The Battle of Yoshirei                327
after they had resumed their advance. A deeply scooped-out gully separates the spurs from one another. As a bullet flies, the gully was only 200 yards broad in its upper section, where the two spurs approached the main ridge. In its lower section, where the spurs began to merge into the more level ground, the hollow flattened itself out and broadened to perhaps as much as 400 yards. The 21st East Siberian Tirailleurs held the last spur, the Japanese Imperial Guards had now gained possession of the last but one. It was half-past twelve o'clock, and the crisis of the action had arrived. One more effort would give the Japanese mastery over the whole of the ridge dominating Suitechansa and Chinchaputsu, but it was soon to be seen that the fiery energy of the attack was here destined to expend itself against an iron tenacity of defence, resolved to perish where it stood, rather than yield another yard of ground.
I have been over every inch of this ground. The little gully is mostly filled with very dense undergrowth, about four feet high. The backbone or ridge of each spur is bare of scrub, although there are some big trees scattered along the Russian position. The Japanese were defiladed from the fire of the Russian guns near Yoshirei by the crest of the main ridge. The reverse slope of the Russian spur was very steep, almost like the parapet of a redoubt, thus affording them good cover from shrapnel. The Russian spur stretched as far as Chinchaputsu, and from this northern extremity of their position the defenders were able to some extent to enfilade the gully by shooting up it from the vicinity of the village. The Japanese could not top the main ridge to turn the Russian right, as they then came under fire of the guns south of