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278 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
their lines of communication by constructing saps
from the last parallel.
On receiving the reports of the reconnoitring
parties, the Japanese decided to attack the upper
battery at once, and at four o’clock in the after-
noon a rush was made in full force, the two regi-
ments advancing together. One detachment
worked round to the gorge, the others charged
over the front breastworks, and from all sides the
Japanese swarmed in upon the defenders. They,
however, fought splendidly, disputing every inch
of ground with the greatest obstinacy, fighting at
the gun epaulements, at the barracks, at the
kitchen, now out in the open, in desperate hand-to-
hand encounters, now sheltered behind sandbags
or dodging behind walls and round corners, with
rifles and hand-grenades. Hour after hour passed
by, but the fighting continued with unabated fury,
and the Japanese progress was very slow—they
lost many men.
However, the result was never in doubt. It
was impossible for the Russians to send reinforce-
ments, and the 250 men that were left of the
garrison after the storming of the lower battery
must, of course, in time become exhausted, while
the Japanese had unlimited resources to draw
upon and could pour in fresh troops continually.
Still, it was not until three o’clock in the morning,
after eleven hours of incessant close-range fighting,
that the remainder of the brave garrison gave up
the hopeless struggle and retired, after setting fire
to everything inflammable. The Japanese took
three prisoners; about 150 men escaped; the
remainder died. The Japanese losses amounted
to over a thousand men, killed and wounded.
It had been a splendid fight on both sides, and
especially the defence of the small garrison against
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