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HELL 209
the wall in the captured chamber, and during the
night they constructed a bomb-proof passage of
timber and sandbags across the moat and dug
a trench leading zigzag up the escarp to the
parapet.
On the morning of the 31st, a force of about
eighty men was sent across and succeeded in
reaching the parapet, where half of the men at
once prepared to entrench themselves, while the
other half kept the Russians at bay till the trench
was completed. This force met a very tragic fate.
The Russians brought a mountain gun into their
caponier gallery and shelled the bomb-proof pas-
sage across the moat to pieces, setting fire to the
timber and the bags, thus cutting off the little
party’s retreat. On the parapet the men had
dynamite bombs fired at them from small mortars,
and were constantly attacked by the Russian
infantry. To recross the moat \vas out of the
question ;
the few who tried were instantly killed
by the Russian sharpshooters, or by the machine
guns down in the caponiers. To bring up
supports was also impossible. There could be
but one end. All perished, the majority being
blown to pieces by hand grenades. But it was
only on the morning of November 3rd that the
last of the little force succumbed, after three long,
long days, and still longer nights of hunger and
cold and fighting, with a most terrible death star-
ing them in the face. What men have had to
endure and suffer in this war passes imagination
and defies description.
On the same day, October 31st, the Japanese
had better luck in another of their undertakings.
Through the opening to the moat a few sappers
were sent provided with large dynamite charges,
and though nearly all were shot down, they suc-
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