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78 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
this, two companies, on their way to reinforce the
troops in East Panlung, took upon themselves,
without orders, to make a rush at the burning fort,
and they succeeded, during the confusion, in gain-
ing a firm foothold there. After some very heavy
hand-to-hand fighting amongst the burning ruins
and exploding ammunition they drove the Russians
out. This turned the tide of the battle also in
East Panlung. Deprived of the support of the
artillery fire from here, and dead tired after the
long, bitter fighting, the Russians—what was left
of them—retreated behind the Chinese wall, and by
about six o’clock in the afternoon the forts were
in the hands of the Japanese.
There were no more attacks that day on the
North Kikuan fort. The 44th regiment had
suffered so severely on the foregoing day that it
did not attempt to repeat the experiment, but
awaited the result of the fighting around the
Panlung forts. When these had been taken, it
would try to attack North Kikuan from the rear
and then join hands with the 9th Division in their
operations against Wantai. The 12th regiment,
however, made a determined assault on the East
Kikuan fort, but was driven back with consider-
able losses. This finished the operations on
August 22nd.
So soon as the Russians had been driven out
of the Panlung forts, their batteries opened a
heavy fire on them, making them untenable but
for a small force which found shelter in the
bomb-proofs, and at once set to work to entrench
themselves against Russian counter-attacks. The
Japanese succeeded also in getting up a battery
of mountain guns in East Panlung in the evening.
In the course of the night the Russians made
several attempts to recapture the forts, but the
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