At eleven o’clock the Japanese attacked Advanced Hill, which was held by one section (the 3rd) of the 3rd Infantry Scout Detachment, consisting of 36 men. Favoured by darkness, the enemy completely surrounded the hill on all sides. The non-commissioned officer in charge, Nazarov, seeing that there was no escape, attacked the enemy, and at this moment a star-rocket burst, and by its light the men on Headquarter Hill saw the Japanese, and at once poured a hail of bullets into them, thus enabling Nazarov to fight his way back to Headquarter Hill.
Having taken Advanced Hill, the Japanese climbed up Headquarter Hill, but were beaten back with heavy losses. Half an hour later they raised the cry of “Banzai!” and again stormed our trenches from the right flank, but in doing so they fell foul of the wire entanglements and were nearly all wiped out.
About 2 a.m. the enemy repeated the attack in great force; but only a few reached the trenches, where they were bayoneted by our men. In this attack the darkness greatly assisted the enemy, as the supply of rockets being exhausted, no more could be sent up.
Towards morning on August 14, covered by fog and rain, the enemy tried to overwhelm our scouts, but without success. In this attack Acting Ensign Zakrejevski was wounded, the sergeant-major of the 1st Detachment killed, and several scouts wounded.
I must mention a very fine piece of work on the part of Corporal Vagin of the 3rd Scout Detachment. Entirely on his own initiative, he occupied with his section a hill that had been left unfortified, and by enfilade fire afforded great relief from pressure on Headquarter Hill and Height 426, whilst at the same time beating back the Japanese attacking his own party.
All the non-commissioned officers acted like true heroes, and one of them, Lance-Corporal Khaidoulin (a Tartar) of the 1st Scout Detachment, seeing that the men of his section had expended all their ammunition during the third attack, jumped up out of the trench and shouted out, “Let us die, lads, for the Czar and our Faith!” and prepared for a bayonet charge. Just at that moment ammunition was brought up, and the Japanese were driven off by rifle fire.
In the morning it was seen that the Japanese had captured Advanced Hill, Kan-ta Shan, and a small hill in front of the 12th Company at Pan-lung Shan, from which they opened rifle fire, but the Baranovski guns on Height 426 drove them under cover.
On account of sickness (dysentery) Lieutenant Choulkov had been sent to hospital, and Acting Ensign Elechevski was sent to take his place.
On the night of August 14 the supply of ammunition began to run short and firing was stopped. Thinking that we had abandoned the trenches, the enemy tried to capture them. He was met at the very edge of the trenches by some volleys which almost annihilated him, only one officer and five men, who had hidden behind some stones, being left. At daybreak Sergeant Zmoushko, noticing that the men behind the stones were not dead, began to watch, and as soon as the officer showed his head, he shot him. Seeing their officer killed, the soldiers ran back, but were all shot down.
The ground in front of the trenches was strewn with the bodies of the Japanese. In the morning (August 15) the men of the 1st Scout Detachment left the trenches in order to clean their rifles, which had become choked from continual firing, and their place was being taken by a company of the 4th Reserve Battalion; at this moment, however, the trenches were swept by such a terrible fire that the new arrivals gave way and began to retreat. The men of the Scout Detachment rushed up towards the trenches, but, being unable to stem the retreat, they themselves retired behind the slopes of the hills lying in rear, and thence (when Headquarter Hill had been occupied by the Japanese) to Division Hill.