Battle of the Orphan Hills The shelling of Port Arthur began on August 7, 1904, by a pair of land-based guns, and was carried on intermittently until August 19, 1904. The
Japanese fleet also participated in shore bombardment, while in the northeast the army prepared to attack the two semi-isolated hills protruding from the outer defense perimeter: high Takushan (Big Orphan Hill) and the smaller Hsuaokushan (Little Orphan Hill). These hills were not heavily fortified, but had steep slopes and were fronted by the Ta River, which had been dammed by the Russians to provide a stronger obstacle. The hills commanded a view over almost a kilometer of flat ground to the Japanese lines, and it was thus essential for the Japanese to take these hills to complete their encirclement of Port Arthur. After pounding the two hills from 04:30 until 19:30, General Nogi launched a frontal
infantry assault, which was hampered by heavy rain, poor visibility and dense clouds of smoke. The Japanese were able to advance only as far as the forward slopes of both hills, and many soldiers drowned in the Ta River. Even night attacks suffered unexpectedly high casualties, as the Russians used powerful
searchlights to expose the attackers to
artillery and machine-gun cross-fire. Undeterred, Nogi resumed artillery bombardment the following day, August 8, 1904, but his assault stalled again, this time due to heavy fire from the Russian fleet led by the cruiser
Novik. Nogi ordered his men to press on regardless of casualties. Despite some confusion in orders behind the Russian lines, which led to some units abandoning their posts, numerous Russian troops held on tenaciously. The Japanese finally managed to overrun the Russian positions mostly through sheer superiority in numbers. Takushan was captured at 20:00, and the following morning, August 9, 1904, Hsiaokushan also fell to the Japanese. (
Angelo Agostini,
O Malho, 1904) Gaining these two hills cost the Japanese 1,280 killed and wounded. The
Japanese Army complained bitterly to the Navy about the ease with which the Russians were able to obtain naval fire support; in response the Japanese Navy brought in a battery of 12-pounder guns, with a range sufficient to ensure that there would be no recurrence of a Russian naval sortie. The loss of the two hills, when reported to
the Tsar, caused him to consider the safety of the
Russian Pacific Fleet trapped at Port Arthur, and he sent immediate orders to Admiral
Wilgelm Vitgeft, in command of the fleet after the death of Admiral
Stepan Makarov, to join the squadron at
Vladivostok. Vitgeft put to sea at 08:30 on August 10, 1904, and engaged the waiting Japanese under Admiral
Tōgō Heihachirō in what was to become known as the
Battle of the Yellow Sea. On August 11, 1904, the Japanese sent an offer of temporary cease-fire to Port Arthur, so the Russians could allow all non-combatants to leave under guarantee of safety. The offer was rejected, but the foreign military observers all decided to leave for safety on August 14, 1904.
Battle of 174 Meter Hill At noon on August 13, 1904, General Nogi launched a
photo reconnaissance balloon from the Wolf Hills, which the Russians attempted to shoot down. Nogi was reportedly very surprised at the lack of coordination of the Russian artillery efforts, and he decided to proceed with a direct frontal assault down the Wantai Ravine, which, if successful, would carry Japanese forces directly into the heart of the city. Given his previous high casualty rate and his lack of heavy artillery, the decision created controversy in his staff; however, Nogi was under orders to take Port Arthur as quickly as possible. After sending an immediately refused message to the garrison of Port Arthur demanding surrender, the Japanese began their assault at dawn on August 19, 1904. The General Staff embargoed all correspondents from reporting anything that happened until after Port Arthur had fallen. The main thrust was directed at 174 Meter Hill, with flanking and diversionary attacks along the line from Fort Sung-shu to the Chi-Kuan Battery. The Russian defensive positions on 174 Meter Hill itself were held by the 5th and 13th East Siberian Regiments, reinforced by sailors, under the command of Colonel
Nikolai Tretyakov, a veteran of the
Battle of Nanshan. Just as he had done at the Battle of Nanshan, Tretyakov, despite having his first line of trenches overrun, tenaciously refused to retreat and held control of 174 Meter Hill despite severe and mounting casualties. On the following day, August 20, 1904, Tretyakov asked for reinforcements but, just as at Nanshan, none were forthcoming. With more than half of his men killed or wounded and with his command disintegrating as small groups of men fell back in confusion, Tretyakov had no choice but to withdraw, and 174 Meter Hill was overrun by the Japanese; it had cost the Japanese some 1,800 killed and wounded, and the Russians over 1,000. At Wantai, Nogi had disregarded intelligence on the strength of the Russian defenses that warned they had 10 times as many machine guns as the Japanese, along with an artillery advantage. He was also unaware of a covered road connecting the two forts that allowed the Russians to quickly move troops and materiel between them. Stoessel also repositioned his defenses to better stop an attack from that direction, suggesting he had a spy in Nogi's staff. Japanese troops were under constant fire as they approached, with machine guns raking troops from the front and the rear taking heavy bombardment. The assaults on the other sections of the Russian line had also cost the Japanese heavily, but with no results and no ground gained. When Nogi finally called off his attempt to penetrate Wantai on August 24, he had only 174 Meter Hill and the West and East Pan-lung to show for his loss of more than 18,000 men. With all other positions remaining firmly under Russian control, Nogi at last decided to abandon frontal assaults in favor of a
siege, at least until reinforcements arrived. On August 25, the day after Nogi's last assault had failed, Marshal
Ōyama Iwao engaged the Russians under General
Aleksey Kuropatkin at the
Battle of Liaoyang. Had the Japanese not lost so many troops at 174-Meter Hill and Wantai, they might have been available to assist Ōyama, giving him the chance to destroy the Russian Army at that battle, instead of merely pushing it further north.
Siege Having failed to penetrate the Port Arthur fortifications by direct assault, Nogi now ordered
sappers to construct trenches and tunnels under the Russian forts in order to explode
mines to bring down the walls. By now, Nogi had also been reinforced by additional artillery and 16,000 more troops from Japan, which partially compensated for the casualties sustained in his first assaults. However, the major new development was the arrival of the first battery of huge
siege howitzers, replacing those lost when the transport
Hitachi Maru, loaded with a battalion of the First Reserve Regiment of the Guards, was
sunk by Russian cruisers on June 15. The massive 11-inch howitzers could throw a 227-kilogram (500.4-pound) shell over , and Nogi at last had the firepower necessary to make a serious attempt against the Russian fortifications. The huge shells were nicknamed "roaring trains" by the Russian troops (for the sound they made just before impact), and during the guns' period at Port Arthur over 35,000 of these shells were fired. The
Armstrong howitzers had originally been installed in shore batteries in forts overlooking
Tokyo Bay and
Osaka Bay, and had been intended for anti-ship operations. While the Japanese set to work in the sapping campaign, General Stoessel continued to spend most of his time writing complaining letters to the Tsar about lack of cooperation from his fellow officers in the navy. The garrison in Port Arthur was starting to experience serious outbreaks of
scurvy and
dysentery due to the lack of fresh food. Nogi now shifted his attention to the Temple Redoubt and the Waterworks Redoubt (also known as the Erhlung Redoubt) to the east, and to 203 Meter Hill and Namakoyama to the west. At this time neither Nogi nor Stoessel seem to have realized the strategic importance of 203 Meter Hill: its unobstructed views of the harbor would have enabled the Japanese to control the harbor and to fire on the Russian fleet sheltering there. This fact was only brought to Nogi's attention when he was visited by General
Kodama Gentarō, who immediately saw that the hill was the key to the whole Russian defense. By mid-September the Japanese had dug over of trenches and were within of the Waterworks Redoubt, which they attacked and captured on September 19, 1904. Thereafter they successfully took the Temple Redoubt, while another attacking force was sent against both Namakoyama and 203 Meter Hill. The former was taken that same day, but on 203 Meter Hill the Russian defenders cut down the dense columns of attacking troops with machine-gun and cannon fire. The attack failed, and the Japanese were forced back, leaving the ground covered with their dead and wounded. The battle at 203 Meter Hill continued for several more days, with the Japanese gaining a foothold each day, only to be forced back each time by Russian counter-attacks. By the time General Nogi abandoned the attempt, he had lost over 3,500 men. The Russians used the respite to begin further strengthening the defenses on 203 Meter Hill, while Nogi began a prolonged artillery bombardment of the town and those parts of the harbor within range of his guns. On October 26 Nogi directed the use of the tunnels and saps for another assault on the Russian forts in the northeast. The plan was to fill in the trenches between the tunnel exits and the forts after a three-day artillery bombardment, so as to better facilitate a direct ground attack. However the trenches were much wider than the the Japanese had been led to believe by poor intelligence, and to make room for ground troops the Japanese artillery slowed their pace of fire, which also gave the Russians time to repair the damage the shelling did. Eventually the artillery became useless as the heat from the near constant use distorted the barrels, reducing their accuracy. Some of the missed strikes caused further casualties among the Japanese infantry attacking the forts. Nogi attempted yet another mass "human wave" assault on 203 Meter Hill on October 29, 1904, intending the hill to be a present for the
Meiji Emperor's birthday. However, aside from seizing some minor fortifications, the attack failed after six days of hand-to-hand combat, leaving Nogi with the deaths of an additional 124 officers and 3,611 men and no victory. The onset of winter did little to slow the intensity of the battle. Nogi received additional reinforcements from Japan, including 18 more Armstrong howitzers, which were manhandled from the railway by teams of 800 soldiers along an eight-mile (13 km)-long narrow gauge track that had been laid expressly for that purpose. These howitzers were added to the 450 other guns already in place. One innovation of the campaign was the centralization of the Japanese fire control, with the artillery batteries connected to the field headquarters by miles of telephone lines. Now well aware that the Russian Baltic Fleet was on its way, the Japanese Imperial Headquarters fully understood the necessity of destroying what Russian ships were still serviceable at Port Arthur. It thus became essential that 203 Meter Hill be captured without further delay, and political pressure began to mount for Nogi's replacement.
Battle of 203 Meter Hill The highest elevation within Port Arthur, designated "203 Meter Hill", overlooked the harbor. The name "203-Meter Hill" is a misnomer, as the hill consists of two peaks (203 meters and 210 meters high, and apart) connected by a sharp ridge. It was initially unfortified; however, after the start of the war the Russians realized its critical importance and built a strong defensive position. As well as the natural strength of its elevated position with steep sides, it was protected by a massive redoubt and two earth-covered keeps reinforced by steel rails and timber, and completely surrounded by electrified barbed wire entanglements. It was also connected to the neighboring strongholds on False Hill and Akasakayama by trenches. On top of the lower peak was the fortified Russian command post in reinforced concrete. The Russian defenders entrenched on the 203-meter summit were commanded by Colonel Tretyakov, and were organized into five companies of infantry with machine gun detachments, a company of engineers, a few sailors and a battery of artillery. On September 18, Japanese General Kodama visited General Nogi for the first time, and drew his attention to the strategic importance of 203 Meter Hill. Nogi directed the first infantry assault against the hill on September 20, After arduous sapping work and an artillery assault with the new Armstrong 11-inch siege guns, mines were exploded underneath some of the Russian fortifications on the main defense perimeter from November 17–24, with a general assault planned for the night of November 26. Coincidentally, this was the same day that the Russian Baltic Fleet was entering the Indian Ocean. The assault contained a
forlorn hope attack by 2600 men (including 1200 from the newly arrived
IJA 7th Division) led by General
Nakamura Satoru, of whom at least 6,000 were killed. At the end of the siege, the Japanese captured a further 878 army officers and 23,491 other ranks; 15,000 of those captured were wounded. The Japanese also captured 546 guns-110,000 killed, wounded, and missing, though these were written without access to the Japanese Medical History of the War. ==Aftermath==