The Rocky Road to the Great War by Murray Nicholas

Author:Murray, Nicholas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

FIGURE 4.3. Russian redoubt near Shanlantzu. Based on plans found in volume 3 of the War Department, Office of the Chief of Staff, Reports of Military Observers.

Lieutenant Colonel Schuyler reported on the changing physical shape of the field fortifications:

Two of these regiments [part of the Russian attack on the Putilov position on the Sha River line 16 October 1904], advancing from the north, partially covered by knolls and villages, constructed hasty intrenchments as they progressed, and especially at the point where they halted to await the orders for the final assault. These works consisted simply of trenches constructed with the field-intrenching tools carried by the men and were entirely for kneeling or lying infantry…. It was quite early apparent that the shallow field trenches, hastily made under fire, would afford but little protection from shrapnel, and, in fact, the semi-permanent works at first constructed at Liaoyang and to the south of that place were much too open. At first there was a tendency to speak with derision of the narrow trenches found in the Japanese positions, but it was gradually recognized that this was the proper type; and after the battle of Liaoyang all Russian trenches were made deep and narrow and furnished as speedily as possible with splinter-proofs so situated as to be quickly accessible as a protection from ordinary shrapnel. These blindages, so called, were covered with timber of about the size of railway ties and then with from 10 inches to a foot and a half of earth.96

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