Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XX. 203 Metre Hill
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
203 METRE HILL 255
the Japanese days to extricate and carry away the
fearfully intermingled corpses.
But though the machine guns took an impor-
tant part in the fighting, and though rifles and
even bayonets had their fair share in the slaughter,
the battle at 203 Metre Hill was essentially a hand
grenade and a high explosive shell fight, a triumph,
an apotheosis, of dynamite, pyroxyline and melinite.
At close range the men discarded their rifles and
relied solely on their hand grenades, and with very
good reason, it seems to me ;
for the power of
these modern infernal machines is immense, infus-
ing terror and dread in the hearts of the bravest.
I walked over the battlefield a few days after
the final capture of the position and had an
opportunity of seeing and judging for myself.
Through the deep saps, over which an occa-
sional Russian shrapnel still was flying, I walked
the first part of the way ;
but down in the trench
I could see nothing, so I scrambled out and
climbed along the hillside. On the lower slopes
most of the corpses had been carried away, and I
had walked up nearly half-way to the top before I
got warning of what was in store for me.
The first thing that put me on my guard was
an ordinary Japanese soldier’s cap lying on the
ground. I picked it up ;
it felt heavy. I looked
closer at it and let it drop again immediately ;
it
was filled with the scalp and half the brains of the
man who had worn it.
Shortly afterwards I reached a small ditch in
front of the lower wire entanglements, which had
been razed to the ground by the shelling, with the
wire curled up and intertwined in a shapeless heap.
A pile of some fifteen or twenty corpses had been
blown together here. Evidently the men had been
seeking shelter in the shallow ditch for a short
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
