The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-25
FORLON HOPE
 SUCCESSFUL Fort of KekWan Mountain Taken. DYNAMITE WAS USED Two Entire Jap Battali0nS
 Volunteered. Soldiers Dressed in Peculiar Garb Af- ter Repeated RepuIses by stoes- sells Gallant Men Carried
 Important Position.
DYNAMITE WAS USED


 before Port Arthur, Dec. 20. via Yin kow, delayed in transmission, via Tientsin, Dec. 24.-Since the general assault of November 26-27 (against the forts on Rihlung and Kekwar Mountains resulting in furious fight ing and great loss of life and de- scribed at length by the Associated Press correspondent in a dispatch filed November 2S) the Japanese have been engaged in tunneling under the north fort of Kekwan Mountain. Two main tunnels ran under the north wall of the fort from the moat for dis tance of forty feet and there were four short branch tunnels.
 On the morning of December IS, sev- en dynamite mines were laid, the ob- ject of which was to destroy the access to the fort. The fort had so long resisted the assaults of the Japa- nese that it was considered necessary that the explosions of the mines and the attacks should be careful ly planned. General Samejima, com manding the left division, asked for volunteers who would be prepared to capture the fort or to die in the at- tempt.
 Two entire battallions answered the generals call, one from the left divis- ion, and the other from the general re- serves. The first battalion remained in the caponiere galleries during the explosion of the mines, while the sec ond battalion was in a parallel close to the wall of the counter scarp.
 In order that the dark blue uniform of the men might not show against the brown of the soil, which would be turned by the force of the explosion. all the attackers wore brown woolep under drawers over their trousers and brown sweaters over their tunics. ln- stead of caps each man wore a brown woolen headpiece, which extended to the shoulders, leaving only the faces visible. Every man carried rifle in his right hand and dynamite grenades in his left, while a lighted slow match was attached to his cartridge belt with which to ignite the fuses from the grenades. In this peculiar garb. witb the lighted matches at their waists. the troops presented a strange appear ance.
 The soldiers of the battalions in the capioniers galleries, who were distn- guished by white badges on their arms, were to make the second assault. Gen. eral Samejma personally conducted these assaults at o'clock on the after > neon of December 19, after the explo- sions had taken place.
 Explosions Were Successful.
 
 warning and the explosion was en- tirely successful owing to heavy con- crete above the mine. The explosion of the second mine followed immediately and this was succeeded by five smaller explosions.
 The sight was wonderful in the ex- treme. Huge clouds of brown earth and debris of all kinds were thrown 200 feet in the air and 1t looked as if the |. El When the clouds of earth had settled down, the snow, the snow for some 500 yards around the fort was covered with brown earth, pieces of timber and blocks of concrete.
 The explosions made two large breaches in the north wall of the fort through which the Japanese swarmed. They came so quickly that fifty of them were either killed or wounded by the debris. The Japanese succeeded in gaining the ramparts and charged the interior of the fort but they were re- pulsed by a portion of the garrisoon from behind a wall at the rear of the fort which had not been touched by the force of the explosion. Behind this wall there were four field guns and three machine guns.
 In the meantime the Russians had rushed endorsements of some 300 to the fort through the covered wall at the rear.
 The second battalion of attackers were unable to advance immediately, as the sapping trenches from the par allel to the moat were filled with debris. When this dash had been ex- ecuted the battalion regained the moat and reached the ramparts through the breach that had been made by the eX- plosions.
 The commander of this enterprise re- alized that any attempt to gain the in terior of the fort would end in disaster if his whole force advanced in one ! 1ody. so he disposed his men along the wall and ordered them to gain the low CT level of the interior of the fort by twos and threes and to find cover in the holes which had been made in the surface by the Japanese shells
 In the centre of the fort great holes had been torn by the Japanese shells and these offered good cover for the rifle and machine gun fire directed from the rear of the fort. In these holes 15O of the attackers had found cover by o'clock in the evening.
 Advancing carefully, the Japanese approached the Russian defences in the rear of the fort and. by working from hole to hole under cover of the dark ness, the entire battalion gained the interior of the fort. The first charge made against the wall of sand bags proved unsuccessful. but charge fol- lowed charge until midnight, when the last corner of the Russian defences was captured
 Garrison Was AnnihIIated.
 The fighting was desperate in the ex- treme, with bayonets and hand gran ades and the entire garrison was kill ed. with the exception of a party ot twenty. who escaped through the cov~ cred wall, which they destroyed behind them by exploding four mines and thus preventing the Japanese from pursuing them.
 Though the numbers engaged and the area of the fighting were small, both assault and defence were more furious than at any time in the previous hls- tory of the siege of Port Arthur.
 The final rush of the Japanese was irresistible Their wounded refused to retire and insisted on continuing fight ing. saxing that they had vowed to