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THIRD GENERAL ATTACK 241
the assailants succeeded in breaking through,
and a force of 200 men was sent forward against
the slopes of Wantai hill. They reached the
neck ; but here, as elsewhere, the Russians had a
warm reception awaiting them. From “ H ” fort
and from Wantai supports rushed down upon
them, and a sweeping fire from machine guns
was showered down from two sides. Of the little
party not one returned to tell his comrades what
the country on the other side of the ridge was
like. After this, all further attempts to break
through were abandoned, and the Japanese estab-
lished themselves in trenches but a few yards
away from the Chinese wall at the places where
their attacks had been made, both sides keeping
up a continuous hand-grenade fire.
At North Kikuan fort the attack shaped much
in the same way as at Sungshuh and Erhlung.
The fighting here was also of the fiercest descrip-
tion, chiefly with bayonets and hand grenades.
Five assaults were made over the ramparts. In
the narrow space in the interior of the fort the
lines of fighting men swayed backwards and for-
wards, as one or other party momentarily gained
the upper hand ;
but in the end the result was
always the same. The Russians stood their
ground with the most admirable fortitude, and
fought where they stood till they were cut down ;
supports were kept in readiness in the gorge of
the fort to fill the gaps in the ranks, and in spite
of all their gallantry the Japanese every time were
beaten back, leaving hundreds of men on the field ;
but in the heaps of dead and dying, crammed into
the little space, there was a fair sprinkling of
Russians. With dead bodies of brave men the
dam had been built which stopped the Japanese
avalanche.
R
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