Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-06-06

his blow instantly. The Russians were
 quickly. overwhelmingly beaten. They
 fed precipitately toward the north. In
 the afternoon tue second division came
 up and did little better in that its
 fragments fell back on the main body.
 Both divisions belonged to the Six teenth corps, fresh from Europe. Many
 of the peasant soldiers did not under stand the mechanism of their rifles, let
 alone the use of sights. Their fate was
 precisely that of train load of excur-
 sionists in collision. The Russians
 left 5000 dead bodies on the field.
 Their total of casualties must have
 been half of the 10000 men engaged
 The cost to Nogi was 300 wounded
 and killed. At the same time he had
 made a good days advance. He was
 within i've miles of the railroad.
 The truth Is that at this juncture the Japanese staf, who had staked all on an offensive stroke, were as much wor- ried as Kuropatkin, who had staked all on the defensive. For his center and
 left were not Judging. It was plain that Nogi must not beard the lion too far until the other hunters came up. The easy time that he had meant cor respondingly hard time for Kuroki and Kawamura.
 Had the two Japanese corps facing Kuropatkin's right center shown no more harmony of execution than Kaui- bars and Bilderling he would never have been shaken. On Nogi's right was the bulldog army of Oku, whose task from Liaoyang onward has been to fight it's way inch by inch against frontal positions, to be the strong pivot while the others wheel. As Nogi ex- tended his line northward Oku's left had to swing to the northeast, envelop- ing the western end of the Russian works and meanwhile separate one of its divisions from the main body in crossing the Hun.
 Kuropatkin recognized soon after his great error of misunderstanding the Japanese plan that this deadly angle was a vital point, and Nogi must wait on Oku's progress here. The two divi- sions to the east of the Hun were at- tached to Nodzu, making the center unit Oku himself took the north side with the third division and all the re serves Oyama had at his command.
 The frozen ground would not permit the men once they had gained little ground to throw up those hasty in trenchments whose life saving value makes the spade almost as important an adjunct of the modern infantry mans kit as his rife. Japanese genius provided substitute. The soldiers car ried empty sand bags. These they filled by scraping up the thin surface of the earth which the sun had thawed. Some even carried blocks of wood. One man, we know, had carpet bag. He was found dead beside it.
 Except for the collection of mud houses mile or more apart no cover other than ruts or ditches is available The villages formed strategic points. which became the centers of fierce CO., agulations of strife.
 Likompau was village in point There occurred the bitterest fight to the west of Mukden. The streets and the compounds became shambles. Here was the center of those attacks by which the Japanese sought to rectify their line in Nogi's support, of those counter attacks by which Kuropatkin sdn noped to retrieve his error and iso. late Nogi. One regiment is reported to have held of whole Russian division. Like the battalions of Kuroki's armies at Witosan, the Japanese here were told to stand to the last man. They stood u,.
 By such sacrifices as this and the use of all his reserves Oku was not only able to hold his own. but to make some advances on the 9th and 9th, when Nogi did nothing except to stiffen his line. As for Nodzu, with Oku's two d. visions on the center. 1t was not ex- pected that he would make any head way. Behind them were the comfort ing barks of the howitzers and Krupps. which had torn the roofs of the heads of the defenders of Two Hundred and Three Meter hill at Port Arthur. They could not storm intrenchments which the Russians had been months in mak- Ing. Their part presently was to hug the enemy so close that he was always l under threat of a decisive charge; that | he dared not spare any men for other vital points. In some places Nodzu's | men got to within three or four yards !, of the Russians. and there they lay ! sleepless from cold, with the thermome- | ter I5 or % degrees below freezing at | night.
 Next to Nodzu was Kuroki. To him | was assigned task requiring the tame versatility which has distin- yuished his corps from the time of its of the Yalu to the present ] Re has had to exhibit the qualities of | l good pedestrian. of the bulldog and l he fox. At Liaoyang be fought his way through the mountains and on to the plain, so at the Shakhe and SO at Nukden. But never once has he been allowed to remain on the plain after he lad reached it.
 Kuroh again faced steep slopes with narrow valleys between them. Kuro- ,atkin. who had been so often fooled by he old fo1's work In the hills. was de J