I had already commenced a redoubt capable of accommodating one company on the top of Akasaka Yama, which now required finishing, and, in addition, it was necessary to build trenches round the hill for five companies.
Keeping in view the possibility of the enemy breaking through across Extinct Volcano, I fortified the ground between Fort Yi-tzu Shan and Riji Hill[71] and made Division Hill and Namako Yama into two independent commands. We also had to safeguard our communications with Division Hill and Namako Yama which might be exposed to attack. For all this work we wanted tools, material, and men, and we were again short of all three. Luckily, at this difficult time Major Gemmelmann of the Engineers, as well as several non-commissioned officers, was attached to me, so I was able to get some sleep at night. I collected a large store of matériel near the regimental headquarter camp.
After many urgent messages the authorities concerned began to send us wire, bags (for sand), all sorts of iron and steel, and a few tools, and, as before, we procured whatever else was wanted from the stores in the town and from the railway people.
Our regimental horses became quite worn out from hauling heavy materials, such as beams, planks, rails, etc. We had very few carts and wagons for carrying these things, as our baggage wagons were mainly required for bringing up regimental necessaries and stores needed to meet our daily wants.
It is an extraordinary thing how an important fortress like Port Arthur could have been left almost without any vehicles for general service, a want which must be seen and felt to enable one to understand rightly what sufficient transport means in a fortress, and how indispensable it is.
Towards the end of the siege a light railway was laid as far up as my headquarters, but was never worked, probably owing to the want of trucks. I saw the rails, but trucks were conspicuous by their absence. A fortress, like an army, must have its own transport and the horses necessary for it, or, preferably, be provided with good powerful motor vehicles.
I wanted to construct a splinter-proof observation post for myself and Colonel Irman on one of our hills, but again for want of transport we had to remain throughout the siege at an observation station exposed to the enemy’s fire. We always spent the night at the regimental headquarters, where Colonel Irman’s staff (he was in command of the whole of the western front) also stayed. Our quarters were buildings belonging to the Artillery Headquarters Offices on Red Hill, and a large marquee pitched there served as a mess-room, in which quite a number of us sat down to dinner.
We seldom received any official visits from the town, as we were not out of range of the enemy’s bullets and shell. Two bandsmen were killed near the building, and two wounded, as was also my orderly, Private Ravinski.
However, General Nikizhin rode out fairly frequently to sup with us, and we always looked forward with pleasure to his visits. At all times in the best of spirits, he was a clever and entertaining conversationalist, and invariably brought us some piece of interesting news, so that while he was with us we forgot the monotony of our existence. From him we learned how things were going on in the other sections of the fortress, what attacks had been beaten back, and the latest news of Kuropatkin’s Army.
We used to get through an extraordinary amount of tea, of which the officers, both regimental and staff, had a plentiful supply, thank God! Our dinners were, however, becoming somewhat meagre—rice soup and roast horse-flesh, with rice garnished with rancid butter or tallow. Supper was of much the same type. Occasionally when the men brought us up a canteen full of “goltsies” (small, dark fish), which they had caught in the horse-ponds, we had a regular banquet.