Having reached a spur of Akasaka Yama, I began to watch the battle. The weather was as bad as it could be, a strong wind was blowing, and it was raining as well. I felt quite confident, knowing that if the enemy had not succeeded in coming up unobserved and taking our men by surprise, he would certainly be beaten back.
At this time our batteries opened fire, at Colonel Irman’s orders, on the valley in front of Namako Yama, and the whole foreground was lit up by our star-rockets. In another half-hour our reserve companies came up, and Colonel Irman also arrived.
Several wounded men who were being carried back from the hill told us that the Japanese had not climbed up any farther, but were firing from below, which meant they had been driven off.
In half an hour the firing ceased, and Major Moskvin reported that the assault had been beaten back with heavy losses to the enemy, who tried to take us by surprise, but was discovered in good time by the standing sentries, whose warnings had given our men time to get to their posts.
We had 4 men killed and 16 wounded.
After this attack we made a communication trench from the road above along the hill to the advanced trenches, because all our casualties had occurred as our men were running to occupy their trenches.
On the night of September 1–2 the Japanese again tried to take Namako Yama by surprise, but were driven off by rifle fire and retreated behind 174 Metre Hill after suffering heavily. We had Lieutenant Afanaisev and 6 sailors wounded.
For the repulse of these two night attacks, Major Moskvin received the thanks of the General Officer Commanding, in General Orders, and he and a number of other officers were recommended for rewards, but they never got them, owing to the list of rewards recommended being lost.
After these attacks Colonel Irman and I proceeded to Namako Yama on a visit of inspection, as the Japanese had evidently chosen it as their point of attack.