At 8 p.m., as usual, dinner was served with 1 lb. per head of horse-flesh. The samovars sang, and the men walked freely up and down the hill, some of them bathing in the stream at its foot. All then turned in, except the sentries, who stood with hand grenades ready and kept a sharp look-out for the enemy. If a grenade was heard, every one stood to arms. The men in the trenches were relieved in turn in small detachments.
The engineers, who were with the reserves that came up at about 8 p.m. under Acting Ensign Yermolov, started work by repairing, or I should rather say by rebuilding, the trenches with their sand-bags, and in addition began to cut a communication trench along the rear of the hill. As usual there was but little of the old trenches left, and it was fortunate that I had had a considerable number of bags stored in the regimental depot, ready for such emergencies.
At 12 midnight I made a tour round the left breastwork and other fortifications. The former was completely wrecked, except for its left face, and the inner ditch was filled with dead bodies. Providentially everything was quiet, so I gave orders for them to be carried away. All that remained of the central battery with its flanking pieces were piles of rubbish and torn sand-bags.
The right breastwork had not suffered so badly, and was fully capable of being defended. The Japanese refrained from attacking it, as the fire from Akasaka Yama barred the way. One attempt to attack this part of 203 Metre Hill had cost them more than a thousand men, and their approaches were still far from the top.
The left flank of the lower round trench was quite whole, and the men were perfectly comfortable there. They had built up a thick, solid wall between themselves and the ruined portion of the trench, and had decided to make a small sortie that night.
On the morning of December 4, owing to the ill-success of this sortie, there was a good deal of cross firing and grenade-throwing. The battery near Shui-shih-ying still gave us considerable trouble, and three officers and several men were wounded.
At about 8 a.m. heavy rifle firing and a number of explosions were heard on the left breastwork—an ominous sign.
I went outside and called up the reserve. It was reported to me that the Japanese were attacking, and the commander asked for reinforcements, so, in order to encourage them, I sent up a few men.
To my surprise I heard shouts from the work attacked, and saw our men flying down the hill. They had been driven out and were in full retreat. With the other officers and the reserve I rushed up to meet them, hoping to stop the fugitives, but it was already too late and I was carried off my feet. The men from the breastwork fled down as far as the lower slopes of the hill. The reserve, however, stood fast. I shouted for the commander of the latter, but he was not to be found, and I had to take his place.
It was fortunate that the reserve consisted of one of my own companies. We charged up the hill and drove the Japanese out of the breastwork with our hand grenades, but those of the enemy inflicted heavy loss on us. By my orders the breastwork was then occupied by the reserve.