THE LOSS OF FORT CHI-KUAN-SHAN
The 18th was a lovely day--bright, sunny, and calm. Silence reigned all
along the front, save for the usual intermittent rifle fire, and on the
forts the sentries alone were to be seen.
Fort Chi-kuan-shan was still in a very critical state. The Japanese
held the counter-scarp, and the explosion of their mines was
momentarily expected. The garrison had been greatly decreased, and were
tired out. It was impossible to find reliefs for the ordinary duties
even; much less could this exhausted, weakened body of men be asked
to make any special effort that might be done by fresh troops. The
feeling among them at the appointment of Fock, who had for long been
nicknamed 'The General of Retreats,' was apathetic. He didn't consider
it necessary to go to the fort himself to encourage his sorely-tried
men; they only knew him by his prophesies of their death and the awful
pictures he had painted of the destruction of the forts by the enemy's
shells.
[Illustration: NORTH FORT, CHI-KUAN-SHAN, SHOWING GREEN HILLS IN THE
DISTANCE.]
It was the day upon which the Japanese had decided to make an end of
the fort, and for which they had made all preparations. At 11 a.m.--a
time when the trench-guards were usually relieved and there was always
noise and movement--their troops told off for the storming were
quietly moved up and collected in the last approaches, where they
awaited the explosion of the mines. The men told off for this 'forlorn
hope' were divided into two parties. One party, who had red bands on
their arms, was moved towards the caponiers; on the explosion it was
to storm the interior of the fort. On their shoulders the second party
from the last approach were to climb. If these did not manage to drive
out our men, they were to be reinforced by all their available troops,
who were to overcome the garrison by sheer weight of numbers.
Just about a quarter-past one a volcano seemed to burst from the
parapet, and with a roar and the shock of an earthquake a huge black
cloud of dust and smoke shot up to the sky. This was followed by a
second eruption. For a moment there was comparative calm; then the sky
commenced to rain beams, boulders, stones, masses of concrete, sacks,
bodies, while on the rear of the fort (to catch our reinforcements)
fell a hail of shells. Our men, shaken for a moment by the suddenness
of all this, and expecting a third explosion, dashed for safety; but
they quickly rallied behind the parapet of the prepared retrenchment,
from whence they opened a heavy fire on those madly gallant stormers
with red bands, who showed themselves on the fort. So impatient were
they, and so quick was their advance, that our men could see them being
buried under the falling stones and masses of masonry hurled into the
air by the explosions.
The nearest batteries--Tumulus, Laperoff's, Zaredoubt, and B--opened a
murderous fire on all the approaches, thus paralysing further assaults
and preventing the enemy from crowning the craters of their mines.
Consequently, this face of the fort, with its destroyed revetment,
became neutral ground. Our gunners, shooting splendidly, glued the
enemy to the spot, and did not allow them to advance a yard; but their
skill was wasted, for General Fock took no advantage of it. He did not
reinforce the garrison, as he should have done, and thus enable them
to crown the craters, and so again establish themselves on the outer
parapet. Meanwhile the enemy were holding on, preparing themselves
for another assault, and our men behind the thin parapet of the
retrenchment were suffering heavily.
It was the psychological moment, the crisis. Had reinforcements been
sent up, they would have turned the scale, and Chi-kuan-shan would
have been saved, but General Fock seems to have made up his mind at
the first explosion that the fort must be abandoned. To be exact, a
reinforcement of a company of sailors from the _Pobieda_ and _Peresvet_
was sent up by Smirnoff; but coming under a heavy fire on their way,
few reached the fort, and they were not sufficiently numerous to render
much assistance.
So it continued till night. When darkness came on the enemy again
dashed to the attack, at the same time turning all their guns on
to the ground in our rear to prevent the approach of supports. A
hand-to-hand fight ensued. Both sides fought like lions, or rather
devils; but the more of the enemy that we killed the more seemed to
appear. They even dragged two mountain guns up on to the parapet, and
got to work with them at close range, and then the scene, lit up by the
cold beams of the searchlights and the dazzling glare of star-shell
and rockets, indeed seemed like hell let loose. The fort's hours were
numbered, for without reinforcements it could not last for ever--and no
reinforcements came.
While it was in its death agony, the higher authorities were engaged in
correspondence.
_Telephone Message from General Fock to General Gorbatovsky. 7.40 p.m.,
December 18, 1904._
'General Stössel has given orders that the casemates of Chi-kuan-shan
Fort are to be at once mined, and then, if the Japanese do not
withdraw from the fort--i.e., from the parapet--the garrison is
to retire and the casemates are to be blown up. The enemy are not
to be allowed to establish themselves on the parapet, which must
be fired on by the guns and the torpedo tube. In view of Captain
Stepanoff's report, to the effect that before sunset he and Colonel
Mekhmandaroff could see from Big Eagle's Nest only one Jap officer
and three men on the parapet laying sand-bags, I leave it to you to
hold on to the fort so long as you think necessary. In giving this
order, based on my report, General Stössel came to this decision only
because he thought that under present circumstances no other course
was possible. At sunset a sailor came to me and reported that by the
explosion of a bomb thrown by the enemy we had had 15 casualties.'
_Telephone Message from General Gorbatovsky to the Staff of the General
Officer Commanding Land Front (Fock). 9.35 p.m., December 18, 1904._
'From Chi-kuan-shan it is reported that heavy casualties are
occurring from grenades thrown by the enemy. We have not been able
to reoccupy the parapet. I therefore propose to avail myself of
your permission to blow up the casemates, and I have ordered the
garrison to hold on till our sappers have got the mines ready.
As a precautionary measure and to cover the garrison during the
retirement, please move one company temporarily from the main reserve
to the Ice-house. I am just going to Colonel Glagoleff to give the
necessary instructions on the spot.'
_Telephone Message from Colonel Dmitrevsky (Chief Staff Officer to
General Fock) to General Gorbatovsky. 9.40 p.m., December 18, 1904._
'General Fock fully concurs in your opinion about Chi-kuan-shan. He
trusts that you will see that the repairs to Kuropatkin Lunette are
energetically carried out.'
At 11.30 p.m., in accordance with orders received direct from General
Fock, commanding the land defences, the garrison, after destroying the
entrance bridge, abandoned the fort, which for four months had been
held, despite much desperate and bloody fighting. Although General
Gorbatovsky in his message at 9.35 p.m. on December 18 proposed to
avail himself of the permission given in the previous messages and to
abandon the fort, he never, in fact, gave the order.
At 11 p.m. he visited the fort to ascertain personally the state of
affairs, and met the men already retiring. When he told them to go
back, they said General Fock had ordered them to withdraw.
Only after four months' awful fighting, tens of thousands of deaths,
countless numbers of wounded, a sea of spilt blood, a hell of human
sufferings, tears, and sorrows, and owing to the difficulties in which
we were, did the enemy succeed in capturing the first of our permanent
forts. And even then it would not have been theirs if Fock (this is the
deliberate opinion of all the most experienced officers) had reinforced
it in time, and had not, on his own responsibility, determined to
abandon it when he did. He carried out his theories in practice, and
made this unnecessary surrender.
Smirnoff--the Commandant of Port Arthur--only learnt of this
deplorable surrender after it had been carried out; for Fock, in
direct contravention of the first principles of discipline, did not
even inform him of his intention. He knew better than to let Smirnoff
have any suspicion of it, and, ignoring him, communicated direct with
Stössel.
This is not fiction, but the plain, unvarnished truth.
Early next day General Fock went to the Commandant to report the loss
of the fort.
'Who, may I ask, gave you permission to abandon it?' asked Smirnoff.
'I received a direct order to that effect, sir, from General Stössel.
It was he who gave the order. How could I have dared to do such a thing
on my own responsibility?'
'Perhaps you are unaware, General, that I have been appointed by His
Imperial Majesty the Tsar to command this fortress. You, as commanding
the land defences, are immediately subordinate to me, and without my
permission you have not a shadow of right to abandon anything in my
fortress. I am its Commandant, and I alone am responsible.'
'I hunted for you last night, sir; I went to your hut to look for you,
but couldn't find you anywhere.' This was incorrect; he had not done so.
'You must have known it was useless to look for me there--I do not
follow the example set by some amongst you, and change my quarters
every time a chance shell comes near them.[38] Every one knows that
I live here, and I only leave this to go out on to the defences. I
repeat,' continued Smirnoff, 'you have not the slightest right to give
up a fort without my approval. I can reinforce it as much as seems
advisable to me. There are more than 30,000 men at this minute bearing
arms in the Fortress. Under no circumstances should the fort have been
abandoned; it might very easily have been held. Moreover, its surrender
has had the worst effect on the whole garrison. You have undermined
the principles I have always instilled into the men--that a fort may
perish, but never surrender; you have done untold harm. I cannot tell
now but what the men will take it into their heads to retire from forts
of their own accord. The garrison is worn out and underfed, and to
men in this condition an example of this sort is paralysing, and may
fatally injure the further defence.[39] Men are but human; they wish to
live, and the instinct of self-preservation is always strong in them.'
From Smirnoff Fock went off at once to Stössel. On the 18th a secret
meeting of the District Staff was held. The result was the publication
in a District Order of an entirely inaccurate version of the
circumstances relating to the loss of the fort.
After the sudden abandonment of this strong fort, which was made
without permission of, or even reference to, the Council of Defence,
the Commandant despatched the following cypher telegram to Kuropatkin,
No. 1,282, dated December 20, 1904:
'_To the Commander-in-Chief of the Armies and the Fleet._
'On December 15 Major-General Kondratenko, commanding the land
defences, was killed. To succeed him General Stössel has appointed
Lieutenant-General Fock, though I requested that only the western
portion of the front should be entrusted to him, and that I should
take, in addition to my other duties, the direct command of the
eastern front. My reasons were that on the west the enemy are still
some 1,200 yards distant, while in the east they are practically
sitting on our parapets. Fock's first action on assuming command
was to blow up the casemates in Chi-kuan-shan Fort and abandon it,
taking advantage of instructions given to him directly by Stössel.
This was done without reference to me, without my knowledge, and
without asking either my opinion or that of the Council, and
despite my previously expressed views on the subject. General
Stössel's systematic ignoring of my rights as Commandant of the
Fortress, in particular with regard to administrative matters and
the hospitals, has been constant since September; but though my
authority is being continually undermined by various orders issued
in the Fortress without reference to me, the actual defence has till
now suffered little, thanks to the complete agreement of the late
Officer Commanding the Land Defences, the Officer Commanding the
Artillery, and the Officer Commanding the Engineers with my views.
Now, however, that so serious a matter as the surrender of a fort
has been decided on without reference to me, and, as it was in my
opinion most injurious to the defence, I have the honour to ask
that either General Stössel may be ordered to recognize my rights
as Commandant at once, in accordance with fortress regulations, and
may be forbidden to interfere, or else that I may be relieved of all
responsibility for the further defence of the Fortress and of my
duties as Commandant.'
Having sent this telegram, General Smirnoff hoped that Port Arthur
would live till an answer could be received, which would be at longest
in about three weeks; if it should be favourable to him, and the
defence should pass entirely into his hands, he felt sure that, in
spite of the harm already done by Fock, he would be able to hold out
till the end of February.
Alas! the end came just twelve days after the despatch of the above
message.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 38: General Stössel had now taken up his quarters in the
barracks of the 10th Regiment.]
[Footnote 39: Erh-lung-shan Fort was surrendered ten days later.]