Japanese bomb-proof burrow

Japanese bomb-proof burrow

187

This is one of the bomb-proofs which the Japanese dug and in which they lived during the siege of Port Arthur, their only protection from the cold and from the Russian shells and bullets. The bomb-proofs were dug into hillsides and protected around their openings with sandbags. They were necessary, because the Russians wasted hundreds of shells every day, shooting at everything. No part of the Japanese rear ever was safe, although the distance was so great the chances of hitting were one in a thousand. The Russians would fling a six-inch screamer at a tub or an umbrella six miles away. For this reason most of the work of the Japanese had to be done at night, not only in the trenches but in the rear. The Japanese, on the other hand, never harassed the enemy by desultory firing, but waited to concentrate their fire. When they had three hundred guns in position, large and small, they began their work, bombarding the forts, the town and the warships in the port for hours at a time from every gun.

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

1905 Ingersoll, T.W.

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