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OCTOBER 173
later, for other reasons, came to do, though the
sapping works against this position continued, he
gave up for the nonce the idea of any advance in
this direction, and reverted to his original plan of
making the eastern section his principal point of
attack.
Two considerations contributed to strengthen
his resolution.
Just at this time the first six of the large 28 cm.
(ii’3 in.) howitzers arrived, and he knew that
twelve more were on the way. Never before had
guns of such size or anything approaching it been
used in siege operations against land forts, and it
seemed to him most unlikely that the engineers
who had constructed the fortifications of Port
Arthur would have taken into consideration the
possibility of attack by such fearful machines of
destruction. Their calculation of the strength
necessary for the bomb-proofs, caponiers, breast-
works, &c., would have been based on too low
estimates, and the forts, accordingly, would not
be of sufficient strength to withstand a heavy
bombardment by his new monster guns. These
howitzers were very powerful, and could throw
shells weighing nearly 500 lbs. up to 9,000 yards.
The shells were filled with 66 lbs. of melinite, and
the effect of these huge masses of steel and the
explosion of these large violent charges would, he
felt sure, be most disastrous to the inner defences
and to the garrison of the forts, coming, as they
would do, thundering down from the sky right into
the interior of the forts. He would pour them in
in such quantities and so incessantly that, when
the right moment arrived and the saps had been
carried up to the foot of the forts, it would be an
easy matter for the infantry to make the last rush
and drive the demoralized defenders out of the
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