For those incalculable factors which so often defeat the best laid schemes of strategy had come into play, and had seriously affected the success of the great move which Kuroki was endeavoring to carry out on the Japanese right. In this case they proved to be the weather, which had swollen the Taitse River into a flood, and a sudden display of great tactical ability by Kuropatkin, which his previous failures in the sphere of strategy had led no one to expect. Upon Kuroki, of course, as holding the most advanced position on the Japanese right, it depended to envelope the left flank of the Russians and cut off their retreat to the north. But, unfortunately for the success of Oyama's strategy, the river Taitse, which runs from east to west just north of Liao-yang, and which had to be crossed by the Japanese, was so flooded that a day or two elapsed before it could be forded, and it was not till the 31st that Kuroki's forces were able to take up a position on the opposite bank. It was hoped, however, that a rapid march to the northwest would place the commander of the First Army astride of the railway at Yentai, and that he would thus be able to cut off Kuropatkin's retreat and enclose him in another Sedan within a ring of steel. But the delay proved fatal, for it gave Kuropatkin time to rescue his army from the perilous position in which it was placed. With a skill which must always extort the admiration of military critics he withdrew the greater part of his forces across the river in the most perfect order, unknown to the Japanese, and massed them on his left flank. The consequence was that instead of finding a division, or at the most two divisions, opposed to him, Kuroki was faced by the greater part of the Russian Army, established in strong positions on a range of hills between himself and the railway line. It was a masterly piece of generalship on the part of the Russian Commander-in-Chief, and it saved the situation. Indeed, at one point it threatened Kuroki with destruction, for he was almost cut off from support, and for twenty-four hours both officers and men were without either drink or food except small rations of dried rice. But the extraordinary gallantry of the sons of Japan rose superior even to these conditions. Again and again they advanced to the attack against powerful positions held by superior numbers, and the salient point in the Russian defence, the hill of Haiyentai, was heaped with the dead of the heroic combatants. Despite every effort, however, Kuroki could not pierce the enemy's line, and it was not till a fine forced march by a division detached from General Nodzu's army arrived to reinforce him that he was able to reach the railway after four days of tremendous combat. But by that time it was too late. The skilful dispositions made by the Russian General had pulled the bulk of his force out of the trap, and they were in full retreat upon Mukden. It would be difficult to describe the horrors of that retreat, but the Japanese were too exhausted to make as effective a pursuit as they would otherwise have done, and the Russians managed to get away without losing a single piece of artillery. The losses in this tremendous battle, or rather series of battles, were enormous. The Japanese official account places their casualties at 17,539, but, if we are to believe the correspondents, that is an understatement. The exact Russian losses, including those incurred during the retreat, are placed by some authorities at 25,000, by others as high as 35,000. Unfortunately for the Japanese, all this costly expenditure of life was indecisive in its results, and left the main object of their strategy unfulfilled. Kuropatkin had been defeated, indeed, but he had not been routed, and it was apparent that the fighting would have to be resumed once more in the neighborhood of Mukden.
CHAPTER X.
Investment of Port Arthur—Admiral Witoft's Sortie—Tremendous Naval Battle—Harbors of Refuge—International Complications—Insignificant Japanese Losses—The Last Raid from Vladivostock—The Port Arthur Garrison—Fury Unparalleled in History—Kuroki Improves his Reputation—The Grim Reality of War.
Closer Investment of Port Arthur
While the victorious armies of Oku, Kuroki, and Nodzu were pressing northward towards Liao-yang, driving before them the only force from which the beleaguered garrison of Port Arthur could look for relief, the siege of Russia's "impregnable fortress" proceeded with unabated determination and constantly increasing vigor. It was on June 26th that the general advance on Port Arthur began; and from that date the lines of investment were steadily drawn closer and closer. Siege trains were landed at Dalny as well as large reinforcements, but for nearly a month complete silence as to the progress of events was maintained at Tokio. From time to time sensational and contradictory reports of desperate fighting were received from Chifu, where Chinese refugees landed in a constant stream; and authentic messages from General Stoessel, the heroic commander of the fortress's garrison, reached the outer world at intervals through the medium of a wireless telegraphy installation at the Russian Consulate in Chifu. Naturally, these messages were of a reassuring character, and generally recorded some repulse of the Japanese army of investment; but though no word of contradiction was uttered at Tokio, the world was hardly inclined to accept the Russian stories at their face value. When, for example, in a triumphant message, General Stoessel reported that a grand assault on the Russian defences had taken place on July 26th, 27th, and 28th, and had been repulsed at all points, with great slaughter, cautious observers of events waited for confirmation of the news; although the Czar himself hastened to dispatch to his gallant representative in Port Arthur a telegram of warm congratulation and praise. Hesitation was justified by the event; for two days after their alleged decisive repulse they captured the dominant position of Wolf Hill, and thereby made the first important breach in the defences of Port Arthur. Wolf Hill is an eminence half a mile south of the village of Suei-ze-ying, which is some three and a half miles along the railway line running due north from Port Arthur. The importance of the captured position for the Japanese was that it enabled siege guns to command, within easily effective range, the anchorage of the Russian squadron on the inside of the Tiger's Tail. This meant, of course, either that the fleet must go to sea and fight, or must endure impotently the hammering of the 12in. shells which soon began to drop from the batteries on Wolf's Hill. Within a week of the capture of the position, the Japanese had mounted their siege guns; and after a bombardment of two days, the Russian decision was taken to attempt another sortie. The last sortie, it will be remembered, took place on June 23rd, and ended in the inglorious return of the whole fleet; as the Russian Admiral, in spite of the advantage which, as we now know, he possessed over his enemy in battle strength, did not dare to give battle. This decision which let slip one of the best opportunities that the Russian Pacific Squadron ever had of favorably modifying the naval situation in the Far East, was ill-received at St. Petersburg, where carefully planned dispositions were thus brought to nought; and as soon as the contemplation of another sortie became immediately necessary, the strictest injunctions were sent to Admiral Witoft as to his course of action.
Admiral Witoft's Sortie
The Czar emphatically ordered him on no account to return to Port Arthur. His object must be to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy's fleet, and, if possible, to effect a junction with the Vladivostock Squadron; while, if the latter object were incapable of accomplishment, he was to endeavor to reach the German port of Kiau-chau. From circumstances that have since transpired, there is reason to believe that an understanding had been arrived at between the German and Russian Governments as to the reception of the Russian ships at the German naval base. Although for the moment the Russian fugitives would, by the laws of neutrality, be placed out of action, they would be in the hands of a "benevolent" government; and would remain a factor to be reckoned with, if in the future Germany were to intervene in the settlement of the struggle. Accordingly, on the morning of August 10th, the Russian Squadron, in full strength except for the armored-cruiser Bayan, which was in too injured a condition to take its place in the fighting line, began slowly to pass through the narrow channel leading from the open sea; and by eleven o'clock the ships were drawn up in battle line, and steamed away on a course nearly due south. The gallant little Novik, the fastest vessel in either fleet, headed the line, while the patched-up Retvisan came next, followed by the Czarevitch, the Peresveit, the Pobieda, the Poltava, and the Sevastopol, with the cruisers Askold, Diana, and Pallada, and a torpedo flotilla of eight vessels. The squadron of Japanese light cruisers which had been watching Port Arthur retreated before the advancing enemy, and signalled at once to the sleepless Togo, whose main battle fleet was lying forty miles away. This consisted of four battleships and three armored cruisers—namely, the Mikasa, carrying Admiral Togo's flag; the Asahi, the Shikishima, the Fuji, the Nishin, the Kasuga, the Jakumo, and a number of protected cruisers, including the Kasagi, the Chitose, the Takasugo, as well as a flotilla of some forty torpedo craft. Thus the Russians had a clear superiority in battleships partially discounted by Togo's superiority in armored cruisers.
Tremendous Naval Battle
Thirty-five miles to the southeast of Port Arthur the opposing fleets came within range; and then began the most tremendous naval battle—measured by the offensive power of its combatants—that the world has yet seen. The naval world had been waiting almost with eagerness for the present war to afford the spectacle of a fleet action between modern armorclads carrying modern armaments; and this unprecedented event had at last come to pass. The Russian ships were steering for the south, and the object of the Japanese was evidently to head them off. At a range of 6,000 yards, or about three miles and a half, the Mikasa, the Japanese flagship, opened fire with her 12in. guns on the leading Russian battleship and immediately the action became general. Admiral Togo concentrated his fire on the Russian battleships, leaving the cruisers very much to chance; and so awful was the effect of this deadly rain of shell, that when at last the sun went down on that eventful day, the Russian fleet was in hopeless disorder, and its stoutest ships were almost unmanageable wrecks. The experience of the Czarevitch and the Retvisan, as recounted by survivors on board of those devoted vessels, affords a lurid picture of the appalling nature of a modern naval battle. The Czarevitch, which ultimately reached Kiao-chau, was bombarded at close range by several of the Japanese armorclads. In the course of five minutes she was struck by three successive 12in. shells, and that fact—which is an eloquent testimony to the quality of the Japanese gunnery—practically decided her fate. Admiral Witoft was killed by the first shell, and his chief of staff was mortally wounded by the second. The steering gear was knocked to bits, so that the ship was out of control and began to travel in a circle, and the foremast was tumbled over the side; while every man in one of the batteries was blown to pieces. The guns' crews were annihilated at the work, and the deck gear was twisted into fantastic shapes or carried away altogether; and so much of it was afterwards picked up that the Japanese supposed that the Czarevitch had foundered. Poor Witoft—as brave a man as ever sailed—met a terrible death. He was blown to pieces by a shell, and of his body only one leg was ever found. His last signal was: "Remember the Emperor's order not to return to Port Arthur." The decks of the battleship presented the appearance of a shambles; her armor-plating was pierced in four places; her masts were shattered and bent in the form of a cross; her bridge was carried away; and many of her guns were disabled. Steering with her propellers she managed, under the cover of night, to escape the attacks of the Japanese torpedo-boats, and to reach Kiao-chau. Hardly less severe was the mauling which the Retvisan received. This battleship received such a concentrated fire that when she attempted to break from the circle of her enemies, she was literally blown out of her course. The other four Russian battleships suffered more or less severely. The Pobieda, for instance, had her masts carried away, and her heavy guns were put out of action. When the Czarevitch got out of control, the Russian line was necessarily broken, and then the fleet seems to have suffered most severely. The command of the squadron passed to Prince Ukhtomsky, as second in rank to Admiral Witoft, and that of the cruiser division to Rear-Admiral Reitzenstein; and between the two there seem to have been divided counsels. The latter decided to cut his way southwards at any cost in accordance with the orders of the Czar. With the Askold, Novik, Pallada, and Diana, he became engaged with the Japanese cruisers, and by dint of hard fighting, in which the Askold was badly mauled, he managed to get clear of the enemy, and in the early morning of the 13th reached Shanghai, having lost sight of the other cruisers. The Askold had lost two of her five funnels, one of the boilers was injured, and her hull had been pierced in more than half a dozen places, both above and below the water-line. Prince Ukhtomsky preferred another course. When the signal had been displayed from the Czarevitch "Admiral transfers command," the Prince, who was next in seniority, signalled from his ship, the Peresviet, "Follow me"—an order which, as we have seen, the cruiser division did not obey. But the battleships answered the signal; and the course steered was back to Port Arthur. In his dispatch the Prince said: "As my vessel had lost many killed and wounded, and her armament, hull and electric apparatus were seriously damaged, I decided to return to Port Arthur." Through the dark night the six battleships steamed slowly to their haven, repeated torpedo attacks compelling them again and again to change course, and finally to disperse. The Czarevitch, as we have seen, reached Kiao-chau almost in a sinking condition, while in the morning of the 11th, the Peresviet, the Retvisan, the Sevastopol, the Pobieda, the Poltava, and the cruiser Pallada arrived again at the port which they had left twenty-four hours earlier. A list of nearly 400 killed and wounded was the witness to the severity of the punishment which these vessels had received. But it was evident that they were not so damaged as to have been incapable of continuing the attempt to break through to the south. Their return to Port Arthur rendered all that they had suffered vain. It meant that their situation was as precarious as ever, while their condition was less favorable for enduring it. The displeasure of the Czar was not long in manifesting itself. Hardly had the consternation of defeat subsided, than an Imperial order was issued removing the unhappy Prince Ukhtomsky from his command. Recalled he could not be, because the means of leaving Port Arthur were denied.
