Just then I saw the top of the right flank of Namako Yama covered with grey smoke and the men there rushing headlong down the hill. The Japanese were using hand grenades charged with pyroxylin and Melinite, this being the first instance of their use. I immediately sent a report of what was happening. After the men on the right flank (they were the 7th Company of the 28th Regiment) had run, the others from the battery and the enemy appeared simultaneously on the crest. A few minutes later, from the left of the battery behind the crest of the hill, appeared a group of our men, who opened fire on the Japanese and drove them off the top.
Unfortunately, our men did not remain where they were, but also ran back down the hill. Colonel Irman came up just in time to witness the complete evacuation of the position. It all happened in a very few minutes. We immediately sent all the officers and orderlies near us with orders to the retreating companies to stop on Akasaka Yama and occupy the trenches there, and I also moved the whole of my reserve there.
Our artillery was evidently watching the course of the fight on Namako Yama, for, as soon as we had evacuated it, our shells fell like hail on the summit, and the Japanese disappeared like smoke before the wind. This enabled us to occupy Akasaka Yama at our ease, and in the night we fortified ourselves strongly.
I think it would be interesting to describe the action of our 9th Company during the last minutes of the defence of Namako Yama.
When Captain Sirotko arrived, he found the company in a critical position. Acting Ensign Anikin of the 27th Regiment was in command. The trenches were in ruins and enfiladed from two sides by rifle fire, and from 174 Metre Hill by gun fire as well. Piles of dead bodies were heaped up all round, blocking the trenches at various points.
The right flank of the company’s trench was connected with that of the 7th Company of the 28th Regiment, of which the enemy now held possession,[80] and from which was enfiladed the trench of the 9th Company. Lower down, behind the rocks in front of the trench, was another small party of Japanese.
Wishing to find out in what strength the enemy held the 7th Company’s trench, Captain Sirotko called for volunteers to attack them. Twelve men came forward and made a rush, but they were met by a volley from about 100 Japanese, losing five men, whereupon they retired. Having reported this to Major Moskvin, Captain Sirotko received an order that the 7th Company of the 28th Regiment and one company of Marines were to attack and drive the enemy out of the trench.
About 8 a.m. three Japanese batteries of heavy guns, posted in a valley behind 174 Metre Hill, four quick-firing guns from 174 Metre Hill itself, and five or seven heavy guns that came into action on Connecting Ridge, near the Chinese temple, all of them concealed from our batteries, opened fire with high-explosive shell and shrapnel.
By about 2 p.m. only 48 men were left out of the original 155 in the 9th Company; many of them were wounded, and nearly all more or less injured by stones and clods of earth. The trench was quite full of the bodies of the fallen.