The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-01-08
FAILS SOLDIERS NOGI

i, Virtually the land operations against | Port Arthur did not begin until the lat
 ter part of April. Undoubtedly the move ment of the Japanese against the fort
 vast part of the preconeeived plan. so
 that 1t might be said that movement was begun against the Russian position when
 the Japs first landed at Chemulpo. But
 actually these operations began on April | 26, when the Japanese began the battle
 which resulted in their crossing t,. Yalu
 and getting Into Manchuria at Wiiu. which is on the Yalu, just north of the
 point where the Liau-Tung penlnsular, | on which Port Arthur Is situated. joins | the mainland on the east.
 The Japanese fleet gave material aid to | the land forces in the next movement. | Dalny was bombarded so vigorously by l Togo that the Russians blew up their costly docks at that port and abandon ed the town. It remained nnoccoupled un-
 til the 30th
 DALNEY OCCUPIED.
 On May 30th Oku occupied Dalny,
 bringing his army much nearer the oh- | jective point.
 During this time a change had taken i place on the Russian side. Alexieff had been relieved of the command of the
 army and kuropatkin had taken charge. l The latter had nothing 10 do with Port
 Arthur directly, for the reason that the | place was cut off Immediately after his arrival within the zone of war. Such com munication as he held with the com
 mander of the fortress. General Stoessel,
 was done for the most part by wireless telegraph.
 The first battle in the advance on Port
 Arthur was fought on June at Polan- ten. The Russian force, numbering 200o | .I,,t.r Af.-
 same day an action took place at Sam
 atze, in which GOO Russians were repulsed.
 Four days later the Russians were driven | out of Samatze with a loss of 100. Smaller battles followed
 Thus the Japanese came against the | outer forts of Port Arthur For dis tance of nearly four miles in all diree- | tions the hills are fortified, and in the
 majority of cases the Japs went at these
 positions separately. It was necessary for
 OlSu to swing the right wing of his army
 a much greater distance than he had to
 move his left wing. Counteracting this | however. was the fact that there were not so many positions to be taken on the western side of the peninsula.
 Late in June the forts at Wan Shan, An Shan and Cho-Shan were taken. The
 battle took place on Sunday and began with a terrific artillery fire The Japs lost three officers and 100 men. The Rus
 sians fell back toward the west The Jap-
 anese thus got within three miles of Port Arthur on the northeast and strengthened
 their position by the capture of Takn- Shan mountain n few days later The bombardment by the fleet off Port Arthur now began to aid materially the troops advancing by land
 Right through July the Japanese kent Up a constant fire on the Russian posi- tons and there was a general advance of the western wing of their army
 The first of August saw the Japs close to the inner forts on all sides, their line extending in a semicircle. A terrific can nonading took place fin the neighborhood
 of Pigeon bay around the first of the month, the Japs assailing the forts on
 Table hill with great vigor. The forts responded Tho Japanese tried to advance their position, encountering barbed-wire
 entanglements and mined ground. It Is estimated that the losses in this engage ment were tremendous on both sides.
 At this time it was estimated that the foSce of Japanese attacking Port Arthur
 was 1S0000 men, Two thousand guns in the fortress were trained on this army.