The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-10
ATTACK ON PORT ARTHUR Began on Night of NOvem-
 Der 2b.
 BATTLE STILL RACES
LE STILL RACES
Mostsanguinary Engagement
 of the Seize.
yapanese With Cons2icuous Gaiian'ls Attack Bomb Proof Fortress
 While stoesselrs Brave Men
 Conduct Counter Charges.

Headquarters of the Japanese inIra Army. Before Port Arthur, November oe via Tientsin. Dec. 9-(Probaoly held at headquarters for censorship:)- The general assault on Port Arthur which began at noon November 70 IS still in progress.
 Tn the first series of assaults an at- .te.npt was made to capture the forts at Rihlung and Kekwan Mountain us penetrating the principal lines of foru- ncations surrounding them and to en- yelope the city from the east. At the sane time a strong force pushed up the gorge of the Shishi valley between two fortified ridges and attacked the supporting fort in the rear of west Rihlunr Mountain, ofictally called sun rshu Mountain, with the intention or enveloping the city from the west
 The attempt failed. after the most furious fighting that has been witness ed since Port Arthur was invested. ne fighting continued from noon Novemoer 26 until after dawn of the following day, without cessation.
 The assault began in the early morn ing with a tremendous bombardment of the forts on the western haif or the fortified ridge by a battery which had been placed in position on the crest of a ridge to the rear. For hours the whole western half of the fortified ridge was deluged with heavy shells At noon the principal line of fortifca- tions was a perfect hell of bursting shrapnel, and the spectacle was more wonderful than anything previously seen.
 The front lines of infantry having been strongly reinforced began an at tack simultaneously along the entire line from East Kekwan Mountain 10 West Rihlung Mountain. Through the haze caused by the smoke of the burst ing shells the assaulters could be seen emerging from the cover of the paral- lels as we'll as swarfning up the sforti- fec ridge at half a dozen different points. -.
 Rifies, rapid fire guns and machine guns blazed from the Russian position where advances were made in the open The men went down by hundreos. Ine forts were belching smoke and burst ing shells and the rampant walls were black with assaulters, who on reaching the crests met with the heavy firing from the forts which swept down line after line of the Japanese.
 RepuIse After Repulse.
 As fast as the assaulters were re- pulsed more Japanese swarmed up, only to be moved down in turn.
 The determination and fury of the Japanese assaults were eaualed by the stubbornness of the resistance of the Russians.
 On the eastern extremity of the line the Japanese made an assault in an attempt to capture the Russian trenches situated midway of the slope and East Kekwan mountain.
 The Japanese paralleled up to some thirty five yards of the Russian trench line and an entire regiment charged across, the men falling by hundreds before the awful fire of the Russians. But still more men came on over the bodies of those who had fallen. and by sheer weight of numbers they reached tho trenches which they captured at the point of the bayonet.
 The Russian shrapnel made the cap tured portion of the trenches a per feet hell. while the Japanese shrapnel fire assisted the captors to push east and west along the trench line.
 The assaulters succeeded in holding some eighty yards of the trenches in front of the parallels but their efforts to rush the trench line east and west was failure, owing to the impassa- ble burning pits which filled the whole space of the trenches on the northern side as well as to the fact that their progress was barred by the fire of the Russian machine guns.
 The Japanese built transverse walls across the trenches under protection of their machine guns and tried to cross the hills but they were unable to do so.
 At o'clock the Japanese again cap tured the same portion of the trench and made desperate but unsuccessful efforts to cross the pits. The awful struggle continued until o'clock in the morning when the Russians again counter attacked and recaptured the trench which was piled with dead bodies. For over thirty yards be- tween the trenches there was a veri- table shamble.
 Attempt to Rush Fort.
 The first attempt to rush the fort on the northern portion of Kekwan mountain was made at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. when the assaulters swarm ed up the rampant wall from the moat and met with an awful fire from within and from the Chinese wall in the rear of the fort.
 When the Russians saw that it was the intention of the Japanes to rush the fort they moved a considerable force from the Chinese wall into a gorge to the east and to the rear of the fort. During the four or five fu- rious assaults which the Japanese made upon the fort, some of the gar rison attempted to evacuate the fort over the rear ramparts, but were fired upon by the Russians forces in the gorge.
 As result of the first assault the rampant walls were black with bodies. In the second assault the Japanese sue ceeded in gaining a foothold in the in- terior where the defenses wer1 bomb proof with raised lines of protected trenches in the rear fort, where the machine guns swept the front of the fort and the walls. The assauIters at tackled this bombproof maze. where the fighting was hand to hand with bayo- nets and grenades.
 At 8 o'clock in the morning the Japa- nese succeeded in establishing trench line within the ramparts which they still hold.
 Another attempt was made to pierce the principal line of fortihcations sur rounding the rear part of the eastern Pantun Mountain where after four fu- ! rious attempts a small body of Japa- a..l as &l.4.~ &S sa..