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160 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
nearest part carried in a very short time ;
but the
Russians still put up a good fight. Silhouetted
on the top of the trenches as the combatants were,
we could easily follow the hard-contested hand-
to-hand fight. Through our glasses we could
plainly see every thrust parried, every blow that
struck home—we could see how with bayonets and
swords, stones and clubbed rifles, both sides
strove furiously for the mastery—until the garrison
was overpowered and the hill in the hands of the
Japanese. The fight, from the first move until
the finish, had not lasted more than half an hour.
But the Japanese were not able to remain on the
hill. A heavy artillery fire from Antzeshan and
Itzeshan made the position on the plateau un-
tenable, and they had to retire again to the
trenches below, and not until many weeks later
did the Japanese pioneers succeed in strengthen-
ing the defences sufficiently for the place to be of
any use.
At 203 Metre Hill the fighting was far more
severe. In itself the position is much stronger,
and the defence works which the Russians had
built, though of a semi-permanent character,
were of immense strength. Months later, about
the end of November and the beginning of
December, some of the most tenacious and
fiercest fighting during the siege took place here,
and the strength of the position was submitted to
a test which fully demonstrated the ability of the
Russian engineers responsible for the planning
and building of the defences. The fighting
which took place here from the 19th to the 22nd
of September, though fierce enough at times, was
infinitely tamer than the November-December
encounters, and from a tactical point of view of
no particular interest, so that I shall content
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