifyou run hard you can cover the distance in five minutes. Are you gameto try it?"
"I am honourably game, illustrious captain," replied the man, standingat the salute.
"Good!" I said. "Then make your way as quickly as possible to GeneralOgawa, and when you have found him, say you come from me, CaptainSwinburne. Explain to him where I am posted, and tell him that fromhere I can see that the Russian left has been so greatly weakened that asurprise attack on his part would certainly turn it, and thus verymaterially help the frontal attack. Tell him it will be necessary forhim to lead his troops along the shore of the bay in that direction,"--pointing; "say that it may even be necessary for his troops to enter thewater and wade for some distance, since the tide is rising; but that ifhe will do that, I am certain he can retrieve the day. You understand?Then, go!"
With a salute, the man swung round upon his heels and sprang away downthe hill, running like a startled hare, and in less than five minutes Isaw him rush into the lines of the 4th Division. Then, feeling prettyconfident that Ogawa would recognise the opportunity and seize it, Isnatched up the signal flags that my assistant had dropped and proceededto call up the fleet. After calling for about a minute, I dropped theflags and placed my glasses to my eyes. It was all right, they werekeeping a bright lookout afloat, and the _Tsukushi_ was waiting toreceive my message. I therefore at once proceeded to signal them to beready to support the anticipated movement with their gun-fire; and bythe time that I had done, the men of the 19th Brigade were proceeding atsomething a bit faster than the "double" toward the shore, while everygun in the squadron opened in their support. As I had anticipated, thetroops were obliged to actually enter the waters of the bay
, which insome places rose breast-high; but they pushed through, losing ratherheavily, and hurled themselves upon the Russian flank and rear, whilethe others, getting an inkling of what was happening from the sounds ofheavy firing on the other side of the hill, pressed home the frontalattack, thus keeping the Russian main body busily engaged.
With yells of "Banzai! Banzai Nippon!" the men of the 19th Brigadefought their way forward, foot by foot, using rifle and bayonet withsuch furious energy that suddenly the Russians broke and fled beforethem, and with howls of exultation the victorious Japanese scrambledforward and upward until their figures became visible to their comradesbelow, still fighting desperately in the effort to break through theRussian lines. Thirty engineers of the victorious 4th Division were nowdetailed to cut a path through the wire entanglements that stillprotected the Russian trenches; _and they did it_, lying flat upon theground without attempting to raise their heads. Twenty-two out of thethirty were killed in the accomplishment of the task, but a way wasmade, and through it poured Ogawa's gallant brigade, the 8th Regimenttaking the lead, and the next moment they were in the Russian trenches,fighting desperately, hand to hand, the Japanese determined to drive outthe Russians, and the Russians equally determined to hold their groundat all costs.
And now the stormers of the 1st and 3rd Divisions, seeing the success oftheir comrades, were stung into the making of a further effort, and,hurling themselves bodily upon the entanglements, actually broke themdown by sheer physical force, although hundreds were horribly mangled inthe process, and despite the awful fire from rifles and machine-gunsthat mowed through them, up they swept irresistibly until, withdeafening yells of "Banzai!" they joined their victorious comrades onthe crest and planted the banner of Japan upon the topmost height ofNanshan. For a few brief, breathless minutes the members of the staff,watching from below, beheld the glint and ruddy flash of bayonets in thelight of the setting sun as the Russians made a last desperate effort tohold their ground; but the Japanese infantry, intoxicated with theirsuccess in the face of stupendous difficulties, would take no denial:they had conquered wire entanglements, braved machine-gun-fire, and nowmere flesh and blood was as powerless to stop them as a thread is tostop a battleship. The Russians simply had to fly or die; and theychose the former alternative, retreating in disorder upon Nankwang-ling,while the Japanese, whose turn it was now to take revenge for the lossesso pitilessly inflicted upon them all through the hours of that terribleday, rained shot and shell without mercy upon the flying foe.
The weather had been improving ever since morning, and now, as thefiring gradually died down, the sun sank into the waters of the Gulf ofLiaotung in a blaze of purple and golden splendour. As the palpitantedge of his glowing upper rim vanished beneath the long level line ofthe western horizon, the firing on both sides suddenly ceasedaltogether, and a great, solemn hush fell upon the scene, that waspositively awe-inspiring after the continuous, deafening roar all day ofthe cannonade, and the crash of bursting shells. And then, as the earaccustomed itself to that sudden silence, it became aware of a low butterrible sound breaking it, the moaning of hundreds of mangled,suffering, and dying men, the ghastly fruits of that ferocious strugglefor the possession of a few barren acres of rough, hilly country.
Suddenly the fast-gathering dusk of evening became illuminated; thestation buildings in the little village of To-fang-shan were ablaze,doubtless purposely set on fire by the Russians to hinder possiblepursuit--and were soon a mass of flame, the flickering light from whichluridly illuminated the scored and gashed sides of the neighbouringhills. Finally, with a terrific roar, a Russian magazine exploded,sending up a great column of flame and smoke; and as the reverberationsof the explosion rumbled and echoed again and again until they finallydied away among the gorges and ravines of the surrounding elevations,silence again sank upon the scene, the victorious Japanese being soutterly exhausted by their Herculean labours that pursuit of the flyingRussians became impossible, the conquerors flinging themselves down onthe positions which they had gained, and instantly sinking into a kindof lethargy, their fatigue being so great that they were unable toremain awake long enough to partake of the food that was quicklyprepared for them.