Portartur. 1940

The orderly rode away. For a moment, the general calmed down.“Do not retreat before my order, in no case do not retreat! – he thought. – Do not retreat… Oh, why did I put in this unnecessary word at the moment? It gives hope and there they will prepare for a retreat… They will tear off repulsed attacks! You can not do it this way”.

The General sat down at the station hall and wrote: “May 13, 11 hours 55 minutes. I suggest to stand to the last person; about retreat not to think. Ammo send. I met gigs with ammunition going to Nanguin, returned them.”

On the positions there was a lull. Reassured, the general went to inspect the location of the Japanese. Seeing the captain-engineer von Schwarz on the road, Fock frowned: “Where are you going?” Why are you here?

– Colonel Tretyakov sent with a report to you about the difficult situation on the front lines. We need reinforcements, Your Excellency.

– And he sent you, because he finds that you have nothing to do in the position? Strange and annoying! And you panicked! You, who do not tear landmines, when they need to break. You are running from positions, instead of really understanding what is the matter, and by night to correct what remains in our hands. My God, what can be done with such commanders?!

five

General Fock passed in the rear of the position to Kinzhou Bay. Wounded soldiers walked along ravines and roads, and often stretchers came across. General; frowned, but hurried forward, in order to properly understand all that had happened in the first half of the day.

His steps were hard, his eyes gleaming feverishly.

“The position is covered,” thought Fock, “and so quickly…”

He keenly felt his deepest mistake.

“We must by all means fix the matter. Not everything is missed. The Japanese are tired and shot shells. There are a lot of them. And I have all the parts in combat readiness. I will remove the fifth regiment, let it rest, and here the shelves are on the counterattack. We must find Tretyakov soon. I will inspire him with my personal example. What kind of tactlessness on the part of Kuropatkin is to write demobilizing letters. And me too! Why was to talk about them. And Stoessel is good at announcing orders. The isthmus must be in our hands, otherwise the Far Far Kaput.”

The general wrote to the Tretyakov a note: “12 hours 35 minutes. For the right flank, do not be afraid – there are two regiments. Look at the left flank, where the case can be solved.”

The wounded arrows that met the general looked at him inquiringly. As far as they could go, they stood up to the front and saluted him.

– How are you? The general shooter asked, with his right hand bandaged.

– All the trenches ruined. Their guns are beating, and ours are silent. Machine guns would be more. Dense wall go, creatures. – Fock’s face remained calm.

“What a tactic! And I was not. Two or three deft maneuvers under the cover of trenches – and it was possible to surround them, “thought Fock and turned to the arrow:

– You want to smoke, take a cigarette.

The soldier stretched out as far as he could, went up to the general and extended his hand to the silver cigarette case. Fock also got himself a cigarette, struck a match and offered it to the soldier.

– Smoke.

– I humbly thank, Your Excellency.

Rising up the hill to the battery number 10, General Fock all the time received reports from Colonel Tretyakov:

“I don’t have any part at hand that I could restore the fight to.” All in their places, and one hope for the boldness of the soldiers and the courage of the officers.”

– Well well. “Everything is in its place,” Fock grinned. – And those that are dead. Childishness Lyrics. Nothing efficient. I would have looked good in the trenches.

Fock immediately sent the Tretyakov a reply: “I thank for the boldness. You have enough strength. On the left flank, in reserve, I send two more companies to the battery number 15.”

When he finished writing, the general straightened up, furrowed his forehead;

– And I forgot about General Nadein! I will write to him:

“To General Nadein. May 13, 1 pm Send immediately to the ravine north-west of Tafashin two companies to the battery number 15.”

“We must prepare for the night, we must prepare for the night,” the general repeated. Colonel Savitsky approached him:

– What are you, your Excellency?

– The matter is fixable. General Fock is not a fool, “Fock continued aloud his thought,” he knows what he is doing. General Fock will always be right no matter what happens. General Fok is wounded in the head, and in the wounded and contused forged brains…

Colonel Savitsky shuddered and walked away to the orderlies, but Fock called out to him:

– Colonel, send to the position of the eight giggles of cartridges at the disposal of the commandant Tretyakov. He reports that there are no bullets. What’s the matter? He himself recently sent two gigs, and now he is asking. It must be relieved from the heart. In addition, assign two companies at his personal disposal. I go uphill, mouths follow me.

“The devil will disassemble this person, mumbles something incoherent, looks like a madman, and gives sensible orders… But still, he overslept the fight. Sat in the rear. Now it is difficult to do something substantial, – thought Savitsky. – The results of the battle would be in our hands if there was one spare division on Tafashin. The enemy goes berserk, advancing during the day in such thick columns. And we have nothing to beat…

The enemy gunboats were silent.

The companies of Russian soldiers stretched along the road. The general rode on horseback. The higher up the hill, the more came across the wounded.

Fok stopped and gave him a new report Tretyakov:

“On the left side of Samson (between the height number 75 and Samson) there are 25—30 mouths. Half – in a column, half – in a deployed system. From the left flank of the position, bypassing it, there are two companies on the water. A large mass of versts in four from us. On the left flank there are about 10—12 companies and twelve guns.”

“What do you say to that, Colonel?”

Sawitsky, listening to the report, counted: “Twenty-five plus two, plus ten, a total of thirty-seven mouths visible, so what the hell knows how many invisible ones. And we have: two plus two, a total of four.”

– By evening, Your Excellency, are grouped.

“Immediately inform the Laperov battery, which is on the left flank, about the enemy moving through the water,” Fock ordered. – Hurry to Colonel Tretyakov.

The general spurred the horse, but immediately besieged it:

– Again report. Read, Colonel.

“From under Samson near the height of number 75 two 7—8 mouths go in two columns. Artillery also moves. Redoubt number 9 is completely cut off from the left flank by shells; the trench is also spoiled, but people still hold on.”

– Forward, follow me! – Fok shouted and rode away.

Savitsky wanted to follow him, but he was stopped by a train soldier:

– Your Excellency, two horses killed.

The colonel let the horse gallop to catch up with the division commander.

– Your Excellency, two horses harnessed in cartridges, loaded with cartridges, killed. There is a danger for others.

– To deliver cartridges to the Tretyakov in public.

– Why ammunition for the position, there is their warehouse. – What do you think the head of the position is lying and the warehouse does not burn?

– Cartridges are burning with a bang, Your Excellency, like fireworks.

– Investigate. If there are cartridges in stock near Battery No. 10, send the gigs to the rear.

Climbing onto the highway, Fock walked slowly. The general threw uneasy glances at the foothills of Samson, in the nearest ravines, at the railway track, looking for the location of the enemy’s batteries and chains. Looking around and crouching a little at the whistle of bullets, he considered the batteries maimed and already abandoned by the Russians.

Behind the battery number 10, the road went through completely open terrain, and there were at least four hundred steps to the nearest trenches. The general sat on a stone. The enemy shells now fell solely on the trenches and the ravines adjacent to them. Clouds of dust and smoke hung over the heads of the defenders. Lead balls and sharp fragments poured thickly on top, abruptly whipping along the walls of trenches and wooden shelters. It was impossible to stick your head out. Shrapnel rain was replaced by explosions of shells.

“Find Colonel Tretyakov, I need to see him,” Fock ordered and immediately wrote a telegram to Stossel:

“Now I am in position; examined left batteries. They are literally bombarded with shells. The enemy sent his artillery and rifle fire to the northern front. As the arrows hold, I can not imagine, but keep well done. Almost all the guns are silent, ‘the division commander wrote further,’ therefore the 5th regiment will not be able to keep another day in this position. One thing remains – to withdraw the entire detachment and attack hand to hand, as our artillery currently cannot assist the northern front, or use the night and retreat …”

– But where is the Tretyakov?

The general lowered his head.

“You understand, Your Excellency, the head of the division, the commander of all the land forces of the Kinzhou Isthmus… You understand, the esteemed General Fock… You didn’t have control of the battle, you don’t have it now! And at this moment there is no, you old fool… You were demobilized by Kuropatkin’s letter… You fell under the influence of a sleek commander. Oh you are a genius, a genius”…

Fock lowered his head even lower.

A sharp shot from enemy gunboats made him wince and straighten up:

– Again this is unforeseen. But where is the Tretyakov?

6

When the Belly returned, he was immediately called to the commander of the battery.

– Saw the division chief? How on the right flank? Tell me more.

– From a position the wounded go, only them a little. The fortress guns shoot single-handedly, but the third battery of our brigade, the Beaver gunboat and the battery on Izvestkovaya Mountain shot down the enemy’s left flank, so that the Japanese

guns abandoned and sitting in the ravines. – Having told in detail about everything he had seen, Podkovin added: – Now everyone is afraid for the left flank, there the Japanese gunners help.

– What do the soldiers say? You talked to the wounded.

– Trenches thickly fall asleep with shells. Their cannons are two versts from our shooters. Shrapnel is thicker than rain, but so far there is no great harm. In the trenches visors are arranged, so that the bullets slap uselessly.

Colonel Laperov exchanged glances with staff captain Yasensky.

“The commandant of the city of Kinzhou, Captain Eremeev,” continued Podkovin, “he turned out to be a brave man.” It was hard for him with a handful of soldiers in the city. But he retreated only on orders. Now he is again on the left flank in the most advanced trenches. Brave captain, and still safe and sound.

– What else did the soldiers tell?

Podkovin hesitated.

– Speak, do not be shy.

“They learned that I am an artilleryman, and they ask: why were there so few good cannons in such a formidable position as Kinzhou?.. Why are they poorly sheltered?” Why are there few shells? Asking where you hid your firearms? They say that they would get closer to the trenches… Davit, they say, a Japanese with machine guns and light shells…

– OK, go! Keep your horse ready. There may be urgent orders.

7

Captain Eremeev remained at the tenth company in the advanced trenches of the northern line. It was the “forehead” of a fortified position. The arrows saw the hordes of the Japanese approaching them. The enemy shells, continuously falling from above, forced them to hide. Acrid smoke covered the field of fire. Its artillery beat occasionally. Reinforcements did not fit.

– What is it that our generals have forgotten us? – the noncommissioned officer of the fifth company addressed to Yeremeyev. – Look, behind the riverbed, at the very water there is a reinforced movement of Japanese infantry. Shields some expose.

– No, do not forget, – smiled Eremeev. – Waiting. What is the use of filling people in trenches now? It is necessary to save reserves, and then in the twilight – to counterattack. Of the entire division in position, read, one-fifth of the regiment. Japanese shields will consider and report to headquarters.

It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. With binoculars, Yeremeyev saw a row of wooden dummies on the shallows.

“Shields for averting eyes,” he guessed, “they want to deceive our artillery.” Who is lightly wounded, that and send with the report.

Under the cover of shields, the Japanese soldiers were moving along the chest in the water.

“Fire over the heads of the enemy, to the left of the shields,” Yeremeyev ordered.

Along the seashore from Tafashinsky heights, a shell boomed and hit the shields. After five seconds, the first pair of shrapnels exploded to the left, just above the heads of the attackers. Three seconds later, eight shrapnels were showered with lead bullets by the entire enemy force. The sea was boiling up, the shields stood intact, like dumb witnesses to the shooting.

Soldiers of the fifth and tenth companies clearly saw the death of the front ranks of the attackers. But the back came new forces. The enemy soldiers held their guns and cartridge belts high above their heads. From a distance it was difficult to determine the accuracy of the shooting of our gunners, but the Japanese guns falling into the water spoke eloquently of this.

The wounded and surviving Japanese crawled ashore, but they were shot from the lower trenches by hunting teams of the thirteenth and fourteenth regiments.

A whole battalion of cannons advanced on the water. Laperov’s field battery, having shot, hit the enemy. The Japanese could not move quickly on the water: the living stumbled over the dead, the wounded floundering. Waves of the tide, flying ashore, captured more and more land areas. Arrows advanced trenches were delighted. Despite the suffocating smoke, not only healthy, but also the wounded cheered up. There were jokes, the soldiers encouraged each other.

Captain Eremeev walked around the trench and said:

– If only to hold on until dusk. Fresh companies will come, will replace us, and the battalions will rush to the attack. Field batteries cleverly cleaned. Break the enemy.

“Eh, if only four dozen of such cannons,” the soldiers spoke with excitement.

– The battery already hits the Japanese cruisers! Cried the noncommissioned officer.The shooting of the Japanese battalion, aptly hit by the shells of the second battery in the Japanese gunners made confusion in the advancing enemy columns. In the trenches it became somewhat easier. The gunboats and part of the Japanese batteries directed their fire on Tafashi heights. The orderlies began bandaging the seriously wounded and carrying them to the rear. The dust has settled. From the sea a breath of coolness. The tired defenders remembered that they had not eaten all day.

– There is nothing worse than to sit and fight back from the enemy. And who came up with these fortresses?! To advance is much better, said the sergeant-major. – First of all, you yourself choose where to strike you. The enemy does not know about this and is waiting for an attack along the whole front. Second, you move your guns, and they are screwed to one place from the enemy.

“And third,” the corporal snatched up, “the man will go on the attack full. Oh, and I want to eat, brothers!

The sun went down. The foundation of Samson plunged into a light haze. The ravines stood out. The top of the mountain was exactly copper. Sunset glints glided over vzdeblennoy dust mixed with powder gases. Below, very close to the advanced trenches, there was a ring of enemy batteries. The fiery tongues of the shots with the drowning bottom seemed long and sinister.

eight

Colonel Tretyakov immediately, at the beginning of the battle, tried to determine as precisely as possible where the enemy would send his main attack. The flanks are most vulnerable: the right – from the shallow water of the Hunuez Bay, the left – from the channel of the river that flows south of the city of Jinzhou. Especially disturbed right flank. In the case of his breakthrough, the entire value of the position was reduced to zero. But the enemy, on the left, leaving the city with its thick walls, could concentrate reserves there, and use the riverbed as offensive sap.

“It’s a shame that it was not Kondratenko who commanded, but Fock,” thought the colonel. “It’s hard to understand what this old man needs.”

Lieutenant Gleb-Koshansky went down into the dugout.

“All the main attacks are on our right flank,” he said.

– I knew it! – exclaimed Tretyakov. – Write to General Nadein, to give reinforcements people.

– The placement of shooters in the trenches is now dangerous. We fall asleep with shells. Kanonerki cut off the parapet of the lunettes.

“Send for reinforcements.” I’ll go take a look.

Samson – so beautiful at sunrise and sunset – now looms over the Nanshan hill a heavy boulder. Every enemy cannon salvo, the fiery tongues of which were clearly visible, every chain of enemy troops openly advancing, forced the colonel to suffer deeply. And not because he was a coward. He annoyed himself. The paint of shame flooded his beautiful face. More than three months ago, he participated in the position survey commission. He was entrusted with the improvement of the fortifications, but he reacted rather calmly to his duties. It was necessary to shout, to prove that Nanshan required long-range cannons and concrete structures, the shores of Hunuez Bay should also have heavy and long-range artillery, and Tafashi heights are no less, and perhaps more important, in protecting the isthmus than Nanshan high ground. Cana’s wonderful cannons roll around and fall into the hands of the enemy. Can it be that Fock and Kondratenko will not come to the rescue, they will not think of anything against the Japanese?! The soldiers behave well, you can hope for them.

Von Schwarz and staff captain Debogory-Mokrievich approached Tretyakov.

– What do you want to offer, gentlemen officers?

Von Schwartz grinned. Tretyakov noticed this and looked at him in surprise.

– You know, Mr. Commandant, that I am an engineering officer. My suggestions are valuable for several months before the enemy attacks. Now I am waiting for your orders for general actions and follow the damage to fix them, if possible. – But you smiled?!

– I remembered the telegram of General Fock, which said: “All workers, free from repairing batteries, put on the lower trench, as I indicated. The quarries should be adapted for placing kitchens and warehouses in them, providing a grenade from aimed fire. Will the Japanese, it is still a question, but Kuropatkin will. He is already in Mukden.”

– The old man firmly held the question of the trench, but he, as well as we, lost sight of the importance of the position of the spurs of Samson. What about you? – Tretyakov addressed the captain.

– It is necessary to mine positions and trenches, so that, in the case of their occupation by the enemy, blow up by pressing a button.

– We need to think first about repulsing the attacks, and then about the retreat… We started talking to you, and before our eyes the battle is in full swing! Our batteries mow down with rifle fire as good as shrapnel. That’s where the machine guns would work!

The Japanese attacked thickly and with concentration. Tretyakov looked at the lunket No. 3 and at the trench between it and the railway embankment. Along the edge of the trenches, the right and the left, the arrows moved and continuously fired. The main forces of the enemy were no more than a thousand paces. Yellow foxes of Japanese caps flashed in the ravines that ran along the entire front.

Fully preoccupied with the obvious danger of a breakthrough, the colonel did not hear the rifle cannon and the cod of torn grenades.

– I will send Belozor and Seifulin to the upper reinforcement trenches. It is necessary to keep the right flank.

Tretyakov saw that the regiments of his regiment accumulate and scatter in the same way as the enemies along the ravines.

– They play hide and seek there. Well done! How convenient was the trench! Whatever the end of the enemy, the arrows are already there. A volley… and the attackers fall. And reinforcements quickly shot. The ranks of the attackers are less common.

“See how well the trench is planned,” the colonel addressed the officers, “how all the features of the section are taken into account!” General Fok is right. It is commendable that he insisted on the construction of the lower trenches. Especially successful combination of the trench with the upper fortifications.

“The visors are well invented,” the staff captain remarked.

– By the way, do you know that this is my offer?

“On the contrary, everyone ascribes him to the general, not to your highly honored.”

Tretyakov winced.

The uphill fifth company, sent by Captain Fofanov, approached the colonel.

“Our company has a hard time, your honor.” Further stand in the trenches can not.

The colonel ran to the red embrasures. Looking in the direction of the northern front, he recoiled. Along the trenches of the fifth company, shells continuously exploded. The enemy’s batteries were beaten point-blank in a small area.

– And yet people keep there! – exclaimed Tretyakov.

A column of Japanese, rushing to the center of the position, was swept away by bullets from the defenders.

“Go and tell Captain Fofanov that reinforcement will be given to him.” Why, look how the Japanese are falling from our bullets.

Gornist with sunken dusty cheeks and burning eyes fell to the loophole. Struck by the spectacle, he no longer heard anything, only saw: people in caps with yellow bands, carrying death with them, fell, spreading their arms.

– So another hour and nothing will be left of him, your excellency.

– Absolutely. Run. I, too, will soon come down to the trenches.

The hornmate has disappeared. The colonel glanced at the batteries. Most of them have calmed down. Only on the battery Baranova fiercely fired. Von Schwartz headed there. The yard was littered with corpses, fragments of bombs and earth. All the instruments, except one, were silent. There were no wounded: they were carried to a ravine. Chaos struck von Schwartz. He did not recognize the fortifications, which were built and equipped under his direct supervision.

– How long is being built and how quickly is destroyed!

The Beauties, as von Schwartz called the guns, stood silently and were unrecognizable. Some pulled the muts too high, others fell to the side… Stumbling over the sacks, bypassing the corpses of the gunners, the captain ran into the yard of a single-acting cannon. Gunner Petrachenko used to tinker with the core, trying to raise it with bloody hands.

“Wow, I can’t,” the gunner said to himself and looked back. Eyes von Schwartz and Petrachenko met. – What are you doing here alone?

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