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Show JAPS DRIVE WEDGE INTO PORS ARTHUR DEFENSES DALNT, Nov. , via Kobe. Nov. 8. After three days of continuous bombardment bom-bardment of Port Arthur, . which caused extensive destruction to the Sojusan and Ntryusan forts in the west center of the Russian line of defense, de-fense, and also to Kekwan fort, the right wing of the Japanese army assaulted as-saulted Sojusan yesterday afternoon. Having carried these approaches to that height, the assailants entrenched themselves under the glacis of the forts. In the evening the left wing delivered an assault on Kekwan, fighting fight-ing Its way to the lower parapet. -There the Japanese held their ground stubbornly stub-bornly in the face of Russian counter attacks. Having been reinforced during the night, the Russian a charged down upon up-on the Japanese, and desperate hand-to-hand conflicts ensued. The Japanese beat back the enemy and destroyed two covered positions In the" front moat : A Japanese sub-Lieutenant, with thirty volunteers, then succeeded in making his way to the rear of the fort. There he engaged in a personal conflict con-flict with a Russian officer, and killed him. Having discovered two more defenses de-fenses in the rear moat, the sub-Lieutenant sub-Lieutenant withdrew his force with a loss of two men. , Later In the night the advanced position po-sition of the Japanese waa taken and retaken twice. The besiegers succeeded in holding the approaches and constructing con-structing trenches connecting with the army's front parallel. ' At dawn numbers num-bers of dead were visible on the slopes. Port P. north of the new and old batteries bat-teries in the left center of the line of the defense, was captured by the severe fighting of the night. These operations have successfully driven an effective wedge into the Russian Rus-sian center. Severe explosions and extensive ex-tensive fires have occurred in the fortress fort-ress within the last few days. The total casualties of the Japanese in the late attacks w-ere 1100. Over 500 were killed up to October 29. The spirit of the men Is magnificent. The firing of all the guns is wonderfully effectiv. The climax to the late bombardment came between 4 and 8 o'clock Sunday afternoon. It was a superb spectacle. Every fort of the enemy, was engaged, and the fighting in the trenches was constant and severe. The outposts of the contending forces were only forty feet apart. At 1 o'clock this afternoon one of the Japanese trenches collapsed Into a Russian gallery. gal-lery. The enemy being surprised under ground fled In confusion. |