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CHAPTER XVII
HELL
(See Plan, Appendix V)
I
N the siege of Port Arthur the fighting that
took place about North Kikuan fort forms
in itself a well-defined chapter, independent
to a great extent of the other operations.
It must be borne in mind that the problems
which the Japanese had to deal with during this
siege were to a great extent absolutely new.
They had no experience, no precedents to fall
back upon ;
they had to pick their way along un-
trodden paths and grapple with problems which
could only be solved experimentally. History can
tell us of many sieges ;
but, perhaps with the
exception of the siege of Sebastopol, there is
none where the conditions bore any great resem-
blance to the conditions of Port Arthur. The
siege of Sebastopol took place nearly half a
century back, and with the immense development
of offensive as well as defensive means since then,
even the lessons of that famous campaign could
be of little value to the Japanese in their present
task.
As I have mentioned, sapping against North
Kikuan fort commenced about the end of August,
while it could only begin in the later part of
September against the other permanent forts on
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