The History of the Russo-Japanese War. Sydney Tyler
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the engine was shattered into a thousand fragments and the driver was killed. And now to add to the horrors of the situation, fires began to break out in various quarters of the town, and the panic-stricken inhabitants fled to the race course, where, behind the shelter of the hills, they were able to find some respite from the terrible tornado which had burst upon them.
While all this devastation was being hurled upon the town, the forts themselves were passing through a hot time. The Japanese, assisted by the skilful manœuvre before described, had found the range for their high angle fire perfectly, whereas the batteries of the defending force could do little or nothing in return. The official accounts issued from the Russian side, while admitting the severity when the bombardment visited the town, said little about the damage to the fortifications or the losses sustained by the garrison; but the reports received from other and independent sources, while varying a good deal in details, agreed in representing the total result as being of the most serious character. It is said that twenty soldiers were killed and that many more were wounded. The Governor of Port Arthur himself, General Stoessel, who was on the batteries during the hottest of the fire, had a narrow escape. A shell burst near to the spot on which he was standing with his staff, and bespattered the whole party with splinters and sand. The forts on Golden Hill suffered severely, and two guns were put out of action. Nor did the ships in the harbor come off scatheless. Heavy casualties among their crews were reported, and it was stated that the unfortunate Retvisan, which had already borne so much, received still further damage.
The Port Arthur journal, the Novi Krai, gave a terrible picture of the scenes on the cruiser Bayan.
"The bursting shells," said the writer, "bowled over man after man until the decks were slippery with blood. Amidst this hell the captain stood unmoved in the conning tower calmly telephoning his orders to the captains of the guns. His wonderful coolness had a remarkable influence on all the officers. The cockpit was soon crowded with wounded, thirty-nine men being brought down before the fight ended.
"Amid the crash of the guns, the hiss of the flying projectiles, and the thunder of their explosions, the smashing of splinters, and the din of the working engines, the surgeons labored quietly among the wounded on the hospital operating table. Although some of the men suffered frightful agony, few groans were heard, in spite of the fact that anæsthetics were only administered in one case."
For hours that to the heart-shaken inhabitants must have appeared interminable, the great shells, each of the enormous weight of 850 lbs., continued to hurtle through the air and to burst over the harassed stronghold. The sensations of a garrison in such circumstances are well described in a letter which a wounded Russian officer wrote from the hospital in Port Arthur to a friend in Russia. He is recounting his experiences of the first bombardment, but the account is so vivid and would apply so well to the more trying ordeal of the 10th of March that it will bear reproduction here.
"The sea," he says, "is quite white from the falling shells, and it is impossible to hear the words of command. I cry out until my voice becomes hoarse, but cannot make myself heard above the din. There are more than 150 cannon belching forth smoke, shell and death. There is a wild, choking sound from the machine guns. Amid the smoke, steam and dust I hear a groan, it is that of a soldier whose nose has been torn away by the fragment of a shell. He is surrounded by stretcher bearers. Someone lays his hand on my shoulder, and I turn and see at my side a soldier, pale, and his lips trembling. He wishes to speak, but his tongue refuses to obey. He points with his finger, and I understand what has occurred.
"There beneath the cliff I hear a little battery of rapid firing guns, very small and elegant. There are 12,000 bullets speeding on their errand in sixty seconds. They are destined to defend our shores against the landing of an enemy. The orgy is at its height. The shells are bursting around us like fireworks at a feast. A whistle, a hiss, and a sharp ringing noise, as they rush through the air, then smoke and a smell of burning, while the sand dances from the earth. I turn from the battery and see a terrible picture. In the midst of the men a shell bursts. One soldier is disemboweled, and another is wounded in the head, a third is shrieking in the height of his delirium. One steel cannon is broken to pieces as though it were straw. An awful picture, with blood—blood everywhere."
FUNERAL PROCESSION OF A JAPANESE OFFICER IN YOKOHAMA.
At last, at two o'clock, the inferno ceased. A great calm succeeded to the thunder of the guns and the screams of the shells, and the civilians of Port Arthur slowly and timidly returned to their ruined homes. The separate divisions of the Japanese fleet rejoined one another, and after the most destructive bombardment yet inflicted upon the land defences of the Russian stronghold, they quietly steamed away southwards. While these events were taking place at Port Arthur a detached squadron of the Mikado's cruisers had proceeded northeast to Dalny, or Talienwan, as it used to be called, and destroyed the quarantine buildings erected by the Russians on the Sanshan Islands. Outside that port the Takasago and the Chihaya scouted the western coast of the entrance to Port Arthur in the hope that the bombardment would draw Admiral Makaroff's ships into the open; but no enemy could be found and the two cruisers then retired in the wake of the main squadron.
It was not long before a Russian vessel fell a victim to the mines laid by the Japanese destroyers at the harbor entrance on the night of March 9th. On the 16th the Skori, a torpedo-boat destroyer of the newest pattern, was entering the channel when she struck upon a contact mine and was blown up. Out of her crew of fifty-five men, only four were reported to have been saved.
After an interval of twelve days Admiral Togo made a renewed attack upon Port Arthur, the fifth in number since the outbreak of hostilities. It was not so serious an assault as the last, its real object being to tempt the Russian fleet away from the protection of the shore batteries and to give battle at sea. In this design it was unsuccessful, but incidently it was useful, as revealing the strength of the squadron Admiral Makaroff had at his disposal after the repairs which had been effected upon the damaged ships. At midnight on the 21st two Japanese destroyers were discovered by the searchlights approaching the outer roadstead. The guns of the batteries at once gave tongue, and a violent fire was directed against the daring craft, not only from the fortress but from the gunboats Bobe and Otvagni; which, according to Admiral Alexeieff's report to the Czar, compelled them to retire. A second flotilla crept up at 4 o'clock in the morning, and this too, it was claimed by the Viceroy, was repulsed. A different complexion, however, was put upon the operation by Admiral Togo's dispatch to his Government. The destroyers retired indeed, but seemingly not in consequence of the Russian fire, which left them unharmed, but as part of a preconceived plan to lure forth Admiral Makaroff's fleet. The Japanese Commander-in-Chief's words were: "The combined fleet acted according to program. Two flotillas of our destroyers were outside Port Arthur, as instructed, from the night of the 21st till the morning of the 22nd. Although during this time they were under the enemy's fire they did not sustain any damage." It is clear from this that the aim of the Russian gunners leaves much to be desired, for the attacking flotilla were able to cruise about in the roadsteads without being touched.
At eight o'clock on the morning of the 22nd the main fleet arrived off Port Arthur. The same tactics as were employed on the 10th were adopted on this occasion, but with some modification. Only two battleships, the Fuji and the Yashima, were sent to Pigeon Bay to undertake an indirect bombardment of the town; while the Admiral, with his main squadron, took up a position more convenient for an attack upon the Russian fleet should it put out to sea. The cannonade lasted again for several hours, but his main purpose, that of drawing Admiral Makaroff into the open, was not successful. At one period, indeed, the hopes of the Japanese ran high. The Russian fleet was seen to issue from the harbor as if ready for battle, with the cruiser Askold, flying the flag of the Commander-in-Chief, at their head. It was now observed that the available naval force of the Czar at Port Arthur consisted of five battleships and four cruisers, as well as destroyers, gunboats, and torpedo-boats. The battleships of course included the Pobieda, 12,674 tons, and the Sevastopol, 10,950 tons, which were undergoing repairs