The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-26
ONLY 20 ESCAPED.
Russian Garrison of Two Forts Almost
AnnihiIated.

Headquarters of the Japanese Third
Army, Before Port Arthur, Dec. 20, by
way of Yinkow delayed in transmits
sion), by way of Tientsin, Dec. "a
After the general assault of November
1921 against the forts on Rihlung and
Keekwan mountains. resulting in
furious fighting and great loss of life,
the Japanese had been engaged in
Keekwan mountain. Two main tun-
nels ran under the north wall of the
fort from the moat, a distance of
forty feet, and there were four short
Gem Der 18 seven dynamite mines were
laid, the object of which was to de-
stroy the north wall and give the jap
anese access to the fort.
The explosion made two large
breaches in the north wall of the fort,
through which the Japanese in the
moat swarmed. They charged so
quickly that sixty of them were killed
succeeded in gaining the ramparts
and charged the interior of the fort,
but they were repulsed by portion of
the garrison 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
about 800 reinforcements 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
parallel to the moat were filed with
debris. When this debris had been ex-
cavated, the battalion gained the moat
and reached the ramparts through the
breaches that had been made by the
explosions.
The commander of this enterprise re-
allied that any attempt to gain the in
terror of the fort would end in disaster
If his whole force advanced in one body,
he l. T.
and ordered them to gain the lower
level of the interior of the fort by twos
and threeS and to find cover in the
holes which had been made in the sur
face by the Japanese shells. In the
whole center of the fort great holes had
been torn by the Japanese shells and
these offered good cover from the rifle
and machine gun fire directed from the
rear of the fort. In these holes one
and fifty of the attackers had
found cover by o'clock in the even
ing.
Advancing carefully the Japanese
approached the Russian defenses in the
rear of the fort and by working from
hole to hole under cover of the dark
ness, the entire battalion gained the in
terror of the fort notwithstanding the
resistance by the Russians
The first charge made against the
wall of sandbags was unsuccessful but
charge followed charge until midnight
when the last corner of the Russian de-
lenses was captured.
The fighting was desperate in the ex-
treme with bayonets and dynamite
hand grenades, and the entire garrison
was killed with the exception of a party
Of twenty who escaped through the
covered wall, which they destroyed be-
hind them by exploding four mines and
thus prevented the Japanese from pur-
suing them. When the final death
struggle came, the Japanese and the
surviving Russians closed in and
fought with bayonets, hand grenades
and even pieces of concrete. The men
were wedged into the passageways. The
Russians refused to run and the Jap
anese would not retire. They simply
closed with each other and fought until
the Russians, with the exception of the
last twenty. had been killed.