HUN RIVER BATTLE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 44, 21 February 1905, Page 5

HUN RIVER BATTLE.

FIVE DAYS' FIERCE FIGHTING. TERBI3U3 EXPEBIENCES OF OPPOSrNG ASUSXEB.

SAX FRANCISCO, February 2. The five days' combat, which -yp-Ql g<j down in history as the battle of tb? Hun River, was fought out on a seemingly unending plain, which i 5 broken only by southern amethyst mountains around Yentaij the solitary eminence of which is the Liao-yang tower of bloody memprv.

The battle yielded no palpable result, both sides practically maintaining their former positions., though it is true thai at a heavy cost the Russians succeeded in driving the Japanese out of the advanced positions and repelling their Sinking column. The Russian ';&valrv prayed extremely efficient. Exposed to the intense cold of a Manchurian -sinter, mounds pf eartn; had become like"'granite, and as impenetrable as the "steel sides of ""a inoaern battleship. For five days Bxissian solfljcrs hurled ihemsclves **a»ainst th« defences, and the ' field "artillery Bounded them until the frcsfor Wt*> verberafed with the th.un.de? of cannon the din of bursting shells, and' ihe" , rstiUj of mngketrj-; but neitfeer sjeel-pointed shell nor nickel bullets' aTaUed'against tne frozen earthworks. The gmpe'rs actually prept witft despair at the' impotence pf the attack. Mortal' m up in thq of fche fortificaticins. ?fig&t" an<J daj ih» of g&ife pouted Vgaapai Sβ it KaJ KjfciU" #ji* if§P lemsl to Uuni fr iui

sity. Their fingers, bands, and feet were benumbed, while -. stinging snow agd dust lijmded : them. Tile'slightest wjiond pain. Warm Wood Qo sooner fxmded Iroijji lacerated flesh than it began to freeze. The grounded «>uld not lje left exposed, and if they did not receive attention within an hour they died. The surgeons, their assistants, and nurses -were almost powerless in the bandaging of wounds, for <&■*¥ tfer« obliged to wear' . leather gloves or mitten§, in order to- resist the cold. The men" seemed to' be living again, the horrors of the -printer campaign of 1812 against the Turks. Everything that conld be done was done, but man-was powerless in the face of nature, which heaped tortures upon the troops, and defeated the well-thought-of plan of the commander. . Th .c situation as it further develops is better realised and understood, though it is not less ominous, as the weather has moderated, and the Japanese" art laggreisiye.