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CANCAN 77
see him call his men, pointing to the flag. They
must have heard the appeal, for we saw them stop
and turn again. For the second time they ran up
the hill under a scathing fire. This time nothing
could stop them ;
many fell, but the others pushed
on, cleared the glacis at a run, swarmed over the
breastwork up to the parapet where their flag,
floating over the corpse of their brave officer,
urged them on, and drove back the garrison to
the inner defences of the fort. Hearing the
explosion, and seeing the feat of their comrades
of the 7th, other troops hurried forward to their
assistance. Though the carnage amongst them
during the advance was terrible, many succeeded
in reaching the fort ;
for a short time we could
see them silhouetted on the parapet ;
then they
disappeared into the interior of the fort.
But the Russians did not intend to give in so
easily. They met the attack as gallantly as it
had been made. For six long hours both sides
were engaged in the fiercest struggle at close
quarters, with rifles and bayonets, hand grenades
and machine guns, stones and fists and clubbed
rifles —in amongst the bomb-proofs and the
trenches, sheltered by sand-bags or out in the
open, now playing at hide-and-seek, now engaged
in the most furious hand-to-hand fight. Some-
times the Japanese gained ground and occupied
the major portion of the fort ;
sometimes the
Russians got the upper hand and drove them to
the wall.
During the fight the Japanese suffered greatly
from the artillery fire from West Panlung fort, only
a few hundred yards away. At half-past four in
the afternoon a Japanese shell set fire to some
woodwork in this fort, and soon the whole place
seemed to be in flames. Taking advantage of
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