On January 18, 1895, the Japanese fleet bombarded Teng-ckow-foo, facing
Port Arthur on the Chinese mainland. It is about eight miles west of
Wei-hai-wei.
On the 19th the bombardment was continued; on the 20th the army was
landed to the east of Wei-hai-wei.
Wei-hai-wei was moderately fortified, chiefly with 8-in. Krupp guns.
There were a few larger ones, and a sprinkling of modern pieces.
Mostly, however, the guns were old. On Leu-Kun tau[26] were some more
forts, a gunnery school, and a coaling station. The Chinese fleet lay
behind this island, the Japanese watching both entrances, which were
protected by booms.
[26] _Tau_ means island.
On the 30th the Japanese fleet and army opened fire on the defences.
In this affair the Chao-pei-tsui defences were silenced by the Naniwa,
Akitsushima, and Katsuragi, the division being under command of Captain
(now Admiral) Togo. The magazine was exploded, and the forts taken
possession of by the Japanese soldiers. Before retreating, however, the
Chinese destroyed all save a few old guns.
[Illustration: MAP OF WEI-HAI-WEI.]
The rest of the fleet bombarded Leu-Kun tau without much result
on either side. The Chinese warships took part in the defence. A
photograph of this battle, taken from a captured fort, is given.
The net result, however, of the operations of the 30th to 31st was that
the Japanese took practically everything except the island. On the
night of the 31st, Admiral Ito decided on a torpedo-boat attack. Both
entrances had some boom defence, with gaps here and there. The Japanese
attempted to attack by the east with sixteen boats.
Division I. six boats.
” II. six ”
” III. four ”
The Japanese soldiers in the forts took them for Chinese, so they
retired.
A heavy gale came on next day, and the whole Japanese fleet ran
to shelter at Teng-chow, returning on February 2nd, when another
ineffectual bombardment at 2500 metres took place. An equally
ineffective torpedo attack was tried in the night. It failed, as the
Chinese sighted the boats, and they wisely did not try to force their
way in.
Next day, and the next again, the bombardment was violently renewed,
but on both sides it led to nothing save expenditure of ammunition.
Landings on Leu-Kun tau led to nothing, and the only incident of real
moment was the rushing out of twelve Chinese torpedo boats on the 4th.
Several were sunk as they came out; the rest ran ashore, and were
captured or destroyed. So far as can be gathered, Ting had found his
boats a nuisance, and was in terror of the Japanese boats being allowed
in in mistake for Chinese ones. He also appears to have imagined that a
daylight attack might produce something in his favour; but the balance
of evidence seems to point to the fact that the boats were a nuisance
to him.
Whatever was intended, the Chinese boats made no attack on the Japanese
cruisers; escape was their only objective. Only two succeeded in
getting away.
On the night of the 4th the third torpedo attack was made. The boats
went in in three divisions of four each, though only the second and
third divisions went in—the first being employed to create a diversion
at the western entrance.
The eastern boats crept in slowly, in a cold so intense that an officer
and two men were frozen to death. Two boats (8 and 21), their steersmen
frost-bitten, grounded as they tried to enter.
By four o’clock a boat had got quite near the Chinese, and fired two
torpedoes without result; a second boat was no luckier with three.
Not till then did the Chinese open fire, and this boat ran ashore
immediately afterwards.
[Illustration: CELEBRATING SURRENDER OF THE CHINESE FLEET, AT THE NAVAL
CLUB, TOKIO.]
Two more boats collided in the confusion, another had her boilers
burst, yet another was badly hit. Only one boat came out unscathed. As
mentioned further on in “Personal Characteristics,” the real truth of
the attack has never been known, and never will be, save vaguely.[27]
[27] See this chapter for the reason why.
Its result, however, is well known, the battleship Ting Yuen was hit in
the stern and sank in the mud, where she lay with her upper works above
water and guns still firing.
Throughout the 5th the bombardment continued unabated, and though no
harm was done, the ceaseless worry told heavily on the Chinese.
On the night of the 5th a fourth attack was made by the first division.
It met with little resistance, torpedoed the Lai Yuen and a despatch
vessel, the Wei Yuen, and also hit the Ching Yuen in the bow without
sinking her. The boats met with no defence worth mentioning; the
Chinese look-outs, worn out with the ceaseless bombardments, were
mostly asleep.
On the 6th a landing was effected on Leu-Kun tau, and on the 7th the
usual bombardment continued. The Matsushima, Naniwa, and Yoshino were
hit, but the Chinese lost a magazine, blown up.
On the 9th the Ching Yuen sank, her end being accelerated by a
water-line hit from a shore gun. The Itsukushima was hit on the
water-line this day by a shell from the 12-in. guns of the Chen Yuen,
but the shell failed to burst. On the 10th and 11th the bombardment
still continued. Only one fort now remained to the Chinese, but their
ships still afloat were comparatively little hurt. The moral effect of
the continuous firing finally broke them down, and on the 12th, in the
midst of the firing, a gunboat flying a white flag came out.
The Japanese ceased fire, and the gunboat came to the Matsushima. Two
officers from the Chinese fleet came on board, and delivered a letter
from Admiral Ting to Admiral Ito, suggesting terms of surrender. It
is worthy of note that, so one of the Malsushima’s officers told me,
these two Chinamen, on being taken to the wardroom to await Admiral
Ito’s reply, promptly and instantly fell asleep, and were only awakened
later with the greatest difficulty. They were absolutely worn out. It
is stated, also, that the whole of the beleaguered crews did the same
thing directly firing ceased; want of sleep was, indeed, the immediate
cause of Admiral Ting’s surrender, though, of course, his position was
absolutely hopeless.
Ting surrendered on condition that the lives of his men were spared,
but he and his principal officers committed suicide. The whole of
the defenders were executed by the Chinese at the first available
opportunity.