| Bat- talions | Squad- rons and Sotnias | Field- Guns | Mortars | Siege- Guns | Mac- hine- Guns | Sapper Bat- talions | |
| 2nd Army | 120 | 92 | 412 | 24 | 4 | 20 | 3 |
| 3rd Army | 72 | 18 | 294 | 54 | 56 | 12 | 3 |
| 1st Army | 127 | 43 | 360 | 12 | — | 8 | 5 |
| General Reserve | 42 | — | 120 | — | — | 4 | — |
| Total | 36 | 153 | 1,186 | 90[84] | 60 | 44 | 11 |
By the middle of January our numbers were, as regards rank and file, almost up to the authorized war strength, except in the Composite Rifle, 8th and 16th Corps, which had arrived short, so that the total of our forces was about 300,000 rifles. Although the establishment in officers was not fully complete, we now had some 5,600 in the infantry, which gave us on the average 15 per battalion.
The advance began on January 25, as ordered, the 1st Siberians first seizing the village of Huan-lo-to-tzu, and later, after a hot fight lasting all day, the village of Hei-kou-tai;[85] Kossagovski’s column gained possession of Chi-tai-tzu and Ma-ma-kai without much difficulty. San-de-pu was not attacked that day. Of the 14th Division, which was intended for this attack, three regiments were sent on the 22nd to join Mischenko’s force, in order to strike a separate blow at a small Japanese force of all arms, which, according to spies, was in occupation of A-shih-niu. Mischenko moved against this place with his infantry, but found no enemy there, and so the 14th Division was marched forty miles on a fool’s errand, and only arrived at Chang-tan on the morning of the 26th, thoroughly exhausted. The action of the 25th for the village of Hei-kou-tai, which we only seized with great difficulty and after heavy loss, in spite of our overwhelming superiority, indicated that such strongly fortified points as San-de-pu and Lita-jen-tun could not be attacked without proper previous preparation, for we could not afford to waste men. I particularly underlined the necessity for this in my directions—“For the operations of the 2nd Army in capturing the enemy’s fortified line San-de-pu–Lita-jen-tun–Ta-tai,” dated January 15, and also in my instructions with regard to the 2nd Army’s operations against the Lita-jen-tun portion, dated January 16. Notwithstanding this, in the orders for the dispositions of the 2nd Army on January 26, it was to operate on the line from Hou-leng-tai to the Hun—over a distance of ten miles against a fortified position—and to capture the two strongly defended points, San-de-pu and Lita-jen-tun. Grippenberg, moreover, came to no understanding with Kaulbars as to co-operation, and it was only upon a request made by the commander of the 10th Corps that the commander of the 3rd Army arranged to co-operate with his artillery, and so prepare the assault of the 5th Siberians. Being by chance in Hsui-tun just at the time when the 10th Corps was making ready to carry out its allotted task, I was able to avert a dispersed attack (over a stretch of thirteen miles), and to prevent the employment of troops in an unprepared assault on strongly fortified positions. The attack to be made by the left flank of the 2nd Army on the morning of January 26 was countermanded by Grippenberg himself, but the order was delayed in transmission, and if I had not been in Hsui-tun it would have taken place.
The attack of the village of San-de-pu by the 14th Division alone failed, and it could hardly have done otherwise in the absence of any artillery preparation. Neither the ground round it nor the fortifications of the place itself had been studied, and no sketch-plan of it had been made or issued to the troops. The result was that our guns shelled a village called Pei-tai-tzu, north-east of San-de-pu, all day instead of the place itself, which they did not touch, while the 14th Division attacked and captured Pao-tai-tzu (to the west of San-de-pu), and reported to me they had taken San-de-pu. The outer enclosure of San-de-pu village was mistaken by this division for that of a reduit inside the village, and acting upon the assumption that they were not strong enough to seize this reduit, they were ordered back to their former positions, and abandoned Pao-tai-tzu. Meanwhile, having received the report that San-de-pu had been taken, Grippenberg gave orders for the heavy guns and mortars with the 8th Corps to be sent at once to the 10th Corps, in order to prepare the assault of Lita-jen-tun next day. At the same time, as his men, who had had no sleep for three nights, were utterly exhausted, he asked permission to rest his army on the 27th. Accordingly, the 1st Siberians were ordered to halt in the area south-east of Hei-kou-tai; but as we had not yet taken this area, the order led to this corps having to fight a separate action on the 27th for the possession of Su-ma-pu and Piao-tsao. When it became known on the morning of the 27th that San-de-pu had not been taken, Grippenberg was obliged to give up all idea of repeating the attack on the 27th, as he had sent his heavy guns to the 10th Corps. The decision was also necessitated by the fact that the Japanese had sent up strong reinforcements. When Shtakelberg was informed that San-de-pu had not been taken, he did not consider it possible to carry out Grippenberg’s twice repeated order to cease his attack, and late in the evening, after a hot fight, he seized the greater part of Su-ma-pu by a disconnected attack with four regiments. But being counter-attacked at dawn on the 28th by superior numbers both in front and on the left, he was forced to fall back with great loss (6,000 men). By that evening the 1st Siberians were holding a position on the line Tou-pao–Chu-san-ho-tzu, which the Japanese continued to assault with great fury till the early morning. The despatch of troops towards Su-ma-pu in no way met the circumstances: it led to a needless digression from the main objective of the whole operations—i.e., San-de-pu—and generally to a still greater extension of the already too long front occupied by the 2nd Army. In order to divert the enemy’s attention from our right flank by a demonstration, the villages of Hsia-tai-tzu and La-pa-tai were attacked and seized on January 27 by part of the 10th Corps under Tserpitski; but as we were not ready to storm San-de-pu, these places were abandoned.
The cavalry of the 2nd Army, under Mischenko, made a bold dash at the enemy’s rear, and succeeded in killing and capturing a good many; but their success would have been far greater had the Don regiments under Teleshoff not been late in arriving. Mischenko, who was at the head of the advanced sotnias, was severely wounded, and Teleshoff, who succeeded in the command, failed to carry out the task entrusted to him. He neither sent word that the Japanese were receiving reinforcements, nor helped the Siberians when they were fighting for Su-ma-pu.
By evening on the 28th the situation in the 2nd Army was roughly as follows: The positions north of San-de-pu, along a front of eight miles—from the positions occupied by the 3rd Army up to the River Hun—were held by the 10th Corps and 15th Division; sixteen battalions of the former had been brought closer to the river, and behind them was the reserve of the 3rd Army, a brigade of the 17th Corps. The Composite Rifle Corps and 1st Siberians were distributed along a front west of San-de-pu, on the line Chan-chua-tzu–Tou-pao. Kossagovski’s force was at San-chia-tzu. The reserve of the 2nd Army consisted of only one regiment of the 14th Division,[86] and Grippenberg had (26th to 28th) three times asked for reinforcements to be sent him from the general reserve. The front of the 2nd Army was spread over twenty miles. Thus, by the evening of the 28th the greater part of that army was separated from the 3rd Army by San-de-pu village, which was still in the enemy’s hands, and was dispersed over a long line fronting south-east. Whilst so distributed, not only was it difficult to assist it with troops from the 3rd Army in the event of its being attacked, but there was the danger, if the enemy reinforced heavily, of their being in a position to employ San-de-pu as a pivot, force back the Rifle Corps, and break through on to the communications of the 1st Siberians. Meanwhile reports came in which showed that only a portion of the enemy’s available forces were operating against Grippenberg, while the movement of Kuroki’s and Nodzu’s troops to the west showed that the enemy could still throw another six divisions into the fight. They might be moved against the weakened and extended front of the 3rd Army, thrust into the interval between the 3rd Army and the Hun Ho, or used as reinforcements to the troops operating against our positions west of San-de-pu.
About 7 p.m. Kaulbars reported to me that the enemy had at 4 p.m. begun a movement in great strength towards their advanced positions. At the same time this movement became disclosed, and we opened artillery and rifle fire. As the reserve of the 3rd Army had already been given to the 2nd, I was obliged, as a temporary measure, to give Kaulbars the 72nd Division from my reserve. This left me with only thirty battalions of the 16th Corps, which had just arrived. Although the positions held by the Composite Rifle Corps and 1st Siberians had behind them an ice-covered river with steep frozen banks that hindered the crossing of all three arms, and were therefore inconvenient, yet the situation of the 2nd Army—enveloping San-de-pu, as it did—offered us certain advantages if we could only drive back the troops attacking the 1st Siberians and succeed in storming that place on the 29th. When, therefore, the above report came in from Kaulbars, the Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army was asked on the telephone when it was proposed to start the assault on San-de-pu. To this Ruzski replied that it certainly could not take place next day, as it had not been properly prepared by artillery, and that it was impossible then to fix a time for it. On account of the vagueness of this reply, he was instructed to report to Grippenberg the information sent in by Kaulbars, and also the orders in which the 2nd Army was instructed to take up a more concentrated position in the early hours of the 29th, assuming as their first task the defence of the line Ssu-fang-tai—Chang-tan—Ta-man-ta-pu. Grippenberg, who was in a neighbouring apartment with a telephone, did not say a single word to this message,[87] and these orders were carried out. All the enemy’s attacks on the positions Tou-pao–Chu-san-ho-tzu were repulsed by the 1st Siberians before retiring.
Thus ended our first attempt at the offensive, and it cost us 10,000 men. The chief cause of our failure was, of course, our neglect to prepare properly the assault on San-de-pu, which again was a sign that we did not yet sufficiently respect our foe. Though a contempt of the enemy was all through the war evinced by the senior officers when they first arrived at the front, yet after our first actions it was generally, and perhaps unfortunately, replaced by an exaggerated idea of their merits. The absence of proper touch between Grippenberg and the corps under him was also responsible for much, as, owing to it, the transmission of orders and of information was greatly delayed. The whole of the 8th and Composite Rifle Corps, again, did not shine in action. For instance, on the 28th, certain units of the 15th Division, though not at all pressed, began to retire without permission. By doing so they exposed the siege battery they were covering, which was preparing to destroy its guns and blow up its ammunition preparatory to retiring itself.
On January 30 Grippenberg reported himself sick by letter, and by the Tsar’s permission left on February 3 for St. Petersburg. This action of his set a fatal example both to those under him and to the rest of the army, and was most harmful to all discipline. The opinions, also, that he had expressed, to the effect that the campaign was virtually over, and that we should retire to Mukden and Harbin, had a dangerously disturbing effect on our weaker members. It was in the long-run more harmful than any single defeat of a portion of our force would have been.
When the right flank of the 2nd Army fell back, the army held a line from Fu-cha-chuang-tzu to Ssu-fang-tai. The enemy made several unsuccessful attempts to drive us from those of their advanced positions that we had captured, their main efforts being directed towards the recapture of Pei-tai-tzu and Chang-tan-ho-nan. We, on our side, made energetic preparation to continue the advance we had begun so unluckily. Fresh siege batteries were brought up, the approaches to the enemy’s defended posts were carefully reconnoitred, and detailed plans were made. On February 16 we received some drafts, which were used to make good the casualties in the 1st Siberians and the Composite Rifle Corps, both of which had suffered so heavily at Hei-kou-tai.