Japanese sentry, ready for night duty

Japanese sentry, ready for night duty

148

Sentry duty before the enemy was almost certain death. The sentry must see, must expose his eye, and if, as at Port Arthur, the besieged and the besiegers were only 200 or 300 yards apart, the least carelessness in moving the body might mean death. When the Japanese had taken Fort Panlung (Eternal Dragon), they were under fire of the two adjoining forts, and as they sapped their trenches forward it became impossible to protect them entirely. But every few steps there was a sentry on duty, his eyes glued to a small round hole in a little heap of clay large enough to hide his forehead. To make it larger would have been making it a target for the Russian sharpshooters. But even as it was, dozens of men were shot through the eye or the head at these peepholes every day for months. Mr. Barry visited this trench one day. In his presence one soldier was shot through the eye, and when be asked the lieutenant how many had been killed at that hole on that day, the answer was, "Twenty."

1 stereograph. 2 photomechanical prints on stereo card : halftone, stereograph, color ; 9 x 18 cm

1905 Ingersoll, T.W.

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