It
was the most blood-stained spot upon the whole of the Eastern
Asiatic battlefield. General Nogi threw thousands after
thousands of his warriors against this rampart while the Russians
defended it no less resolutely. It was captured and re-captured;
in fact, the fighting round this eminence was so intense that it
appeared to the outsider to be more important to both sides than
even Port Arthur itself.
Yet if General Nogi had been in the possession of a single
aeroplane or dirigible it is safe to assert that scarcely one
hundred Japanese or Russian soldiers would have met their fate
upon this hill. Its value to the Japanese lay in one sole
factor. The Japanese heavy guns shelling the harbour and the
fleet it contained were posted upon the further side of this
eminence and the fire of these weapons was more or less
haphazard. No means of directing the artillery upon the vital
points were available; 203 Metre Hill interrupted the line of
sight. The Japanese thereupon resolved to capture the hill,
while the Russians, equally appreciative of the obstruction it
offered to their enemy, as valiantly strove to hold it.
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