Sung-Shu and Erh-Lung were partially filled. They held most of the ditch of Chi-Kuan Fort and were cutting down the escarp, and two parallels had been made only 3oyd. from the Chinese Wall at Pan-Lung.
The general attack was made at I P.M. At Sung-Shu the stormers got into the fort, but suffered much from the artillery on the western side of the Lun-ho valley, and were beaten out of it again in 20 minutes; 2,000 men tried in vain to get up the Lun-ho valley to take Sung-Shu in rear. At Erh-Lung they could not get over the outer parapet. At "G" they took a portion of the Chinese Wall and lost it again, other trenches with a cross fire being behind. At Pan-Lung the machine guns on the Wall pre vented them from leaving the parallel. At Chi-Kuan Fort the terreplein of the fort had been covered with entanglements de fended by machine guns on the gorge parapets, and the Japanese could make no way. Briefly, there was a furious fight all along the line, and nothing gained. On Nov. 27, after losing 12,000 men, the assault was abandoned. On the north front the Japanese returned to mining.
But so urgent was the necessity of speedy victory that the fight ing had to continue elsewhere. And at last, after every other point had been attempted, the weight of the attack was directed on 203-Metre Hill. A battery of howitzers was established only one mile away. On Nov. 28 and 3o, assaults were made and failed. On Dec. I, there was a fresh bombardment by the big howitzers, which obliged the Russians to take shelter in rear of the ruined works. On Dec. 2, the Russians tried a counter-attack. During the next two days the artillery were busy. The engineers sapped up to the ruins of the western work, saw the shelters on the reverse slope and directed artillery fire by telephone. Thirty six guns swept the ground with shrapnel. Finally, on Dec. 5, the
Japanese attacked successfully. Their losses in the last io days at 203-Metre Hill had been probably over io,000. Those of the Russians were about 5,000, chiefly from artillery fire.
This was the turning point of the siege. At once the I I-in. howitzers, assisted by telephone from 203-Metre Hill, opened upon the Russian ships; a few days later these were wholly hors de combat, and at the capitulation only a few destroyers were in a condition to escape. The siege was now pressed with vigour by the construction of batteries at and around 203-Metre Hill, by an infantry advance against the main western defences, and by renewed operations against the eastern forts. The escarp of Chi Kuan was blown up, and at the cost of Boo men, General Same yeda (I th Division), personally leading his stormers, captured the great fort on Dec. 19. The escarp of Ehr-Lung was also blown up, and the ruins of the fort were stormed by the 9th Division on Dec. 28th, though a mere handful of the defenders prolonged the fighting for eight hours and the assailants lost ',coo men. Sung-Shu suffered a worse fate on the 3I st, the greater part of the fort and its defenders being blown up, and on this day the whole defence of the eastern front collapsed. The Japanese 7th and ist Divisions were now advancing on the western main line ; the soul of the defence, the brave and capable Gen. Kondratenko, had been killed on Dec. 15, and though food and ammunition were by no means exhausted, StOssel surrendered on January 2, 1905, with 24,000 effective and slightly wounded and 15,000 wounded and sick men, the remnant of his original 47,000. The total losses of the 3rd Japanese Army during the siege were about 92,00o men (58,000 casualties and 34,000 sick).