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CANCAN 79
attacks were not carried out with sufficient force
nor with any great determination, and they all
failed. The Japanese gunners suffered very
severely during these sorties, but their fire proved
of the greatest assistance in beating off the
attacks.
August 23rd was an astonishingly quiet day.
The artillery fire slackened down very consider-
ably, and of infantry fire there was very little to
be heard. The 9th Division drove the Russians
out from the Chinese wall behind the Panhmg
forts, and sent a battalion across to the foot of
Wantai hill, where it entrenched itself in some
dead ground. That was all. We could not
understand it. To us it seemed that just now,
when important positions had been carried and
held and a breach made in the Russians’ lines, it
was the very time to strain every nerve and hurl
every man available through the breach against
the Russians, now discouraged and demoralized
by their reverses. To us it seemed to be the
only chance to bring about the fall of the fortress
by direct assault. But no ;
nothing, practically
nothing, was done. The day was far quieter
than any we had experienced since our arrival at
the front.
We could not understand it ;
only late in the
day did we learn that the front had run short of
ammunition ;
fighting had been harder than ex-
pected, and it proved to be very difficult to bring
up supplies to the fighting lines across the bullet-
swept plains. Thus the Japanese troops got a
well-earned rest which they had not counted on,
but the rest was very dearly bought. As matters
stood at this point, I think it cost them Port
Arthur.
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