CHAPTER VII

BEGINNING THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR

As soon as the Japanese learned of Kuroki’s success at the Yalu, they hurried troops ashore at Takushan and Pitsewo, on the eastern shore of the Liaotung Peninsula north of Port Arthur. This was on May 5. The landing was quite unexpected by the Russians; there was no sufficient force to attempt any resistance, and in three days an army was marching southward to begin the closing-in movement that ended in the fall of Russia’s supposedly impregnable fortress. On May 26, after fighting in and about Kinchow for nine days, Nanshan Hill, on the narrow isthmus joining the Port Arthur Peninsula to the main part of the Liaotung Peninsula, was captured by assault. Every device of modern warfare—the railway, telegraph, telephones, a captive balloon, mine-fields, barbed wire network, iron-roofed trenches, searchlights, illuminating star-shells—was used at Nanshan Hill to increase the natural strength of the fort. The ranges were known and the approach was from but one direction. There had been three months and a half since the war began and three weeks since the landing at Pitsewo. If Russian troops could be driven from such a position, and under such circumstances, by the Japanese, it seemed perfectly certain that no fortifications that Russia could devise could withstand the enemy. One last and unsuccessful attempt was made to cut the Japanese off before it was too late. The Russian army at Tashichao, under General Stakelberg, made a sortie southward and met General Oku’s army on June 14 at Wafengtien. The Russians were completely defeated. The Liaotung Peninsula was then open to the Japanese, and as soon as General Nogi and his army arrived to hold it and to begin to close in on Port Arthur, Oku was free to wheel north, and to co-operate with the armies of Kuroki and Nodzu in the general movement toward Liao-Yang. By the middle of June parallel columns of Japanese were moving northward through the valleys of Manchuria like so many fingers of one giant hand.

Meanwhile Admiral Togo had maintained a strict blockade of the harbor and the Russian fleet had been practically destroyed. Beginning with the destruction of the “Variag” and “Korietz” in February, and including the tragic sinking of the “Petropavlovsk,” and the death of Admiral Makaroff and the painter Verestchagin on April 13, the Japanese successes gradually wore down the Port Arthur fleet until the Russian naval power in the East was no longer a factor in the reckoning. Up until the end of April the Japanese losses were practically nothing at all. Then came the sinking, by submarine mines, of the battleship “Hatsuse,” the third class cruiser “Miyako,” and Torpedo Boat No. 48. The battleship “Yoshino” was sunk in a collision. These losses came too late, however, for the Russians to take advantage of them, and the death of Admiral Makaroff may be said to mark the climax of the naval campaign against Port Arthur. After that the land campaign against the “Gibraltar of the East” began in earnest.

[Illustration:

VIEW OF THE HARBOR ENTRANCE OF PORT ARTHUR FROM THE LAND SIDE, THE RUSSIAN FLEET IN THE OFFING ]

[Illustration:

LOOKING SOUTHWARD ACROSS THE DOCKS AT PORT ARTHUR TO THE HEIGHTS AND ONE OF THE RUSSIAN FORTS ]

[Illustration:

DRY DOCK AT PORT ARTHUR VIEWED FROM THE PUBLIC GARDEN ]

[Illustration:

ENTRANCE TO DRY DOCK AND MACHINE SHOPS AT PORT ARTHUR ]

[Illustration:

CHINESE SAMPANS AT THEIR LANDINGS AT PORT ARTHUR ]

SCENES ALONG THE WATER FRONT AT PORT ARTHUR BEFORE THE DECLARATION OF WAR

[Illustration:

CHINESE SAMPANS USED AS LIGHTERS FOR UNLOADING VESSELS AT PORT ARTHUR ]

[Illustration:

JAPANESE FUGITIVES LEAVING PORT ARTHUR IN CHINESE SAMPANS ]

[Illustration:

RUSSIAN WARSHIPS STEAMING OUT OF PORT ARTHUR ON FEBRUARY 1 ]

[Illustration:

FUGITIVES ARRIVING IN PORT ARTHUR JUST AFTER THE DECLARATION OF WAR ]

NAVAL AND CIVILIAN ACTIVITY IN PORT ARTHUR AT THE OUTBREAK OF WAR

[Illustration:

RUSSIAN WARSHIPS IN THE HARBOR AT PORT ARTHUR JUST BEFORE THE OUTBREAK OF WAR ]

[Illustration:

SAILORS AMUSING THEMSELVES WHILE OFF DUTY WITH BOOKS AND GAMES ]

[Illustration:

GUN DRILL ON A RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP—“LOAD!” ]

[Illustration:

SAILORS GOING THROUGH A DRILL IN LOWERING THE TORPEDO NETTING ]

[Illustration:

GUN DRILL ON A RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP—“FIRE!” ]

GETTING READY FOR THE JAPANESE ON A RUSSIAN WARSHIP AT PORT ARTHUR

[Illustration:

UNARMORED CRUISER “PALLADA,” DISABLED DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF THE WAR ]

[Illustration:

BATTLESHIP “POLTAVA,” SISTER SHIP OF THE “PETROPAVLOVSK” ]

[Illustration:

THE PLUCKY LITTLE “NOVIK,” DISABLED IN THE FIRST FIGHT OF THE WAR ]

[Illustration:

BATTLESHIP “RETVIZAN,” TORPEDOED IN THE FIRST WEEK AND BEACHED ]

RUSSIAN SHIPS AT PORT ARTHUR BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THE JAPANESE

[Illustration:

UNARMORED CRUISER “ASKOLD,” SISTER SHIP OF THE “VARIAG” ]

[Illustration:

RUSSIAN CRUISER “BOYARIN,” SUNK ON FEBRUARY 12 ]

[Illustration:

BATTLESHIP “POBIEDA,” DISABLED BY A MINE ON APRIL 13 ]

[Illustration:

THE ARMORED CRUISER “BAYAN,” ONE OF THE LAST TO YIELD ]

PART OF RUSSIA’S FIGHTING FLEET AT PORT ARTHUR

[Illustration:

THE FLAGSHIP OF THE SQUADRON, THE “MIKASA” ]

[Illustration:

ADMIRAL TOGO ON THE QUARTER-DECK OF THE “MIKASA” ]

[Illustration:

DECK VIEW OF THE “MIKASA” FROM THE FIGHTING TOPS ]

THE MAN WHO BOTTLED UP PORT ARTHUR, AND THE FLAGSHIP OF HIS FLEET

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