The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-05-30
Eight Successive Charges Driven
Back, the Ninth Succeeding by
Desperate Valor
AMMUNITION RAN SHORT
And the Bayonet Did What Shells
and Powder aid Ball Failed
to Accomplish.
DALNY ABOUT DESERTED
Only a Few Guards and Mine OPP
eratives Remain-Cruiser Bay
an in Sore Danger.

TOXIC May ~. y. m.-The details OF
the fighting at Kin-Chou emphasize the he
roic tenacity of the Japanese in their con-
duct at Nan-Shan.
Nine successive times the Japanese
! charged the fortified heights in the face of
a storm of death-dealing missiles, and in
their last effort they carried the forts and
trenches only after acknowledgements
conflict with the Russians, who made
desperate despairing struggle to beat back
the oncoming hordes.
The final assault of the Japanese in which
they at last succeeded in taking posses
sion was marked by the most desperate
hand-to-hand encounter that has thus far
characterized the war.
The Japanese left, throughout the entire
action until night. was exposed to an en-
filading fire from the Russian infantry,
gunboat on Talien-Wan bay and four nine
centimeter guns posted at Ta-Feng-Chen.
At a critical moment the ammunition Of
the artillery low, and it was decided to
cast the remaining ammunition into one
final desperate assault. Fortunately, how
ever at the moment this decision was
reached the Japanese squadron in Kin
Chou bay, which had ceased bombarding
when the infantry had first moved forward.
suddenly resumed the shelling of Nan-Shan.
Then it was that the issues of the day
were determined. at a moment when the
outcome was fiuttering between success and
defeat for Japan-at that moment was an
almost certain repulse converted into vic
torv 50 successful that the forces of the
Car were swept into disorderly retreat.
LAST DESPERATE CHARGE.
With every Japanese gun centering its
fire on the Nan-Shan forts and trenches.
the Japanese infantry sprang over the
bodies of the dead comrades who had sacri-
feed their lives in the previous fruitless
charges. The entire line rushed forward
toward the Russian left, where the fire
of the Japanese squadron had proved most
deadly and which was the first to weaken
under the death-dealing bombardment.
And il was there that the first breach was
made in the human wall that all day had
been an invincible barrier to the impetuous
assaults of the little brown men.
1t was the Fourth Division of the Osaka
| men that stormed the Russian left 1t
had once been said that Osaka men were
not brave. 1t will never be said again.
The first division of Toxic, which had the
| center, and the third division of Nagoya,
occupying the left, and which had been ex-
| posed all day to the Russian fire against
the front and flank, now followed the ex-
ample of the Osaka men and rushed for
ward, and the battle became transformed
from an artillery duel into one of personal
| conflict. with the bayonet the instrument
OF warfare. On every parapet the rest
| less, death-defying Japanese surged for
ward in increasing numbers and, hustling
! the Russians from their intrenchments,
swept over the hill. AT 7:30 o'clock, as the
sun was sinking beneath the horizon the
| flag of the Land of the Rising Sun fioated
above the blood-sodden Nan-Shan hill,
while the shouts of ''Banzai' swelled from
| hill TO hill and re-echoed from squadron to
| fort.
HEAVY LOSSES.
| The Japanese paid for their victory In
$500 killed and wounded. To the Rus
slams the humiliation of defeat was in
tensified by the loss of sixty-eight cannon
and ten machine guns. while lying dead in
| the forts and trenches were 500 men, the
victims of the accuracy of japanese long,
| distance Workmanship and of close-range
| fighting.
| General Oku, In command of the Japanese
began his aggressive movement on the Rus
sian position at midnight on Wednesday.
He assigned the Fourth Division to the
| right, with instructions to swing around
! Kin-Chou and move south. He gave the
First Division the center and the left was
! allotted to the Third Division. During the
night terrible thunderstorm, accompanied
| by heavy rain. broke over the advancing
army and impeded the movements of the
men. 1t had been planned to begin the fire
at 4:30 o'clock in the morning, but a dense
! fog had followed the storm and il was an
hour later before all of the artillery under
General Uchiyama opened on Nan-Shan
| hill. A detachment seized Kin-Chou Castle
! CONTINUED ON PAGE 2, COL. 81