Besides the enormous amount of spade work we had to do, we were handicapped by having to furnish a very strong outpost line.
We had no fortifications on 174 Metre Hill capable of resisting a direct attack, and a night attack might always be crowned with success, so that our men did not get much sleep. I very much feared night attacks, and so determined to strengthen our trenches by building redoubts. We had, however, as already stated, but few tools and little time, and there was so much work to be done, that it was absolutely impossible to prepare for every contingency.
The enemy was at close quarters and could attack at any moment. We had thus to watch his every movement, the more so, as we had no definite line of obstacles barring the way to the fortress, and even a slight advantage gained at night might give the enemy an open road into the New Town and, perhaps, even farther. For this reason I felt extremely uneasy.
Throughout the siege a third of the regiment was always on the alert.
This would not have been necessary if we had had a better line of defences and obstacles, or at least twice as many forts as we actually did have. There would have been no moral and physical wastage, and scurvy would not have hampered the defence of Port Arthur.
Although our own primary object was the fortification of 174 Metre Hill, we could not do very much work on the positions during our stay in Port Arthur, being constantly sent to the reserves stationed at Ying-cheng-tzu,[53] or to the right flank, or to the centre near the pass.
We began to work seriously at the fortifications only from the moment of the general retreat into Port Arthur, but even then we were sadly handicapped by the want of tools. It was lucky that the enemy did not worry us much, but turned his attention mainly to the right and centre.
The first shell fell into the town on Sunday, August 7.
On the 8th, the Japanese captured Ta-ku Shan and Hsiao-ku Shan. A number of the assaults were beaten back by the troops holding the hills, who fought day and night several days running. But there is a limit to human strength. On the third night the Japanese captured the hills, finding most of the defenders asleep. I was told this afterwards by men who had taken part in the defence.[54]