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THE TURN OF THE TIDE 267
they ought to have done at once ;
but, as I have
already pointed out, it must be borne in mind that
at the siege of Port Arthur the Japanese were
faced by a practically new problem, with no
precedents to fall back on, and which therefore
had to be solved experimentally. I maintain that
the second general attack was ill-advised and
ought not to have been undertaken ;
but the two
other attacks, in August and in November, were
under the circumstances, justifiable, in spite of
the unsuccessful issue of the experiments.
Already, before the third general attack, the
Japanese had commenced digging a shaft from
the moat under the escarp of North Kikuan fort,
and during the following three weeks a complete
mine-gallery was constructed, with branches
under the whole front rampart. At the end of
each branch a big charge of dynamite was
placed ;
electric wires were connected with the
detonators, and the mine-shafts were then blocked
with hard rammed earth. There were two main
shafts with, in all, seven branched ;
the total
weight of the dynamite charges was a little over
two tons.
On December i8th everything was ready for
the explosion. The Japanese plan was to take
the fort by surprise ;
there would be nothing to
give the garrison warning. At noon, when the
men in the moat and the foremost trenches
generally were relieved, and when therefore the
Russians were accustomed to see an unusual
commotion in the approaches, the attacking forces
were to be drawn up in the caponiers and the last
parallels. There would be no previous bombard-
ment to put the defenders on the alert. Imme-
diately after the explosion the rush would be
made, and the Japanese felt confident that during
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