The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-10
FURIOUS FIGHT.
Attempt of the Japanese to
Capture Port Arthur
Developed One of the Fiercest
Battles Ever Recorded.
1T WAS HAND TO HAND.
With BayOnets, Dynamite, Gre
nadeS and Clubbed Guns.
Whole DstachmentS on Both
Sides We're AnnihiIRted.


army before Port Arthur, Nov %, via
Tien Tsin, Dec. 10.-(Probably held
at headquarters for censorship
general assault on Port Arthur which
began at noon November &c, is still in
progress. In the first series of as
saults an attempt was made to cap
ture the forts at Rihlung and Keekwan
mountains by penetrating the prin-
cipal line of Notifications surrounding
them, and to enveIop the city from the
east At the same time, a strong
force pushed up the gorge of Shi Shi
valley between two fortified ridges and
attacked the supporting fort in the
rear of West Rihlung mountain, Of
hcialIy called Sungshun mountain,
with the intention of envelOping the
city from the west.
The attempt failed, after the most
furious fighting that has been wit
messed since Port Arthur was invested
The fighting lasted from noon of No
vember 90 until after dawn of the fol-
lowing day without cessation.
The assault began early in the
morning with a tremendous lombard
ment of the forts on the western half
of the eastern fortified ridge by d bat
terry which had been placed in posi-
ton 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 Notifications was a perfect hell
of bursting shrapnel and the spectacle
was more wonderful than anything
previously seen.
The front line of infantry, having
been strongly reinforced, began an at
tack simultaneously along the entire
line from East Keekwan mountain to
West Rihlung mountain.
Through the haze caused by the
smoke of the bursting shells, the as
saulters could be seen emerging from
the cover of the parallels, as well as
ewarming UP the fortified ridge at half
dozen different points.
Rifles, rapid fire guns and machine
guns blazed from the Russian posi-
tons, where advances were made in
the open. The men went down by
hundreds. The forts were belching
smoke and bursting shells, and the
rampant walls were black with as
saulters, who, on reaching the crests,
met with an awful fire from within
the forts, which swept down line after
line of Japanese.
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 equaled by 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 of Eastern
keekwan mountain.
The Japanese paralleled some thirty
nve wards of the Russian trencha 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 the
trenches. which they captured at the
ps int of the bayonet.
The Russian shrapnel fire made the
captured poi ton of the trenches a per
feet hell. while the Japanese shrapnel
70 q fn6 f11a
and west along the trench line
The assaulters succeeded in holding
some eighty yards of the trench in front
OF the parallels. but their efforts to
a failure, owing to the impossible
burning pits which filled the whole
space of the trench on the northern
side. as well as to the fact that their
Russian machine guns.
The japanese built the traverse walls
across the trench under the protection
of their machine guns and tried to
cross the hills. but they were unable to
DO so.
At 6 o'clock in the evening a. furious
Russian counter-attack drove the jap
anese back to the parallels with great
loss.
At 9 o'clock the japanese again can
tured the same portion of the trench
and made desperate, but unsuccessful
efforts to cross the pits.
The awful struggle continued until Q
O'Clock in the morning when the Rus
SLAMS again counter-attacked and re-
captured the trench, which was piled
with dead bodies. For over thirty
yards between the trenches there was
a veritable shambIes. The last attacks
end counter-attacks were made over
the bodies of the slain
The first attempt to rush the fort or,
the northern portion of Keekwan r1ooun-
tain was made at 1 o'clock in the after
noon, when the assaulters swarmed 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
1t was the intention of the JAPANESE 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 furious assaults
which the Japanese made upon the fort
some OF the garrison attempted to evac-
uate the fort over the rear ramparts,
but they were fired upon by the Rms
sian force in the gorge.
As the 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
terror, where the defenses were bomb
proof, with raised lines of protected
trenches in the rear of the fort, where
the machine guns swept the front of the
fort and the walls
The assaulters attacked this bomb
proof maze. where the fighting was
hand to hand with bayonets and gen
AIDES The japanese mounted six noun
tain guns on an intrenched hill called
'P'' fort, Immediately TO the west. in
an endeavor to silence the fire of the
Maxim guns, but they were unsuccess-
full
At 3 O'Clock in the morning the Japa-
nese succeeded in establishing trench
lines within the ramparts, which they
still hold.
The first sections of the maze of
bomb proofs were smashed and piled
with the bodies of the dead of both
sides.
The attempt to rush the interior of
the fort proved a failure but portions