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SIGNAL AND COMMISSARIAT 139
told that this mode of communication has not
been quite satisfactory at the other theatres of
operations, the system, in front of Port Arthur,
has worked without a hitch, greatly benefiting the
siege operations. By putting every battery along
their whole front in telephonic communication
with the general superintendent, the Japanese
were enabled to establish a co-operation between
the batteries, a unity in the leading which has
been of the greatest importance for a methodical
service.
Other ways of signalling, common in European
armies, e.g., by flags, electric lights, heliographs,
&c., have been little if at all used by the Japanese
before Port Arthur. Even from their balloon,
which during the first week of the siege was used
daily for exploring the enemy’s positions, but which
later was sent up only on rare occasions, com-
munication was established by telephone. The
only other means of signalling which I saw
employed was during bayonet attacks, when the
Japanese shrapnel fire was kept up until the last
moment, and when the attacking party, at least on
one occasion, carried with them a large white flag,
with which they signalled back to the batteries.
To this, however, I shall refer in a subsequent
chapter, in connection with the September attacks.
Later in the siege, when the Japanese had carried
their saps close up to the fortifications, and
especially during the bigger assaults, when, at
night, it was practically impossible to ascertain
from the battery positions how far the infantry
had advanced, the Japanese used to mark their
advanced positions by white lights, and signal to
the batteries to direct their fire against certain
positions by means of red Bengal fires.
Before I resume my tale of the actual events of
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