Portartur. 1940. Boris Trofimov
the latest news: the Japanese land a Bitszyvo. Soldiers and junior officers were preparing for a serious business, and were eagerly awaiting orders to march to destroy the landing force. Cheerful mood did not leave them.
Twilight was gathering. Lit fires. Troops arrived from Arthur. On the left, on the Nanshan Mountain, looming fortifications of the Kinzhou position. She was the key to Port Arthur.
An infantryman and an artilleryman with bowlers stopped under a roof canopy. – Where we are going? The infantryman asked.
– Landing smash.
– Why was it allowed to go to the beach? You had to sink him from your cannons on the water in boats. Let go and shy.
– The authorities know what to do. For the time being, you should not frighten off… Lure and rivet.
– Still strange.
– Clear picture. If our fleet had not been treacherously blown up, they would have been cracked into the sea, but now cunning and caution are needed until they repair our warships.
“Yet it would have been more convenient for the enemy to destroy the sea.” The boat is full of people, the wave shakes, and then bang shrapnel – and all to the bottom. And we, the infantry, it would be easier to kill those who reached the coast.
The infantryman thought his own thought: five or six miles of artillery should not allow the enemy to the infantry, and the shooters only need to secure the positions left by the enemy. The soldier believed it. He liked guns, horses – fire, and gunners – hefty guys and, you see, dodgers.
– Do not perish – grinned Gunner. – Look, what kind of artillery we have and what position?.. But the commanders know how best to finish off the enemy. Now, mate, everything is cleverly invented. Your head is spinning, and they have everything to the point… We shot at an invisible goal on the doctrine. The officer commands: the target is such and such, the level is so and such, the angle is so much! The gunner twirls there different screws, the steel stands at the protractor turns. Aims in one direction, and the barrel of a gun at another looks. I lit it. The projectile flew over the mountain and hit the target. I saw it myself… Twenty shells per minute can be released. But this is to the extreme. If many consecutive shoot, the gun perekalitsya. We, brother, in the whole calculation and arithmetic. The figure means beats. You do not understand in numbers – and in the artillery is impossible.
Rain stopped. The northwest wind blows. Smell the sea. The sound of the surf was heard. Officers gathered at the station. Soon after inspecting the fortifications of Kinzhou, General Fock and Colonel Tretyakov were to arrive. Brilliant epaulets of junior commanding officers gleamed in the reflections of the burning dawn.
– Tell me, please, gentlemen, what are the differences between the division commander and Colonel Tretyakov? – asked the staff captain Dwight, who arrived at the station a few hours ago from Bitszyo, where the Japanese troops landed successfully.
“Our general doesn’t quite agree with the Qinzhou defense plan developed by the commission in the twentieth of January, and the colonel protects him, since he himself is a member of this commission, – said Captain Stempkovsky. “The general demands the descent of a line of trenches to the base of the fortification and the construction of new trenches protecting the approaches to Battery No. 15 and preventing the bypass of our left flank along the shore of Qinzhou Bay. Admittedly, we have paid very little attention to the line of the sea surf.
The captain fell silent and lit a cigarette.
“You worked there, tell me more,” the commander of the border guards Boutiques entered into the conversation.
The dispute was big. The commission noted that the left flank was completely inconvenient for an attack. And most importantly, experts said, in the presence of batteries of the ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth and fifteenth, even thoughts about the possibility of movement of enemy chains and columns along the coast should not be allowed. The main danger is from the side of the railway and the spurs of Mount Samson.
– The irrefutable truth. The Japanese will not turn up along the shore of Kinzhou Bay, we will destroy them in any quantity! – the ensign Tsvetkov exclaimed, blushing. – Do not forget our land mines.
“All this is so until serf guns are shot down,” Stempkovsky chuckled.
“You, like General Fock, do you not believe in the inaccessibility of Kinzhou?” – interviewed staff captain Dwight.
– It’s not just the fortifications, but also the people. I don’t think that the Japanese launched an attack right away without preparing their artillery. And we must fear that they will achieve much.
– But why? – polled the ensign.
“The heights that, with the tight laying of Kinzhou, will be in their hands, dominate the fifty-three Nanshan Mountain.” This is the first. We must assume that they will bring here hundreds of two guns of the new model with devices for bombing an invisible target. Next – their artillery park is unthinkable without mortars.
– You still tweak support fleet? – put the staff captain of the High.
– Consider, consider everything, – the captain calmly answered. – Our fleet is wounded, and, most importantly, in the head.
“Yes, after the death of Makarov, the Japanese became impudent at sea,” said midshipman Shimanovsky. “Most of the guns here are old, piston, and Cana’s cannons, brought recently, are still not installed.
– The misfortune of fortresses is that their guns are somewhat outdated technically against the guns of the attackers.
– What to do? – exclaimed infantry officers.
– To create more favorable conditions for the infantry, on which the head of our division insists.
“There are contradictory rumors about him,” the artillery officer told the infantry in a whisper. – Many consider him flighty.
– Soldiers love him. He is a little crazy. And we will learn about his fighting qualities. He cares about soldiers and officers and does not want them to perish in vain.
– They say he is a supporter of the rare placement of soldiers in the trenches.
– Although this is against the charter, it is not without meaning.
“Statutory provisions are aging,” hurried to insert the infantry lieutenant.
The command “quietly” was distributed. The officers looked at themselves and pulled themselves up. Generals Kondratenko and Fock approached the station, followed by Colonel Tretyakov. Having greeted the officers, Fock stopped at the edge of the apron and, turning his face to the north, looked along the way. When Colonel Tretyakov approached him, he continued the interrupted conversation and said:
– I also because against the trenches at the top of the mountain, against your swallow nests, that there is a great concentration of enemy fire.
– At the foot of the mountain a large radius, the length of the trenches is increasing. To fill them will require new groups of shooters – objected Tretyakov.
“You, Colonel, of course, are happy to plant your regiment under the very sky.” But what is the use of it? What good is I asking? The top will be shrouded in dust and projectiles. And suddenly, right in front of you, the enemy.
– A breathless enemy, Your Excellency.
– Wrong conclusion. The height