THE FORLORN HOPE OF KINCHAU.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13106, 17 October 1904, Page 3

THE FORLORN HOPE OF KINCHAU.

.o— . (Blackwood's Magazine.) The eiiii runs riot upon acres of bared flashing Japanese bayonets, right away as far as the mud walls of Kin-chait, which those very bayonets had won that morning. Men and h'orse, 50,000 men, massed for the fleshing, suffering death at random —a target impossible to miss,—until the moment, shall arrive for them to put their c.rude patriotism to tho final test. ' T(ic company officers return to their commands, and the word passes dowu tho lino that the battalion, together with the sister battalion lying'parallel with them on the left, is. to assault the nearest of the Russian works. " OPEN* I'l! TIIK RUSSIAN FOItTS " is tho expression used, and a suppressed murmur of "Banzai!" flickers down the ranks as the men raise themselves on to their knees. "Right shoulder" a little. It is useless to make men climb the steeper portion of peak. "Bight shoulder!" and tho easier,path over the saddlfMvill be found. One minute, and the men can almost feel the rush of air from tho race of projectiles passing, immediately above them; tho next, and through the, gaps torn 111 the ranks of the company'ill • front of them they see their jjoal, 'and intuitively make mental measure nf the distmce to lx> crossed. Two hundred yards to tlio bottom of the diphere the scattered buildings of a fishing village—and then 400 .yards of gentlo climb to that sky-line, with its demarcation of unceasing flashes and its dull yellow-grey curtain .of .clinging picric p'loud. Above the limnder of battle— TUE CBASIt AXtf BATTLE'OF THE GILVS —the grinding of flic' automatic death machines—and the-sickening swish of metal sweeping poor human frames by ' scores hoforo it—rises.the>' full-throated war-cry of Japan—Banzai!—'"Livo a thousand years!" and almost before the men have realUed that tliey arc 'fafeinir a tornado, 'thoso"that

have" not been stricken down Have reached tho cover of the village. But what a trail they havo left behind them: tho rearmost companies havo to open out and dircct to right and left, for the slope is a mosaic of prostrate uniforms. The crash and racket on their front intensifies, and beneath tho riin of projectiles the meagre walls of the village 'crumble, and subside. A HAZK OF SDX-BAKKn HDD-DCST risea from the' subsiding pile, and, clinging in tho dead air, eover3 somewhat tho carnage in its midst. A pent-house falls and crushes half tho platoon beneath it. A bevy of terror-stricken women and children, bolted by flame, shell, and sights of death from their hiding-places,' dash blindly for the open—a moment, and they, too,'swell tho tale of- massacrc. The full-throated ■war cry of Japan is dead. A thin wail of Banzai! goes up, an officer seizes tho emblem.of the rising sun, and. bending low to meet the leaden blizzard, dashes for the slope. AVhcro 10 minutes ago ho had a company to follow him, ho now finds 10 or 15 men. To the right and loft LITTLE KNOTS OF DKSFKRATF. IXFANTKYIIEN" dash out' into the fury of tho blast—only to wither before it. For perhaps 10 scconds the colour is erect and falters onward. Then it is down. Mahtsomahto is at his captain's heel: lie seizes the loved emblem and raises it again. He turns back to wave it, and is swept from his legs; he struggles to his knees; the flag is upright again, for one second only, and then as if by magic the firing stops, and for ono second tho Russians jump upon their works, and wave their caps and shout the shout of victory. Tho two Japanese battalions'which furnished t'no forlorn-hope had ceased to exist. The Russians cheered, and then THE JAPANESE SUrrOBTIXG ARTILLERY reopened, and tho struggle returned to its normal state. The forlorn-hope had failed —but'what did (hat matter j were there not 40,000 as good infantry massed behind the ridge, prepared-to cany on tho desperate work which tho two lost battalions had begun? Hy sunset the Japanese liad carried this work, and tho whole lino of Russian defences went with it.