Kuroki's Great Fight.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7939, 22 October 1904, Page 7

Kuroki's Great Fight.

The Crisis of the Liao-yani? Battle.

An Eye Witness's Account.

Mr J. Mo Hugh, the Daily Telegraph's war correspondent'attached to General Kuroki's army, has forwarded a moat graphic and powerful description of the twelve days'. fighting at Liao-yang. After narrating tbe course of the battle from the 25th August to tbe Is. September, when Genera] Kuroki bad crossed the Taitse river, and was pushing forward with the object of getting astride the railway in the rear of the Russians in Liao-.ang, Mr McHugh, who was an eye-witness of the fighting, writes :—-General Kuropatkin iifrd apparently expected this move, for General Kuroki found his divisions faced by a largely superior forc_. But the Japanese wett boldly forward, and had wrestted a wide traot of country from the enemy before sundown. The key of the Russian position wbb a low round hill, named Hai-yen-tai, and its grassy slopes were destined to be the scene of the bloodiest encounter of the war. This hill was shelled fiercely during a whole day. The Russian batteries replied, but their fire was ill directed and did very little damage. The success of General Kuroki's flank movement depended on the possession of Hai-yen-tai, and the general resolved on a night attack to secure it. In the early hours of Sep. tember 2nd our oentre division advanced, and carried it at tbepolnt of the bayonet after a sanguinary Btruggle. When morning came it was the turn of the Russians to shell the hill, and for hours a perfect hail of shrapnel raked it? naked slopes. But the Japanese held grimly on to them as their enemy had done on the previous day, despite heavy losses. With the night both sides resolved on night attacks, the Japanese to capture a Russian bat, tery that had annoyed them so much during the day, the Russians to regain possession of the bloody slopes of Hai-yen-tai Neither desperate venture was destined to succeed. The Russians in the darkness of the night threw themselves with reckless bravery against the slopes of the hill, but were met with a courage just as devoted. The enemy almost gained the summit, but were swept away again and again by the Japanese bayonets and bullets, till they at last gave up the struggle, and retired with appalling losses. About the same time the Japanese attacked the Russian battery, but the Russians had arranged electrical devices which gave them the exact position of the assaulters, and the brave Japanese were mowed down in swathes. One battalion was practically annihilated. It cannot be written that the Japanese assault was repulsed, for the men died in heaps in front of the Russian guns. Morning came and found both sides in the positions they occupied at sunset, but hundreds of gallant men were lying stiff and stark on the bloodstained sides of Hai-yen-tai and before the Russian battery. On our right there was better success, and the Japanese gained possession of Five Head Hill, and also a hill at the' coal mines.

For another day the Japanese holding Hai-yen-tai were subjected to a terrible punishment from the Russian batteries, but they stuck to the hill, with its sides absolutely littered with dead and dying, men. In the meantime, the Japanese armies on the other side of Lao-yarg had gained ground, and the Russian position there was becoming untenable. General Europatkin began his retreat towards Mukden. We strove hard to push forward to the railway to cut himoff, but the force on our front had been strengthened, and the attempt was rendered impossible. It was not until the evening of September 4th that the enemy began to retire, and General Kuroki's troops and baggage moved towa_ds'the~north.

I visited Hai-yen-tai as I went forward with the troops, and a more terrible sight was never witnessed. Hundreds of dead lay unbuned, and the green slopes were so covered with blood-pools that it was almost impossible to walk without stepping in them. The whole hill was littered with broken weapons and articles of clothing and equipment belonging to both armies. Grimmest of all were the hundreds of broken and twisted bayonets, all bloodl 'stained, that lay about in heaps. If any lesson were wanted on the horrors of war. the hill : of Hai-yen-tai more than supplied it to the full. The ownership of those few hundred yards of green hillside cost in killed and wounded nearly' 3000 men. This great battle has ended in a victory for Japan, but the success is not so complete as it would have been if the bold and daring' attempt'by General Kuroki's army against the enemy's lef. had been', attended with better results. The Japanese plan of attack was to throw two of their armies against the enemy's right and centre; and one against the left. But the Btrength in which General' Kuropatkin met the latter part of the plan rendered it hopeless for (General Kuroki to succeed in this bold and well-planned attack on the enemy's line of retreat. And so it has happened that the Russians were able to retire in good order on their base further north. It has been proved, however, that, even when in superior numbers and on their own chosen ground, the once dreaded Rus. isns ore no match for tbe intrepid soldiers of Japan.