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194 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
From our point of observation North Kikuan
fort looked, through the haze, somewhat like a
flat-topped cone on a tray, formed by the glacis.
Into this the big howitzers poured such an inces-
sant fire, that the smoke of the high explosive
shells, which rose up from its interior, made it
look like a volcano in eruption. The flashes of
flame from the bursting shells, the sudden leaps of
whitish smoke from the shrapnels, that looked like
blocks of lava thrown up from the crater, helped
to strengthen the illusion.
At one o’clock sharp, the infantry attacks com-
menced simultaneously against all the positions.
Over the hill-sides and glacis the Japanese swarmed
like black ants. But no sooner did the men
emerge from the trenches than a hail of shrapnel
was poured in amongst them and over the
approaches behind, where the supports were
coming up. And from the breastworks the Rus-
sian infantry blazed at them, killing them by
hundreds and crushing the onslaught before it
had had time to develop.
The Japanese were for a moment dumfounded.
They had felt so sure that the tremendous bom-
bardment, especially the fire from their big
howitzers, would have worked such complete
havoc with the forts that they would have lost
all power of resistance, and now they had to
realize that their calculations were all wrong and
that the defenders were as lively as ever. How it
had happened, they could not for the lives of them
understand, nor did they realize it till two months
later, when at last they got possession of the forts,
and could see for themselves how forts of modern
construction will withstand even such a bombard-
ment as they had been exposed to.
But the Japanese would not give in so easily.
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