MY EXPERIENCESATNAN SHAN AND PORT ARTHURCHAPTER I
MY EXPERIENCES
AT
NAN SHAN AND PORT ARTHUR
Arrival of the 5th Regiment at Chin-chou—Rumours of war—Declaration of war—Restoring the fortifications on the Nan Shan position—Watching for the Japanese—First signs of the enemy—A reconnaissance in force—Fighting to the north of Chin-chou, May 16.
The Staff of the 5th East Siberian Rifles, with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Companies, arrived at Chin-chou on April 1, 1903. The regiment, for the past three years, had been stationed at various points on the Yellow Sea, engaged in guarding from the attacks of the Hunhutzes the railways rebuilt by our railway battalion in conjunction with the 1st East Siberian Sappers, the unit which I commanded during the Boxer campaign.
The regiment began to settle down at Chin-chou and to transfer its baggage there from Novokievsk, after which, the men having first been housed, some large buildings were run up for the accommodation of the horses and transport vehicles, both of which were in a splendid condition, notwithstanding the wear and tear of the campaign just gone through.Our two-wheeled carts were all in good repair; the horses I had bought from the Germans at Tientsin, when they offered for sale a magnificent lot of animals, brought at enormous cost from Austria and America, and, though costing us only about 80 roubles[1]per head, one could not speak too highly of them. I handed over our former small horses to our mounted scout detachment,[2]which, owing to some misunderstanding, was without any. Thus, the best-equipped unit of all our forces in China, we spent the whole of the summer of 1903 at Chin-chou.
Throughout that summer we were worried by the Hunhutzes, and not only were the scouts constantly engaged in encounters with these brigands, but we were also obliged to send out strong detachments, as the police and scouts combined proved insufficient to deal with them. The authorities at home knew very little about all this, since the local commanders refrained from sending in reports about the Hunhutze bands. Seeing that the police could not cope with them, I personally took all measures in my power against them; but when I spoke to the commandant about taking further steps, saying that I could not understand why he did not call in the help of the regular troops, the answer was always the same: “My dear Colonel, the authorities thinkthat we do nothing at all, or else suspect us of pusillanimity; there has already been some unpleasantness about it, and the civil governor has flatly refused to make any report to the Viceroy.” So the people had to pay more and more tribute per head, and the Hunhutzes threatened our military posts as well as those of the Chinese police. In the end we had regular pitched battles with them, and the scouts and various regiments in the Kuan-tung Peninsula, as well as the 5th Regiment, lost a considerable number in killed and wounded.
“What’s their little game?” we asked.
“Ah!” said some; “the Chinese say that there are Japanese among them.”
“But what are the Japanese after?”
“They say they are going to fightus. Our people from Shanghai tell us that the Japanese officers speak to ours about nothing but politics: ‘You,’ they say, ‘must take Persia under your protection; but we will have Korea, which we have tried to obtain for centuries.’”
At the end of the summer we received orders to prepare quarters for all the companies of our regiment (except the 6th, which was at Pi-tzu-wo), and in August they all arrived. From the first moment of the concentration of the regiment it became clear to us that relations with Japan had become strained, and that a rupture might be expected. Soon after we heard it rumoured that the 3rd Battalion was going to join us, and then we heard that they were forming a 7th Rifle Division in Port Arthur. The officers spoke of war, but as, according to those who ought to know, the Japanesecould only put 300,000 men into the field, we all felt quite confident. However, when it became known that General Kashtalinski’s division was going to the Yalu, we did not feel quite the same assurance, since it would be very difficult to defend Port Arthur with only two divisions. French officers, we heard, were greatly surprised that we did not think seriously of war when we really were on the very eve of it. It must be admitted that, while contemplating the peaceful aspect of Port Arthur, we did indeed forget that we were living on the edge of a volcano.
The awakening came on the night of February 8–9, when I was roused up and given a telegram from General Glinski, on opening which I rubbed my eyes as I read:
“The Japanese fleet is fifty miles from the coast and making for Port Arthur. Be on the alert.”
“Well,” I thought to myself, “there is nothing to fear; our fleet will soon make an end of theirs.”
I do not know why, but we always believed in the invulnerability of our fleet, more especially since we heard that the Admiralty had refused to buy from Argentina the two splendid armoured cruisersNisshinandKasuga, saying that we were strong enough without them. (This may be a misconception, but I am speaking of what we heard at the time.)
Having sent for the commander of the 1st Scout Detachment, I told him to proceed to Kerr Bay and the Ta-ku Shan Peninsula, to keep a look-out on the shore. I then lay down, and was just dozing of! when they called me again. Another telegramfrom General Glinski; it only contained three words: “War declared. Glinski.” This did not worry me very much. “Let them come first and destroy our fleet, and then they can land in Southern Korea,” I thought to myself.
However, I sent the detachment, and with it ten mounted scouts to act as orderlies. Early in the morning I went out on to the Nan Shan position, where, as I had expected, all the trenches and batteries were in a ruined condition, and in the winter, when the ground was as hard as rock, it would be extremely difficult to restore the fortifications. Returning from the position, I met an officer coming out of Port Arthur, who told me that three of our battleships had been blown up suddenly by Japanese destroyers.[3]
This news was a great shock to me. A landing was now possible, not only in Southern Korea, but even in our rear, and it was absolutely essential to hurry on with the strengthening of the position. But now we had nothing whatever to work with, and so I had to collect all the tools available in the town, which, thanks to the help of Captain Preegorovski, a very smart and energetic officer, was done remarkably quickly. I told off working parties, who set to work to restore the advanced trenches, but the frozen earth would not yield, and the shovels only served for throwing up the lumps of soil loosened by the picks.
Our first recruits and reservists arrived on February 16,and had all to be thoroughly drilled. According to our mobilization plans all the companies of the regiment, except the 1st,[4]should be at the disposal of the officer commanding, and orders were given accordingly, and the 5th and 6th Companies immediately called in, the latter having all this time been engaged with the Hunhutzes. The town of Chin-chou became so crowded that I quartered about half the companies in barracks behind the Nan Shan position, and had the regimental baggage transferred to Port Arthur, where I had hired a private house for its storage, the authorities having refused to give us Government buildings.
Some mounted scouts were sent out to watch the shore under the command of Major Pavlovski, commandant of the Gandzalinski district, and a section of rifles was also allotted to him under Acting Ensign[5]Shiskin of the reserve, as he had complained that the Hunhutzes had become so daring as to be threatening his quarters. We ourselves watched Kerr Bay and the bays adjoining by establishing posts and a chain of mounted scouts, the practice of hunting up the Hunhutzes being abandoned.
Now began a period of activity such as I had never before experienced in the whole of my service. We fortified the positions, brought up stores, instructed the recruits and reservists, of whom more than half the regiment was now composed, and, lastly, kept a look-out for the enemy, for which latter duty two hundred men were required daily. All thismade the situation of the regiment a very difficult one, the more so, as the enemy was free to effect a landing between Chin-chou and Port Arthur, and cut us off from the fortress. For these reasons I considered our situation not only difficult, but dangerous.
The 3rd Battalion arrived on April 2. They were a fine lot of men. I quartered them in the town, and disposed the old companies in the villages situated in front of the position.
Major[6]Schwartz, an engineer officer, was attached to us to help us with the fortifications, and had brought money with him for the hire of workmen. From this time, too, we began practising manœuvring on the position while yet the enemy gave us a short respite, which we endeavoured to make the most of.
Sixty versts[7]from Port Arthur, on the isthmus joining the southern part of Kuan-tung to the mainland beyond, and occupying half the breadth of the isthmus, is some high ground cut up lengthwise and crossways by a number of deep ravines, which mark the well-known Nan Shan position.
In the last China campaign,[8]there being a danger of Chinese troops moving on Port Arthur from the north, this position was turned into a vast series of fortified batteries by Colonel—now General—Kholodovski,and when the sapper battalion, of which I was in command at that time, came up to the position to complete its fortification, all the commanding points were found to be crowned by batteries, armed with heavy guns. We set to work at the time to build trenches for the infantry, a work already partially done on the right flank, whereupon we built two redoubts in front of the batteries in advanced positions, and one central one near Battery No. 13.
All these fortifications, now almost completely in ruins, had to form part of our present line of defence. I was put in command, and Schwartz and myself set to work to restore the forts. I was told that the 5th Regiment would have to defend the position against the Japanese, and I recognized at once that we had not sufficient men. Having carefully calculated the minimum numbers required to hold these works, I arrived at the conclusion that for a more or less successful defence it was necessary to have at least three regiments. (The peninsula was 3 versts across,[9]with 2 versts of shallow water on either flank, increasing to 8 versts at low tide.)
GUN-PITS.p. 8]
GUN-PITS.p. 8]
GUN-PITS.
p. 8]
In front of the position, and 2 versts from it, stood Chin-chou, a town surrounded by an old Chinese wall, 3½ versts in length, and proof against field-artillery fire. It would be extremely difficult to storm the wall in face of artillery fire from the main position, and as also it gave good cover from the enemy’s rifle and gun fire, it was decided to occupythe town as an advanced post. It did, in fact, cover the front of the position, and it would be a difficult matter to attack the heights beyond without having first taken it. The state of affairs became, however, more complicated, as at least two companies were necessary for the defence of the town, thus leaving us only nine companies for the main position.
We were ordered to defend ourselves to the last drop of blood. When I told General Fock of the difficulty of defending the position with one regiment, which was not even up to full strength, he replied: “Do you know, if I were in your place, I should say to my commanding officer: ‘Leave me only two companies, and I shall know better how to die withthem, than with a whole regiment.’” From this I concluded that, instead of a successful defence, he had some other object in view, the nature of which I could not then fathom.
It was, in fact, impossible to defend this position successfully. The enemy’s fleet could make an appearance on both flanks and at the rear. Our opponent, moreover, had vastly superior numbers, and his batteries eventually spread out in a circle which commanded the crowded mass of our guns on the Nan Shan heights, while the absence of a sufficient number of bomb-proofs and cover for reserves completed the difficulties of the position of the defenders. We built field bakeries, and dug wells on the position, and, as the possibility of a landing in our rear was realized, we were ordered to fortify the rear as well as the front, which is really saying that the position assumed the nature of a fortress.
I had indicated the position lying immediatelyto the south of the Nan Shan position as being an incomparably better one. On it we could have met the enemy, while he was in the act of filing across the isthmus, on a broad front and with a numerous and well-placed artillery, our flanks on this position being protected from any action on the part of the enemy’s fleet. General Kholodovski’s idea, however, prevailed, perhaps because the work needed to carry it out was almost completed (they did not realize that to restore the fortifications and to build new ones was practically one and the same thing). Be this as it may, the constant talk about the Nan Shan position had made it so popular, that for many its very name became a “mascot.” The view and field of fire from it were certainly splendid, and I took good care to see that the defenders should feel that the position could be successfully held, and satisfied myself that they felt confident of their capability to do so.
Continuing incessantly to fortify the position, the 5th Regiment watched the shore 30 versts to the north by mounted and infantry Scout detachments, sometimes employing the regular companies on this service. We received orders every day by wire to be on the alert and to watch for a landing, and I did everything possible to prevent being taken by surprise. Half of the mounted detachment I sent to Pi-tzu-wo, the most likely point for a landing, and all the mounted scouts of the 14th Regiment were sent to the same locality to watch the coast. A section of a company, under an officer, and ten mounted scouts were sent to Godzarlin[10]to watchTerminal Point. In Kerr Bay and Deep Bay was Lieutenant Vaseeliev with the 1st Infantry Scout Detachment, and ten mounted scouts, and on a headland in Sulivan Bay a post of twenty-five sharp-shooters and six mounted scouts, while the shores of Chin-chou Bay were guarded by the men occupying the town. From Godzarlin up to the position I had distributed a flying post of the 2nd half of the Mounted Scouts, ten of whom I kept with me for orderly duties.
At this time the regiment was disposed as follows: in the town of Chin-chou, the 10th Company under Major Goosov, the 3rd Scout Detachment under Captain Koudriavtsev, and a mixed force of sixty men under Lieutenant Golenko, an officer who had distinguished himself against the Hunhutzes. The 3rd Company occupied the village of Lu-chia-tun, in front of the centre of the position, while the 2nd Company was in the village of Ma-chia-tun, in front of the right flank, and the 6th Company in the village of Ssu-chia-tun, behind the left flank, the remainder being quartered behind the centre of the position. Major Schwartz, with about a dozen men, was quartered in some shelters in the centre of the position. All the regimental and officers’ baggage was stored near the position and in Port Arthur. Lieutenant-Colonel Eremeiev, who had voluntarily joined the regiment from the reserve, and whom I had personally known at the Academy and the Engineer College, I appointed commandant of the town.
As soon as the men of the regiment had settled down in their various quarters, work on the position was pushed forward with feverish haste. Everyday thousands of Chinese[11]and soldiers worked at it; they brought up building material, constructed obstacles, dug wells, and the soldiers concurrently underwent musketry and field training; and all this at a time when we expected a landing every moment either in front or in rear. As the regiment might have to withstand a regular siege, we set to work to make splinter-proofs for storing food, supplies, and small-arm ammunition, though the means at our disposal were very limited. We had in hand no more than 60,000 roubles, and so we only made two splinter-proofs, neither of them remarkably long or broad, and began the construction of four wells without, however, much hope of finding water. The cold weather hampered us sadly. The soil was frozen hard, and our shovels and picks, of which we only had a limited supply, kept on breaking. The companies occupying the town, too, worked hard at putting it also into a state of defence. It was proposed to strengthen the existing caponiers and the corners of the town wall, and to build bomb-proofs for the protection of the reserves against splinters.
The enemy was evidently waiting for something, and we felt more secure every day. We improvised an entertainment hall from one of the barrack rooms, decorated it as well as we could, and put a gramophone in it; hence our dinners and suppers went off in right merry style. We used to get a lot of people coming out to see the position, and gladly received them, as we got news from them of whatwas going on in the outside world. Of course, one could not be sure that the information was exactly correct, but, such as it was, it generally emanated from the staff. The majority of our informants held the opinion that we should never see a shot fired, and that the whole action of the war would be limited to sea fighting and the occupation of the southern part of Korea by the Japanese, as the latter could never raise more than 300,000 men, and, when our battleships had been repaired, we should smash up their fleet and they would have to make terms. No one doubted that our fleetwoulddestroy the Japanese navy, because our naval commanders were more active than the Japanese, our sailors infinitely better at gunnery, and, finally, our ships’ armour was very much stronger, as it was “annealed.”[12]Our naval experts told us all this. No attention whatever was paid to the fact that the Japanese had five first-class battleships while we had only two,[13]and that torpedo craft, of which the Japanese possessed a hundred, had not yet proved their full power of independent action. Our informants did not say how they had come by their knowledge, but they always laid particular stress on the bravery of our sailors.
“Never mind if you do see drunken sailors on shore, nor how rudely officers may answer to anyremark addressed to them—on shore; on their ships they cultivate an iron discipline.”
If any one stated that the Japanese fleet was considerably stronger than ours, our tellers of fairy tales would contemptuously answer, especially if the individual was a naval man: “A lot you know! Why do you think the Government refused to buy theNisshinandKasugafrom Argentina? Because we are strong enough without them; otherwise they would not have refused such a purchase.” And we listeners, satisfied with such arguments, were quickly laughing and joking and telling stories. I always sat at the head of the table, and it was a pleasure to me to listen to the stories and watch the happy faces of those round me, many of whom felt no forebodings then of the destiny awaiting them.
While fortifying the position we made some experiments on the effect of rifle fire directed against targets sheltered by loopholed parapets, as compared with that against targets in the open. It always happened that at a range of 200 yards the effect was considerably greater against loopholed targets, while at longer ranges the latter suffered most. Since, in addition, we ran the risk of hostile shrapnel, we also experimented with this type of fire, and found that 20 rounds at a range of 1 verst put out of action half the defenders of the earth-work, when they stood in the open on the glacis. It was therefore decided to make loopholes everywhere and to provide the detachments with plank overhead cover, which, with General Fock’s approval, was carried out on the succeeding days.
Senior officers frequently visited the position.General Kondratenko came out before we started working, and said that we must occupy the town as strongly as possible. Generals Fock and Nadyein were frequently with us, sometimes staying two or three days. General Fock talked a great deal with the officers, giving his opinion on the way of defending the position and ground in front of it. He thought of meeting the enemy in front of the position, near the villages lying to the north of Mount Sampson, and we often went out reconnoitring with him, and thoroughly studied the ground, but though he insisted on the necessity of fortifying it, we had no means of doing so. The general, it seems, had not told off the regiments of his own division to any work. Only the 5th Regiment continued working, and the nearer the time of our meeting with the enemy approached, the further advanced and stronger became our field works. Judging from what I heard from superior officers, it wasnotintended to defend the Nan Shan position stubbornly; hence they would not let us have enough money for its fortification, and they sent up no artillery. But the closer our meeting with the enemy impended, the more I became convinced that the positionwouldbe stubbornly defended.
From certain remarks of General Fock it seemed as if it was not necessary to make a stubborn defence. The general, for instance, once said to me: “You know that less heroism is required to defend this position than to retreat from it. Those who do not understand the true position of affairs are beginning to call General Fock a traitor!”
Indeed, it was impossible not to fear a landing of the Japanese in rear of the position simultaneouslywith a landing at Pi-tzu-wo, and this was so obvious that the position was ordered to be fortified in rear. The regiment was in a bad way, and I felt downhearted at not being able to carry out many of General Fock’s suggestions as to the fortification of the position and the means of defending it.
Attaching great importance to the grazing effect of shell, General Fock insisted that the defensive line should be continued right down to the foot of the Nan Shan Hills. Without making a single exception, without taking into consideration that the slopes of the hills were long and gentle, and served as a most difficult obstacle to an attacker, and also completely losing sight of the fact that by carrying our trenches down to the foot of the hills we exposed our companies to fire from the opposite hills, and thus assisted the attackers, he stuck to his point and insisted on our extending our line to a total frontage of 8 versts. In speaking of them, he called our top tier of trenches “swallows’ nests,” and always added: “You, of course, are glad to put your regiment right up under the sky!” I at once pointed out to the general that he had completely ignored the fact that the heights formed a natural and difficult obstacle to pass, that every inequality in the ground below (of which there were many) gave the enemy cover from our fire, and that shot bursting on graze would not have any effect; that we had only one regiment with which to defend the position, and that we ought to make our dispositions with due regard to this unpleasant circumstance. Upon this, General Fock lost his temper, exclaiming that only traitors placed their men under the artilleryfire of the enemy, and that the intervals between men in trenches should be 20 paces, or certainly not less than 10 paces, and then there would be no swallows’ nests for them to occupy. I answered that if we should place our unseasoned troops, the majority of whom were recruits and reservists, at 20-paces interval, each one would feel himself isolated and thrown out before an advancing foe without any support, and it might prove that in the moment of need he would be without the moral support of his commander. At the same time I did not lose the opportunity of saying that we had but eleven companies in the regiment, and that if they were spread out over a frontage of 8 versts I should have a very weak line of defence, liable to be broken through at the slightest pressure, and if I were to keep only one company in reserve, which was absolutely indispensable, I should then have a large gap in the line absolutely unoccupied; was a stubborn defence possible under these circumstances? Of course, I understood that General Fock, by throwing his firing line well forward, wished to lessen their losses from the enemy’s rifle and shrapnel fire. Granted, this was important, and was quite feasible at the beginning of the battle. If I had had only a few reserves with which to strengthen threatened points, I should have had nothing to urge against the 20-paces interval even. But there were no reserves told off for the 5th Regiment, although General Nadyein told me that I should be supported, and that the 15th Regiment would be posted near Ta-fang-shen[14]; but whenI asked him, “Then, when they are needed, I can use them?” he said: “You want to command a whole division then, do you?” On the whole, therefore, the plan of action at Nan Shan was not very plain to me. One thing was at length clear—I had it from General Kondratenko—that we must defend the position to our last drop of blood, and to this end I prepared both officers and men. We began to make field kitchens in the trenches; we brought up provisions to the position and put them in bomb-proofs, cleared the ground for bivouacking in places covered from the enemy’s fire, and built shelters for the men in the trenches themselves and in the fortifications.
The enemy made no sign, the weather was splendid, and we peacefully continued our work of constructing cover from shrapnel fire and of preparing obstacles.
From the end of February the enemy’s ships constantly appeared in Deep and Kerr Bays; luckily we had already set up a telephone there and connected it with the Naval Observing Station, of which the gallant and enterprising Naval Lieutenant Ditchmann held charge. There was a certain amount of firing from the Japanese ships and an attempt to land from one of their gunboats, but our men drove them off. In view of this, the scouts under Lieutenant Kragelski were reinforced by the addition of some mounted scouts under Lieutenant Sietchko, and on March 7 Major Stempnevski (jun.), with the 7th Company, was sent to Kerr Bay. Two mountain guns, under Lieutenant Naoomov, were sent with the 7th Company. This detachment was formed from the 5th Regiment; the horses were taken fromthe transport, the guns we had brought with us from China, and the drivers were our own men, but the officers and gun detachments were sent out from Port Arthur.
General Nadyein wished to acquaint himself personally with the position of affairs in the two bays, and on March 23 I accompanied him to Kerr Bay. While still some way off, we saw three large Japanese ships and five destroyers. On arriving we found the 7th Company and our two guns on the position. They were so disposed as to be able to sweep the entrance to Kerr Bay and to oppose the enemy’s advance if he effected a landing on the end of the Ta-ku Shan Peninsula, where we had two weak advanced posts. The Japanese shells pitched as far up as the ravine behind which the company had taken cover, and the Japanese gunners fired even on single individuals if they exposed themselves for a moment.
We were told that our artillery (two small 32-mm. guns forming the section under the command of Naoomov) had done some excellent practice on the enemy’s destroyers, which had consequently retreated from the bay. General Nadyein came to the conclusion that the enemy intended to land in the bay, and gave me some orders in case this should prove to be the case. It was 12 versts from the bay to the position, and 24 to the end of the Ta-ku Shan Peninsula. In the event of a landing, I was to support the 7th Company and the scout detachments with a battalion. If, however, they had wished to force a landing in considerable strength, the whole of the 5th Regiment would not have beenable to prevent it. To oppose a landing is a very difficult business, and here the rugged coast added considerably to the difficulties of the defender. The bays cut right into the coast-line, and the hills made intercommunication exceedingly difficult. Having enticed the defenders to some point off the shore by a small feint landing, or by threatening a landing in force, the attacker could, in a quarter of an hour, make a sudden rush from another point, where he could then land without any opposition on the part of the regiment defending the shore. For this reason we did not hope to prevent a landing, but thought that the defence of the position would considerably delay the enemy’s advance on Port Arthur.
More than all I feared a landing in Dalny Bay, which was eminently suited for such an enterprise. Such a landing would divide the strength of the garrison, and would free the enemy from the necessity of an attack on the Nan Shan position. Under cover of the great guns of the fleet a landing was possible at all places where the depth of water was sufficient for the large ships to come in close enough for effective gun fire.
Having inspected the bay and the detachment, we, accompanied by shots from large naval guns, returned to the position untouched. On the following day the 7th Company and scout detachments beat back a small attempt at a landing, for which the officers were recommended for high orders, which, however, they never received. Lieutenant Ditchmann sank one of the enemy’s ships; I myself went to Kerr Bay and saw two masts projecting from the sea.
About this time,i.e.March 24, the Nan Shan position was armed with artillery, and we awaited the enemy with light hearts, thinking that our artillery, consisting of 56-mm. and 6-in. short guns, were superior to the enemy’s field pieces. When, however, we continued to complain that one regiment was insufficient for defending the whole position, our commanders reassured us by saying that the enemy would not attack the position from all sides at once, but would choose one special point for the assault. I did not ask for explanations, as this view appeared to be sound enough. About April 2 General Smirnov came out, and, in a fearful rain-storm, inspected the whole position; he seemed surprised that the position was fortified to the south as well. I explained to him that we anticipated an attack from the rear, as the enemy could land behind Dalny. Having told me that I must construct a large redoubt behind the position, in order to cover a retreat, the general went to Dalny.
On the night of May 4 one of our scouts came up with a report from Major Pavlovski that a Japanese squadron had appeared north of Terminal Point,[15]and was landing an army. On the morning of the 5th, it was reported that a Japanese fleet of thirty-nine transports,[16]covered by three large warships, one of which flew the Admiral’s flag, was landing troops near the mouth of the Ta-scha River, and in a bay to the north; about a battalion was said to have already landed. We immediately reportedthis to higher authority, whereupon the regiment occupied its positions and did not leave them day or night.
Captain Andreievski was ordered to watch the movements of the enemy closely, and from this time forth to the end of the siege our mounted corps were in touch with the Japanese. A large force, with cavalry and guns, had been disembarked, and soon after we received a telegram to the effect that a landing had also taken place near Pi-tzu-wo.
On the night of May 5 three wounded men of the Mounted Scout Detachment, two of the 14th Regiment, and one of ours, were brought in. The enemy had sent out his magnificently mounted cavalry from the eastern to the western shore towards the railway. It was said that a battalion, to which had been added a mounted scout detachment, with which we never obtained touch, had detrained at Shih-san-li-tai station, having come from General Kuropatkin’s army.
General Fock decided to make a reconnaissance in force, as nobody knew the exact strength of the troops which had landed. The enemy’s cavalry, in very considerable numbers, strengthened by infantry and Hunhutzes,[17]completely screened from us the landing points and the early movements of the Japanese. It was reported that they were moving towards Shih-san-li-tai, and that their landing place had been strongly fortified.
Towards evening on May 8 all the regimentsof the division, except the 15th which was with Stessel in Port Arthur, and I with my two battalions, moved out along the road leading towards the place of the landing, and all had to pass the night in positions detailed to them along that road. Having reached their allotted destinations, the regiments received further orders to continue their night march, the object of which was, apparently, to sweep the stretch of country to the south-east of Shih-san-li-tai station (this operation was termed “Manœuvre” in the order). The enemy, in unknown strength, was somewhere between Chang-chia-tun and Shih-san-li-tai. Up to the time our regiments had occupied their positions, our scouts had reported nothing trustworthy about the enemy, and I expected to meet them every minute. The 5th Regiment, like all the others probably, was ordered: “At 1 a.m. to move from its bivouacs and be at dawn at height No. so-and-so.” I did not know what to do; all our maps had the names of the villages defaced, the contours were scarcely marked, none of the heights of the various hills were given, and how to find, at night, a certain unknown height No. so-and-so, which might be a good 10 versts from where we were, was too much for me. I must add, too, that we had no guides with us; no amount of money could buy them. So I repaired to General Fock with my doubts. The staff had already settled down to sleep, and fatigue and the certainty of the forthcoming battle had made them all very irritable. Be it said, however, to the honour of the staff, they realized fully the difficulties of the night march, and an order was sent out immediately,postponing the time of the advance until 3 a.m., when they knew that the dawn would just begin to break, forgetting, however, that the dawn comes very quickly, and that it is quite dark till just before the sun actually rises. It was decided that the chief of the staff would himself guide the leading column. Returning to my staff, I gave the necessary orders, and tried to get some sleep, but I could not, as one alarming thought followed upon another. Should we succeed in reaching height No. so-and-so? What if the enemy suddenly fell upon our rear from Chang-chia-tun, or our flank from Shih-san-li-tai, or the surrounding country (all was quite possible)? It was doubtful if we could make good our retreat to our positions at Nan Shan, the more so, as the road from Chang-chia-tun to Chin-chou had been left absolutely unprotected by us. These thoughts were justifiable in view of the fact that the enemy had landed from forty transports north of Terminal Point, under our very noses, and, supposing there was a battalion in each, that meant forty battalions to our eleven or twelve.
At 2 a.m. I got up. Every one was sound asleep. Reaching the men’s bivouacs, I saw them served out with a pound of meat and a large quantity of bread; they had no tea, as orders had been given that fires were not to be lighted, and from this it was clear that General Fock expected a brush with the enemy. About 3 a.m. the battalions stood to arms, but, as it happened, there was some delay, and the chief of the staff did not turn up until 5 o’clock, when we at last made a start.
LIEUT.-COLONEL BIELOZOR, KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF NAN SHAN.[p. 25
LIEUT.-COLONEL BIELOZOR, KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF NAN SHAN.[p. 25
LIEUT.-COLONEL BIELOZOR, KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF NAN SHAN.
[p. 25
I was put in command of a detachment consisting of the two battalions of the 5th Regiment and a battery under Lieutenant-Colonel Romanovski. We started off well enough, but the trouble was that the horse of the chief of the staff was a particularly good one, and the column fell considerably behind him; the country was very intersected and covered by a regular network of roads, and very bad ones at that. The chief of the staff, leading the way with his map, forgot to leave guides at the cross-roads, the result being that the column stopped when it came to a cross-road, not knowing which direction to take. We lost a lot of time owing to these halts, but we nevertheless preserved the right direction. (I do not mention the order of march, as that was as usual: skirmishers, advanced guard with mounted scouts, and main body.)
To the north and north-west was our screen of scouts, and as they constantly showed themselves on the skyline we kept wondering: “Are not these the enemy’s scouts?” Two hours had already passed since we started, and we had gone down into a wide valley, when Lieutenant-Colonel Bielozor, commanding the 2nd Battalion, came up to me and drew my attention to the peculiar movements of our artillery. Instead of following us, it had moved off to a height lying on the left flank of our line of march; behind it was a chain of skirmishers from the rear of our column, and behind this line compact companies. Not understanding its doings, I galloped up to the battery, and in the midst of the moving columns, unaccompanied by his staff, I saw General Fock. I had hardly got up to him, when he shouted to me:“What kind of a company commander have you got? See how he lets that battery get in front of him; he is a perfect fool! Such officers are a curse to us!” I answered that I would overtake the company at once, but I wished to know what was happening, as the battery under my command was going off somewhere, and I had not been informed of it. “That is its right position,” answered the general, pointing to the hill the artillery were making for. “Then we are going to stop there?” “No,” replied General Fock; “we are going on farther under cover of this battery.”
I then saw that, far ahead of the battery, our dense columns were advancing, apparently attacking some one. The regiment advancing on the left of my column had sent out a line of skirmishers to the flank on one side of our advance, and I learnt that they had noticed a hostile column in a hollow on our left flank. It turned out that this was a company of that regiment which had advanced on Shih-san-li-tai from the south, and occupied the position covering Chin-chou from the Shih-san-li-tai side.
“Form a reserve for the attackers, and with one company occupy the hill towards which the head of your column is moving,” ordered General Fock. I galloped off to comply with this order.
This advance went on for an hour. We occupied a succession of positions, but it was very noticeable that our men did not take full advantage of the ground, but rather tried not to lose touch with each other. It was all right when the officers were actually keeping them together, but what would happen when they were not there to do so? Our men arenot accustomed to act on their own initiative, and a long skirmishing line does not permit of the officers directing their men by voice and example. It was lucky that we were the defenders and not the attackers!
While occupied with these thoughts, I heard the “assembly” sounded by our buglers; our men remained where they were, but the commanders hurried off to the general, who had called them by this signal. The enemy had not been encountered; he was at Chang-chia-tun, or perhaps to the north of Shih-san-li-tai. The operation had been thought out in great detail by the general. For me it was remarkable in that we had manœuvred under the enemy’s very nose, while contemptuously leaving him also in the rear. After a short halt we returned to the position with the men singing loudly.[18]
After this expedition we received an order which brought home to me the exactness with which General Fock gauged the situation. His directions were clear and fully conformed to the real state of affairs. Here are some characteristic paragraphs of the order: “God save us from those commanders who wait for orders in the heat of battle: they won’t get any given them, so let them get that idea out of their heads.” Or: “I ask all company and battalion commanders, as soon as they meet the enemy, to raise their heads, open their eyes, and keep their ears shut. Believe me, your eyes are everything: your ears won’t help you much, though, unfortunately, this is not a generally accepted idea. Even an oldcaptain of twenty-two years’ service will, during manœuvres, begin to prick up his ears like a hare so as to catch some order from his commander; but his commander is dead, or is himself engaged with something else.” These golden rules are worthy of a place in every book on tactics, and in all regulations on the general direction of an action.
Immediately after our return our scouts brought us news that the enemy was near Shih-san-li-tai station in small numbers, and massed on the shores of the bay, a little to the south of Chang-chia-tun. This was about May 11, and from this time onward our scouts had daily skirmishes with the enemy.
General Fock remained true to his decision to meet the enemy in front of the Nan Shan position. We only roughly knew the enemy’s strength, so he decided to carry out another reconnaissance in force, and again moved his forces forward to the villages of Chang-chia-tun and Shih-san-li-tai, and thus blocked the line of the enemy’s advance southward along the Pu-lan-tien and Nan Shan road. All the regiments of the 4th Rifle Division, except the 15th, were employed; our eight companies were in the advanced guard; the 3rd and 4th at Shih-san-li-tai, and the 6th and 8th, and the 3rd Scout Detachment at Chang-chia-tun, our 3rd Battalion being placed in the interval between these two detachments. The positions to be occupied by us were well studied beforehand. The companies moved out and took up their positions. On the night of May 15, and the morning of the 16th, other troops with guns moved off, two batteries were placed near the railway bridge on the road to Pi-tzu-wo,and one (Romanovski’s) with the regimental half-battery under Second-Lieutenant Sadykov on the hills above Shih-san-li-tai. After our battalions had occupied their positions an order came from General Fock that our 3rd Battalion, under the command of Colonel Dounin, was to return to the position. In order not to give the enemy a chance of working round behind us, I was ordered to move the 7th Company and the scout detachment with Lieutenant Naoomov’s two guns through the space between the shore of Kerr Bay and Mount Sampson to the old Chinese fortifications, and to form half the 9th Company as a reserve to the 7th, but I myself was left on the position with three companies.
At daybreak on May 16 I went to Battery No. 13,[19]and had an excellent view of the engagement[20]and the movements of our troops. Our companies and guns were already in position on the left flank. The other regiments were moving round towards the foot of Mount Sampson in a south-westerly direction, and the head of the column had just reached the hill, when heavy rifle fire broke out, and Lieutenant-Colonel Romanovski’s and the bullock battery on the left began to speak. In five minutes the fire of these batteries had become awful, and thick smoke completely hid them from my view (this smoke was caused by bursting Japanese shells). After half an hour, when the tail of our main column hadpassed Mount Sampson, the batteries on the right flank opened fire. Firing continued for an hour from both flanks, and we followed the course of the fight most intently. I was very much afraid that the enemy would try to get round our rear, but the 7th Company was silent, and its commander reported that no movement was noticeable in his front. The fire on the left flank began to slacken, and carts and stretchers were seen moving from that direction. Half an hour later I noticed Romanovski’s battery on the road from Shih-san-li-tai, followed by our bullock battery, both moving towards us at a walk. An orderly from the left flank came up and reported that we were retreating, but he had not seen the Japanese infantry, having only observed that the Japanese had swept our battery with shells, thereby silencing it and compelling it to retreat behind the hill. At the same moment that the batteries on the left flank moved, I saw that the reserves had occupied a shoulder of Mount Sampson facing the village of Shih-san-li-tai. Dense lines of skirmishers quietly lay on the crest of this ridge, allowing the guns, and subsequently the skirmishers of our left flank, to pass through them. From this I concluded that the enemy was pressing our right and that General Fock thought that we could not hold our ground, and had, therefore, strengthened his left flank, which had, so far, not been assailed by the Japanese. After another hour had passed, our retreating lines came into view from behind Mount Sampson, and the guns near the railway bridge opened a terrific fire. The rifle and gun fire behind Mount Sampson continued, now weaker, nowstronger, till at last the lines of reserves, passing through the left flank, quickly collected and began to retreat on our position. I expected to see the Japanese in pursuit, but none appeared. At last the batteries on the right flank retired and our companies followed in their wake, but still the Japanese did not pursue. It was now that I saw a picture of a truly wonderful retreat, in which our men marched in column as at manœuvres. The left flank had already reached our position, when General Nadyein came in wounded in the hand, and Lieutenant-Colonel Romanovski with a wound in the leg. The situation naturally gave rise to a good deal of questioning and surmise. It appears that Second-Lieutenant Sadykov, who commanded our bullock battery, had himself gone to the assistance of Lieutenant-Colonel Romanovski and commanded his half-battery to the end of the engagement.