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We had suffered many defeats from August 14, and continued to do so until September, the Japanese, thanks to their superiority in artillery, taking hill after hill from us.
Nevertheless, I did not despair, and often consoled General Kondratenko, pointing out to him that the nearer we drew towards our main defensive line, the more effective would become our defence, by reason of the greater facility of communication between the defenders of the various positions.
Anyway, in the centre,[74] where the main Japanese attacks were directed, we successfully defended ourselves, and our successes there raised our spirits considerably.
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There were no sheep left. We had eaten them all. We had lamb occasionally for dinner, cut up into very small portions and served as tit-bits, but we lived mainly on rice soup.
It was always very hard to get hay for the horses, and very soon it would become impossible to buy any, and we should have to indent for it. The Government forage stores had not yet been touched.
We sent Lieutenant Bogdanovitch to Pigeon Bay to get us some fish. He brought back a good many, but all were rockfish, which none of us would have looked at a few months before.
As I have already said, on the capture of 174 Metre Hill, we evacuated Connecting Ridge, which the Japanese immediately occupied and began to fortify. They also constructed a strong line of trenches designed to sweep the rear of Namako Yama.
On August 15, I was placed in command of the forts and batteries in the defensive line from Fort Yi-tzu Shan to Fort Ta-yang-kou North.