that the General considered the artillery
"preparation" complete, and that the actual storming of the Russian
position was now to be attempted. A battalion of our 1st Division,
situated in the Japanese centre, suddenly deployed into the open, and
commenced its advance by making a series of short rushes through some
fields of green barley, on the opposite side of the road from Kinchau to
Linshiatun, dashing forward a few yards, and then, as the machine-guns
and rifles in the Russian trenches were turned upon them, sinking from
view into the barley, through which they crept on hands and knees until
the whistle of the leader or the call of a bugle gave the signal for
another dash. The heroism of those devoted Japanese infantry was
something to send a thrill through the heart of a man; no sooner did
they show than the whole of the ground which they occupied and that in
front of them was swept by a devastating crossfire from the whole line
of the Russian trenches, which beat down the young barley as a heavy
shower of rain might level it. To me, unaccustomed to this style of
fighting, it looked as though nothing might venture upon that shot-swept
zone and live; yet time after time the intrepid Japanese rose to their
feet and, crouching low, made yet another short rush forward, though
with sadly diminished numbers. The uproar was deafening; the crash of
the heavy guns upon the crest of the heights and from Fort Hoshangtao,
near Linshiatun, which now joined in the fray, mingled with the
hammer-like thudding of the machine-guns and the continuous rolling
crackle of rifle-fire from the trenches, was frightful. And then, as
though this were not enough, the Russian gunboat _Bohr_ turned her
9-inch guns upon the advancing Japanese and, quickly getting the range,
began to drop shells right among them. The slaughter, one understood,
must be awful; yet, prepared as I was in a measure for what followed, I
stood aghast when finally, out of that whole battalion, a mere handful
of men, numbering perhaps some fifty or sixty, emerged from the growing
barley and made a staggering rush toward the first line of wire
entanglements, which they at once proceeded to attack with nippers,
fully exposed all the while to the concentrated fire of the whole body
of defenders. It was a forlorn hope of the most desperate description,
and one after another the gallant fellows collapsed and died, pierced by
innumerable bullets. The first assault had re