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SECOND GENERAL ATTACK 197
covered way, gave the attacking party such a
warm reception that they soon had to retreat, still
holding on to the captured trenches.
At about 10.40 in the evening the Russians
made a sortie against this “ P ” fort. Swarming
over the walls of the covered way in the dark
night, they rushed into the trenches and engaged
the Japanese in a desperate hand-to-hand combat.
Both sides fought like demons, the Japanese man-
fully standing their ground against vastly superior
forces until nearly every one of them were killed.
For a short half hour the position was again in the
hands of the Russians.
It was then that Major-General Ichinobe, com-
mander of the 6th brigade, placed himself at the
head of one of his battalions, and personally led
his men in a new attack on the hard-contested
position. His example inflamed his troops.
With irresistible force they charged the enemy.
Cries of “ Banzai” rent the air ;
a few rifle-shots
rang out from the Russians, but the Japanese
were in amongst them, and again the well-matched
antagonists were engaged in a savage butchery,
fighting with bayonets and hand grenades and
clubbed rifles, and sometimes even with nails and
teeth. After a most vigorous resistance, the
Russians were again driven back behind the
Chinese wall. The next day it was officially
announced that “ P ” fort would hereafter be
called the “ Ichinobe ” fort.
The Japanese retained this position until the
end, as for months before they had held the cap-
tured Panlung forts, in spite of the many Russian
attempts to drive them out. Of all the brilliant
feats of arms accomplished by the Japanese dur-
ing the siege of Port Arthur, nothing, to my mind,
equals the dogged determination with which they
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