The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1904-02-23
IN WAR WITH JAPANESE

| See those ships"
Showing dimly in the snow squall
were three Chinese cruisers and four
torpedo boats and at the masthead of
the largest vessel fiuttered signals
made up from the British code. The
Naval Attache read them off-"Prepare
to engage the enemy He knew there
would be broadsde in n moment burt
the charging. snap-shooting Japanese
did not see their danger. Clambering
up sandhill, the foreigners shouted to
the pursuing line, but it was too late.
! Their voices We're lost in the detona-
tons of the Chinese guns. At the first
broadside eighty men We're killed and
wounded and the beach was covered
with bloody pulp. Every mounted Off
Ger was slain. The living halted, me-
chancally aligned their ranks and fac
ed the death-dealing ships, returning
Intellectual shots. An infantry captain,
the ranking officer alive, ordered them
to lie down, but the secondary batteries
of the squadron sowed the beach with
missiles, killing and wounding so many
of the PROSTATE men that the rest
when the order was passed but not be-
fore-retreated behind the sand dunes,
few hundred yards away. Then came
an inspiring aCt VI bravery. "A 1teu
Cross corps, which had followed the
battalion at a distance, double quicked
upon the beach and went about their
humane work under the most whitening
fire the barbarian enemy could deliver.
The black sides of the Chinese ships
looked like storm clouds rejecting sheet
lightning and their fighting tops crack
led as though punches of gigantic fire
oh p,,t
with perfect order and GOODNESS the men
of the Red Cross picked up the dying
and the dead, their own among the rest,
and marched slowly and tenderly to
the shelter of the dunes.
While this tragedy was passing the
infantry and cavalry of Oyama's main
army We're marched over the crest of
the high ridge and halted in long
columns on the treeless slopes which
terminated a little south of the fort
where Odera fell. at the shores of the
bay. Before long the snow stopped fall
ing, the sun shone, and the black
massesi of Soldiery stood out like sill
houettes against the white TANKS of
the hill. The gunners of Ting's fleet
could ask for no better target, and al
though a spitfire gunboat was busy
firing at the blockading fleet three
miles away, not a shot was thrown al
the exposed brigades. We thought per-
haps the elevation was too great, but
when the entire army was marched
Slowly down to village just back from
the shore, for two hours in plain view of
Ting's well-manned decks, yet un-
molested, we made up our'minds that
the Chinese We're short of ammunition.
Yet they used it prodigally enough on
targets, both large and small, for days
thereafter.
Late in the afternoon Admiral Ito's
marksmen came and began working the
Krupp guns in the south fort. We
could see shells fall close to the Chinese
vessels, sending up geysers of brine and
exploding on and above their decks.
There was no reply to this assault. |
Instead, the Chinese fleet formed in
single file and, with a bone in the
mouth" of every ship, steamed in the
Western extremity of the harbor, where
it anchored under the lee of a jutting
cape of Liu-Ton-Tau, and within mile
of the remaining land forts. For the
time it was safe.
The next military problem before the
japanese was to capture the town of
Wei-hai-Wei and the western group of
fortresses. General Sakuma had intend /
ed to march the army up the beach, a
distance of six miles, delivering battle |
the next day. But the slaughter of the
Kumomoto battalion by the Chinese |
ships changed the plan and on the
morning after the battle the troops
We're started on a wide detour which |
was calculated to bring them to the
Cheefoo road we'll in the rear of the |
Chinese position. The march was a
hard one as the country was rough and
the thermometer once went to 20 de-
grees below zero. Skirmishing with the
enemy was incessant, and over to the |
right, the direction of the bay, we could |
hear, day after night, the boom of siege
artillery One afternoon the bleak hills |
rumbled with the echoes of terrific eX-
plosions in the distance. We learned |
afterwards that the news of Oyamas |
flank movement had stampeded the |
Western garrisons and that Admiral |
Ting had sent sailors ashore to blow up |
the abandoned works to prevent their .
use against his bottled" fleet.
On the morning of the second day of
the detour Japanese scouting party of
40 men, in command of Major, pene-
trated a narrow valley in the midst of
a driving snowstorm, stopping at
small village to make enquiries. While
there the storm eased up and the Major
saw bodies of troops ON the hills. They
turned out to be the retreating Chinese
garrsons from We-haiWei, ten thous-
and strong. The Japanese scouts had
not been seen and might have hidden
until the enemy passed on. But it was
not their way. Posting his men on
both sides of the village, behind stone
walls, the Major ordered the little squad
to open fire. In reply the Chinese pep
pered the village with Mauser bullets
and shelled it, but the japanese lad
the last shots. Fearing that Oyama's
main body would come up, the Chinese
resumed their march. The gallant iio-
jor then counted his killed and wolnd-
ed. There We're twenty of them, half
his little force.